How to Apply

To apply to the UC Irvine Doctoral program, a completed application and application fee ($135 for U.S. Citizens and lawful U.S. Permanent Residents, and $155 for all other applicants) is required.  The application fee must be submitted online (checks will not be accepted). All graduate applications are submitted electronically and must be supported by appropriate academic transcripts from each college/university attended, three letters of recommendation and two writing samples. Unofficial transcripts must be submitted online with the graduate application. Official transcripts must be provided only after a candidate has been accepted by the program and formally admitted to the university. All letters of recommendation and writing samples must be submitted online.

Submission of the Statement of Purpose is mandatory. Submission of the Personal History Statement is optional. The Department of Drama has no word/character minimum or maximum length requirements for these statements.

Please know that the GRE is no longer a requirement for admission. 

The deadline for the submission of your application fee and completion of your application, including submission of all unofficial transcripts, letters of recommendation, writing samples, and test scores is January 12.

Please remember that incomplete application files will not be considered.

Submission of English Language Proficiency Scores

For those international applicants that are required to successfully complete an English language proficiency exam (TOEFL or IELTS) to be considered for admission, please know that:

The TOEFL is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

  • Please select institution code 4859 to have your official score sent to UCI. No department code is needed.
  • We only accept scores submitted electronically by ETS.
  • Test results that are two years old or older are not acceptable.
  • We do not accept MyBest scores; you must submit all individual test scores.
  • Results of institutional (non-ETS) administrations of the TOEFL are not acceptable.
  • We will accept the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition test.  The same minimum score applies.
  • We do NOT accept the TOEFL ITP Plus test for China or the TOEFL Essentials test.
  • For more information, please visit their website at www.ets.org/toefl

TOEFL Score Requirements for Admission Consideration:
An overall minimum score of 80.

As an alternative to the TOEFL, you may submit scores from the Academic Modules of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

  • We only accept scores submitted electronically by the IELTS test center. No paper Test Report Forms will be accepted.
  • Test results that are two years old or older are not acceptable.
  • We will accept the IELTS Indicator test.  The same minimum score applies.
  • An institutional code is NOT required. Please contact the test center directly where you took the IELTS test and request that your test scores be sent electronically using the IELTS system. All IELTS test centers worldwide are able to send scores electronically to our institution. 
  • For more information, please visit their website at www.ielts.org.

IELTS Score Requirements for Admission Consideration:
An overall minimum score of 7 for admission, with a score of no less than 6 on any individual module.

Find out more:         

          :: Apply Electronically
          :: Graduate Division website
          :: Graduate Housing
          :: Financial Aid
          :: Information for International Applicants
          :: Application Fee Waivers