Graduate Program Admissions FAQ

Our MS degree is a 1-year degree which is primarily course-based. With the MS, we hope you will be empowered by our advanced courses, which will bring you to the knowledge frontier of some of the most promising areas of early technology, including quantum materials like superconductors, the building blocks of photonic computers, and the intricate construction and programming of quantum computers. You may use this advanced knowledge to pursue a career in research, or apply it within the growing industries that have arisen from these applied physics insights. You may also see paths to your own business opportunities and pursue entrepreneurship — if so, you’ll find opportunities plenty of support from the eager entrepreneurial community within the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. MS students are subject to a one year tuition upon matriculation.

Our PhD degree is a research-focused degree with a typical length between 5 and 6 years. With the PhD, you will have the same challenges and opportunities as the MS degree, but will need to go even further: you will have to do research, leading humanity deeper into the unknown, finding and proving truths about nature that no human before you has ever known. Our hope in Applied Physics is that you may even see how to use these new truths to create new inventions that could enable technologies that advance the human condition, generate new wealth and business opportunities, and/or enable the next generation of scientific discoveries. The PhD is a journey to the remotest limits of human understanding and beyond, and in Applied Physics, to new unexplored spaces of technology and opportunity. PhD students have their tuitions covered, and are provided an additional stipend during their studies.

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Physics and Applied Physics at Yale are closely connected and collaborative, but are separate departments. If you are considering both programs for your PhD, we recommend for the best odds of admission that you apply to the program in which your first choice advisor (i.e., the laboratory you are most interested in joining) has a primary appointment. However, note faculty from Applied Physics can advise students from Physics and vice versa, so if you happen to be admitted into one program, you may still later join a lab in the other department. (See however the question below)

While most students who enroll in the PhD program have a research advisor in mind when they enroll, it is not necessary that students pursue their PhD with this advisor. Since the fit between a student and their advisor and research group is one of the most important factors in a fruitful PhD, our program allows for a trial period in which students can try out labs before committing to one for their PhD.

In practice, PhD students in applied physics typically spend their first year on course work and on two "special investigations" (SI), which are formal research rotations in which the student conducts a research project with a laboratory of interest. Students need to reach out to faculty of interest to confirm a SI beforehand, and should note that faculty may decline, e.g., due to project availability. Many students perform both SIs, as well as research during the summer, with the same group, but many other students try multiple groups before finding one that is a mutually good fit for the rest of their PhD.

While the MS degree is primarily a course-based degree, MS students can participate in research by conducting a special investigation with a faculty member in Applied Physics. This research “course” will displace one required course during the semester.

Please note that while a research special investigation for MS students is possible, it is not a guaranteed part of the MS degree. If you are admitted to our MS program and doing research as part of your MS degree is important to you, we recommend reaching out to faculty to discuss research opportunities prior to making your decision to enroll.

If you are a PhD applicant, we recommend reaching out to faculty of interest before you apply, as not every faculty member will be taking additional students every year. Usually, a concise explanation of your interest, and a question like “Are you planning to take new students from the upcoming PhD cohort?” are sufficient.

Please note that faculty in our department often receive an extremely large number of such emails, and your email might become inadvertently missed. As a result, you should not interpret a lack of reply to mean lack of interest. However, if your decision to apply is contingent upon the availability of PhD positions with a specific group, you should not hesitate to remind faculty of your email.

If you are a MS applicant, you likely do not need to contact specific faculty. If you are motivated to do research and want to confirm the availability of a research opportunity with a specific group, we recommend that you wait until you receive your admission decision before you reach out to faculty.

We do not require a GRE as of the 2025 fall admission cycle, but most international students will need to submit a TOEFL score. See here for details.

Yale Engineering indeed has faculty with similar interests distributed across distinct departments -- this is one reason faculty and students collaborate frequently across departments. It is also common for students in one PhD program to join labs in other departments. However, particularly to maximize your chance of admission, we recommend that you apply to the program in which your first choice advisor (i.e., the laboratory you are most interested in joining) has a primary appointment.

Admissions decisions for the PhD program are often sent in early February, while MS are sent in roughly mid-February.

Currently, admissions for both PhD and MS degrees in Applied Physics involve a first round of selection based on your written application materials, and then, for a subset of applicants, an interview conducted over Zoom (or similar videoconferencing software). Typically for PhD students, this interview will be conducted by faculty member(s) closely related to the student’s indicated area of interest .  The MS interview is expected to be short (<30 minutes) and will not involve a presentation. The PhD interview format is determined by the faculty member conducting the interview, and this will typically be shared with the applicant prior to the interview.