How to Apply

Applications for our master’s programs are open from September 16, 2024 until February 3, 2025. Applications for our doctoral programs are open from September 16, 2024 until December 16, 2024.

We look at your resume to learn about your job skills, the depth of your professional experience, your leadership experience and more. 

In two pages or less, write an essay that answers the questions below. (But if you’re applying to the Integrated Product Design program, see the IPD-specific questions here.) Use specific examples where possible.

• Why are you interested in this program?
• What have you done that makes you a great candidate?
• How will you benefit from the program?
• How do you plan to contribute to the student community in Penn Engineering while you’re here?
• Why will you succeed in the program?
• What will you do/accomplish once you have completed the program?

Please provide two letters of recommendation (three for the CIS Ph.D. and BE Ph.D. “Medical Physics” concentration only), including one from a faculty member who is familiar with your scholarly abilities.

• Your letter writers will receive an email when you enter their contact information in the application for admission. 
• The email provides a link to fill out a form and upload their letter. 
• We don’t have any formal requirements or guidelines for how the letters should be written.

Unofficial Transcripts Required for Application:

When you apply, please submit an unofficial transcript from each university or college where you earned course credit. Your transcripts must be in English. Transcripts must include courses taken, credit hours, and grades earned. 

If your unofficial transcript is not in English, we encourage you to use a transcript evaluation and translation service, such as Educational Perspectives and World Education Services (WES). If you are from a Chinese institution, we encourage you to use the Center for Student Services and Development.  

Official transcripts are only required if you have been admitted and choose to enroll.

Official Transcripts Required If Admitted:

Please arrange for your official transcripts and degree documents to be sent directly to Graduate Admissions as soon as they become available with the degree conferral posted. 

When requesting documents to be sent to Penn Engineering Graduate Admissions, please ensure that you have indicated the appropriate office in the drop-down selections. In instances where multiple University of Pennsylvania profiles are available, you should select the option for the University of Pennsylvania, Dept: SEAS Graduate Admissions (Engineering) when possible. Please do not select the main University of Pennsylvania Office as we cannot access transcripts sent to this office or you will need to resend them to the correct office. 

Submitting Your Official Transcripts:

• For U.S. Institutions: Provide your final official transcript showing coursework completion, degree earned, and degree conferral date. Transcripts must be submitted via a secure electronic service, sent to graduate-admissions@seas.upenn.edu.
• For International Institutions: For each university or college you’ve attended outside the U.S., we require that you contact a member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) to have a course-by-course evaluation of your non-U.S. transcript(s) sent electronically from the NACES member to Penn Engineering Graduate Admissions. This evaluation should include course titles, grades received, GPA, and U.S. degree equivalency. While Penn Engineering accepts course-by-course evaluations from any NACES member,  many of our applicants have been successful using: 
  • Educational Perspectives
  • Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE)
  • International Education Evaluations (IEE)
  • SpanTran
  • World Education Services (WES)

We encourage you to review our Official Transcript Policy if you have additional questions.

Please pay the $90 nonrefundable application fee along with your online application. You may qualify for a fee waiver if you are in one of the following categories: 

• US citizens or permanent residents with proven low-income background
• Applicants with Penn or U.S. military affiliation
• Eligible students from a US partner institution applying to an Accelerated Master’s program

If you meet one of these criteria, your fee will be automatically waived.

The GRE is optional during the current application cycle, and it won’t hurt your application if you choose not to take it. But if you have taken the exam and received valid scores, we encourage you to submit them. Here’s what you need to know if you decide to submit your scores: 

• The institution code to use for the GRE exam is 2888.
• Test results must be valid at the time you submit your application. Test scores are valid for five years.
• Your official scores must be submitted by the application deadline.

If you are an international applicant or a non-US citizen or permanent resident and English is not your native language, you must submit official scores for (1) the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) iBT, (2) the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or (3) Duolingo English Test (DET).

• The institution code for the TOEFL exam is 2888.
• Test results must be valid at the time you submit your application. Test scores are valid for two years.
• You must take the exam by the application deadline.
• Test scores from at-home administration of the TOEFL exams are accepted. 
• Please send your IELTS score report electronically to “University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.”
• Please send your DET score report electronically to “ University of Pennsylvania – School of Engineering and Applied Science – Graduate.”

Recommended Scores:

You don’t have to achieve a particular score to be admitted, but we recommend that you aim for at least the following scores:

• TOEFL: 100
• IELTS: 7.5
• DET: 135

To have the English-language requirement waived, you must meet one of the following criteria by the time of matriculation:

• Graduate from a program in the United States;
• Attend school in a country in which English is recognized as the official language; or,
• Graduate from an institution where the medium of instruction is English, and this is indicated on the unofficial transcript

This requirement will be waived after you submit your application and may take 3-5 business days to reflect in your checklist.