Admissions Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements for Civil and Environmental Engineering are:

1. A bachelor's degree from an accredited institution or recognized equivalent
2. Sufficient undergraduate education for graduate work in your chosen field
3. A satisfactory scholastic average, with a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) for application consideration
4. Score of the general Graduate Record Examination (GRE) taken during the past five years.  CEE does not require a GRE subject test but the General GRE Test is required. Either the computer-based test or the paper-based test is acceptable.
5. International applicants: A minimum score of 570 (230 CBT, 68/120 iBT) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), taken during the past two years, is required to meet the English Language Proficiency requirement. 
6. The Environmental Engineering Program and the Transportation Engineering program require prerequisite courses and/or additional admission requirements.  See Environmental Engineering Degree Objectives and Transportation Engineering Degree Requirements.

Degree Requirements

There are six programs within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as listed below. The admission and degree requirements for these programs are different.

Engineering and Project Management
Environmental Engineering
Geoengineering
Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials
Transportation Engineering
Civil Systems

It is very important that you read the Graduate Division Web page on Admission Requirements. If you received or are a candidate to receive your undergraduate degree from an institution outside the United States, you will need to read the section on International Applicants in Admission Requirements.

Admissions for Non-Engineering Majors

Graduates in chemistry, physics, mathematics, geology, life sciences, architecture, or other non-engineering fields are welcome to apply to Civil and Environmental Engineering for admission into a program of study emphasizing one of many opportunities for combining a field of science in which they have background studies and a specific discipline in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Upon completion of this program, the student would receive a Master of Science in Engineering Science.

International Applicants:  Additional Requirements

The Test of English as a Foreign Language is required of all applicants (including U.S. citizens) who received their undergraduate degree at a university or college in a country where English is not the official language. However, if at the time of application you have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a U.S. university, you do not need to take the TOEFL. Instead, you must submit an official transcript showing at least two semesters of COMPLETED coursework from the U.S. university. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement:

1. courses in English as a Second Language
2. courses conducted in a language other than English
3. courses that will be completed after you apply, and
4. courses of a non-academic nature.

For more information about TOEFL requirements, please see "Evidence of English Language Proficiency" on the Graduate Division Admission Requirements Web page. For graduate admission, UC Berkeley requires a minimum TOEFL score of 570 on the paper-based test, 230 on the computer-based test (CBT), or 68/120 on the internet-based test (iBT). Your MOST RECENT score must meet this minimum. Applicants whose most recent score fails to meet the minimum will not be admitted because there are no exceptions to this minimum requirement.