Topical/Area Interest?

Graduate School
1

<p>I have noticed that some applications ask for topical and/or area interests (example is below). What exactly is the difference between the two?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Eneareast/gradmaterials/interests.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.umich.edu/~neareast/gradmaterials/interests.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Based on the list of subfields in this app, I’m pretty sure they mean “geographical area” and “research topic.” Does that make sense?</p>

3

<p>Thanks, that makes sense. The wording confused me because most other applications simply asked for my “area of interest.”</p>