Biology PhD advice required??

molliebatmit
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:49:33 +0000

Admissions committees at PhD programs are generally administered by individual departments rather than by the school as a whole. At MIT, for example, there’s a dean of graduate studies, who is almost certainly completely uninvolved in admissions. The administrative staff in the biology department probably has more logistical information about applying to the program, but they are also uninvolved in admissions.

It can be useful to email professors in the department who are doing work that interests you. I wouldn’t advocate doing it unless you have a compelling reason – simply emailing and saying “I like your work” is unlikely to earn you any bonus points in the application process. Having a meaningful conversation about science can probably help, though.