shadowclaw

I think you may have misinterpreted what juiceboxrampage was saying. I don't think she meant that she has no intention of ever marrying him. I interpreted it as she's young and has only been with this guy for a year, so she had no idea if she's going to marry him because she's not at that point in her life or the relationship yet to know.

That was probably a good idea. It's really easy to get sucked into things like video games. Your desire to devote a proper amount of time to the Wii may have taken over. I saw a Willy Wonka meme once that said, "I see you started a new tv series on Netflix during finals week. I too like to live dangerously." Dangerously indeed.

Perhaps the school plans on googling you to find out more information! Awards are definitely something that would be difficult to put into a SOP without sounding full of yourself. I forgot about those, and as I recall, only one of those two applications I mentioned had a spot for awards on the application (the one which I didn't upload a CV). You could have definitely put your teaching experience down as employment, even if the only pay you got was a tuition waiver or course credit. Heck, you could have gotten away with listing volunteer work as employment and just put your position as volunteer. However, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference if the school really is focused on the SOP and LORs. Maybe that's all they really have time for. I don't know if you have contacted a POI yet, but if they have this information, perhaps they will bring it up with the adcomm.

This thread in the biology subforum has a lot of discussion about interviews, including what to wear: To summarize, most people have said that a suit isn't necessary. Only wear one if that's you. Otherwise, nice-looking clothes are perfectly acceptable.

I believe two of my applications didn't require a CV. For one, there was an option on the application to upload it (I imagine other programs may have required it), so I attached it. For the other, there were various boxes on the application form to enter employment and volunteer experience. I'm not sure the CV is always necessary even if a program does ask for it. For most of my applications, I repeat most of the content of my CV in other parts of the application. Research and field experience is reflected in my SOP, while school, GPA, and GRE information in entered somewhere on the application. There is generally a spot for a publication list, too. The only thing that might not show up is volunteer activities that aren't directly related to area of specialization, For example, I volunteered with a watershed group but plan on researching birds, so that particular experience wouldn't be brought up anywhere. However, my volunteer work at nature preserve involved some useful field experience, so it would come up elsewhere on the application. However, a CV or resume is a convenient way to deliver all of that information in a single quick-to-read document that the adcomm can reference at meetings or during interviews. Then again, this may be application specific or even field specific. SOPs with short word limits will certainly impede your ability to include a lot of information, and a CV would really be your friend.

I applied to 7 schools. Across all of biology, it seems that the majority of applicants apply to 10+ schools when aiming for a PhD (I believe I even saw some folks applying to over 15). Ecology applicants don't seem to apply to quite that many since we generally have to identify a potential advisor before applying, and quite often there are only one or two professors in any given ecology program that specialize in a specific area. So that really restricts where we can apply, since we have to convince a POI to accept us into their lab rather than doing lab rotations in our first year. I started out with a much larger list of potential programs... probably around 25. Many e-mails later, the list was whittled down to 8, and then I dropped one from the list because 1) I was out of money and 2) funding was iffy. I really shouldn't have applied to two of the programs (which I was already rejected from) because they were really at the periphery of my research interests and I don't have much experience in those areas. However, one had no application fee and the other is just a really good program. My remaining programs are a pretty good fit with my core research interests and experiences, so I feel confident about them.

Between undergrad and my masters program, I worked almost full-time as a waitress, volunteered at a nature camp for a week, got outside and had some fun, and binge watched a bunch of Star Trek. Assuming I'm accepted to a PhD program, I plan to try to get a seasonal job doing field work, which should earn me a nice chunk of cash from May through July. That will leave August open for moving to my new city. If I don't get accepted, I'll have to hit the job market and look for something more long-term. In either case, I'll also take some time to finish up my manuscripts from my masters research and send them out. It will also be a great time to catch up on some reading as well as get my kayak out on the local rivers and creeks.

