The Application Process

When should you start? 

Ultimately this is up to you, and people choose different timelines. I applied straight from undergrad, and I knew I had a heavy courseload during fall semester of senior year - peak application season. This led me to start the application process the summer before applications were due. However, I’ve now mentored applicants for years, and many don’t start narrowing down their list of schools (my recommended first step) until early September. In order to get an estimate of a timeline that might work for you, consider the things you’ll have to spend time on:

• Making a list of schools to apply to (and PIs you’re interested in): this takes TIME! You are narrowing down the options for where you’ll be spending a significant portion of your life. You’ll need to do quite a bit of legwork to research schools, specific PhD programs, and faculty of interest while you narrow this down.

• Identifying the people who will write your letters of recommendation: hopefully this won’t take too much time, but it’s good to give it thought early and reach out to make sure that you’re on the same page as your letter writers.

• Drafting application materials: At the very least, you’ll need a statement of purpose, usually 1000-1200 words. While this isn’t very long, it will represent your entire self-portrayal to the admissions committees, so making sure it is as good as can be is important. I recommend drafting this early and having many rounds of edits from different people. You’ll likely have to write other essays as well, and the earlier you get rough drafts going, the better!

• Making or polishing your CV: If you don’t have a curriculum vitae prepared, you’ll need to put one together for PhD applications!

• Actually applying: opening accounts on each school’s online portal and filling out all required components. This can take some time.

My Grad School application timeline

Disclaimer: this was just my personal timeline. I started a lot earlier than most people do, since I applied straight from undergrad and knew I had a heavy courseload/work schedule fall semester! At the very end of this guide I’ve linked some more general examples. 

Here’s what my program table looked like:

Choosing where to apply

The best advice that I got when applying was to make sure I applied to places that met the following criteria:

• At least 3 PIs you’d be excited to work with

• Guaranteed funding for the duration of your PhD

• Located somewhere you won’t mind living (includes nearness to family, weather, cost of living)

• Happy students

Beyond that? It’s really up to you. There are a lot of great PhD programs that will help you become a wonderful independent scientist. But - the best scientists are happy scientists. Make sure you go somewhere you can be happy. US News and World Report rankings for programs are not necessarily going to correlate with happiness. 

Overall, some questions to keep in mind as you narrow down your list: 

• Is the department strong in your subfield? (The more PIs you have working on topics you’re passionate about, the stronger community there will be to generate excitement around your specific subfield)

• Are there at least 3 PIs you would be excited about working with? 

• Does the program require teaching? How do you feel about that? 

• Does the program guarantee funding throughout your PhD? 

• Does the program have professional development opportunities that align with your career of interest?

• Can you see yourself living in this city/geographic region? 

• Is the PhD stipend at this institution vs. cost of living in the area sufficient for you? 

Choosing how many programs to apply to

The limiting factors on number of programs you apply to are basically the amount of effort you want to spend and the total cost of application fees. I often tell people to apply to as many programs as they want to, but don’t apply anywhere you wouldn’t feel genuinely excited about going. I say this for two reasons: first, you don’t want to spend 5-6 years somewhere you’re not happy to be. second, your enthusiasm or lack thereof will come across in your application materials. Schools don’t want students who aren’t excited to be there. 

I applied to 7 schools. I know of people who have only applied to one program - they know what they want. The fewer schools you choose to apply to, the more I urge you to consider the chance that you don’t get in. Are you okay with taking more time to strengthen your application? Great! I think 7 was a good middle ground for me, I have friends and mentees who apply to 10-15+ schools. I think eventually there are diminishing returns, because you can’t spend as much time making sure each application is excellent. I usually recommend students apply to 5-10 programs.

Application fees

As mentioned above, one of the limiting factors to number of schools you apply to may be application fees. I saw fees ranging from $50-100 per school when I applied in 2018. Schools often choose to have an application fee to act as a low-pass filter for serious applicants. When I’ve spoken to admissions committee members, they relay that if the application is free, they get about 5x the number of applications submitted, many from people are not remotely qualified for a PhD program (i.e. no undergraduate degree, etc).

However, these fees can present a real barrier to young scientists. If this is the case for you, there are sometimes ways to get application fee waivers from indivual programs. Unfortunately, due to restrictions on use of government funding, these waivers are almost exclusively available to US Citizens. So how do you get these waivers? I got many by attending program open houses and grad fairs, many of which are now virtual or hybrid events. I also got some by attending conferences and seeking out grad fairs, asking program representatives at the tables. You may also find success emailing the program directly: either the admissions director, the program director, or a program administrator. 

Should you email or connect with PIs before applying? 

