Future students: Graduate admissions
Dive into the limitless universe of possibilities, knowledge and discovery as you step into the forefront of physics and astronomy education. A Ph.D. typically takes five to six years but can be completed in as little as four years. A master's degree typically takes from one to two years to complete.
Admission requirements
All applications received by Dec. 31 will receive full consideration for admission and assistantships during the following fall semester (September). Applications for assistantships received after this date will be considered depending on the availability of positions.
- Prerequisites
We do not require GRE, either general or physics subject test, for admission.
View prerequisites for:
- English proficiency requirements
Learn more about the our English language proficiency requirements.
View all graduate admissions requirements
Application information
- Required documents
Required documents include your:
- Academic records
- Three letters of references
- Personal/research statement
Only complete applications including all these required documents will be considered. All applications and required documents must be submitted via the online application. Please do not email or mail any hard copies of your documents.
- Deadlines
Graduate admissions take place in the fall. The physics department evaluates all complete applications on a rolling basis beginning on Jan. 15. To ensure full consideration, complete application packages for admission in the fall (Sept. 1) should be received by Dec. 31 of the previous year.
- Application fee
There is no application fee for the fall 2025 semester.
- Financial aid and graduate assistantships
Financial support is provided to incoming and continuing qualifying Ph.D. students using graduate teaching assistantships (GTA), graduate research assistantships (GRA) and selected fellowship programs.
Students admitted to our Ph.D. program are offered a graduate teaching assistant position that includes a salary, medical, vision, and dental insurance, as well as a tuition scholarship for up to 10 graduate credits completed per semester of the academic year. While renewal of appointments is not automatic and depends upon the availability of assistantship positions within our department, typically a Ph.D. student is supported as a graduate teaching assistant or a graduate research assistant through the duration of the program.
We may offer admission to the master's programs and limited financial assistance for some students not admitted to the Ph.D. program. Many of our master's students have continued later for our Ph.D. program which includes the financial benefits listed above.
Research at Wayne State
Wayne State provides state-of-the-art research facilities and offers excellent research opportunities in theoretical and experimental condensed matter physics (including biomedical physics, nanophysics and the physics of complex materials), theoretical and experimental high-energy nuclear physics, theoretical and experimental particle physics, and astrophysics.
Members of our faculty participate in major international collaborations at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), KEK (Tsukuba, Japan), Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Researchers also utilize the Wayne State Computing Grid, the Open Science Grid and other large grid computing systems as part of their collaboration efforts. Our faculty are highly active in their fields, publishing over 50 peer-reviewed articles per year, including prestigious journals such as Nature and Physical Review Letters.