Admissions

PhD Programs Of Study

Students in the MD-PhD Program pursue their PhD in any field of study offered at Harvard or MIT. You can view an illustrative list of programs here.

Students may apply as either a Basic Science or a Social Science MD-PhD student.

Basic Sciences: Applicants in the basic and translational sciences do not need to complete a separate application to graduate school at the time of initial application. Our students traditionally apply to graduate programs in their second year of medical school.

Admitted MD-PhD Basic Science students are guaranteed acceptance into a Harvard Division of Medical Sciences PhD program (Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Biomedical Informatics; Immunology; Program in Neuroscience; Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology; Virology)

Admitted MD-PhD Basic Science students may also apply competitively to MIT or other Harvard PhD programs.

Social Sciences: The MD-PhD Program supports students applying to any PhD program in Harvard's Division of Social Sciences, Division of Arts & Humanities, or MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Admitted MD-PhD Social Science students are accepted into their graduate program of interest upon MD-PhD program acceptance.

The Harvard graduate programs in Anthropology, Economics, Health Policy, History of Science, Population Health Sciences (Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Global Health and Population, Nutrition, and Social and Behavioral Sciences) and Religion are part of a "One Application" process and therefore applicants do not need to submit a separate, upfront graduate school application.

MD-PhD applicants are welcome to submit applications to other Social Science program(s) at Harvard or MIT. For more information, please visit the program of interest's website and contact the PhD program directly with any admissions criteria questions. Social Science applicants required to submit a separate application must also provide a separate set of recommendation letters to their PhD program of choice.

Social Science Application Materials:

Social Science applicants may also need to provide supplementary materials depending upon the program of interest (ex. statement of purpose, personal statement, writing sample, CV/resume, or GRE General Test scores, etc.). Please see below for supplemental application requirements and Harvard Griffin GSAS page links for our Harvard "One Application" Social Science PhD Programs. Please follow the PhD program's requirements. Applicants are encouraged to contact the PhD program(s) of interest directly to learn more about PhD admissions criteria.

    Anthropology

    Statement of PurposeA statement of purpose is not a biographical narrative. A persuasive statement of purpose (1) clearly describes the applicant's proposed areas of research; (2) justifies the applicant's research interests in terms of the relevant existing scholarship, the applicant's personal intellectual motivation, and the applicant's background and/or training; (3) explains why the Anthropology faculty and curriculum at Harvard are ideal for supporting the applicant's training and research. We strongly encourage applicants to read the publications of the faculty they are applying to work with. A clear connection with faculty research and teaching is the best gauge of an applicant's potential "fit" with the Department.
    Personal StatementFollow Harvard Griffin GSAS guidelines for the Personal Statement.
    Writing SampleThe admissions committee pays particularly close attention to the writing samples submitted by applicants. Applicants should carefully select an example of your best academic writing that demonstrates your capacity for rigorous analysis and independent work. It is not essential that the writing sample be directly related to the topics or areas that you are proposing to study in the future.
    Letters of RecommendationLetters of recommendation from anthropology or related faculty should be explicit about the scholarly potential to make contributions to the discipline of anthropology.

    Economics

    Statement of PurposeDescribe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study in the Social Sciences. What experiences led you to your research ambitions? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.
    Writing SampleA writing sample is required. It can be sole or co-authored and must be no less than 15 pages.
    CV/Resume 
    GRE 

    Health Policy

    Statement of PurposeDescribe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study in the Social Sciences. What experiences led you to your research ambitions? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.
    Personal StatementFollow Harvard Griffin GSAS guidelines for the Personal Statement.
    GRE or GMATRequired for Management Track (Optional for all other tracks: Decision Sciences, Economics, Methods for Policy Research, Political Analysis)

    History of Science

    Statement of PurposeDescribe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study in the Social Sciences. What experiences led you to your research ambitions? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.
    Personal StatementFollow Harvard Griffin GSAS guidelines for the Personal Statement.
    Writing SampleThe writing sample is normally an article or chapter length piece of academic work and should be a relatively recent sample of the applicant's academic work. (For example, a term paper for a course, a senior thesis chapter, or an MA essay.) A piece of writing related to the history of science, technology and medicine or science, technology, and society is ideal but not necessary. Academic papers in the humanities or social sciences are generally more informative for the admissions committee than those in basic or applied sciences. Ideally the writing sample should demonstrate an ability to delineate questions, research them, and write up the results in a convincing fashion.

    Population Health Sciences
       (Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Global Health and Population, Nutrition, Social and Behavioral Sciences)

    Statement of PurposeDescribe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study in the Social Sciences. What experiences led you to your research ambitions? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.
    Personal StatementFollow Harvard Griffin GSAS guidelines for the Personal Statement.

    Religion

    Statement of PurposeDescribe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study in the Social Sciences. What are the main questions that you hope to answer in your research on religion? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words
    Personal StatementFollow Harvard Griffin GSAS guidelines for the Personal Statement.
    Writing SampleA writing sample is required as part of the application and should be no longer than 20 pages.

All other Social Science programs require applicants to submit a separate application, including a separate set of recommendation letters, to their PhD program of interest. For more information, please visit the program of interest's website and contact the PhD program directly with any admissions questions.