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Graduate

Applying to
Penn State

Thanks for your interest in the Penn State graduate program in Physics. Admission to our graduate program is granted jointly by the Penn State Graduate School and the Department of Physics.

To apply, please complete a formal online application through the Penn State Graduate School. The application is due on Jan 15 for the incoming class of the year. Note that there is an application fee payable to the Graduate School. To ensure access to all qualified applicants, the Physics PhD program is waiving the fee for ALL applicants this year. There is no cost to apply. Please enter the waiver code PHYS2025 in your application. 

We will begin accepting applications for the Fall 2025 academic year starting on October 1, 2025.

The Graduate School application process will ask for the following materials listed below. The online application process will also give you an opportunity to provide additional optional information that can be useful to the admissions committee.

  1. A copy of your official undergraduate transcript. Documents should not contain Social Security numbers or any other individually identifying numbers.
  2. A copy of your official graduate transcript (if any). Documents should not contain Social Security numbers or any other individually identifying numbers.
  3. The names and contact information for three references.
  4. A personal statement of purpose describing professional interests and career goals.
  5. The names of up to 3 Graduate Faculty from our department with whom you are interested in working and up to 3 subfields of your interest.
  6. International applicants from non-English speaking countries are required to submit results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) electronically to Penn State. To submit your scores, please use the institution code 2660 for the TOEFL and search Penn State Graduate School for IELTS. If you need to submit hard copy score reports they should be sent directly from your testing agency to Penn State's Graduate School at the following address:

The Pennsylvania State University
Graduate Enrollment Services
114 Kern Building
University Park, PA 16802

Please read our FAQs, where you will find answers to most questions we receive from applicants. If you have read all the FAQs and are unable to find the answer to your question, you may write to graduate-admissions@phys.psu.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions.