Norah is a 2025 Tufts grad with a major in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in French; Currently a doctoral student in The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University
How I decided on graduate school
I was a Tufts Summer Scholar the summer before senior year, and through this program I found that I really enjoyed full-time research. Without Summer Scholars I would not have had the opportunity to truly try out research – I highly recommend this program to students who are thinking about graduate school.
I spoke with as many people as I could, including my advisor, my mentor, individuals in lab, professors, my cousin in a PhD program, and even a distant family member who is a PhD, among others. By the end of summer I mentally committed myself to going for a PhD!
How I conducted my search for a program
Investigating various schools and programs should be fun and interesting – starting early will help prevent this from feeling overwhelming. I decided to look specifically at biomedical optics and photonics programs; my Tufts undergraduate research was in natural photonics, and I enjoyed my optics class.
However, navigating different sub-disciplines was tricky. I had to understand the difference
between medical physics, biomedical imaging, and biomedical optics. My advice for finding
which sub-discipline provides what you want is to look through the labs aligned with a sub-discipline. Blurbs on principal investigators and lab websites will help you understand what their focus is, and thus what the focus of the sub-discipline is. You can also reach out to PIs via email or phone and ask for more information!
Once I found which schools had what I was looking for, I made an Excel sheet for comparisons and important information. For me this included parameters such as location, stipend, labs, tuition covered or not, funding guaranteed or not, prerequisites, and number of letters of recommendation. The advice I was given in Summer Scholars is that you will more than likely have to compromise on one of three wants: location, cost, interest. My aunt added to this sentiment by suggesting that I list all of the aspects I would want in a school, and rating how each school meets that want, which I did!
Letters of recommendation
I was advised to ask for letters of recommendation from individuals who could comment on my research abilities, rather than just how I perform in a class. With this, I reached out to my PI, my research mentor, and my former professor from freshman year with whom I kept in touch through the semesters. I am immensely grateful that my recommenders were able to spare the time to write me letters.
The time of year for graduate school applications is busy: NSF GRFP (Graduate Research Fellowship Program) is also due around the same time, along with midterms. Add these items to the already busy schedule of professors, and you can imagine just how busy it is for them! Be sure to give faculty ample time to write a letter.
Visits, acceptances, rejections, and deferrals
Submitting all applications will be such a relief – treat yourself to a nice dinner after! Waiting for feedback is scary, and it is not easy. I applied to 7 schools, with visit invitations from 3,
rejections from 1, and deferrals to Masters programs from 3. I was rejected/deferred from a
couple schools before I got my visit invitation to Georgia Tech/Emory. It definitely hurts to be
rejected from a school, but just remember, all you need is for one PI to click with you and
believe in you.
At visit weekends, network and talk to as many people as you can. This is the best chance to get a good feel for the school, the students, and potential PIs and lab mates. Having a good personality match with a PI and lab members is super important. And even if you do not end up enrolling at that school, you will have friendly faces at conferences!
In conclusion
Applying to graduate school is a brave thing to do. You are putting yourself out there with admitting that you have a lot to learn, and committing yourself to becoming an expert in your field. It is okay to be nervous; it means that you are growing! Have fun with the school search, remember that networking does not have to be scary, and most importantly, be yourself!
