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A PhD usually involves students engaged independently in original and significant research in a specific field or subject prior to the production of a publication-worthy thesis. By undertaking a PhD, you will become an expert, possibly an international expert, in your chosen field. A doctorate is the highest academic degree that can be awarded by a university. In Germany, studying for a doctorate means working intensively on a specific subject or research project over a long period of time. The duration of the doctorate also varies. Three to five years is typical. If you decide to take a doctorate, you can choose between different forms of study.
mit bioengineering phd acceptance rate
Established in 1861 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a world-renowned, private research university with a primary focus on math, science, and technology.
MIT is highly prestigious: it is considered one of the world’s best engineering schools due to its academic rigor and quality of faculty and research. Many of its graduate programs in engineering and science are currently ranked #1 by US News.
In addition to STEM fields, MIT includes departments in architecture, business, and the arts and humanities.
MIT GRE Scores: How Competitive Is MIT?
MIT is an extremely competitive school for graduate applicants.
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In 2016, MIT’s acceptance rate for all grad programs was just 13 percent. We can therefore say that it’s usually quite difficult to get accepted to grad school at MIT. (Of course, some programs will be easier or harder to get into than others.)
MIT GRE scores are also very competitive. On average, the GRE scores of admitted applicants range from about 155 to 163 for Verbal and 155 to 167 for Quant, with many programs wanting scores in at least the 160s, or the top 10-15 percent. (Note that Quant expectations are typically higher than those for Verbal.)
As for Analytical Writing (AW)—generally considered the least important of the three GRE sections—most admitted applicants score in the range of 4.5-5.0.
Expectations for MIT GRE scores can vary widely by program. For example, you’d likely need a higher Quant score for an engineering program than you would for an anthropology program.
Now that we’ve looked at the GRE score needed for MIT in general, let’s go over how you can figure out the MIT GRE requirements for your program in particular.
Acceptance rate for MIT bioengineering phd is 7.2%
MIT bioengineering phd gre requirement?
In this section, we give you an overview of the average MIT GRE scores for some of the university’s biggest programs. In addition, we tell you what each program’s US News ranking is, whether the program requires GRE scores, and what the average (undergrad) GPA of admitted applicants was.
Before we look at the chart, let’s go over how MIT GRE requirements will be laid out. GRE scores are usually presented in one of three ways:
- Required scores: These are the minimum GRE scores you need to qualify for admission. Score lower than these thresholds and your application will most likely be rejected.
- Recommended scores: These are the ideal GRE scores you should aim for in order to be a competitive applicant. While you don’t absolutely need to get these scores to be admitted, reaching (or exceeding) them will give you a much better chance of admission.
- Average scores: These are the average GRE scores of previously admitted applicants. You’ll want to aim for at least these scores (ideally, a few points higher) if your goal is to be a competitive applicant.
Tips on mit biomedical phd program application components
Applications to grad school usually consist of:
A personal statement: a 1-2 page essay about why you want to go to XYZ program. It’s unclear to me how much the personal statement matters, but I got the sense that it matters more than an undergrad application essay. It is your one place to explain, essentially, why you want to Do The Thing, why that exact program will help you, and why the program should invest in you.
Your research and work experience, honors, publications, etc.
GPA/coursework/extracurriculars:
https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-a-4-0-gpa-and-get-better-grades-by-a-harvard-alum
I honestly don’t really know how much these mattered, but I think it’s not quite as important as the other components? Just don’t bomb it?
3 letters of recommendation :
- Ask for letters at least 3 months in advance of the deadline.
- Ask letters from people who know you very well. At least one of them should be a research supervisor.
- Provide some context to your letter writers after they agree to write you one. Give them:
- A blurb on why you want to go to grad school (and/or your personal statement. They probably won’t read it, but if it’s helpful context, it doesn’t hurt)
- A list of places you’re applying to, with specific deadlines
- Any specific instructions that individual schools might have for letters
- Your CV
- Send a handwritten thank you card ASAP after they submit your letters. It always surprises me how surprised people are when I write them a thank you note. Is this not a thing youths do anymore?? Seriously, y’all. A handwritten note takes, like, 5 minutes to write. And have you ever received a handwritten letter? Feels nice, yo!
The GRE:
I have ~*vErY*~ nuanced thoughts on standardized testing (I hate it), but tl;dr:
- Most PhD programs will make you take the GRE, which consists of a math section (about the same difficulty as the SAT), a verbal (aka reading) section (harder than the SAT), and an essay-writing section
- No one gives a rat’s ass about what you score as long as you score “high enough” (which varies depending on the program. Most programs publish the average scores of admitted students.)
- You do have to score high enough for your application to make it through an initial round of review at some places
My advice:
- Aim for “good enough.” I had a good GPA from a tough undergrad, so I knew that as long as I scored in the 90th (maybe even 85th) percentile for math I was definitely in the clear for the programs I was looking at, 80th for verbal and writing was probably in the clear as well. I knew I was also capable of getting to these scores with an amount of studying that wasn’t detrimental to my life.
- The GRE is a game—one that’s not very fun, but one that has a set of rules. Learn the rules. For example, there are some math shortcuts. There’s basically a formula to the essay.
- Create a realistic schedule that will allow you to work through a bunch of practice problems under timed conditions instead of reading about concepts: I used Manhattan Prep’s 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems and Magoosh for math problems.
- The GRE is pretty formulaic, so it’s all about getting used to the kinds of questions they ask. You will NOT have time to derive formulas and logic your way through problems (the mistake I made my first few practice tests), so just learn how to solve them the quick way.
- Do a few practice tests under timed conditions. The GRE is a marathon and measures your mental endurance.
- Study what you don’t know. Seriously. Take a practice test and don’t waste time doing problems on sections where you’re scoring high enough. I knew my verbal and essay were definitely in the clear for engineering programs, so aside from occasionally using the free Magoosh app while I rode the bus to pick up a few extra vocab words, I didn’t study the verbal or essay at all.
- Take care of any health issues that might be unnecessarily hindering your ability to take the test. I’ve struggled with panic and anxiety disorder for many years, which, thanks to wonderful therapists, I have learned to manage and live a productive life. However, one of the side effects of anxiety attacks is that my blood pressure increases and I have to frequently pee. Unfortunately, there’s only one allotted break during the GRE, and the bathroom at the test center happened to be broken the first time I took the test (so we had to use one on the other side of the building)—long story short, I lost a lot of time because I kept running back and forth from the bathroom, so my math score was a biiiiiit uncomfortably low. I gave myself basically 3 weeks to retake the test. During that time, I worked with my therapist on mindfulness strategies and getting to the root of my anxieties about the test (turns out, it wasn’t really the GRE I was anxious about). One thing that helped was thinking about my grandfather. He was the most genuinely curious person I knew and probably would’ve thought the GRE was fun. I’d imagine him there getting all excited every time I’d get to a new practice problem, and then I’d laugh at the absurdity of it all. It’s amazing how much that mentality helped. My long-time therapist and long-time primary care provider both suggested I use a blood pressure medication the day of the test as well.* Three weeks later, I used a different test center (whose bathroom worked! Yay!). I felt anxious, but what I’d imagine a “normal” amount of test anxiety to be. I only had to pee twice! And my math score shot up by 20 percentile points (which is… an unusual jump, to say the least).
Now, I don’t mean to scare anyone with this story. It’s just to emphasize that you don’t need to make some things harder on yourself than they need to be. Asking for help and being open about your struggles doesn’t have to be a big deal. I mean, now y’all know how tiny my bladder is. And also that attitude is everything—the first go around, I hated studying. I kept thinking, “Why am I wasting my time studying this absolutely useless knowledge?” The GRE measures one thing—how well you can take the GRE. But it’s a measure that is necessary in grad school admissions right now. Once I made a conscious effort to tell myself, “Hey, I want to do this. I want to Do The Thing, and this is a hoop I have to jump through along the way,” and once I made a conscious effort to approach it the way my grandfather would have, with sheer curiosity, it wasn’t as bad. It’s a method that may not work for everyone, but it helped me a ton. At the very least, it made it way less miserable.
*Medication can be useful, but it’s definitely not a quick fix. My doctors have known and worked with me for a long time. If you have a health condition (an anxiety disorder, a learning disability, etc.) that might be getting in the way of you doing your best, start working with someone sooner rather than later! Things probably wouldn’t have gone so smoothly had I been starting from scratch with my healthcare providers 3 weeks before the test.
Interviews:
…are very different from undergrad interviews. Most bioengineering PhD programs only offer interviews to finalists for admissions, meaning if you get one, the program basically wants to admit you (Stanford’s an exception, but they still accepted half of their interviewees). For many schools, interview weekend doubles as a recruitment weekend. They fly you out, put you up in a nice hotel, take you out to nice dinners, etc. You tour the campus, learn more about the school, meet one-on-one for interviews with 3-4 professors, and have social mixers with current students.
The interview is something to take seriously but not to sweat. You can totally screw up an interview weekend by getting wasted the night before at one of the parties thrown by current students and sleeping through your faculty interviews (yes… an interviewee actually did that. Don’t do that.). And you do want to prepare for it by brushing up on your research (faculty may ask you about it) and reading up on your interviewer’s research (if you want to ask them questions about it). I wasn’t quizzed during my interviews, but had friends who were. But honestly, the thing that helped me the most was having a clear sense of why I wanted to go to grad school. A lot of faculty tried to go into deep conversations about this with people and it really threw off some of my fellow interviewees. It also helped me not stress as much about the interviews because I knew if a program ended up rejecting me, it’s because I wouldn’t be happy there anyway.
Overall, the interviews are really, surprisingly fun. I loved running into the same handful of interviewees at different schools—we spent a lot of time at those interview weekends just hanging out with each other. We all chose different schools (which speaks to the fact that a program can be great for one person but not another) and I honestly can’t wait until we start presenting at conferences so can meet up again. :
6. Why I chose MIT again
Surprise! I’m staying at MIT. 🙂
I’m grateful that I got to see different institutions and how they train their students, and I’m glad to know that there are so many amazing programs across this country who are all doing incredible work. There really isn’t one, irrefutably “best” school.
MIT Biological Engineering was my last interview and I pretty much immediately had a gut feeling that it was “the one”. Talking to current students, I knew that this was where I’d be best supported. One of the coolest experiences was seeing that everyone I met—grad students and faculty and staff—shared Doug’s values of collaboration and mentorship and being decent humans. They all pointed to him as the one who’d established this kind of culture in the whole department. I could identify multiple people in the department to whom I could reach out for help if I ever started to struggle. It was also the only program where I could see myself being happy in at least 3 different labs.
During lunch, one fellow interviewee very jokingly insinuated that Doug basically got me into all my programs through academic nepotism. A new faculty member overheard him and despite it being very obvious that the guy was just kidding, immediately shutting it down with a stern “She’s here because she earned this, 100 percent.” It made me feel like this was a place where people had each other’s backs, where integrity is valued, and most of all, was a place that believed in me.