Graduate Admissions
The application for Fall 2025 is now open!
Deadlines
Fall Application Deadline: December 1, 2025 by 11:59 p.m. MST.
Letters of Recommendation must be received by December 10.
Please read the information below for a detailed walk through of our application material requirements and material deadlines.
To be accepted into the MS or PhD programs, a faculty member must be willing to accept you as an advisee and advocate for you during the admissions process. Interested applicants must contact faculty members with whom they would be interested in working.
We recommend reviewing our faculty research interests and contacting potential advisors as early as possible. Each year, faculty members receive more inquiries than there are spots in their projects so it is advantageous to reach out early.
You must apply through . Review the Prepare to Apply information before starting the process. International applicants must follow the directions on the International Admissions website.
The following tabs provide prospective students with a step-by-step walk through of the .
This section of the application asks applicants to input information like your name, address, biological information, military status, citizenship, etc.
Applicants must select the following from this section's drop down menus:
- Department/Program (required): "Environmental Studies"
- Degree (required): "Environmental Studies - MS" or "Environmental Studies - PhD"
- Entry Term (required): "Fall 2025"
An unofficial transcript from each institution attended (including work that appears as transfer credit on a later transcript) should be uploaded to your online application. To ensure review, transcripts must be submitted to CU Boulder by the deadlines listed above.
Please make sure that all post-secondary institutions you have attended, including institutions you are currently attending, are included. This includes community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs. List them in order of attendance, starting with the most recent. For all international academic work, you must provide the original, native language version of both the transcript and, separately, the degree document, as well as a certified English translation of those documents.
*Missing and/or incomplete transcripts must be submitted by January 11, 2025. After this, your application will be withdrawn.
GRE: The ENVS Department does not consider the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) as part of its review process. After extensive review, the admissions committee has decided that the GRE, although a useful indicator for some graduate programs, does not accurately predict the success of a student pursuing a program such as the ENVS program.
TOEFL: International students whose native language is not English must take the TOEFL exam. You are not required to submit a score for the TOEFL if: your native language is English or you have completed at least one year of full-time study at a U.S. institution, or at an institution in a country where English is the native language at the time you apply, and within two years from your desired admission term. Score minimums are: internet based TOEFL score of 100; IELTS score of 7.0; Duolingo score of 120. You can learn more about the English Profeciency Requirement here.
In addition, official test scores must be reported by the testing service directly to the university. Please request that the appropriate testing service report scores directly to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Boulder. The institution code for TOEFL exam is 4841.
*Missing English Profeciency Test Scores must be submitted by December 10, 2025. After this, your application will be withdrawn.
Three letters of recommendation are required. References should be requested from individuals qualified to judge your potential for success in graduate school. As the number of required letters varies by department, please check the appropriate department’s website for specific guidelines. Please only submit information for the required number of referees.
Online submission as part of the application is strongly preferred. Once you begin your on-line application, you will be prompted to enter e-mail addresses for your recommenders, and after you submit your application, they will receive instructions about uploading their letters.
If you must use a paper letter, have each person submitting a paper recommendation forward the form and letter to the appropriate address by the appropriate deadline:
International Applicants
Office of Admissions, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder
Regent Administrative Center 125, 65 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0065
Domestic Applicants
Graduate Admissions, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Boulder
553 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-055
Express/overnight mail
Graduate Admissions, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Boulder
3100 Marine Street, Building RL3, Suite A122
Boulder, CO 80303-1058
*Missing letters of recommendations must be submitted by December 10, 2025. After this, your application will be withdrawn.
The personal statement portion of your application is your opportunity to communicate with the admissions committee directly. Please upload a document briefly describing your past work in your proposed or allied fields of study, including non-course educational experiences, teaching, or other relevant employment, publications, theses, research in progress, other scholarly activities. Also, please describe your motivations and plans for graduate study and also your plans for work or study following your proposed graduate work.
This information is in regards past research experience, the name(s) of one or more ENVS faculty members who you would like to advise you if you are admitted to the program, if you are applying to our dual degree programs, etc.
This section asks applicants to either invidually enter any nonacademic, industrial, or professional experience from start of undergraduate work to present.
If you prefer, you may skip this section and upload your C.V./Resume.
You must upload a C.V./Resume regardless of completion of the section above. Please include all relevant education, training, skills and professional experience that make you a good candidate for the ENVS program.
The answer to this section helps figure out if you are elegible for in-state tuition classification.
See the .
A non-refundable application fee of $60 USD is required of all domestic applicants ($80 USD for international applicants). You must pay via credit card when submitting your online application.
*Started and unpaid applications must be submitted by December 7, 2025. After this, your application will be withdrawn.
*"Pending Payments" applications must be submitted by December 14, 2025. After this, your application will be withdrawn.
Applicants are responsible for submitting all the required materials by the deadlines listed above. Incomplete applications and applications not received by the respective admission deadlines will not be considered for that enrollment period.