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• Admissions and financial aid
• Applications and required forms
• Degree requirements (pdf document)
• Degree timeline (pdf document)

    The Oceanography Department offers master's and doctoral programs in four sub-disciplines - physical, chemical, geological, and biological oceanography. The programs are designed to prepare students for challenging careers in academia, industry, and government. Consequently, they are academically demanding, with high standards and expectations. Important aspects of these programs are summarized below; additional information is provided in the pdf document Degree Requirements. 

    All degrees require independent research as well as basic and specialized courses. Entering students are assigned three-person Advisory Committees to assist them in planning their degree programs and to help monitor progress toward their degree. Ultimately, the roles of these committees are taken over by formal thesis or dissertation committees selected by the students to complement their unique research and career objectives. 

    The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of the Oceanography field of study is emphasized in its core course and distribution requirements. All advanced degree students must take three core courses and at least one advanced course outside of their subdiscipline, in addition to the specific requirements of their major discipline. Students can advance to M.S. candidacy upon successful completion of the core courses, and most complete the requirements for the M.S. degree en route to the Ph.D. However, with Advisory Committee approval, a student may petition to be examined for direct advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. Ph.D. candidates must also pass a Comprehensive Examination within 18 months of admission to the Ph.D. program. Both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees require a minimum of 36 semester credit hours, including 24 credits of course work and 12 credits of thesis or dissertation research, demonstrated competence in computer programming, and 30 days of field experience. Reading knowledge of a foreign language is required only for the Ph.D. All requirements for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees should usually be completed within three and six years of admission, respectively.

Admissions and Financial Aid

Applications to the Graduate Program in Oceanography are reviewed by all of the Graduate Faculty in the student's subdiscipline. Applicants are expected to have a strong background in basic science or engineering, generally an undergraduate major in physics, chemistry, geology, geophysics, engineering, mathematics, microbiology, zoology, botany, or a related field. Regardless of major, an applicant must have completed mathematical training including calculus through ordinary differential equations and vector calculus. Students lacking such training are considered to have a deficiency in mathematics and are required to take OCN/GG 312. Entering students who have had such formal training must demonstrate a working knowledge of calculus by taking a mathematics proficiency examination. Students who are judged to have a mathematical deficiency based on their performance on this examination must take OCN/GG 312. An applicant must also have a year each of physics and chemistry. The well-prepared student will have covered classical thermodynamics and will have had a semester each of biology and geology. Graduate students who are required to take UH undergraduate courses to make up for deficiencies in their undergraduate training or math proficiency must earn at least a grade of B in those courses. GRE scores (general only) are necessary for admission review. TOEFL scores are required of foreign applicants for whom English is not their primary language. 

Most of the Department's graduate students receive financial support as Research Assistants on federally-funded research grants and contracts. The Department also has several state-funded Teaching Assistantships and a graduate lectureship. In addition, scholarships in varying amounts are awarded annually on a competitive basis from funds available from the ARCS Foundation, the Watumull Scholarship Program, and the University of Hawaii Research Corporation. Student loans are available through the Gary C. Niemeyer Memorial Fund as well as through the Friends of Oceanography. 

Applications and required forms

All the information that needs to be submitted can be found in this checklist (pdf document).

The official application form is available from the University of Hawaii Graduate Division Admissions page.

Forms required by the Department can be found here:

• Express information form
• Graduate Assistantship application
• Letter of recommendation form
• Graduate Program Supplemental Information Form
• Statement of Objectives

Remember: For U.S. applicants, the deadlines for submission are January 15 for fall admission and September 1 for spring admission. For foreign applicants, the corresponding deadlines are January 15 and August 1.