<p>The truth about MIT and inbreeding lies somewhere in between those two views – Some departments want their undergrads back, others discourage the practice, and Biology used to downright prohibit it.</p>
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<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/life_after_mit_careers_grad_school/ ”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/life_after_mit_careers_grad_school/</a> ;
<p>In lieu of responding to her email (I’ve been taking a godawful long time to respond to emails lately, except those from Ben, which always catch me at just the right time), I’ll answer here. Yes, I did apply to the MIT biology PhD program, and I’ll be interviewing there in three weeks. (All of the schools at which I’m interviewing pay for travel and lodging expenses during the interview weekend. Given that information, I think I should make the biology department pay for my dorm room.) **This is actually the first year the biology department is allowing MIT biology undergrads to apply to the program<a href=“see%20story%20here”>/b</a>, so I’m excited that I had the opportunity to apply and be interviewed.</p>
<p>It’s not true that only the EECS department allows MIT students to stay for graduate school. Actually, MIT is the top graduate school destination for MIT graduates (see page 5 of this data set). Some departments really don’t like “inbreeding”, but others are very enthusiastic about it.
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“We still consider it a good idea for most students to go elsewhere,” but will no longer absolutely prohibit the undergraduate biology majors from staying, since some “could still gain a lot” from the MIT graduate program, Bell said. Most MIT biology undergraduates, if admitted, would probably still want to attend other schools, he said.
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