Most of our incoming Ph.D. students receive fellowship or assistantship funding for five years. Funding is subject to continued university and department availability of funds, making satisfactory progress in the program, your arrival in the U.S. and registration for courses, submission of appointment documentation, and the policies of the University, the University System of Maryland, and the Graduate School.

We will consider applications from students who have already secured an outside source of funding for one or more years.

All Fall 2026 applicants are required to submit GRE scores.

The department receives 500-600 applications to the Ph.D. program every year, and admission standards are high. Successful applicants must have a strong mathematics background; entering students are expected to have completed a minimum of three semesters of calculus, one semester of linear algebra, and one semester of differential equations; most successful applicants have completed additional coursework in real analysis or in other upper-level mathematics courses.

All applicants, regardless of citizenship, must demonstrate English language proficiency.  Applicants are automatically deemed to have met this requirement if they hold a degree from a university in the United States or from an English-speaking country included on the UMD Graduate School’s list, which can be found at the bottom of this page: https://gradschool.umd.edu/admissions/english-language-proficiency-requirements.  This decision rule is based solely on the country in which you were educated, and not on your citizenship.  

All students who do not automatically meet the English proficiency requirement must provide proof of an English language test score above a threshold deemed by the University as adequate for “full enrollment” as described here: https://gradschool.umd.edu/admissions/english-language-proficiency-requirements Our department will not consider for admission to our Ph.D. program any applicant whose TOEFL, IELTS or PTE scores do not meet the requirement for full enrollment at the time of application. No exceptions will be made.

We urge you to review the topics, questions, and answers by selecting from the choices below. Please look through all sections carefully before contacting our office.

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