PIBS gladly accepts applications from late August to the December 1 deadline every year. Please apply the year before you wish to enter graduate school.

Some applicants may be eligible for a waiver. Please visit the Rackham Graduate School website for more information on fee waivers and grants.

To research our faculty, we encourage you to utilize our faculty search page . On this site, faculty research interests can be searched by topic or their name. You may contact any PIBS faculty listed on our web site. You can also research faculty by exploring our 14 Ph.D. degree-granting programs.

You can apply to all 14 programs/departments participating in PIBS with one application. We encourage you to explore both the 14 Ph.D. degree-granting programs and over 500 faculty to prior to submitting your application. On the application, you will be asked to select and rank two of the 14 degree-granting programs to for review. After entering your first choice program/department on the preliminary page of the application, you will then be asked to select and rank your second and third programs/departments of interest on the supplemental form.

If you would like to change your program choices before applications are reviewed, please email your revised choices to us as soon as possible. Once you have accepted an offer at PIBS, you are free to choose any of our 14 degree-granting programs. In addition, during the first year of study you will be able to transfer freely between PIBS-associated training programs until you find your scientific home and formally join a Ph.D. program.

Although there is no required minimum GPA, entering students have an average GPA of 3.5 (range 2.8-4.0).

The UM Institution code is 1839 for GRE and TOEFL scores.
The PIBS department code is 45 for TOEFL scores.
The PIBS department code is unnecessary for GRE scores.

Although there is no required minimum GRE score, entering students average 560 verbal (range 300-800), 710 quantitative (range 390-800), and 4.5 written (range 2.5-6.0). GRE scores are valid for five years.

No, the subject GRE is not required.

Applicants whose native language is not English must demonstrate English proficiency. They are required to submit a TOEFL score unless they will graduate with a degree from an institution where the language of instruction is exclusively English. TOEFL scores are valid for two years.

The minimum scores needed are:

• 23 reading
• 23 listening
• 17 speaking
• 21 writing
• 84 total

Applicants who score above the minimum scores indicated above but below the following scores must take the Academic English Evaluation exam prior to class registration

• 26 reading
• 26 listening
• 23 speaking
• 27 in writing
• 102 total

In order to be considered official, all academic records/transcripts must bear a seal and a signature in ink of an authorized official of the institution (such as the Registrar or Recorder of Records). Official documents must be provided from the institution awarding the degree. Academic records certified by notary publics are not official.

For your convenience, we offer the ability to upload unofficial transcripts within the online application allowing PIBS to expedite the review of your application.

• This transcript will be considered unofficial.
• The graduate program's admissions committee is able to make a decision based upon your submission of an electronic transcript(s).
• When submitting transcript(s) online, upload the front and back of the transcript(s).

It is your responsibility to request the release of any such records from the institutions involved.

You will not be required to submit a hard copy of the transcript(s) to PIBS. Official transcript(s) are only required to be sent to the UM Rackham Graduate School at:

Rackham Graduate School
Attn: Transcripts/U-M ID# (if known) or Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy)
915 E. Washington Street
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1070 .

Official transcripts must be received by Rackham by January 1.

The two most important criteria for admission to PIBS are evidence of extensive research experience and strong letters of recommendation from primary research mentors.  For this reason, it is essential that you carefully prepare your academic statement of purpose.

Be sure to include:

• For each research experience during your undergraduate and possibly postgraduate career, describe the following:  What was the overall goal of your project?  What hypothesis did you test? How did you test your hypothesis? (Meaning - What experiments did you perform? What techniques did you use?)  With whom did you interact (e.g. did you work with a more senior member of the lab? Did you work independently?) What were your results?  What was the physiological/medical/biological significance of your results?  How did your results fit into the overall goals of the lab?
• Have you presented your work at a scientific conference or symposium?  Are you a co-author on a scientific abstract or manuscript? This includes abstracts or manuscripts that have been submitted to a journal or meeting but have not yet been published.
• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  How will earning a PhD in the biomedical sciences help you to achieve your goals?
• Why Michigan?  What is special about PIBS?  Are there specific PIBS departments/programs to which you are attracted?  Are there specific University of Michigan researchers in whose work you are interested?

Things to avoid:

• Lengthy philosophical discussions
• Lengthy descriptions of illnesses in your family
• Song lyrics
• Poems

In this document, let us know what makes you special.  How will you contribute to the diversity of the Michigan student body? Have you been active in organizations or activities that promote diversity? What adversity did you overcome to achieve your academic and personal goals?  Your answer may include financial hardship, being a first generation college student, having a disability, overcoming illness, or being a member of an underrepresented group.  Finally, is there anything that you want us to know when evaluating your application?  For example, were there extenuating circumstances for low grades in a given semester?  Do you have special needs?

We recommend that you request letters of recommendation from primary research mentors. At least one of your letters must fulfill this requirement. The other two letters may be from professors who taught you in a course, from a professor who is the director of your academic program, or from a research supervisor in a company in which you were employed as a technician. Remember, it is important that your letter writers know you well. For example, a letter from a professor who taught you in a course along with 100 other students is likely not very valuable, even if you made an A grade. Please make sure that letters from academic institutions are written by faculty members and not by postdoctoral fellows or graduate students. Please do not request letters from non-research-related employment supervisors. Finally, please do not request letters from personal/family friends.

During a typical application season we receive more than 700 applications.

PIBS class size averages between 70-80 students per year.

On average, 10% of our incoming students are non US citizens.

Both Rackham Graduate School and PIBS encourage students with disabilities to apply. Many services exist within the University to assist those with disabilities and help facilitate their success throughout graduate school. For more information on such services, please visit Rackham's Disability Resources page.

• Your completed application must be received by December 1 to be considered.
• After your application and application fee have been received by the Rackham Graduate School you will receive acknowledgement e-mails. These e-mails will confirm receipt of your application and provide you with your U-M ID number. They will also inform you of how to check your status online. For details see Rackham: After Applying.
• Please note: the PIBS office can NOT help you check the status of your application (GRE, transcripts, letters) until you have submitted your application.

• The PIBS Admissions Committee will review applications by mid-February.
• After the Committee review, all applicants will either be:
  • Invited to campus for an interview (or contacted for a phone interview for those applicants not in the U.S.)
  • Placed on a waiting list
  • Declined admission

PIBS offers two interview weekend events, usually falling on the last two weekends of January.

Decisions on offers of admission will be made after the second interview weekend. Applicants will be contacted as soon as possible with information regarding the status of their application.