Master of Science in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

As a graduate student in organismic & evolutionary biology (OEB), you’ll receive broad, integrative training in ecology, evolutionary biology, animal behavior, and organismal biology. The interdepartmental faculty comes from across the university with specialties in anthropology, environmental conservation, kinesiology, psychological and brain sciences, and more, as well as from the other Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith). Graduate students, post-docs, and faculty study biological processes ranging from the molecular to the ecosystem level, often bridging the gap between basic and applied research.

All official undergraduate and graduate transcriptsA Personal Statement. See the ‘Personal Statement’ section below for what to include here.At least three letters of recommendation. It will be most helpful if their comments include insights about how you might fit into our program, based on our description of the program above and our guidance for writing a personal statement below. Consider passing along a link to this page to the people who will provide your recommendations. Recommendations from people with academic or research backgrounds are generally most helpful.A Curriculum Vitae. Include your educational background and employment experience, and anything else you think might be relevant to your application. For example, include awards you’ve received, publications and/or presentations, research experiences, courses you’ve TA’ed, outreach, etc.GRE scores are not considered. They have proven to be unreliable indicators of graduate student success.You are eligible for admission if you have….A faculty sponsor in an area of interestTraining in some aspect of the life sciences or in analysis of biological dataA strong academic background in your area of interestCompleted the application as described below