About the Application Process

Application to this PhD program is a two-step process.  Preliminary applications are reviewed for education background, research area and aptitude to perform independent research.  The Graduate Group that oversees and implements the application review for the Interdisciplinary PhD at the university level, will only consider applicants whose research interests and research goals for PhD study do not fit within another existing Northeastern PhD program.   Therefore, based on the materials provided through the preliminary application process, an applicant may be referred to another Northeastern PhD program or guided to pursue an MS degree before further consideration. 

Applicants who submit a preliminary application will receive one of the following two from the Graduate Group.

• An invitation to continue their application.  The Graduate Group may invite candidates to continue their application and refer the applicant to a different PhD or MS program.  Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow this guidance because if at the end of the process it is determined that the research is a better fit with an existing degree program, they will not be admitted to this PhD.

OR

• Referral to another PhD or MS degree program.  In this case, the applicant is not invited to continue the process for this PhD and they are encouraged to continue graduate study through a different degree program.

When an applicant is invited to continue the process

The Graduate Group reviewed the preliminary application materials and determined that the research interest is a potential fit to the Interdisciplinary PhD.  The next step in the application process is to meet with potential faculty advisors about the research topic.  Because this degree is an individually designed program, the final admissions decision will be based on the applicant’s ability to advance their thinking around your PhD research topic through a series of individual conversations and independently revising the research statement. Applicants invited to continue the process are expected to complete the following steps:

1. Meet with the faculty members identified by the Graduate Group to discuss areas of potential research.
2. Revise the research statement based on conversations with faculty (1).  
3. After the research statement has been revised, invited applicants should submit a full application through the SLATE admissions system, which includes a series of compliance questions required to formalize admission as well as an application fee. 
4. Final review will include a comparison of the application submitted through SLATE, the preliminary application, feedback from faculty the applicant met with and input from other faculty experts.

Final Admissions Decision

The final admissions decision will be based on an overarching review of the application including:

• How far the applicant was able to advance the research proposal independently;
• How the proposed research is differentiated from other PhD programs offered by Northeastern;
• The availability of funding to support the applicant.  

Because this Interdisciplinary PhD requires an individual plan of study, the bar to be admitted is higher than other programs and it is important that applicants extend their original research plans towards a clear problem they wish to tackle through the PhD degree.  Therefore, an invitation to continue with the application should not be interpreted as an admission into the Interdisciplinary PhD.  The final admissions decision will be determined based on the final materials submitted in SLATE.