No. Or, probably not. People have different opinions on this but I’m pretty solidly against reaching out to PIs unless you have a very specific reason beyond “networking and hoping they remember you and it increases your chances of getting in”. I acknowledge that my perspective here is limited by my experience with rotation-based neuroscience and biomedical grad programs, and there may be cases where I’m wrong, but here’s why I’m saying this. Several PIs I’ve met at Harvard have shared with me that they receive over 400 emails a day. 400! Many of these are form-type emails from prospective interns, students, postdocs, you name it. They pretty quickly filter these out unless they are well-researched, personal, and have a real point to them besides trying to improve your chances of admission. I did not reach out to any PIs prior to applying. HOWEVER, and I’ll talk about this later, I did email PIs once I had received admission offers and was trying to decide where to go. 

I feel differently about networking with PIs at institutions you hope to apply to if it occurs organically. For example, if you are at a conference and you know a PI is there whose work you admire and whose institution you’d be interested in attending? Absolutely talk to them! Chat about their research, and maybe how they find the institution. You can even express that you’re planning to apply and would be excited to do your PhD there. This is unlikely to improve your chances at all, but at least it’s a real encounter. PIs can tell when the only reason you’re emailing/talking to them is to improve your chances. They’re people too, and they don’t like to feel like they’re being used nor do they have time for this.

Elements of a biomedical PhD program application

At the very least, you will need your undergraduate transcript, a curriculum vitae (CV), a Statement of Purpose/Personal Statement, and 3 letters of recommendation. You will probably need a few other short essays depending on the schools you’re applying to, and you might need a GRE score.

Your undergraduate transcript will convey your major, the courses you’ve taken, and the grades you’ve received in those courses. Some schools will have you upload a PDF of your transcript, others will have you enter your courses and grades by hand. While it is important that your grades are at least okay, grades often hold less weight in the PhD admission process than people think. They certainly matter less than experience in research labs and experience presenting or publishing your science.

Your CV should briefly restate your educational history, include all research experiences including project title and standout techniques used, and list any presentations, publications, and awards. You should also include any science- or education- related work history.

Letters of recommendation. Having amazing letters of recommendation is absolutely critical to getting into a PhD program. It is a way for the admissions committee to confirm that the information you’re presenting to them about your research experiences is true – and beyond that, to get a sense for your personality and presence in a lab and around an institution.

You need to identify three people to write letters of recommendation on your behalf. These should be professionals, and ideally people who have supervised you directly in a research environment. Some applicants have not had three research experiences, in which case you should consider a faculty member who knows you well and can speak to your strengths as a student and a scientist. Also – your research letters of recommendation should be signed and submitted explicitly by the PI of the lab.  Sometimes the PI will ask a postdoc or someone who’s more familiar with your work to write it (or even ask you to draft it!) – that’s totally okay. Just make sure the PI is the one to do the final submission.

There is a bit of an art to asking for letters of recommendation. Don’t be scared! PIs and academic faculty are used to being asked for and writing letters, it’s part of their job. However, you need to do your best to make sure that the people you’re asking will be writing letters that add to, not detract from, your application. This can be tricky, since you’ll likely never see the letters. So how do you do this? When you reach out to ask for a letter (either in person or by email), make sure you ask if this person is willing to write you a strong, positive letter of recommendation.  If they cannot confirm using this language, then they probably aren’t going to write you the kind of letter you’re hoping for.

If you’re reaching out to someone you haven’t worked with for a while, I have found it useful to offer to catch them up on what you’ve been up to! This can be an in-person meeting, or a zoom or phone call. You should briefly describe your goals in applying to grad school, and any academic or scientific updates since you left their lab/class. You can also take this opportunity to remind them what you worked on with them!

Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose: Okay, now it’s your turn to add depth and meaning to the other, impersonal application elements. The personal statement or statement of purpose is your opportunity to weave together your transcript/CV into a cohesive narrative that convinces the admissions committee of both your commitment to pursuing a PhD and your ability to do so. This is not an essay with a lot of room for innovation or creativity, there is a typical approach to the statement of purpose that I don’t recommend applicants deviate much from.

Alright. So every school requires a statement of purpose (I promise), but they don’t always call it that. Instead, it might look like different essay prompts from school-to-school. They are looking for the same thing. To give you a sense of how the prompt might differ between schools, here are three actual examples from neuroscience PhD applications:

EXAMPLE ONE: From your Statement of Purpose, we hope to get a sense of what drives and motivates your passion for neuroscience research. To that end, writing about how your interest in the field developed can be insightful. In addition, please feel free to take this opportunity to discuss both the ups and downs of your path into scientific research or any perceived shortcomings in your application. How did your life trajectory lead to applying to graduate school at UC San Diego? What drives your interest and passion for neuroscience? (750 words max.)

