Thank you for considering the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). The ECE graduate program application process is managed jointly by the Graduate School Office of Graduate Admissions and the ECE department.

The Graduate School has a set of uniform basic requirements that all graduate students at the UW-Madison must meet.

The ECE department requires applicants to submit Graduate Record Examinations Percentile Scores (verbal, quantitative, and analytical) for anyone seeking financial support and for those applicants whose undergraduate degrees are not from regionally accredited U.S. colleges or universities.

An applicant must have a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution. International applications can find specific information for their country on the Graduate School's requirements page. The department welcomes applications from scientific and mathematical disciplines other than ECE.

Admission to the ECE Department is based on many factors, including your academic record, GRE test scores, letters of recommendation, and written and spoken English abilities. Your work experience, research experience, publications, personal statement and all other information submitted in your online application are taken into consideration. An official transcript sent by your university is required; all other documents should be submitted electronically.

The ECE Department does not use a “formula” to rank applicants for acceptance. There are thus no fixed minimum requirements for admission to the program beyond the minimum requirements of the Graduate School. The ECE Department receives many applications to its graduate program. Competition is stiff.

As a rough guideline, most of the students admitted are in the 85th percentile or higher on the Quantitative section and 4.0 out of 6.0 on the Analytic Writing section of the GRE General Test. Admitted students generally have a GPA of 3.5 or higher (on a 4.0 scale). However, you may be admitted even if you do not meet these guidelines in some respects provided your application is especially strong in other respects. Conversely, there is no assurance that you will be admitted if you exceed these guidelines due to other factors taken into consideration, including other aspects of your academic record, and the strength of the applicant pool.

Copyright 2009 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Date last modified: 16-Oct-2009 Date created: 04-Mar-2002 Content by: gradscty@cae.wisc.edu Accessibility Web services