Every professor I cold-emailed just told me to 'apply' — is that normal or a bad sign?
I'm a prospective PhD applicant seeking programs in biomedical informatics / computational biology in the US. I'm an undergrad at a top 25 US uni. I have tried to cold-email several professors (in the US) but most of them encouraged me to apply the program / notify them once applied without guaranteeing anything. I met with one Professor online because I met him at a conference, and he also asked me to apply to the program. Even my own research Professor at school asked me to apply first without promising anything!
Is this normal for a committee-based PhD program? But I've also heard there's no true "committee," and if Professors encourage you to apply, it means they don't want you / wants to put you in a pool with the other applicants. I'm getting a little anxious. Did someone have a similar experience?