The admit-and-confer structure functions like a department by admitting students and conferring degrees, but it operates without a departmental structure. The following programs participate in this model: 

• American Studies 

• Comparative Literature 

• Linguistics 

The second model are concentrations that admit students to the program directly, but the students eventually graduate from the associated graduate department of the major professor.  Degrees at Purdue are awarded only by programs which are approved by the Indiana Commission on Higher Education, which does not include these concentrations.  

• Biomedical Sciences 

• Ecological Sciences & Engineering 

• Information Security 

• Life Science 

The third structure is administered as a concentration. These programs review and admit students, but students must already be admitted by a degree granting department. Students have a concentration added to their transcript upon completing the program requirements. Requirements may or may not need to be completed in addition to those of your home department. 

• African American Studies  

• Computational Interdisciplinary Graduate Program 

• Food Science 

• Human Rights 

• Ingestive Behavior 

• Nutrition 

• Transformational Innovation and Design 

• Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 

Gerontology and Cancer Research are our “dual title PhD degree” programs in which students complete all degree requirements for the discipline-based PhD program with the dual title.  The Dual Title option requires additional requirements for each of the Programs, often without extending the time to degree. Both the discipline and program appear on the transcript.  

Please contact the staff of your program of interest or the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs.  

Yes, it is provided in the Policies and Procedures Manual. 

• For full details, please see admission requirements for the program of your interest.  

Each program has a different application deadline. Please check your program of interest for specific admission requirements and deadlines.  

• Some have received funds from the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars and are managed by the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs, while others are funded by participating academic departments or by colleges where they reside. The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars does provide a significant number of first-year fellowships that are earmarked for IGP students.