Admission to Structural Biology and Biophysics (SBB)

Requirements

SBB students must have completed undergraduate courses of General Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology. Undergraduate courses of Physical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry are desirable, but not prerequisite. Strong interest in Structural Biology or Biophysics is essential. We accept both US and international students. There are additional requirements for international students (see below).

Selection Criteria

Graduate students are selected on the basis of prior academic achievement, as well as on degree of motivation and future promise for careers in scientific research and teaching. The Structural Biology and Biophysics Track confers only PhD degrees. Students entering the program enroll in an academically rigorous degree plan, tailored to their individual backgrounds and interests, with strong emphasis on independent laboratory research.

Stipend

Students admitted to our program, who are qualified, are guaranteed a generous graduate assistant-ship support throughout their graduate career, as long as they make satisfactory progress toward their degree.

For International Applicants

International students are typically admitted under direct financial sponsorship of a faculty supervisor. International applicants should find SBB faculty willing to sponsor the admission and supervise dissertation research.  Please contact the SBB track director before submitting your application. He can assist in finding your sponsor faculty. International applicants must submit official TOEFL or IELTS scores and WES-verified transcripts per application instructions in addition to other required documents. A score of 550 (paper test), 213 (computer-based test), or 79 (internet-based test) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) OR an overall 7.0 on the Academic Examination of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is considered the minimum acceptable for admission to the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

 

Online Application

To apply to the SBB program, you will use the BioMedCAS application system, available at this link.

Completely fill out the application, including remitting the application fee, providing letters of reference, etc. The system incrementally saves your online application information, so you don't have to fill it all out at once.

We would appreciate if you could let our program coordinator know that you will be applying to our program. This will help us make sure that your application will be assigned to our program properly. You can also contact her if you have any questions or troubles about the application process.

For more information, please visit Enrollment Services.

Not ready yet?

If you have strong interest in Structural Biology and/or Biophysics but feel that you are not ready yet to enter a graduate program, our SBB faculty may be able to offer you a Research Associate (Technician) position. This full-time job, which requires a Bachelor's degree, would provide you with opportunities to gain research experience and increase your readiness for future graduate work. Please contact the SBB track director if you are interested.