DOCS Website

Baton Rouge, Louisiana |

Note: If you sent a pre-application form within two months, please send us an email at ocean@lsu.edu or ggibbs@lsu.edu to see if we received it.

Graduate Study Pre-Application Form

If you wish, you may include additional information to any section of this form to provide insight into your interests and professional goals. Use additional pages as necessary. This information will be reviewed by the Student Affairs Committee. Do not send transcripts now; you will be notified if a complete application is required.

For more information on Louisiana State University please visit LSU Graduate School website.

Prerequisites:
All students are required to have successfully completed (grade of "C" or better) differential and integral calculus. If an applicant has not completed these requirements by the time of enrollment in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, they will be required to do so during their first year at LSU. However, it is advisable to have at least the first calculus course completed prior to enrollment. This requirement can be met by taking MATH 1550 (Analytical Geometry and Calculus I) and MATH 1552 (Analytical Geometry and Calculus II) at LSU. Math 1554 (Calculus II for Life Sciences) may be substituted from Math 1552 with prior committee approval. A student may register for those courses on a pass-fail basis with approval of the student's major professor, department chair, instructor of the course involved, and the dean of the Graduate School. The instructor will determine actual quality of work required to obtain a grade of "P".

Additional prerequisites for DOCS core courses include biology, chemistry, geology and physics: One semester introductory course in physics and one in geology, two chemistry courses equivalent to LSU CHEM 1201 & 1202 and two biology courses for science majors equivalent to LSU BIOL 1201 & 1202 with grades of "C" or better. Students not meeting all prerequisites may be admitted provisionally.

GRE and Undergraduate GPA Requirements:
Applicants must score at least 300 on the GRE general test (verbal plus quantitative scores) and a GRE writing score of 4.0 or greater. In addition, GRE scores should not be more than 5 years old. A minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 on a scale of 4.0 is required for admission.

In addition, all incoming students must meet LSU Graduate School admission requirements. See The Graduate Bulletin at LSU Graduate School Website.

Financial Assistance:
Outstanding M.S. and Ph.D. applicants can compete for Board of Regents Fellowships (about $28K/year+tuition) and DOCS Research Assistantships (about $17,500/year + tuition). Full applications completed by early January will be considered for fellowships. After January, students will need to get assistantships from a pool of DOCS Research or Teaching Assistantships or from research grants awarded to faculty. The number of available research and teaching assistantships ranges from 10 to 15 per year.

The items with * or in red are minimally required for submission only. Fill in as much information as you can
to be considered for evaluation. Each field has a 255-character limit except those which require lengthy
responses ( #4b, #7, #8, $9, #10, #16, #17). Scores such as in #5 and #6b require numeric responses.

The form is also available in Word document form. Send a completed form to the above email address if unable to do it online.

1. Personal Information

a.Last Family Name*: b. First Name*: c. Middle Initial:

d. Sex: Male or Female

2. Contact Information:

a. Street Address:

b. City: c. State/Country: d. ZIP:

e. Telephone: g. Email*: f. Fax:

3. Semester you wish to enter:

4a.Area(s) of research interest in Oceanography-Coastal Sciences:

4b. Make a brief statement concerning your proposed program of graduate study;
address specific areas of interest, your plans for professional development,
and possible thesis topics.

5. GRE Scores:
Please do NOT submit this form without GRE and/or TOEFL Scores.
We will not review this pre-application unless scores are available.
(Note: only the verbal and quantitative results are required. The writing score is optional.)

a. VERBAL b. QUANTITATIVE c. WRITING

6a. First spoken language:
If not English, then English Language Proficiency Test Scores are required.
(Note: the TOEFL or IELTS is required for admission of all foreign students except for students
who are citizens of: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom.)

b. TOEFL c. IELTS

7. Colleges or Universities attended and degrees awarded (in chronological order).
Note: if Grade Point Average, G.P.A., is not on a 4.0 scale, please convert
(Format: School, Dates Attended, Degree Received, G.P.A. )

8. Teaching and Research Experience:

9. Honors, awards, academic distinctions:

10. Publications (complete citations, including titles) :

11. Grades for all lecture and laboratory courses
Note: if grades are not based on a 4.0 grading scale, please convert, A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0
(Examples: In 11a field you will enter the following: General Chem I,3.0;General Chem II,4.0;Organic Chemistry,4.0

a. List Chemistry courses and grades:
b. List Biology courses and grades:
c. List Physics & Geology courses and grades:
d. List Mathematics courses and grades:
e. List Ecology courses and grades:
f. List Other science courses and grades:

12. Country of citizenship:

13. Ethnic Origin
(Required for Federal Reports by Civil Rights Act of 1964)

14. Oceanography degree you wish to pursue:

15. Are you applying for a graduate assistantship?

16. If you do not receive financial assistance, do you have sufficient funds to support yourself?

17. Supplemental Comments:

18. How did you hear about us?