How to Apply

When you’re ready, start your online application here. 

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.

Institutions in the United States

When you apply, please submit an unofficial transcript from each university or college where you earned course credit. Your transcripts must be in English. Admission to a Penn Engineering graduate program requires satisfactory completion of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited U.S. university or its equivalent prior to your matriculation. Transcripts uploaded must reflect all coursework taken from every post-secondary institution attended, even if you transferred, withdrew, or did not graduate. 

When requesting documents to be sent to Penn Engineering Graduate Admissions, please ensure that you have indicated the appropriate office. 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.

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

Institutions Outside the United States

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 directly from the NACES member to Penn Engineering Graduate Admissions. This evaluation should include course titles, grades received, GPA, and U.S. degree equivalency. 

Penn Engineering does not accept transcripts directly from institutions outside the U.S. or English-language translations of such transcripts. Any document uploaded as a transcript for an institution outside of the U.S. without the NACES course-by-course evaluation will not be reviewed and your application will be considered incomplete. The evaluating agency will provide instructions for how to request and submit the required academic documents for review, and the process can take several weeks to complete, so we encourage you to begin this process at least eight weeks in advance of the application deadline.

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)

Exchange Programs or Study Abroad

Exchange program or study abroad at an institution in the United States

If the course names and grades from any exchange programs do not appear on your home institution’s transcript, you must upload a copy of a registrar-issued transcript directly through the online application system. Applicant-uploaded copies will be considered unofficial and used only for faculty review purposes. Should you be admitted and choose to enroll at Penn Engineering, official transcripts must be sent directly from the registrar’s office of the relevant institution(s) before you begin coursework.

Exchange program or study abroad at an institution outside the United States

If your exchange program’s course names and grades do not appear on your home institution’s transcript and your host institution was a non-U.S. school, please upload an English copy of your registrar-issued transcript from your exchange institution to the online application system. If you have completed more than two semesters of study at an institution based outside of the United States, you must submit all official transcripts to a member of NACES and request to have an official course-by-course evaluation sent directly from a NACES member to Penn Engineering Graduate Admissions.

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 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.
• 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), (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 when you submit your application.
• You must take the exam by the application deadline.
• Test scores from at-home administration of the GRE and 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.”

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. 

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