Monochrome Spring

I'm really sorry. That's rough. Does your university have good health insurance? That can alleviate some of the stress.

It's usually really great because the complex has its own comcast guy who comes within 24 hours for help, but the tech online couldn't even figure out why I'm getting bad internet, so they're sending someone to check the complex lines. :/

I had a stretch a few weeks ago when I felt really lost in my program. I seem to have more free time than everyone else in my cohort because I don't TA and I don't have to run experiments until summer because of the nature of my research. I have to go to Costa Rica to do anything, so of course I can't be there while I'm taking classes on campus. I finally realized that it doesn't matter what other students in my program are doing. My job for now is to read and think. I don't have a lot of work that has a tangible result, but who cares? I'm starting to recognize that it's okay to not always be busy. I get my work done in about 40-50 hours per week and then I relax by playing video games for hours upon hours in my free time. I think one of my best choices this semester has been to join a game club on campus that meets from 8 until midnight on Thursdays. I've made some good friends who will hang out with me when I need to relax. I am also producing work equal to (or greater than in some cases) my peers' work when we do have proposals due, and my plans are still on track for graduation in 5 years even allowing for unexpected problems. As long as I'm not falling behind, I'll keep letting myself enjoy my free time. To anyone else who was in my situation a few weeks ago, remember to enjoy grad school. Remember to live your life and not treat this as years of torture before you begin your real life with a job. It's okay to have free time and not always be busy. Take a few minutes at the end of each day to be proud of where you are and your accomplishments. Also, as a side note, don't overload yourself because you think it's what you're supposed to do. And don't worry about perfect grades. In most cases, your program is about research more than courses. So stay focused on that. In my case, I give myself a certain number of hours for a course task and whatever I end up with is what I submit even if I get a B instead of an A.

I pay for 50mbps internet through Comcast and it has been below 1mbps consistently today and I've had issues the past couple days on top of that. I went through all of their advice to get my internet back up, but all I get when I call customer service is "We can't tell you why you have this problem because we are having trouble getting into our system". Well, I'm so glad you're incompetent; I want money back for my lost work time.

When I had informal Skype interviews with POIs, we talked about everything you've mentioned. Even though it was redundant information, the Skype meeting was a good way to gauge how we interacted "in real life". There was a lot of small talk, and we discussed how the interview process at the university would work if I was invited. I was a lot more stressed out and prepped much more than I needed to. It was very friendly and less formal than I expected.

Send a follow up email tomorrow morning. In the meantime, find someone else who can write a letter and have them submit it as your fourth choice as a backup in case this professor flakes.

My labmate and I aim for 4 papers each day. At 30 minutes each (assuming a more thorough skim), this should only take 2 hours. This is excluding papers assigned to us for courses, unless they are also very closely related to our research interests. If you read 4 papers every day, including weekends, you could have almost 30 each week, or about 120 per month. Edit: I should clarify that this is for us to get more ideas about what we want to do our research in, as well as for general ideas about research in closely related fields. You don't need to thoroughly read every paper. Just get an idea of what they found or think is important.

You should ask the graduate admissions secretary and/or department chair about GRE cutoffs.

I'm saying this is true across most. Of course, I can't say what ALL ecology programs do. Great POI can't save you if the admissions committee doesn't want you in their department due to lackluster previous work or bad attitude at interviews.

The two programs I was accepted at were the two where I had the closest contact with the POI's and they were actively recruiting me by vouching for me at interviews and such. It's definitely very important. That's why ecology is so weird for apps. The POI can change the entire game.

As someone who has gone through the Ecology app process: POI matters way more than numbers in Ecology apps. Having POIs vouching for you, even with limited funding, is so important. You are halfway in. Keep looking for funding ideas at those universities, like departmental, university, and external.

One of the major reasons I decided to not go with my 2nd choice program was because students under my POI generally took 7 years for PhD at a minimum. I think it's a valid way to rank programs if they are otherwise equal.

I joined as an undergraduate because students in my major were not allowed to join Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi was the next best choice. It is like Phi Beta Kappa but more interdisciplinary. I don't think it was necessarily worth it, however. It didn't help my applications at all, and the only benefit is the chance to apply for member-only fellowships.

I studied up until the morning before the exam. Then I let myself have the time beforehand to relax. I looked over my math cheat sheet and a few vocab words I wanted to double check. I don't think it's bad to study up until then, but it'll depend on your own studying and testing style.

