Applications for admittance to the Fall 2012/13 academic year will be accepted beginning September 15, 2011. We recommend that all applicants submit their complete application package by January 27, 2012 to be considered for invitation to the MCB Recruitment Events to be held on February 16 and 17, 2012.

December 1, 2011 - Read about former MCB Student Chi-Li Chiu in the CAREERS section of this week's NATURE magazine in the article entitled "Imaging is Everything".

Admissions and Application:
Students are admitted via the MCB gateway program, as described below. After successful completion of the MCB year, students in good standing who have been accepted into the group of a participating thesis advisor are automatically admitted to the department Ph.D. program of that advisor.

Prerequisites:
The MCB curriculum is designed to teach students at the beginning of their graduate careers the necessary mathematical, computational, and biological knowledge for successful research at the interface between these disciplines. The needs of students with a variety of backgrounds can be met provided that they have had mathematical training comparable to a standard one-year university-level calculus course and a lower-division university course in elementary differential equations and linear algebra. Exceptional students not meeting these prerequisites may be admitted to the program on the condition that they fulfill these requirements during the first fall quarter of their graduate study or the summer preceding, and pass with a grade of B or better.

Admissions Information:
The MCB Executive Committee and Director act as the admissions committee. Following an initial screening of applications, the Executive Committee usually invites potential trainees for an interview at UCI. The Director makes final offers of admissions to applicants, based on the recommendations of the interviewing faculty and the Executive Committee.

Financial Support:
A hallmark of the MCB Program has been the strength of its student financial support. The MCB Gateway Program provides complete financial support to admitted students, which includes an annual stipend, as well as full tuition and fee remission, including health benefits. Typically, financial support for the three summer months after the first academic year at UCI will be through research funding provided or arranged by a student's primary thesis advisor. Since the fall of 2007 when the program admitted its first class of students, every student successfully completing the Gateway year has also been fully supported by the UCI Departments and faculty where they have chosen to continue their Ph.D. research.

Program Application:
Applications are made through the Office of Graduate Studies using the Online Application. Once logged in to the online application, the applicant will see that the graduate programs are organized by school. Please select: "School of Biological Sciences" from the "School/Department"l drop-down menu. Then select "Mathematical and Computational Biology Ph.D. " from the "Major/Degree" menu that listed under Biological Sciences.

Recruitment Visit Meeting:
Selected applicants will be invited for an interview and recruiting visit to UCI. The recruitment event is scheduled for mid-February, 2012 for students to be admitted for the 2012-13 academic year. If selected, you will be asked to indicate the names of faculty with whom you would be interested in meeting.

All supporting material for applications (letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc) should be mailed directly to:

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
Center for Complex Biological Systems
Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology Graduate Programs
2624 Biological Sciences III
Irvine, CA 92697-2280

Tel: 949-824-4120
Fax: 949-824-6444