Applicant FAQ

Application Deadline and Requirements

Can I apply for a Master's degree?
No. We only offer admission to students seeking a PhD.
Will late applications be accepted?
No. All applications are due by 11:59pm Pacific time on Sunday, December 1st, 2024.
Are there any financial aid options available to me if I cannot pay the application fee?
United States citizens and permanent residents, including undocumented applicants under AB540, are eligible to apply for the College of Biological Sciences' application fee fellowship.

We are not able to offer any fee waivers to international applicants for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle.
Will late application materials (letter of recommendation, transcripts, etc.) be accepted?
Yes. You have until 11:59pm Pacific time on Thursday, December 5th, 2024 to upload all final application materials, including letters of recommendation. After this date, no new materials will be reviewed.

We cannot accept the application fee late; this is campus-wide policy.

We also cannot accept a late transcript from your undergraduate institution or, if applicable, the institution granting your Master's degree. Late transcripts from non-degree-granting institutions, such as a community college where you took summer classes, are allowable.
Will you still review my application if a letter of recommendation is missing?
Yes. We understand that sometimes, extenuating circumstances apply to one of your letter writers and they are not able to submit their materials on time. However, applicants who are missing letters are seldom invited to interview.

We encourage you to check in with your recommenders regularly, and monitor your email for confirmation that they have sent us their letters.
My undergraduate GPA is below 3.0. Can I still apply to the program?
Yes! We evaluate applications using a process we call "holistic review," which means GPA is just one aspect of how we view applications. See the Application Review section of our How to Apply page for more information on this topic.

Please explain any circumstances that led to your GPA in your personal history statement. If your letter writers are familiar with your circumstances and can advocate for you, they should. If you have research experience, highlight that in your statement of purpose and CV. This will help your application shine!

Financial Support

What kind of financial support does the program provide for students?
Much like other biomedical PhD programs across the United States, the Graduate Group supports you financially during lab rotations, with your PI picking up the responsibility of funding you when you join the lab.
What is the dollar amount I should expect to take home as a graduate student?
For fall 2024 and winter 2025, we have offered our rotating students a $10,000/quarter stipend, plus tuition, fees, and health insurance if needed.

Note that the stipend is quarterly rather than monthly; this is because in fall quarter, the payment is split out over four months than three. Therefore, our first-year students will receive $2,500/month from October 2024 - January 2025 and $3333.33/month from February - April 2025.

When most BMCDB students join a faculty member's lab in spring of their first year, they become employed as graduate student researchers, teaching assistants, or trainees on a training grant; academic employees' stipends are specified in the labor contract agreed upon by the UC Office of the President and the United Auto Workers Local 4811.

It is the Graduate Group's recommendation that BMCDB students are paid a minimum stipend of $42,500/year as of October 1, 2024.
How do I apply for first-year fellowships?
Your application to the University also serves as your fellowship application. You will be asked questions pertinent to the fellowship application process; no additional materials are required.
When will I find out whether I've been awarded a fellowship?
You may receive an offer for an internal fellowship from UC Davis Graduate Studies anytime from late February through mid-April.

If you are a United States citizen from a historically underrepresented population in science, you may be eligible for a trainee position in the NIH-IMSD program. You will be contacted by IMSD program coordinator Stephanie Palacio around late June if you are offered a position.
What about tuition and fees?
The Graduate Group pays your tuition and fees when you are rotating. When you join a lab, working at least 25% FTE (10 hours a week) as a graduate student researcher or TA triggers tuition and fee "remission" - that is to say, the tuition and fees are paid because of the job.

Interview and Recruitment Timeline

When will I know if I've been asked to interview?
We generally spend the first two to three weeks of December evaluating applications; it is our intention to notify you by Friday, December 20th, 2024 if you have been asked back for an interview.
When will interviews be taking place? In person or on Zoom?
Zoom interviews will be taking place from January 13th - 24th, 2024 (except for Saturday and Sunday).
Who will be conducting the interview?
A small group consisting of two faculty and one student. These individuals will have read your application and recommended you for an interview, so they will be familiar with your materials.
When will I know if I've been asked to visit the campus and meet the faculty?
It is our intention to notify you by Friday, January 31st, 2024.
When is the on-campus recruitment event?
February 25th - 26th, 2024.

Invited applicants will be asked to arrive on the evening of Monday, February 24th, and the program of events will end around 2:00pm on Wednesday, February 26th.
When will I know if I've been offered admission?
It is our intention to notify you by Friday, February 28th, 2024.

Technically speaking, the Graduate Group does not offer you admission; rather, we recommend to UC Davis Graduate Studies that they offer you admission, and you will receive your official letter of admission from them approximately 1-2 weeks after we reach out to you. This will take longer if your undergraduate GPA is below 3.0.
I've been offered admission. When do I need to let you know if I accept?
April 15th, 11:59pm. This deadline is the same every year, and is adhered to by most accredited PhD programs in the United States.

If you are struggling to decide and need more time, please reach out to us. We cannot necessarily guarantee you funding after April 15th, but it's always a good idea to ask if we'll still accept your Statement of Intent to Register.
I've been offered a spot on the wait list, and I'm hoping for an offer of admission. When will I hear from the program?
There is no definitive answer, unfortunately; we often make decisions about our wait list on the basis of how many people have accepted and declined the offers we've made.

If you are waiting to hear from us before you accept an offer from another program, please reach out to us.