Many professional CVs include outreach sections, because that is a major component of being a scientist. It is your broader impacts. Grad schools will care about this, even though it will be less than research and grades. I got comments about my different outreach experiences during interviews and discussions with POIs because they wanted to know if I was going to continue outreach as a graduate student and how I would implement outreach in my research plans. Since an important part of being funded in science is having your broader impacts section, it's important to know that a grad student is going to be able to have a strong broader impacts background and future for their proposals.

The only test which will give you an accurate score is the PowerPrep practice test, because it is an actual GRE exam, which has the appropriate difficulty scaling built in. You should try those, instead of or in addition to whatever test materials you are using now.

I wrote a during my application season about increasing GRE scores. I don't know how feasible it would be to raise your quant score that high in only a week or two, but I think you need to work on relearning the quant basics before you can try take it again.

When I applied as an undergraduate to PhD programs, I made a CV/resumé hybrid. I had headings for education, research experience, grants/scholarships/awards, presentations, manuscripts in prep., teaching experience, outreach/service, and professional societies. I didn't have many points under each heading, so I elaborated in spots like the research experience and outreach/service to flesh it out more. As a first year PhD student this year, I cut the fluff from my application version. It's rough seeing how small my CV is now, but it motivates me to work harder.

I'm also a first year in a relatively small department. I don't go to all of the department activities, such as the happy hour after seminar. But I do go to things like the department picnic, which included bringing family and friends for a larger gathering. I think it's fine to pick and choose which events you want to go to, especially if you are pressed for time in a shorter PhD program. I would make sure to attend maybe 1-2 each month (not including things like mandatory seminars), but don't feel obligated to attend all of them. Also, my advisor will let us know if there is an especially important event coming up that will make the department look good if more people go, so I make a point to make those. A side note: I think a lot of this, especially as a first year, depends on how busy you are. A student taking a lighter course load and without teaching obligations may be expected to attend more events, since there should be less time conflicts. If you have a heavier work load, you are more likely to have time conflicts during those events (for example, I can't make any department seminars because of a statistics course). However often you decide to attend, think about how it makes you look to the department. Unfortunately, a lot of grad school is politics, and you want everyone on your side.

The cheap BIC Round Stic pens are my favorite. They generally write well, don't get clumpy, and show up clearly on paper. I think they end up being something like 10 cents each when you buy the bulk boxes. I lose pens a lot, so it's nice to know that I only lose 10 cents at a time.

You can do either. Some people use explicit headings for IM and BI, and others don't. Regardless, you'll have them interwoven into multiple places within your statements. The headings simply make those sections more obvious to reviewers (who may not notice anyway).

1. That is an excessive number of applications. 2. You should check if you're even allowed to apply to so many departments within a single university. 3. You probably want to fine tune your research interests if you can't your list smaller than that.

A compelling letter from a postdoc is better than a bland letter from a professor. It would hurt your application more to have a bad letter (a bland letter can be considered bad).

I just want to remind any current applicants to take a deep breath. Talk to as many professors, postdocs, grad students, etc. as you can before you make those final decisions. You are essentially marrying the program/advisor that you choose, so you want to make sure that you will be happy for that 5+ year haul. Talk to a lot of potential advisors in the program. I actually got accepted to my current university in a different program with a different advisor, realized my mistake after acceptance (with funding for that department!), and frantically got arrangements to transfer my acceptance to my current program and advisor. This was only possible because I had talked to my current advisor during the application process. Make some sort of list to keep track of your application requirements, when they are due, etc. Don't get overly attached to your list, however. It will change (If it doesn't change at least a little throughout the process, I would be very surprised). Don't feel badly if you take a program off of your list because of geography, personal conflicts, advisor personality, funding, etc. I don't think that there is any perfect program, but you want to get as close to it as possible. Remember that numbers are just numbers. Yes, GPA and GRE are important. Yes, there are cutoffs. Yes, there are other students with more research experience and more publications. But you can still get into a good program with an advisor who you're happy to work with for 5+ years. Graduate admissions is a game of sorts; make sure you play it well. You may not come in with the best cards, but you can place them in such a way that you get the same result as someone who started off with a great hand. At the risk of sounding cliché: Keep your life goals in mind. Everyone wants to be in the best program, with the best advisor, with the most publications, and the most awards. But do you need that to be happy? If you can't get into the "best" program but you love the research somewhere else, and you can still be competitive for a job that will support you and make you happy, who cares that you didn't get into the "best"? I think it's easy to lose perspective throughout the process, especially when you see competitive profiles on GradCafe and the list of potential schools that other members are aiming for. ** And again, any environmental science, plant ecology, forestry, etc. applicants can feel free to PM me with questions about the process.