Special Admissions Requirements for Doctoral Programs
The GRE General Test is not required. Undergraduate preparation in physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics, as well as in geology is recommended; the Graduate Group welcomes applicants who have majored in these fields, and will consider applicants from any field. The Graduate Group recommends that students who have not taken an undergraduate field-geology course make arrangements to do so before matriculating.
Ph.D. students must pass a preliminary examination showing command of a range of geologic sub-fields, and advanced knowledge of the field of proposed concentration. Before admission to degree candidacy, each student must present an acceptable proposal for thesis research, and pass an oral examination covering that proposal but also extending to a broad range of related knowledge. Ph.D. candidates must sustain a public oral examination on their theses and allied subjects.
Fall 2025 Application Deadline
The Earth and Environmental Science Ph.D. application will open in early October 2024 and close on January 1, 2025.
Request form for application information: https://apply.graduateadmissions.upenn.edu/register/request_info
The Fall 2025 admission application will launch on October 1, 2024 and can be located here: https://apply.graduateadmissions.upenn.edu/apply/
Information Regarding Application Fee Waivers
Information regarding application fee waiver forms can be located here: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/graduate-division/prospective-students/application-information.
Before accessing the Application Fee Waiver Request Form, applicants should create an application account via the Graduate Application Management link and select their program.
Applicants should then log out of the Graduate Application Management page and use their application account credentials to log into the Application Fee Waiver Request Form.
After submitting the completed form, the applicant will receive an email confirming that the form has been received.
Within one week, the applicant will be notified whether their fee waiver request was approved or denied.
If you are not granted a fee waiver, applicants will need to pay the application fee when submitting the application.
Application Personal Statement
In the personal statement, all Ph.D. applications within the Graduate Division of Arts & Sciences should address the following:
Please describe how your background and academic experiences have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and led you to apply to Penn. Your essay should detail your specific research interests and intellectual goals within your chosen field. Please provide information about your educational trajectory, intellectual curiosity and academic ambitions. If you have overcome adversity and/or experienced limited access to resources or opportunities in your field of study, please feel free to share how that has affected the course of your education. We are interested in your lived experiences and how your particular perspective might contribute to the inclusive and dynamic learning community that Penn values and strives to create.