EXAMPLE TWO: The Admissions Committee is interested in what led you to pursue PhD training in neuroscience and how your research experience has prepared you for it.  Please include answers to the following questions when preparing your statement (no more than 2 pages, single spaced):

1. What drew you to your field of research?

2. What do you most enjoy about research and what do you find most challenging?

3. What goals do you hope to achieve during training to further your career?

4. What question in current neuroscience research is most fascinating to you? (preferably not related to your own research)

EXAMPLE THREE: Describe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen degree program, noting the experiences that shaped your research ambitions, indicating briefly your career objectives, and concisely stating your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.

All of these prompts want the same essay, typically around 5 paragraphs. Your first paragraph should provide a tiny bit of background and convince the reader that you are committed to pursuing a PhD in X field. The next paragraphs should each detail research experience(s) you have had. You should name the PI and the general focus of the lab. Then, you should explicitly address what YOUR personal role in the lab was. What was your project? What exactly did you do personally? What was your approach? What were your results? How does this tie back to the goal of the lab? Did you publish this work anywhere? Present it at any conferences? If you have multiple lab experiences, make sure you transition logically between them.

At the end of your personal statement, you should talk a little bit about why you’re interested in that particular institution. At the very least, you should briefly mention a few labs you’d be interested in rotating through, and why. Schools like to see that you’ve done your homework, AND they will sometimes try to snag these PIs as interviewers for you. For more about the Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose, see my own Statement of Purpose HERE, with an explanatory template and some additional thoughts. 

Research Statement: Plot twist, some schools will actually separate the Statement of Purpose into two statements: a research statement and a personal statement. This basically takes all of the information described in the section above and splits it into two essays. What would this look like? Here is an example of a prompt seeking a pure research statement, which came directly after a brief short-answer box asking me to list my significant research experiences.

EXAMPLE FOUR: For each significant experience you listed, please describe your role in the research. Include the scientific context of the problem you addressed, the conclusion(s) you drew from your work, and the method(s) you used. Be concise, but do explain fully the extent of your engagement in each research project and emphasize your original contributions (e.g., scientific ideas or questions you came up with, troubleshooting you did or solutions you found when challenges arose, and experiments/analyses performed independently). 10,000 character limit. 

In this case, you should very explicitly walk through your research experiences in the research statement. Your personal statement can then expand into more of your motivations for pursuing a PhD, your academic trajectory, and how you’ve displayed characteristics that are well-suited for grad school. This includes intrinsic motivation, resourcefulness, resilience, science communication, teaching, and determination.

You can find examples of both of these types of statements online, check out the “More Resources” section at the very end of this guide for some good sources.

Other short essays or questions: Applications often have another question or two in addition to the statement of purpose and possibly research statement. These may vary in phrasing but are generally trying to give you a chance to describe your unique lived experience and how it makes you a stronger candidate for their program. You should always use these questions to explain any weak spots or inconsistencies in your application like failed courses, gap years, etc. However, they also give you a special opportunity to explain how the circumstances of your own life have shaped you as a unique individual with strengths that will translate to the scientific realm. Did you work to support yourself and/or your family throughout your undergrad degree? Great – you have developed time management and planning skills that will clearly translate to a PhD. Did you teach yourself how to program a computer? Wonderful. You’re ready to tackle the kind of independent learning that a PhD requires. Whatever your life path has been, use these types of questions to frame your strengths and where they came from.  

Here are some prompts I encountered in my applications: 

• EXAMPLE 5: If you consider anything about your academic record or career path to be atypical, please explain. Account for time periods of three months or more involving military service, travel, family responsibilities, etc. not covered in preceding questions. (1200 characters)

• EXAMPLE 6: Describe an experience that demonstrates your resilience, perseverance, and/or leadership skills in response to a challenge in any area of your life. (750 words)

The GRE. Increasingly, academic institutions are eliminating the GRE from their admission requirements, a welcome trend for many applicants. It's essential to verify the specific requirements of the schools you're considering. For instance, both Harvard and MIT's Neuroscience programs stopped considering GRE scores in 2019, inspiring other schools to do the same. Nonetheless, certain programs might still mandate it.

Should the GRE be a prerequisite for any of your targeted schools, it requires some preparation but is generally manageable. The GRE consists of three parts: quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning, and analytical writing. For those entering quantitative sciences, the math score often takes precedence, followed by verbal, with some programs also considering the analytical writing score. For top-tier institutions, aiming for scores in the 90th percentile or higher is advantageous—though the 85th percentile may also be competitive, particularly in the quantitative section. Online searches can yield average GRE scores for various schools and disciplines.

Success on the GRE is largely a product of consistent practice. Undertaking numerous practice exams can significantly boost your performance. The test includes five sections, four of which count towards your score—though the unscored section is not identified—and features an alternating pattern of quantitative and verbal sections, concluding with an analytical writing segment. Dedicating an hour a day over two months to practice, as I did, can enable you to take the GRE confidently just once. For preparation materials, both digital and print resources are available. Personally, I found the Princeton Review's online practice course to be exceptionally useful.