Prospective Students

Contents

Making graduate admissions more fair

One of GRITs first “big wins” was working with University administration in the BSD to drop the GRE requirement for applicants. Why? To quote Miller and Stassun, “In simple terms, the GRE is a better indicator of sex and skin colour than of ability and ultimate success.” Further studies have shown that higher GRE scores do not accurately predict student success in biomedical graduate programs. Key studies and papers linked below-

Demystifying the graduate school application process

The graduate school application process can be confusing, (especially if you’re the first in your family to do it.) Expectations can be vague, applications fees are expensive, and every school evaluates potential students differently. GRIT is committed to making the PhD application process at UChicago easier to navigate! Some of the resources for prospective students are listed below-

  • GRIT webinars! GRIT organizes free webinars for prospective students, covering topics like crafting effective essays, figuring out if UChicago is a good fit for you, preparing for interviews, etc.
  • We recruit new students at many conferences! For more information, check out our Conferences page
  • There are application fee waivers for most programs! Information about fee waiver eligibility for BSD, PSD, PME, and Psychology/Social Sciences admissions is linked.
  • UChicago GRAD hosts Discover UChicago every fall (October 19–21, 2025) for prospective graduate students! It presents an opportunity for participants to connect with current students, engage with faculty, and attend workshops with admissions staff and administrators.
  • Ask us! GRIT is by grad students, for grad students. Email us with any questions, and we will connect you with a current student in your program of interest.

GRIT Representatives

Each department or cluster of graduate programs at UChicago has one or more GRIT members dedicated to speaking with prospective students. If you are interested in talking to us about applying to one of the UChicago graduate programs, feel free to reach out to us at ucgrit@gmail.com.

You can find information about the organization of our graduate school departments, including links to program websites, on the Clusters and Departments page.

Biological Sciences Division (BSD)

Biomedical Sciences Cluster

This cluster includes the following programs:

Darwinian Sciences Cluster

This cluster includes the following programs:

Molecular Biology Cluster

This cluster includes the following programs:

Neuroscience Cluster

This cluster includes the following programs:

Interdisciplinary programs

 

Physical Sciences Division (PSD)

Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME)

This division includes molecular engineering and quantum science and engineering