kinkajou

Looked up the info on deferment and it says: Fellowships must begin in the first year after the award is made.After the first year, deferrals for up to 1 year are allowed with prior written permission from the PO. This will require additional paperwork to amend to your fellowshipAs coffee_grad suggested, it was in the handbook.

You could also accept the offer and then apply to other programs if you're really unhappy, right? Although rare, I know people who have transferred in eco/evo, not sure about biochem.

I think if you improved your GRE scores you would be competitive at those universities. But like kewz said, private universities have tons of their own money and can spend on internationals, unlike public which might even put you in a separate application pool (and if domestic students fill up all those slots, apparently you might not even have your application looked at). For example, you can read this thread... top tier programs will probably have more money anyway, so it might be better to throw your lot in with them.

Did you apply to public or private universities? Since I'm not an international student, I don't know for sure, but from various forums on grad cafe seem to imply that state-funded programs tend to be even harder for international students to get into than private ones.

Hey! I'm applying to EEB programs and have had a really successful application season: here's my advice. You probably do need to get some relavant courswork as in, something that focuses on ecology and/or evolution. You have to have at least one, because a basic knowledge will be assumed in a graduate program. Also, what if you take an ecology course and you're like oh my, this is as boring as hell, why did I ever think I wanted to do this? Do you know what in particular things in evo/eco you want to research? I have basically no "relevant" experience. I did, however, participate in summer research programs in immunology labs. I'd say it's critical to get research experience, more for yourself than to get in the program. (I mean obvi it is important for the program...in my interviews that's all the professors want to talk about). But for your own interest, get in a lab or in the field (if that's the kind of eco/evo you like). Lab work is usually highly monotonous AND often fails for reasons you can't figure out. You have to find out if you can handle that kind of work. Field work is even worse. What happens if a major storm destroys your plant experiment? Well, your project is on hold for a whole year. Lame. You have to really love it. And you have to be able to prove to grad admissions that you love it. I should note that eco/evo research is generally more frustrating than molecular etc. because it takes a lot longer to get anything exciting...or get nothing exciting. Your GPA is absolutely fine. MCAT scores irrelavent. They don't ask for them. Might need to take a GRE subject test as well as the GRE? But I have no idea about that really.

Thanks sfrie--I thought they must have gone out since the visit weekend is so soon, but nobody has posted anything about it so I thought I would check.

Hi all! Hoping your app season is going well so far! I was wondering if anyone had heard anything from the UC Davis programs (I applied to pop bio, but info from animal behavior and ecology would be helpful too).