Current Undergraduate Students

Eligible applicants must be current UC San Diego undergraduates, with a declared major in one of the undergraduate degree programs offered by the School of Biological Sciences or declared Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution majors in the Environmental Systems Program. Eligible applicants will be considered for admissions if they meet the following requirements:

• 3.0 Cumulative UC San Diego GPA
• 3.3 Upper Division Major GPA
• 3 eligible terms of independent research as an undergraduate student via BISP 199 or BISP 196 with the proposed faculty advisor 

Applicants whose upper division major GPA is below 3.300 and/or overall GPA is between 2.500-3.000 may be considered for admission as an exception to policy if they have no more than two C grades (C+/C/C-) in upper-division major requirement courses.

Applicants whose upper division major GPA is below 3.300 and/or overall GPA is between 2.500-3.000 who do not meet the above criteria will not be considered for admission. Applicants with an overall GPA below 2.500 will not be considered. There are no exceptions.

All prospective students must submit a complete application and pay the application fee by the stated deadline. Application instructions and deadlines are detailed below.

Admission to the Contiguous BS/MS program is not guaranteed for any applicant. Admissions decisions are final.

Prospective students are responsible for selecting an eligible faculty member to serve as their faculty advisor and in whose laboratory they will complete at least 24 units of research over 6 consecutive terms. Students must confirm that the selected faculty advisor will maintain their faculty title at UC San Diego throughout their scheduled BS/MS program. Students looking for a lab are encouraged to review the Undergraduate Research webpage for advice on getting started in research at UC San Diego.

Students receive research credit toward the Independent Research Track requirements by completing BISP 199 or BISP 196 as an undergraduate student and BGGN 271 as graduate student. Prospective BS/MS students must enroll in BISP 199 or BISP 196 with their faculty advisor in their final 3 terms of undergraduate enrollment.

Undergraduate students may complete BISP 199 for 2 or 4 units for the BS/MS program. 

Students may review the Research for Academic Credit webpage for additional information about BISP 199 and BISP 196. Questions regarding BISP 199 and BISP 196 may be addressed to the Biology Undergraduate Advising team through the VAC.

Prospective Independent Research Track BS/MS students must complete 3 consecutive terms of BISP 199 or BISP 196 that meet the following requirements:

• All 3 terms are completed consecutively with no break in enrollment
• All 3 terms are completed with the same faculty advisor
• All terms are completed in a student's final 3 terms of undergraduate enrollment
• No required BISP 199/196 term is used to satisfy a student's major, college, or General Education requirements

BISP 199/196 units can apply toward the total units, and total upper division units, required for the BS degree.

Although the BS/MS program does not require students to enroll for the summer, 1 or 2 terms of BISP 199 can be completed during the summer prior to official BS graduation.

A student's faculty advisor serves as their primary research and thesis advisor throughout the BS/MS program.

The faculty advisor must be involved with biological research at UC San Diego with one of the following titles:

• Professor Emeritus
• Distinguished Professor
• Professor
• Associate Professor
• Assistant Professor
• Adjunct (any rank)
• Research Scientist with Lecturer appointment

Interested students may confirm their faculty advisor's title through the Faculty Lookup Tool, accessed through the Graduate Student Portal under "Doctoral and Master's Committees". Note: Students must be connected to the UC San Diego network or VPN to access the Faculty Lookup Tool.

Questions about faculty advisor eligibility may be directed to the BS/MS Coordinator through the Virtual Advising Center.

A complete application for the BS/MS program must include the following (review the detailed instructions for additional information):

• A Master's Thesis Research Plan
• Confirmation of an eligible second thesis committee member
• A Statement of Purpose
• A Letter of Recommendation from the student's thesis advisor
• Accurate and complete answers to all required sections of the graduate studies application

Prospective BS/MS students must review and follow the detailed application instructions when submitting the graduate studies application. Applications must be submitted by the stated deadline of the student's final undergraduate term. Application deadlines for the upcoming Academic Year can be found in the "Application Deadlines" section of this webpage.

Review detailed application instructions

Program requirements for the MS Degree are described in the General Catalog and on the current MS student webpages.