I've heard many people say Firefly is great. I think I've been avoiding it because it was cancelled. Not because I think it will suck, but because I don't like unsatisfying endings, and a show that only ran one season is bound to have lots of unresolved plot lines! I liked the original Battlestar (corny as it was at times), so I've been avoiding the new one as well, because I'm afraid of the new version being ruined. Kind of like the new Ninja Turtles movie (blech). I like video games, too. I play a lot of old school games on systems like the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis, although I occasionally play Mario Party and Wii Sports on the Wii.

That is a bit odd that someone got a rejection email from their POI but you haven't heard anything. It might be that the adcomm put applications into two categories, no and maybe, and are still working on turning the maybe pile into interview invites and wait list. My top choices have very little at all in the results search. The EEB programs at UT and UNC both have one entry for invites, plus a few entries for acceptances. OSU's Environmental Science program has zero results, but I know they don't do interviews. I really wish I had more to work with!

I know I browsed through the ecology results at one point and I was surprised to see that people put that they received invites only a week before the interview weekends for some schools. I wonder if those were cases of invited students declining invites or withdrawing applications and the program decided to invite someone further down the list. I feel like a program should give at least two weeks notice.

I've heard this several times over the years. Sigh.

Sci-fi shows on Netflix and Amazon. Generally somewhat older ones that I could have watched on tv when I was a kid or teenager, but didn't or only watched a few episodes. I didn't watch much tv growing up besides Saturday morning cartoons and tgif (oh, and Xena for its first 4 seasons), and I'm kind of sad that I missed out. So I make up for it now by binge watching shows when I have free time. Especially since its cold outside and I'm broke! I just finished Babylon 5 (which actually isn't on Netflix and I bought the DVD's). Prior to that I watched Farscape. This actually all started after I graduated from my undergrad university and found myself without much to do over the summer besides work at my crummy job, so I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and since then, I've been consuming lots of space sci-fi. I'm not sure what show to watch next, Battlestar Galactica or Firefly.

Congrats! I'm still waiting for good news. Several schools sent out invites this week, but alas, not mine. Guess I'll start get antsy about next week...

My situation is similar to this. Before we got married, my husband told me he'd go anywhere I was accepted. At the time, I was applying to schools in places he didn't mind much. Two years and (almost) a masters degree later, my research interests have changed a bit and every year a different set of POIs are looking for students. Of the 7 places that I applied to, he is only interested in one. It's near the top of my list, but it isn't my first choice. He periodically reminds me that he doesn't want to live in Tennessee or North Carolina. So pretty much of I get accepted to my dream school, it will be his personal hell. On the other hand, he hasn't been to any of these places except North Carolina, and even that was limited exposure when he was in the marines. So he really has no idea if he'll like or dislike anywhere.

I definitely agree with you. Engaging the students and getting them to learn and think is what it's ultimately about. I do feel bad for this student's lab group. As you said, I am providing them with a glass of education, but by referencing this student's past exams, they aren't drinking very much and might have issues down the road.

Haha I think you're right. Most papers I read use R, and R is a desired qualification for potential grad students. This particular professor hates R with every fiber of her being and tries to use other software whenever possible.

Thanks for the replies! As I said in my original post, I don't think it is a problem for her to use her old notes and assignments on her own time. Students have an entire week to finish their reports, so she could easily just compare and correct her answers at home before turning the report in. What I do have a problem with is her sharing her lab report with others around her during class and telling them if the answers they are writing are correct. Since it's not my decision what to do about it (as GeoDUDE said, it's the professor's discretion), I'm not going to tell her to stop. I really just wanted to know what others thought since this is grey area. Although I find GeoDUDE's argument interesting. It's not cheating because the professor says it's not. I think that's the kind of logic many people accused of war crimes used to defend their actions. Not that cheating and war crimes are even on the same playing field, but it's interesting logic nonetheless.

