Transfering from one department to another for your PhD

[Diego M]

Hello,

If you got into the bioengineering department, under the school of engineering, is it possible to transfer to the bioinformatics department, also under the school of engineering?

More generally, is it possible to transfer between departments in your school if you they are similar in research and faculty but differ in course work an ultimate faculty, and you have the NSF fellowship (meaning departmental funding isn't an issue, at least not at first)?

Thanks!

[newms]

Generally, if there are departments that do similar research with similar profs, why not stay in your department and focus your research on the areas that overlap between the two departments? So for example, a statistics person could do research in machine learning since there is significant overlap between the fields without having to switch departments (assuming the supervisor would be ok with it).

Specifically for your question, it would depend on your school. I would guess that most places may require you to apply again to the department you wanted to switch to. You could ask general questions about this at the department you wanted to switch to (I wouldn't ask the department you got admitted to since they may not appreciate you wanting to leave before you even got there). Good luck.