<p>This is my first time posting on College Confidential. I have been lurking around for quite a while now and this looks like a great place to get advise from a lot of knowledgeable people, so I thought it was about time to take the dive and become a member! :)</p>
<p>I apologize if this question has been posed before, but I am interested in applying to graduate school and the first thing I was wondering is this: I know at the graduate level, you have to apply to the graduate school and to the department you're interested in as well. What I'm wondering is, if you're interested in more than one field of study (say, for example, sociology and political science), are you allowed to apply to both of those departments, even if you only plan on choosing one of them down the road? </p>
<p>You are allowed, I believe. It’s conceivable that the departments might not even know you’ve done this . . . at least not until they try to get you approved for a stipend. When they DO find out, I think they would be less likely to offer you admission. </p>
<p>Departments know that you are applying to other schools, and that you haven’t committed to them when you apply. They will try to do everything they can to win you away from another school. But if they find out you aren’t even committed to a particular discipline - well, in my experience grad programs are not that interested in career counseling at that stage of your development.</p>
<p>It depends on the program. Most schools only let you apply to one department in a given application year, but some schools let you apply for multiple. MIT and Michigan come to mind. There’s often a box that asks if you applied for another department in the same school.</p>
<p>I agree with Got2BeGreen that you should narrow down a field of study or general research area before you apply. However, if your intended research area is interdisciplinary in nature, it is acceptable to apply for multiple departments in the same school (assuming the school allows it).</p>
<p>Thank you all for the answers; that helps tremendously. I hadn’t thought about the point that was brought up about how admissions could be jeopardized once the department finds out about an application in another department. I can definitely see how that may be construed as a lack of devotion to the discipline. </p>
<p>I suppose the reason I was mulling this option over is that I will be graduating in about one year with a B.A. in political science and while I love the field, I do have some issues from my past, both academically and personally that are going to have to be explained away. I have good reasoning to support the mitigating circumstances, but I’m worried that the past might come back to haunt me and I thought if I applied to multiple department that interest me, that I might, at least for the masters, get my foot in the door and show that I can handle the upper-level courses. But, in light of the information, I’ll certainly rethink that option. :)</p>