BE Application Assistance Program

The Biological Engineering (BE) Department is committed to advancing a respectful and caring community that enables all of our students to succeed at MIT. We recognize that applicants receive disparate degrees of support during the graduate admission process, and encourage applicants with less support to use the BE Application Assistance Program (BEAAP).

BEAAP is a volunteer-based, student-run program which provides assistance to BE applicants. Applicants are paired with a graduate student who can answer questions about BE and MIT, provide feedback on application materials, and describe the procedures of the BE application process. BEAAP is supported by the BE Graduate Admissions Committee and the BE Graduate Student Board. BEAAP mentors are trained by a faculty member on the Graduate Admissions Committee on our admissions criteria and trained by the Communication Lab on providing feedback for application materials. This support is by no means a guarantee of admission as the MIT BE admissions process is completely separate from BEAAP. Participation in BEAAP is not considered by the Graduate Admissions Committee during application evaluation.

The BE Department is excited that you are considering us in your application process! The BEAAP application for the Fall 2025 application cycle will open on September 15, 2025. After we receive your application, we will contact you within 2-3 weeks for more information and pair you with a volunteer graduate student mentor. Mentor pairing begins in early October and occurs in batches every 3 weeks. While we are unfortunately not able to pair all applicants, those not matched for one-on-one mentorship are welcome to participate in the informational webinars hosted in collaboration with department faculty and staff (see below). We prioritize matching based on ranked scores from the BEAAP application questions, which you can find here. You can email questions to beaap@mit.edu. For questions about the BE graduate program in general, you can email the BE Academic Office.

Please note that BEAAP is purely volunteer-based: graduate students are offering their time to support prospective applicants, and this support is not considered as part of the admission process. BEAAP will accept requests until November 15 in order to provide assistance before the December 1 BE application deadline. If BEAAP reaches the year’s mentor capacity, we will inform applicants. We encourage applicants to connect with BEAAP early, as we may not be able to guarantee a mentor match late in the application season.

BEAAP is also excited to partner with the department to offer informational webinars about the BE PhD program and application process. These webinars are open to all (regardless of whether you apply to BEAAP or are matched with a mentor). At the webinars, current graduate students, faculty, and staff will present an overview of the BE PhD application process and answer participant questions. These webinars aim to address common questions and support applicants who may not need one-on-one mentorship. Webinars this year will be held on Thursday, September 25 from 2-3:30 pm EDT and Tuesday, October 28, 10-11:30 am EDT. Additionally, recordings from the webinars held in 2022 are available on the BE Graduate Students website.

Not sure if BE is the right fit for you, but still want support? If you are considering applying to other graduate programs at MIT (including Biology, Computational and Systems Biology, and Brain and Cognitive Sciences), check out this list of other Graduate Application Assistance Programs from the Office of Graduate Education.