3 departments, 1 university

[Monochrome Spring]

One of the universities that I am interested in applying to has a bunch of faculty that I'm interested in. The problem is that they are spread across 3 departments, each having their own application. I can't afford to apply to 3 programs within the university with 1 professor each. So, my question is: has anyone encountered this issue before, and if so, how did you tackle it?

 

I was thinking about emailing a professor that I've already been corresponding with at that university about it, as well. I know that each school will have different guidelines, but I'm just looking for a general idea of what I should do.

[TakeruK]

For me, it was only two departments (Earth & Planetary Science vs. Astronomy). With more searching and talking to faculty there, I found out that the people I was interested in were formally associated with one department but had adjunct status in the other. After talking to them, they also said that students in one department were free to find supervisors in another, but it was easier for those with adjunct status. In the end, they advised me to just apply to one department and to pick that department based on the best fit since I would be more likely to get in the department that had a better fit for me. They also suggested that I might want to consider each department's coursework and exam policy since I would be following the policies of the department that admits me, no matter who I work with. Finally, they said that some people prefer to choose the department that their advisor is more strongly connected to (i.e. has an office in the building) because it's easier when your office is near your advisor's (of course, this depends on the person).

 

At other schools, they said that you can actually apply to multiple departments within the same application (just tick off the boxes) or that you can pick Department A first and then ask them to send the application to Department B if you don't get into A (although if you do this, you should probably talk to Dept B as well, in case Dept A sends your application after B has made its decisions!)

 

So, I think the best thing to do is to talk to the three profs and see what they say. I'm assuming that your research interest is something multidisciplinary between the 3 departments, instead of having 3 extremely different research interests! That is, there is some connection between these 3 profs right? If you have three independent interests then you might have submit separate applications after all. 

[fuzzylogician]

Emailing the professor sounds like a good idea. Your best bet is to apply to the most fitting department of the three and have collaborations with the other profs. I'm assuming that your research interests are interdisciplinary but still might be a better fit for one department than the others, if only because there are more professors/other resources there that you need. What you'll want to do is have a collaboration with professors across the three departments so you need to ask whether that's possible and whether it's normally done (if not, you'll likely encounter all kinds of technical difficulties down the line simply because you'll be doing something unusual). I'd start with asking the prof who you've been in contact with but down the line you'll need to get everyone's consent to this arrangement, including all the profs and the admins in your home department. 

[Monochrome Spring]

So, I think the best thing to do is to talk to the three profs and see what they say. I'm assuming that your research interest is something multidisciplinary between the 3 departments, instead of having 3 extremely different research interests! That is, there is some connection between these 3 profs right? If you have three independent interests then you might have submit separate applications after all. 

 

The departments are ecology and evolution, plant biology, and forestry. My field of interest is tropical forest ecology, so not *very different between the departments.

 

Emailing the professor sounds like a good idea. Your best bet is to apply to the most fitting department of the three and have collaborations with the other profs. I'm assuming that your research interests are interdisciplinary but still might be a better fit for one department than the others, if only because there are more professors/other resources there that you need. What you'll want to do is have a collaboration with professors across the three departments so you need to ask whether that's possible and whether it's normally done (if not, you'll likely encounter all kinds of technical difficulties down the line simply because you'll be doing something unusual). I'd start with asking the prof who you've been in contact with but down the line you'll need to get everyone's consent to this arrangement, including all the profs and the admins in your home department. 

 

That sounds good. The professor I'm in contact with is actually my first choice, and he is the one that recommended the other professors, mostly for a graduate committee.

 

I'll email the first professor, then see what the protocol for multi-departmental applications. Then, I'll email the other professors. If I can't apply across departments, at least I can ask them about being on a graduate committee.

[prettyuff1]

What I was told is that as Long as the research I am doing is relevant to my phd I can go with anyone in any department. So I'm in the pharmacology department but I can do research with someone in the chemistry department with out applying to the chemistry phd program. Things are much more flexible when it comes to who you work with. I agree to pick the best department and apply and you can work with several people