Communicating with Faculty

Do I need to contact a faculty member prior to applying?
No. BMCDB students will rotate in various faculty laboratories at the start of their doctoral studies. Students will select a mentor after rotations have concluded. This means you do not need to contact any faculty prior to applying.
I'm really interested in (name of scientific pioneer) here! Are they accepting students?
We strongly recommend that you reach out to them directly to express your interest!

Keep in mind that they may not know yet; most faculty make decisions about the number of graduate students they can accept on the basis of their grant funding.
I'm interviewing with faculty whose interests and experience don't seem to match my own. Why is that?
The virtual interviews are being conducted by members of our admissions committee; they volunteer for this service, so we can't guarantee you a close match.

If you are invited to visit the campus, we will use information from your application to introduce you to faculty whose research experience and interests match yours. This is a priority for us!
Meeting (name of my scientific idol) is important to me, and I'm not scheduled to meet with them when I visit the campus. Why is that?
The most likely explanation is that the person you're interested in is unavailable. It's also in our best interest to connect you with the people you want to meet the most, but if they're not free, we will introduce you to prospective mentors who share similar strengths.

We understand better than anyone how siloed a field of research can become, so we know that you may end up talking with someone who is in your general wheelhouse (e.g., a plant biochemist, a cancer biologist, an -omics person), but not someone who shares your exact specialties. Many unexpected connections have been made in this way, and several successful rotations have occurred as a result. (Pro tip: You can go to the faculty directory and filter our members by self-reported specialty. The biochemistry filter is under construction!)

For example, let's say you were interested in Alice Accorsi's work. When Alice joined BMCDB, they were asked to self-report their research specialties, e.g., cell biology and developmental biology. If you were invited to recruitment and ranked Alice highly on your application, but she was not available to meet with you, then we would ask a faculty member who shares her specialties to do so, such as Celina Juliano. Same goes for John Albeck and Sean Collins, James Letts and Jennifer Cash, or Anna La Torre and Glenn Yiu.

If your heart was set on meeting someone and they weren't available, you are always welcome to reach out to them about a Zoom call independently of recruitment. Keep in mind that you still might not be able to make it happen, but try not to be disheartened; faculty are generally quite enthusiastic about meeting prospective students, and it's often the fullness of their schedules that keeps them from doing so.

Recruitment FAQ

How do I get to Davis?
We will give you a certain amount of funding, based on how far away you are from Davis and how much it costs to get there.

TL;DR: You can drive (if you're close enough), take a train or bus (popular for people coming from the Bay Area and central California), or fly to Sacramento International Airport and use a rideshare.
If I get sick or otherwise can't attend, will you still reimburse my travel?
It's not possible; per University policy, we can't reimburse you for travel you didn't take.

You are strongly encouraged to buy refundable tickets; we take the inflated cost into consideration when offering you a maximum reimbursement amount.
Where will I be staying?
We guarantee a shared hotel room for every prospective student coming from outside of the Davis area. These hotels are in downtown Davis, an approximate 10-minute walk away from both the Amtrak station and the Davis-Berkeley Shuttle station at Peter J. Shields Library.

"The Davis area," for the purposes of travel reimbursement, includes Yolo, Solano, and Sacramento counties, and the Sacramento suburbs in Placer County (specifically Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis, Penryn, Granite Bay, Whitney, and Lincoln).
I have family/friends in the Davis area. Can I stay with them?
We love it! This is a common occurrence, especially given that many UC Davis alumni apply to BMCDB.
I live in SoCal. Can I drive to Davis and still get reimbursed?
It depends on how far south you are! University policy dictates that we can't reimburse you for driving when it would have been cheaper to fly.

Some guidelines on how to interpret this: Every city south of the Grapevine is too far to drive. San Luis Obispo is not too far to drive, but Santa Barbara is. Bakersfield is not too far to drive, but the high desert is.

If you are unsure, email the Graduate Program Coordinator.
Can I use frequent flyer miles and still get reimbursed?
No. We're sorry, but that's university policy.
I live in the East Bay Area, but am not affiliated with UC Berkeley. Would I be able to ride the Davis-Berkeley Shuttle to and from recruitment?
If you fill out a Temporary Affiliate Form, yes! Please allow at least two weeks for it to be processed.
Can I bring my significant other or a plus-one?
They can come with you, but we cannot support them financially. For example, we book double hotel rooms for two prospective students to share; it is absolutely understandable if you are bringing your spouse with you and want to share a room with them, but per University policy, we cannot reimburse you for that cost.

Plus-ones are also not invited to the socials and meals in the program of events.
I've been invited to the recruitment event, but I'm not getting information in as timely of a manner as I hoped. Who do I contact?
First and foremost, please double-check the information in your invitation; for example, if the recruitment itinerary will be sent to you "in the week of February 3rd," please do not email requesting follow-up until February 7th.

For most questions, you will likely contact the Graduate Program Coordinator. About a week prior to the recruitment event, you will be emailed contact information for your student "host," who will not literally host you but be your main point of contact and information about BMCDB. Your host might also be an appropriate source of answers.
But I have a question specific to my own circumstances that the Graduate Program Coordinator hasn't answered. Who can help me if that happens?
Unless it's an emergency, please give the Graduate Program Coordinator at least three business days to respond. Then email the Recruitment Committee Chair as well as the Graduate Program Coordinator.
What constitutes an emergency?
An emergency would put your attendance in jeopardy (e.g., travel breakdown, personal/family matter, sickness, etc.).