GRADUATE PROGRAM IN BIOLOGY

How to Apply to the Graduate Program

Your application for admission to the Biology Graduate Program at Wesleyan University will be initiated with this online admissions application. In order for your application to be complete, we must also receive the following information:

  1. Transcripts for Undergraduate and any Graduate Studies▲
  2. Three recommendation letters
  3. An Essay/Statement of Purpose divided into the following subsections:
    • Research experience and preparation for grad school
    • Research interests (in this section, please also comment on which research groups at Wesleyan align with your interests)
    • Long term goals
  4. For only international applicants: TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo scores★

    ▲Unofficial transcripts uploaded by the applicant are used during the application process. Official transcripts are only required if an applicant receives and accepts an offer of admission.

    ★During the application process, applicants may enter their unofficial scores or the date of a scheduled future test. Official electronic scores should be sent to Wesleyan University using Institution Code 3959.
    If English is the language of your higher education institution(s), you will be able to indicate this during your application and the testing requirement will not be added to your application.

There is no application fee.

GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores are NOT required. 

Apply online: Graduate Program Application.

Applicants will receive an account and checklist where they can see whether or not their materials have been received. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that all materials are properly uploaded.

Timeline:
Applications open on September 1.
Applications will be reviewed from January 1.
Application deadline is January 10.

If you have questions about applying to our program, visit our Frequently Asked Questions page. If you have additional questions, further inquiries can be sent to biology@wesleyan.edu. Copies of your transcript, resume, reference letters, or other application documents should only be submitted via your online application. This email address is not monitored by the program admission committee and, as such, cannot indicate whether your background, GPA, or other information qualifies you for our PhD program.

Or instead contact:
Office of Graduate Student Services
Wesleyan University
Tel: (860) 685-2390
E-mail: graduateoffice@wesleyan.edu

APPLICATION MANAGEMENT

The graduate application opens on September 1st and closes on January 10th

Application to the program

The online application is on the Graduate Student Services website: Graduate Program Application

IMPORTANT

Applicants to the PhD program who are starting a new application must select the incoming year from the first drop down and the YEAR + GRADUATE from the second drop down.

Returning users may log in to continue an existing application or start a new application.

First-time users must create an account to start a new application.

Graduate and undergraduate applicants may view their status page here.

STUDENT STIPENDS

All PhD graduate students candidates in good academic standing receive a full stipend ($43,176 in 2024-2025 for 12 months), tuition remission, basic health insurance, and a dependency allowance, when applicable. All graduate students are required to serve as teaching assistants for a minimum of three semesters. They are supported as research or teaching assistants for the remainder of their stay in the program. See Financial Support from the Office of Graduate Studies for more details.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION & FACULTY RESEARCH

Please visit the Biology PhD program description page for details about our graduate program.

The current research within the active Biology department labs and the affiliated labs are diverse! Current research in our department includes:

  • Aaron Lab: Epilepsy, the hippocampus, and the cortex
  • Chernoff Lab: Conservation, evolution, and genetics of fish
  • Cohan Lab: Evolutionary genetics and speciation of bacteria
  • Coolon Lab: Ecological and evolutionary functional genomics
  • Feng Lab: Behavioral neurobiology of hibernation, with thirteen-lined ground squirrels as a model
  • Johnson Lab: Regulation of cell movement during development
  • Melón Lab: Neurobiological mechanism that drive sex differences in the development of disorders associated with alcohol exposure
  • Mitchel Lab#: Emergent phenomena in biological systems, mechanobiology, epithelial cell biology
  • O'Neil Lab (Biology Dept. Affiliate) : Protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease
  • Singer Lab: Evolution and ecology of plant-animal interactions
  • Sultan Lab: Evolutionary ecology of phenotypic plasticity in plants
  • Tezak Lab#: Environmental influences on embryonic development, cell fate decisions, and gonadal sex determination in reptiles
  • Weir Lab: Molecular genetics; bioinformatics

#This lab currently has project availability for new graduate students.