<p>So for one grad school I'm applying to I am super interested in one professors research in social cognitive neuroscience. </p>
<p>But there is another professor that does vision and cognition neuroscience that I also find interesting. </p>
<p>The two really are not related at all other than being in the realm of cognitive neuroscience.</p>
<p>Is it bad to put both?</p>
<p>You should be expressing interest in multiple professors. If you limit yourself to one, and that professor is not taking students next year, you stand a low likelihood of being admitted. In all my statements of purpose, I gave 5+ names, and those professors’ research topics encompassed at least two completely unrelated fields.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply.</p>
<p>I’m just worried about looking unfocused. I don’t know what your area is but stating interest in different fields seems like it could be risky from what I’ve heard. </p>
<p>Anyway, both professors are taking students but they seem to be in rather different areas of cognitive neuroscience.</p>
<p>You apply to the PhD program, not the small subset of labs researching the same specific topic, so if both professors are in the same program, then that doesn’t seem very unfocused to me.</p>
<p>I think that depends on the program, kryptonsa. I know my program here tries to make sure each student they admit would fit in nicely with at least a professor or two. I imagine it’s similar in other departments elsewhere when you’ve got fewer than ten faculty in the department.</p>
<p>Well, it’s “fit in nicely with at least a professor or two” and not “fit in nicely with just a professor or two.” It is awfully unwise to prefer applicants who express interest in too few labs as it is impossible to predict whether the fit will ultimately be a good one or the student’s interests change.</p>
<p>It is also unwise for a program to accept someone who doesn’t really know what they want to study. Again, for psychology programs, you are usually basically applying to work with a specific professor. There are no rotations, so you usually join a specific lab immediately upon entering the program. It is good to find multiple labs that are good fits for you in a given department, but it is usually not good if those labs all have unrelated interests, as that can reflect poorly on the applicant. As you say, you don’t want to apply and find out the lab you want to join isn’t taking students; that’s why contacting professors ahead of time in psychology is a very good idea.</p>
<p>But for the OP, I don’t think you should be too worried about those differences. You can mention both, especially if you emphasize the similarities. It isn’t hard to imagine projects with overlap (the importance of gaze in social interactions, for example), and I think they are related enough that it doesn’t set off any warning bells or anything. Its not like you want to do social neuroscience and ion channels.</p>