In addition to meeting the general admission requirements set by the Graduate Division, applicants must be admitted by an Admissions Committee composed of faculty members of the graduate program. Candidates will be selected on the basis of a balanced evaluation of the following criteria, with no one factor having more influence (1) prior scholastic performance, including a consideration of grades, course load, nature of courses taken, and college attended, (2) recommendations by professors and others, (3) scores for the general Graduate Record Examination test (GRE), (4) an interview by members of the Admissions Committee and other faculty members, when feasible, and (5) experience in undergraduate and/or post-baccalaureate research.

Undergraduate preparation of applicants should include one year of biology (one quarter of molecular biology or biochemistry is strongly recommended) one year of mathematics (calculus and/or statistics), and one year of chemistry. Outstanding applicants who lack one or two of these prerequisites may be given an opportunity to take the required course(s) either before admission or during the first year in the graduate program, in such circumstances, none of these required undergraduate courses may be used to satisfy the program elective or core course requirements. Upper-division or graduate science courses may be considered as substitutes for the above prerequisites by the Admissions Committee.

TOEFL iBT minimum score of 80
IELTS - An overall minimum score of 7.0 for admission, with a score of no less than 6.0 on any individual module.
Hold a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) from a recognized academic institution with degree standards equivalent to those of the University of California
Have a minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0