Academic Requirements and Application for Admission

The Department of Food Science and Technology suggests students submit applications at least six months before the semester they wish to start. Our deadlines are February 1 (domestic and international) for fall semester admission, and September 1 (domestic and international) for spring semester admission. Applications, including recommendation letters and transcript copies, should be submitted online. Submission of application materials on paper or providing copies on paper will delay the review of your application.

• Personal statement
• Resume
• TOEFL (min. total score: 90) or IELTS (min. total score: 6.5) score for international applicants.
• Minimum 3.0 undergraduate GPA
• 3 recommendation letters, but only 2 are required for Virginia Tech undergraduates
• Scanned official transcripts from all colleges/universities attended
  

Many of our graduate students were not undergraduates in food science, and were likely to have another major such as biology, chemistry, animal science, or human nutrition. We expect students to have background courses in biology, general microbiology, organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and statistics. Admitted students who do not have a degree in food science will be expected to enroll in our 1) Food Chemistry, 2) Food Microbiology and 3) Food Processing (or Food Safety and Quality Assurance) courses as a graduate student.

Additional Instructions

For more information on the graduate application process please see Applying to Virginia Tech.