MS/PhD Admissions

Application Fee Waiver Programs

Domestic PhD applicants (US citizens and USLPRs) who have a current GPA of 3.5/4.0 or above will receive an application fee waiver for their PhD applications. Please select "application fee waiver" when you submit your application and cite 'GPA' as the reason for the request.

At this time, we do not have any application fee waivers available for international applicants.

Please contact mechse-grad@illinois.edu if you have any questions about application fee waivers.

Big 10 Alliance also has an application fee waiver program. Please see this link for more information:
https://btaa.org/resources-for/students/freeapp/eligibility

MS/PhD Admissions Deadline for Fall 2025 Applications
The MechSE Department will continue to accept applications to our MS and PhD programs until 11:59 PM Central Standard Time on January 20, 2025 (final deadline).  F1 visa holders should apply several weeks earlier to allow time for visa processing.

GRE Policy 
Currently, the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department is not accepting or reviewing GRE scores for any applicants for any of our graduate programs.

PhD Remote Registration Policy
MechSE does not have a distance PhD program. We allow one semester of remote registration during the academic career of a PhD student. Should a second remote semester be necessary, a written appeal would need to be submitted to the Graduate Programs Office and it would be reviewed on an individual basis.