Admission into the graduate programs of the Department of Geology and Geophysics requires admission by both the Graduate School and the Department of Geology and Geophysics.

Admission to the Graduate School requires:

• a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university;
• an undergraduate GPA of 3.00 overall or on the last 60 hours (or half-degree requirement)
• a satisfactory record on previous graduate work
• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores averaging 500 each on verbal and quantitative
• three letters of recommendation to the Department of Geology and Geophysics
• acceptance by the graduate faculty in the applicant's area of study.
• International applicants must have a score of 550 or higher on the paper version or 213 or higher on computer version on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) before an international application can be evaluated for admission.

Specific Graduate School requirements for applicants who have completed degree requirements outside the U.S. are given in the Graduate School catalog.

Admission to the Department of Geology and Geophysics is made by the departmental faculty and is based on evidence of academic achievement and promise in the field of geology and geophysics

To avoid delay in the processing of your application, please send all application materials, including letters of recommendation, and address all inquiries to the

Academic Coordinator
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
heather@lsu.edu

We will forward the appropriate forms to the Office of Admissions.
Sending your application materials to the Graduate School could delay Departmental consideration of your request for admission.More information about the application forms is provided below.

On-line applications are now available at the LSU Graduate School website.

Applications for admission may be submitted at any time. However, in order to be considered for admission in a particular semester and to be considered for various types of financial aid, applications should be sent to the Department of Geology and Geophysics before the following dates:

	Fall Semester	Spring Semester
For University fellowships	January 30	No Awards
For Departmental assistantships	January 1	October 15
Without financial aid	May 1	November 1

We receive a very large number of applications from international students each year, many from individuals seeking graduate study in areas of earth science not represented in our department.To help facilitate the processing of these requests, we ask that international students first fill out and return a pre-application form (WORD format or pdf format) to us which will allow us to determine if our program will fit their background and educational plans before we send full application materials.It would be to the advantage of international students to communicate at an early date with one or more members of the graduate faculty to identify potential major professors who would be willing to support their request for admission into the graduate program.

The LSU General General Catalog is now available online on the World Wide Web: http://aaweb.lsu.edu/

If you have problems accessing the catalog, call Ed Braithwaite (225) 578-1455.

To obtain a hard copy of the Graduate School Catalog, please send a check or money order (no cash, please) for $3.00, made payable to Louisiana State University to:

Office of Graduate Planning
134 David Boyd Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

The Department of Geology and Geophysics has created a Graduate Student Handbook that contains detailed information on the requirements of students seeking MS and PhD degrees, and generally useful information on the Department and LSU. At the time of admission to the program the requirements outlined in the Graduate Handbook are considered those to which entering graduate students must adhere to complete their degrees. However, if there are subsequent changes in requirements adopted by the Department, the student may opt to follow the latter requirements. The 2007-2008 Graduate Student Handbook for the Department of Geology and Geophysics is in word format.

Older Graduate Handbooks that are online include:
   2002-2003 Handbook
   2003-2004 Handbook
   2004-2005 Handbook
   2005-2006 Handbook