Graduate Admissions FAQ

For students entering with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, it typically takes two years to earn an MS and four to five years to earn a PhD.

For students entering with a MS in chemical engineering, it typically takes three to four years to earn a PhD.

Students who enter with degrees in subjects other than chemical engineering will need to take deficiency courses that usually add one year to their studies.

Please visit our main admissions page for information.

MS applicants usually have a undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher on a scale of 4.0.

PhD applicants usually have a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a scale of 4.0.

Exceptions may be made when applicants have particular strengths in other areas.

Yes, the GRE is a departmental admissions requirement.

The Graduate College requires applicants who earned their prior degrees in non-English-speaking institutions to take an English proficiency test, of which the TOEFL is one option. For more information, including minimum score thresholds, visit our main admissions page.

All graduate students are eligible for consideration for financial aid.

Teaching assistantships primarily are awarded to incoming PhD students, though not all doctoral students receive a teaching assistantship. Some PhD students will receive research assistantships, which are awarded by individual faculty members who are managing a research grant. In addition, graduate assistantships can be obtained by students directly from a department or program, and the department awards a limited number of tuition-and-fee waivers each semester.

Visit our financial aid and funding page for more information on each type of funding.

In the UIC chemical engineering department, research advisors and students must mutually agree to work together. In other words, students are not assigned to a research advisor, nor do they automatically choose their advisor.

We ask that you meet with all of the chemical engineering faculty members to explore the full range of research possibilities. There is a form that students sign that acknowledges that you have explored all of these options.

When you and a faculty member agree to work together, you both sign an agreement. The faculty member then becomes your advisor, and you join that faculty member’s research program.

Applicants with degrees in fields other than chemical engineering may apply for admission to the MS or PhD program in chemical engineering on what is called limited standing.

Students on limited standing must remedy deficiencies in their preparation within two semesters after the start of their academic program. At this time, if successful, they may be granted full standing.

For students entering with an adequate background in mathematics, physics and chemistry but without undergraduate training in engineering, the courses areas to be completed in the first two semesters to remedy deficiencies are:

• CHE 210 Material and Energy Balances
• CHE 301 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
• CHE 311 Transport Phenomena I (momentum transfer)
• CHE 312 Transport Phenomena II (heat and mass transfer)
• CHE 313 Transport Phenomena III (separation processes)
• CHE 321 Chemical Reaction Engineering

Students without an adequate background in the sciences—specifically, three full years of chemistry (inorganic, organic, and physical), two semesters of physics, and four semesters of math (three semesters of calculus and one semester of differential equations)—also must complete these courses. Most undergraduate chemistry, biochemistry, and physics majors already will have taken these courses.

In exceptional cases, some of the above requirements may be waived on demonstration of prior proficiency.

In some cases, additional requirements will be prescribed.

Grade requirements: A grade of B (3.0 on a scale of 4.0) is required for a course to be considered toward the removal of limited status.

Moving to full status: When the prescribed requirements have been satisfactorily met, the student must file a formal petition with the chemical engineering department’s director of graduate studies to apply for change of status to full standing.

Please note that if a limited-standing student has a GPA of 3.0 or better overall but has received a grade lower than B in any of the above courses, the student may request a change to full status only after completing 12 hours of graduate coursework toward the engineering degree with a GPA of 3.5 or more.