IRACDA Applicant Information Part 1

Welcome to the Tufts IRACDA application.

The application deadline for next year (September 2025) is February 1, 2025.
If you are applying out of standard application cycle for ‘rolling admissions’, please complete all of the required materials listed below and send in an email directly to IRACDA@tufts.edu. Please have any letters of recommendation also be sent there directly from the letter writer.

In order to complete and submit your application, please provide the following materials:

Resume/CV
a one page description of your PhD research
a one page description of your proposed research
a one-page document describing what type of academic career you are interested in pursuing and how your prior experiences have motivated you to seek a career that melds research, teaching, and commitment to diversity and inclusion issues.
register at least one mentor to submit the following on your behalf
- the mentor's NIH biosketch, including a description of the mentor's active and pending funding
- a listing of the mentor's present and prior trainees for the past five years (with current position)
- the mentor’s agreement to their financial responsibility, goals of the program, and to the time requirements of the scholar (signature as a part of mentor’s submission portal page)
register at least three individuals to submit letters of recommendation on your behalf. These letters should be uploaded in time for the application deadline of February 1.
Candidates may also apply to Tufts IRACDA without having designated a mentor, but these applications will be reviewed only if a mentor has been finalized and appropriate documents submitted to the Application Portal before our Review Committee meeting, which is typically at the end of February. In this case, please use our IRACDA e-mail (IRACDA@tufts.edu) when asked to register a mentor and upload a dummy document named “Proposed research pending mentor selection”. Once you have decided on a mentor, please send the mentor's name, e-mail, and the description of your proposed research directly to our Program (IRACDA@tufts.edu) and we will upload this information to your application.
When a mentor receives an automated email inviting them to submit their materials, they will be asked to submit a "Recommendation". Clicking on this link will take them to the correct location to enter their mentor information.

Once you have successfully submitted this form, you will receive an email with instructions to submit supporting documents.

Question regarding this application? Please feel free to contact us by e-mail at iracda@tufts.edu
*All fields are required unless designated as optional

Personal Information

First Name

Middle Name

Last Name

If you have a strong preference to be called by a name which is not your legal first (given) name, please provide it below. Only fill out this field if you would like official Tufts communication and your student ID to use your preferred name. Otherwise, leave this question blank and your first (given) name will be used. (Only use letters, spaces, or hyphens).

Preferred First (Given) Name (optional)

Contact Information

Mailing Address

Country

Street

City

Region

Postal Code

Address valid until (if indefinite, leave blank):

Mobile Phone

Personal Email (please use personal email, not employer/institutional email)

Citizenship

Applicants must be a citizen of the United States or a legal Permanent US Resident.

Are you a citizen or permanent resident of the United States?

Yes

No

SELF-IDENTIFICATION: Underrepresented Populations Status (OPTIONAL)

Responses to these questions are voluntary and will be kept confidential. Not providing this information will not adversely affect the status of your application. Please see Tufts University’s Non-Discrimination Policy here

Ethnic Category:

Hispanic or Latino

Not Hispanic or Latino

Decline To Respond

Racial Category: Please select all that you identify as. Please note that this list is as defined by the NIH. List of National Institutes of Health (NIH) racial and ethnic categories.

Disability: Defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended.

Yes

No

Decline to Respond

Disadvantaged Background: Click below for NIH definition of disadvantaged background.

Yes

No

Decline to Respond

NIH disadvantaged background definition, click to expand

NIH Defines "individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds as those who meet two or moreof the following criteria:

Were or currently are homeless, as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Definition: https://nche.ed.gov/mckinney-vento/);
Were or currently are in the foster care system, as defined by the Administration for Children and Families (Definition: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/focus-areas/foster-care);
Were eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program for two or more years (Definition: https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/income-eligibility-guidelines);
Have/had no parents or legal guardians who completed a bachelor’s degree (see https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018009.pdf);
Were or currently are eligible for Federal Pell grants (Definition: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/fpg/eligibility.html);
Received support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) as a parent or child (Definition: https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-eligibility-requirements).
Grew up in one of the following areas: a) a U.S. rural area, as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer (https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/rural-health), or b) a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-designated Low-Income and Health Professional Shortage Areas (qualifying zipcodes are included in the file). Only one of the two possibilities in #7 can be used as a criterion for the disadvantaged background definition.