Graduate Planetary Sciences
The Earth and Planetary Sciences, Astronomy and Applied Math and Statistics departments offer PhD's and Master's degrees in Planetary Sciences. People in other departments may also be looking for planetary students; click here for a list of potential advisors and here to get an idea of the kind of research being carried out at UCSC.

General information on graduate applications to UCSC may be found here. The application deadline is generally early January. Any graduate program will require applicants to take the General GRE exam; the Astronomy department also requires a Physics GRE. Although high grades and previous research experience are important in an application, the most important part of the application is the letters of recommendation. It is also usually to the applicant's advantage to choose a prospective advisor and talk to that person prior to making the application.

The different departments have graduate programs which are significantly different in the number and type of courses required. More details on the Astronomy graduate experience may be found here, the Earth and Planetary Sciences graduate experience here and the AMS experience here.