Interdisciplinary inquiry is widely perceived to be essential for tackling the most pressing social and environmental issues we face (Brown, Harris, & Russell, 2010). Scholars from many different traditions have argued that the magnitude and complexity of such problems require the integration of perspectives and expertise from multiple disciplines to see "the whole" of the problem (Callahan, 2010; Kinzig, 2001, p. 709; Lubchenko, 1998). Federal funding agencies have sought to encourage both interdisciplinary research and interdisciplinary graduate training (Committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research [COFIR], 2004); (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2006); (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2011), and the strategic plans of universities across the United States have placed increased emphasis on interdisciplinary research and teaching (Borrego, Boden, & Newswander, 2014; Kezar & Elrod, 2012). In response, graduate training programs that seek to prepare students as interdisciplinary scholars have proliferated (Fitzgerald & Stronza, 2009; Klingenberg & Rothberg, 2010; McBride, Brewer, Bricker & Machura, 2011; Martin & Umberger, 2003; Vinhateiro, Sullivan, & McNally, 2012; and for a review: Clark et al., 2011). Graduate student interest in interdisciplinary training is strong, and the experiences they seek range from workshops and short-courses to full-fledged interdisciplinary degree granting programs. Faculty members often argue that interdisciplinary programs draw the "best and brightest" students (e.g. Buss 2003). Though it is difficult to find systematic analyses of the quality and quantity of applicants to interdisciplinary programs across universities, the authors write that their experiences at the University of Georgia support those arguments. The University of Georgia offers six doctoral programs that bring together faculty from different disciplinary units. These programs have a disproportionately high number of students who enter with outside fellowships or who have received university honorific awards. Cross-university data on student placement by program are similarly difficult to access, but there are indications that students who do interdisciplinary work--as part of a traditional department or in an interdisciplinary program-- do at least as well as their peers who conduct disciplinary research.