Applicants must have completed an electrical engineering curriculum or a computer engineering curriculum substantially equivalent to those of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A minimum grade point average of 3.00 (A = 4.00) for the last two years of undergraduate study is required. However, because of space limitations, applicants with GPAs below 3.50 are rarely admitted. All applicants must submit scores from the general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
A master’s degree is required for admission to the PhD program. Applicants with master's degrees are admitted only if a faculty member is willing to serve as the Ph.D. thesis advisor. Accordingly, such applicants should write, call, or e-mail prospective Ph.D. advisors and discuss their research interests and potential Ph.D. thesis topics well in advance of application deadlines. Admission for the spring semester is possible, in addition to the usual fall semester admissions.
Graduates of curricula in the physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science may be admitted if they are judged to have the necessary background to profit from graduate work in electrical and computer engineering.
All applicants whose native language is not English must submit a minimum TOEFL score of 96 (iBT), 243 (CBT), or 590 (PBT); or minimum International English Language Testing System (IELTS) academic exam scores of 6.5 overall and 6.0 in all subsections. Applicants may be exempt from the TOEFL if certain criteriaare met. For those taking the TOEFL or IELTS, full admission status is granted for scores greater than 102 (TOEFL iBT), 253 (TOEFL CBT), 610 (TOEFL PBT), or 6.5 (IELTS). Limited status is granted for lesser scores and requires enrollment in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses based on an ESL Placement Test (EPT) taken upon arrival to campus.
Students may apply to the Medical Scholars Program prior to beginning graduate school or while in the graduate program. Applicants to the Medical Scholars Program must meet the admissions standards for and be accepted into both Electrical and Computer Engineering and the College of Medicine. An application to the Medical Scholars Program will also serve as the application to the Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate program. Further information on this program is available by contacting the:

Medical Scholars Program
125 Medical Sciences Building
(217) 333-8146
mspo@illinois.edu

The ECE Master of Engineering (MEng) degree is a professional master’s degree intended for students interested in extending the depth and/or breadth of their technical knowledge in Electrical and Computer Engineering or in a subfield thereof. The MEng is a coursework-only degree that requires 32 hours of coursework, including at least four hours of professional development coursework. The MEng is most appropriate for students who intend to enter the professional workforce after completing the degree. Students who are interested in pursuing a career in research or in academia should consider the research-oriented Master of Science (MS) program instead.
Students applying to the MEng degree program are expected to have a four-year Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering or in a related field. Students in the MEng program are not eligible to hold research or teaching assistantships, and are expected to be self-supported.