Prospective Students

Welcome from the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University. We hope the information on this site will help you decide whether to apply to our program and, if so, how to go about doing it. Please explore our site to learn more about our Department, the Divisions, our Faculty and our Graduate Program.

Our graduate program is designed to be flexible to meet the varied needs of our students. We have two degrees, Biochemistry and Biological Sciences. The Biochemistry degree has more specifically required courses while the broader Biological Sciences degree can be more easily tailored to meet individual student interests.

All accepted students can receive support from the department as a Teaching Assistant for up to 5 years assuming that they continue to make progress toward their degree. Additional support may come as a Research Assistantship (arranged via the major professor) or student fellowships. Minimum stipends for Ph.D. students are presently $23,000 over 9 months, with many advisors providing summer support as well.

We encourage you to use the information contained here to help select an area in which you are interested. Our faculty listing includes research descriptions, as well as recent publications lists. The LSU Graduate School pages are also a good resource.

To ensure full consideration of your application, please submit all material by September 28 (for Spring admission) or January 3rd (for Fall admission).  Applications may stack up over the winter holiday, so earlier submission for Fall admission (by 17 December) is encouraged.  Due to the increasingly long times required to secure a visa, international students not already in the US probably cannot attain Spring admission. Please note that the LSU Graduate School now clears all applications from its records after each cycle, so a late application may be rejected without the department ever reviewing it.  Check with the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies if you are considering a late application.

To apply to our program, follow the link to the LSU Graduate School. They will request that you complete a form with several sections, not all of them exactly what we need.  To aid in the selection process, we would appreciate applications that have been tailored to our interests as follows:

Academic Experiences - Use this section to highlight experiences that have prepared you for the research you aim to pursue.

Statement of Purpose - Use this to explain why you want to go to graduate school (history of interests, career goals), what you hope to learn (specific fields and techniques), and how our faculty match your needs.  We strongly encourage you to contact specific professors who match your interests before applying.  To assist us in reviewing your application, at the end of this statement please include a line indicating which section (BMB, CDIB, SEE) you are most interested in and listing 1-4 professors you are most interested (this list is not binding).

We do not require or use a writing sample (that's one of the things we use your Statement for). As of Fall 2020, we no longer require a GRE score. 

If you are an International student or on tight finances and would like to have your application pre-evaluated, send your GPA and TOEFL scores, and statement of purpose, along with references for any publications, to Dr. Hellberg directly (mhellbe@lsu.edu). Please be aware that Masters students can no longer be supported by TAships. If you have further questions or need additional information, you may contact us at:

Graduate Program
Department of Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA
Phone: 225-578-1556
Email: gradoff@lsu.edu 
Fax: 225-578-7299

You may be able to get an application fee waiver if you are a US citizen or permanent resident who belongs to an under-represented group or hold active or veteran military status. Graduate School Fee Waivers.

LSU is an equal opportunity/access university