Application to the Graduate Program

The deadline for application for Fall admission in 2025 is December 15, 2024.

Please note that the graduate school requires a minimum GPA of 3.0 for admission to any graduate program at Stony Brook University.  If your GPA is below 3.0 admission would only be possible under exceptional circumstances, and in most cases you should not apply for admission.

For admission to PhD/MA/MSI program of the Department of Physics and Astronomy the following, in addition to the minimum Graduate School requirements, are required:

1. A bachelor degree in physics or a related field from an accredited institution.
2. A minimum grade average of B in all undergraduate coursework, and B or better in the sciences and mathematics.

Sucessful applicants to the PhD program will normally have a GPA of at least 3.6. Please bear this in mind when deciding whether to apply for our PhD program.

Admission to the MSQIST degree requires:

• An undergraduate degree in science or engineering. 
• 100 Level Calclulus based introductory physics sequence.
• 200 Level Modern Physics course or equivalent (may be substituted by 300 level Quantum Physics Course).

Applicants to the PhD program can have their application considered for admission to one or more of our Masters programs without the need to submit a second application. Please specify in your personal statement which Masters program or programs you would like to be considered for. Providing this information will not reduce your chances of admisison to the PhD program. Please note that if you have already earned a Masters degree in Physics we cannot admit you to our MA in Physics degree.

We do not require submission of general or Physics GRE scores and no longer accept these scores.

All applications must be submitted online at https://graduateadmissions.stonybrook.edu/apply/. Only applications for which the transcripts and other supporting documentation (CV's, etc.) have been uploaded electronically will be considered and only electronically uploaded recommendation letters are acceptable. Once you are admitted we will request copies of your official transcripts.

An application fee of $100 is required except in specific circumstances. 

1. If you are a domestic US student you should consult the eligibility requirments and the procedure for requesting a waiver can be found here.
2. If you are a student from Latin America you should consider applying for a fee waiver according to the instructions here.

If you are not eligible for a fee waiver under either of these programs then we regret to inform you that we will not be able to waive the application fee.

The following material should be included with your application:

• A statement of purpose, describing interests and motivation to pursue a PhD or MA/MSI degree. Note that your statement will be read by physicists outside your own field, and the level should be such that anyone with a Bachelor degree in physics can understand it. One thing we try to distill from your statement is how excited you are about physics and your research. Please do not put in too many details because this can easily make it boring to someone who is not in the field. Also it should be 1-2 pages maximum, remember that we have to read hundreds of statements, and we really appreciate if a statement is concise, interesting and exciting. You should mention the names of some of the faculty you would like to work with in your statement, but you do not need to contact them in advance.  Note: In the current application system the statement of purpose and CV are uploaded as additional materials after you have submitted the rest of your application.
• Transcripts from all colleges and universities you attended as well as additional materials such as your CV, should be uploaded electronically.
• Three recommendation letters which should be submitted electronically.
• Applicants whose native language is not English, or who do not have a degree from an English lanaguage institution must take the TOEFL test or IELTS score. For more detailed information on the precise English requirements please refer to: https://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/graduatebulletin/current/admissions/requirements/english.php . If you take the TOEFL Have the ETS send the  TOEFL score to the graduate school (paper copies of you score will not be accepted. Please use the following code: Stony Brook University Institution Code: 2548. Please enter the TOEFL scores (and date, percentile, etc.) in the online application. These scores will be used in the admission decision. Your official scores may have been received but not yet entered in to the system by the administrative staff: they typically suffer a backlog of several weeks at this time of year. Only if and when you are accepted and admitted, the official test scores will required and cross-checked.
• If English has been your most used language for many years, please fill out that English is your native or primary language. Equally if you have a degree from an insitution where the primary language of instruction is English, or have been a teaching assistant at such an institution, chose this on the application. Otherwise you will have to do a TOEFL test. Having been in an English speaking country for a couple of years is not sufficient.

Applications will be evaluated in the order they come in, but admission decisions will only be made after the deadline of December 15. The bulk of our offers are made in February and March.

All applications are evaluated centrally by the admissions committee. There is no need to contact individual faculty, but you should mention in your application the faculty that you would be interested in working with should you join our program.

The deadline for application for Fall admission in 2025 is December 15, 2024. 

The deadline for application for Spring Admission in 2025 is October 1, 2024. Please note that we admit very few PhD applicants in the Spring. Students should only apply for Spring admission to the PhD program if they have a source of funding, such as a scholarship that would provide a full stipend or a Stony Brook advisor has offered to hire them as a Research Assistant for at least the first semester.