About the Program

The Applied Science and Technology graduate group is administered by the College of Engineering. The program is aimed at students with research interests that are truly interdisciplinary. Faculty members associated with the program are drawn from several departments within the College of Engineering, as well as from the departments of physics, chemistry, chemical and biomolecular engineering, statistics, and mathematics. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the properties and applications of nanostructures, thin-film and interface science, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), short-wavelength coherent radiation, X-ray micro-imaging for the life and physical sciences, plasma physics and plasma-assisted materials processing, laser-induced chemical processes, laser probing of complex reacting systems, ultrafast phenomena, particle accelerators, nonlinear dynamics, chaotic systems, numerical methods, and topics in computational fluid mechanics and reacting flows. 

Within the program students design their own course of study in consultation with their advisers, choosing from the vast array of technical offerings throughout the campus. The chosen coursework should prepare the student for interdisciplinary research. Students in the PhD program may pursue a Designated Emphasis (DE) such as the DE in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (DE NSE); Energy, Science, and Technology (DE EST); and Computational Science and Engineering (DE CSE). 

Graduate research in the AS&T Program benefits from state-of-the-art experimental facilities on the Berkeley campus and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Among these facilities are the National Center for Electron Microscopy, with the world's highest resolution high-voltage microscope; a microfabrication lab for student work involving lithography, MEMS ion-implantation, and thin-film deposition; an integrated sensors laboratory; femtosecond laser laboratories; optical, electrical, and magnetic resonance spectroscopies; short wavelength laser and X-ray research laboratories; an unparalleled variety of material, chemical, and surface science analytic equipment; and a soft X-ray synchrotron dedicated to materials, chemical, and biological research using high-brightness and partially coherent X-rays. The interdisciplinary collaborative nature of the AS&T Program provides ample opportunity to develop new research directions by making the best use possible of these facilities and of the other research instrumentation available to AS&T faculty.

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Admissions

Admission to the University

Minimum Requirements for Admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all graduate programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A grade point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant comes from a country or political entity (e.g., Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 90 on the iBT test, 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, 230 on the computer-based test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Sufficient undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants Who Already Hold a Graduate Degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees not as vocational training certificates but as evidence of broad training in research methods, independent study, and articulation of learning. Therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to pursue new subject matter at an advanced level without need to enroll in a related or similar graduate program.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree only if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may apply only to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Any applicant who was previously registered at Berkeley as a graduate student, no matter how briefly, must apply for readmission, not admission, even if the new application is to a different program.

Required Documents for Applications

1. Transcripts:  Applicants may upload unofficial transcripts with your application for the departmental initial review. If the applicant is admitted, then official transcripts of all college-level work will be required. Admitted applicants must request a current transcript from every post-secondary school attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) attended. 
   If you have attended Berkeley, upload your unofficial transcript with your application for the departmental initial review. If you are admitted, an official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required.
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants may request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants from countries or political entities in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada). However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a US university may submit an official transcript from the US university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature. If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests.

Where to Apply

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page . 

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Curriculum

Courses

Applied Science and Technology