So I TA for two labs, and in one section we have two students who are repeating the course. They sit next to each other, and one has all of her graded lab reports from last semester in her notebook. The labs are exactly the same. Since she already took the class once and lab reports aren't due until the beginning of class the following week, I don't really think it's really an issue for her to reference those lab reports on her own time. After all, the other students google answers and go to tutoring for help with reports. However, she brought them to class and had them open while working on the lab. She was basically copying down everything she got correct last time and sharing the lab report with other people around her. Even though she doesn't have all the answers, I think it's at least giving the students around her an unfair advantage. Plus their group got their work done an hour before most of the other students. I brought it to the attention of the professor because I wasn't really sure about it, and he didn't seem to care. He said that she should let go of the old material and not focus on her old answers, but didn't say she couldn't bring the reports to class anymore. So it seems as though this is acceptable, but I still feel like it is cheating, and perhaps even plagiarism. After all, had I ever handed in the same paper for two classes, I would be plagiarizing myself.

I know UNC's website says that those not invited to the interview weekend may be waitlisted and invited for a later interview if the other applicants don't pan out. I don't know how universal that policy may be, but it's a reason to stay hopeful even if you don't get an invite. Somebody posted a link to a professor's blog not too long ago with a post on selectivity of POIs. It was written by an EEB professor who talked about how he had become more and more selective over the years and now only had one grad student about to graduate. Whenever he tried to recruit new ones, he only told a select few to apply and they all chose to attend elsewhere after offers went out. I have secretly been hoping this is the case with my POIs so that maybe my chances of an acceptance will be higher if the competition with better undergrad GPAs go elsewhere.

Don't forget that many EEB notifications seem to be emails and phone calls from a POI. So unless a whole week went by, I wouldn't lose all hope. Your POI might just be busy!

I think I was right. Lots of EEB results are popping up! Congrats to anyone who got invites so far. I'm still waiting for mine!

I'm very surprised that you have to pay out of pocket to use the school's counseling services. That's the kind of service I expect a school to provide to students. In my limited experience, my schools have provided these services for free, although I believe they limited how often you could visit. I don't have an eating disorder, but I do have problems with social anxiety disorder and depression (which resulted from the anxiety and isolation from others). I struggled for a long time as an undergrad. I did use school counseling services, but the anxiety ultimately stopped me from going eventually. I really didn't cope. Some semesters I was ok by sheer luck, others were disasters. Untreated mental illness is not a good thing to have when you are pursuing an education. Well, it's never a good thing to have, but considering all of the stress and responsibility in grad school, it could really cause problems. I personally would talk to one professor you trust about it first (such as your advisor) before bringing it up to others. They might be able to guide and support you or may know of some free or cheap resources to help you. I have tried discussing my issues with professors in the past. Some have been very sympathetic, cut me some slack when I missed class, and helped me get through it. Others told me to suck it up and basically told me they'd have no mercy on me, nor did they offer any help. I suspect these professors thought I was making it up. The bottom line is not all professors will care about your mental health and even if they do, they aren't really qualified to help you and the best they can do is be lenient with deadlines and attendance. The most important thing you can do is get some sort of help, even if it's reading a self help book or posting to a support forum. Don't try to ride it out, and certainly don't go it alone.

I've tried dabbling in R, but I generally get frustrated after a few hours of nothing working right, and then turn to SPSS, Primer, or JMP. Which takes a few minutes once the data is typed in. I've said this before to people, but this isn't the 1980's. I shouldn't have to use a command prompt to do stats. GUI's were developed for a reason. One of my committee members said R was made so computer programmers can pretend to be ecologists. Maybe it's true.

Also, when taking freshman chemistry, we were waiting for class to start one day and one of the students (who was in his mid 20's) suddenly announced to the class that he would be going to the bar to get plastered and find a girl with daddy issues. While the rest of the class sat in complete silence, the professor asked if he ever thought before he spoke.

While TAing an intro biology lab, I heard a student ask another if significant figures were important outside of chemistry class. A professor from my undergrad school told me that a pre-med freshmen, before the semester even started, asked if she could drop general bio because her course load was too high. She was taking four courses, and the other 3 were gen eds like freshman composition and pc office applications.