Course Information Suite

Informatics

Illinois Informatics Institute, I3
Director of the Illinois Informatics Institute: John Unsworth
306 Library, MC-522
1408 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: 217-333-4930
Fax: (217) 333-5878
E-mail: informatics@illinois.edu

Prospective students may contact:
Judy Tolliver
Coordinator for Informatics Education Programs
Tel: (217) 333-2322
tolliver@illinois.edu

Major: Bioinformatics
Degrees Offered: M.S.
Graduate Concentrations: Animal Sciences, Crop Sciences, Library and Information Science, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Computer Science

Major: Informatics
Degrees Offered: Ph.D.

Graduate Degree Programs

The Illinois Informatics Institute at the University of Illinois offers two graduate degrees: a Ph.D. in Informatics, and Masters of Science in Bioinformatics.  Both are interdisciplinary programs with many participating departments. Students can earn the Master of Science in Bioinformatics with a concentration in one of the following departments: Animal Sciences, Crop Sciences, Library and Information Science, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Computer Science. The program is overseen by I3, but students are also members of the department of their concentration.  Students can earn the Ph.D. in Informatics with concentrations in Bioinformatics; Medical Informatics; Spatial Informatics; Art and Cultural Informatics; Design, Technology, and Society; Data Analytics and Information Visualization; Cognitive Science and Language Processing.

Informatics, Ph.D. Program

Admission

The admissions process will consist of a formal application, specifying experiences, courses, interests, and letters of recommendation. The Informatics PhD Program will admit graduate students who are approved by the Governing committee in conjunction with representatives of the Areas. With the approval of the appropriate committees, students may be admitted to the program with only a Bachelor's degree. They will work with their Advisory Committee to define appropriate courses to fulfill the 32 hours of Masters-level work. If they wish to receive a Masters degree, they will need to apply to a relevant department and meet the departments existing Masters degree requirements. If they already hold a Masters degree approved by the IPP Governing Committee, they will receive graduate credit for 32 hours. All applicants whose native language is not English must submit a minimum TOEFL score of 100 (IBT), 250 (CBT), or 600 (PBT); or minimum International English Language Testing System (IELTS) academic exam scores of 6.5 overall and 6.0 in all subsections. 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.

Degree Requirements

The Chair of the Governing Committee of the Informatics Ph.D. Program will appoint the supervising committee to approve each student's program of study, which will be called the Advisory Committee (first half of studies) and then the Dissertation Committee (second half of studies). The membership of these committees should remain constant for each half of the student's studies, except in unusual circumstances, but may typically change when it is constituted for the dissertation. In any case, changes to the supervising committees must be approved by the Governing Committee. This Committee must contain faculty with expertise in both the Applications area and the Foundations area chosen by the student, including at least four faculty members affiliated with the Informatics Program. The supervising committee will provide each student with a review of his or her progress at the end of each academic year.

*For additional details and requirements refer to the degree requirements, the appropriate department's graduate handbook, and the Graduate College Handbook.

Doctor of Philosophy

Required Courses Required Hours-Entering with approved M.S. degree Required Hours-Entering with approved B.S. degree*
INFO 500, taken twice (once for 0 hours, once for 1 hour) 1 1
Research Practicum (4 hrs., two semesters) 8 8
Applications Courses (2 courses at the 500 level from approved list) 8 8
Foundations Courses (2 courses at the 500 level from approved list) 8 8
Thesis Hours Required (min/max applied toward degree): 32 min 32 min
Electives 7 7
Masters Degree 0 32 hours1
Total Hours 64 96
Qualifying Exam Required Yes Yes
Preliminary Exam Required Yes Yes
Final Exam/Dissertation Defense Required Yes Yes
Dissertation Deposit Required Yes Yes

1Students entering without a Masters degree approved by their Advisory Committee will be required to take 32 additional credit hours in 400 and 500 level courses approved by their Committee.

Financial Aid

Fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships (all of which include tuition and partial fee waivers) are awarded on a competitive basis. All applicants, regardless of U.S. citizenship, whose native language is not English and who wish to be considered for teaching assistantships must demonstrate spoken English language proficiency by achieving a minimum score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE), 24 on the speaking subsection of the TOEFL iBT, or 8 on the speaking subsection of the IELTS. For students who are unable to take the TSE, iBT, or IELTS, a minimum score of 50 is required on the SPEAK test, offered on campus. All new teaching assistants are required to participate in the Graduate Academy for College Teaching conducted prior to the start of the semester.

Bioinformatics, M.S. Program

Illinois Informatics Institute, I3
306 Library, MC-522
1408 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: 217-333-4930
Fax: (217) 333-5878
E-mail: informatics@illinois.edu

Prospective students may contact:
Judy Tolliver
Coordinator for Informatics Education Programs
Tel: (217) 333-2322
tolliver@illinois.edu

Admission

Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree equivalent to that granted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The recommended background for graduate students entering the Bioinformatics degree program is a bachelor's or master's degree in life sciences, computer and mathematical sciences, or engineering, with a minimum of five hours of molecular and cell biology, six hours of general chemistry, nineteen hours of mathematics and statistics, and three hours of introduction to computing. Prerequisites vary somewhat for the different departmental concentrations. Students should view the web page of the specific department they wish to apply to for detailed information about admission criteria and degree requirements.  Those departmental links are below:

Degree Requirements

*For additional details and requirements refer to the degree requirements, the appropriate department's graduate handbook, and the Graduate College Handbook.

Master of Science

The M.S. degree can be taken in a thesis or non-thesis format, depending on the department.  For either format, the research adviser must be affiliated with the Bioinformatics program. Departments may have requirements in addition to those below.  See the departmental links above for more information.

Required Courses Thesis Option-Required Hours Non-thesis Option-Required Hours
One biology course from approved list 4 4
CS 411 or 473 4 4
One bioinformatics course from approved list 4 4
Thesis Hours Required (min/max applied toward degree): 4-8  
Total Hours 32 36
Minimum Hours Required Within the Unit:
 8 8
Minimum 500-level Hours Required Overall:
 12 12
Other Requirements:* A concentration is required.    

Non-thesis programs must require students to participate in a research experience supervised by a faculty member.

Facilities

University research centers in this area include the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology and an NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics.  The campus also offers state-of-the-art experimental bioinformatics facilities, including those in the Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics and the Institute for Genomic Biology.  The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), located at the University, offers opportunities for accessing, developing, and experimenting with state-of-the-art computational facilities for bioinformatics.

Financial Aid

Fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships (all of which include tuition and partial fee waivers) are awarded on a competitive basis by the admitting department. All applicants, regardless of U.S. citizenship, whose native language is not English and who wish to be considered for teaching assistantships (the most common form of financial aid for new graduate students in the department) must submit a score of at least 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE).