Graduate Programs

The Division of Biological Sciences has three parallel but overlapping graduate programs, each with its own admission requirements and regulations: OBE Graduate Program, IMB Graduate Program, and Systems Ecology (SE). Prospective graduate students generally select a program based on their interest in a particular level of organization within biology. Students whose interests lie primarily at the cellular or subcellular level generally matriculate through the IMB program; students who chose to focus on organisms or ecosystems tend to enter through OBE; and students who are interested in ecological interactions at very large spatial or temporal scales generally join DBS through SE. Students with interests in fields such as genetics, genomics, evolutionary biology, ecology, and developmental biology may find themselves straddling the three programs (as indeed is true for many DBS faculty); they are encouraged to contact relevant DBS faculty as early as possible to determine the most suitable mechanism for joining the Division of Biological Sciences.