shadowclaw

That's good to know! A lot of people view my undergrad college this way, but I still loved it. So perhaps I will look further into it.

I know that if one of your LOR writers happens to know someone in the program you are applying to, it can be really good for your application. Unless they know someone in a negative way, of course If they know each other well enough, your LOR writer will likely be contacted for some extra info unofficially. Even people who aren't writing for you but know people on adcomms at other universities can be helpful. The graduate coordinator of my masters program is pals with the graduate coordinator at another school and apparently helps many of our students get into the PhD program. One of my committee members who isn't writing a LOR for me also told me to keep her up to date with my program list in case I apply somewhere that she has friends. There's no guarantee that these connections will get you into a program, but people respect the opinions of good friends, and a good word can go a long way.

Rivers - if I didn't get rejected from all of the PhD programs I applied to 2 years ago, I would also be focusing on plant physiology as well as chemical ecology. Secondary metabolites are really cool, and allelopathy is just plain awesome. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. Instead, I was accepted to a masters program and I got to do some research in one of my other areas of interest - ornithology. So I've really switched gears! Plants, especially invasive ones, still hold a special place in my heart. Does anyone know anything about the biology program at Florida International University (or even the school itself)? I've never heard of the school before, but a professor there just posted a PhD position to Ecolog to study songbirds along urban gradients. Their deadline is January 15, so I don't know why he waited so long to post the ad. The only funding comes from a TA position with what seems like a low salary for Miami ($21k). I'm not sure if I want to bother applying if I'm going to have to teach every semester until I graduate.

Somewhere in this thread, there is a tale about someone sending a saucy photo to a POI instead of her boyfriend:

My graduate program is pretty small (since it's a masters program only), and many of our courses are mixed with undergrads. However, I've found that there have been many opportunities to meet and get to know other grad students through our coursework. A few of our ecology-oriented courses have fieldtrip components, which provided lots of time to chat with other students, especially in the evening when our fieldwork was done. For one of our more difficult courses that was taught using the Socratic method, a lot of students would come to the classroom a few hours beforehand to look over notes and reading assignments, as well as pose questions to other students. A lot of bonding occurred during that course. This year, we got a lot of new students, so we decided to try to actually plan events, with some success. We had a BBQ at the graduate coordinator's house on a Friday night towards the beginning of the semester, and we got most of the students to attend (I think only 2 couldn't make it). We planned another outing to just go to dinner, but it ended up just being a few of us. It was fun, though. Sometimes if we happen to cross paths around lunch or dinner time on campus, we'll eat together, too. One of my committee members also takes her lab members out to lunch and dinner sometimes, too, and she'll look around for any grad students that look hungry and invite them, too. I also agree with ion_exchanger in that you'll find some extroverted people that do a good job of pulling you out of your introverted shell. Truthfully, though, grad school has been a bit transformative. It really started in my senior year of undergrad and continued as I progressed through grad school, but I have gone from being very shy and avoidant to somewhat social. I'm still quite the introvert, but I can function in social situations and sometimes I have rather extroverted days.

Interdisciplinary background. That's perfect! I never had a concise way to describe my undergraduate experience. I feel as though I am more interdisciplinary than most. It went something like this (with some concentration changes left out): computer science (school A) -> English (school A) -> information technology (school B ) -> computer forensics/computer science double major (school C) -> English (school C) -> business information systems (school B ) -> computer information systems (school D) -> computer forensics (school C) -> anthropology (school C) -> environmental biology (school B ). I graduated from school B with honors and several awards, as well as minors in math and chemistry. I was one course away from a minor in information technology (due to all of the computer coursework), but I needed an upper level course that I could never fit into my schedule. I am also at school C now doing my masters in biology. So my interdisciplinary background is definitely a flaw of mine. I also don't have degrees to show for my work in all of those previous majors. If I felt so inclined, I could enroll at school C as an undergrad and I could earn a degree triple majoring in computer science, English, and anthropology in one year (if one could triple major... I don't know if that's even possible). I also have low GPAs at schools A, C (undergrad), and D. It's not that I couldn't do the work. Life and stupid stuff happened. On the bright side, my major GPA was beautiful, as is my masters GPA. The adcomm for my masters program saw past my "checkered background" as the graduate coordinator put it, apparently due to the strength of my LORs. I'm really hoping my research experience, LORs, and good fit with several of my POIs will deflect the adcomm's eyes away from my crazy background. On a side note, avoid placing a B next to a ), or you will emoticons with sunglasses.

Good idea for starting our own thread. I'm starting to get grumpy about all of the neuroscience and microbiology people posting their invites while we wait for our adcomms to meet My applications are all in except for Utah State. They don't have a deadline, and I've been thinking about not applying. I really can only go if I receive the NSF GRFP or I manage to snag a university fellowship, because my POI lacks funding. However, I think chances of getting a university fellowship are slim, and if I get the NSF fellowship, there are other programs I'd rather attend. I feel really good about my applications to my top 3 choices (University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina, and Oregon State University), because I feel like I made a really good impression on the POIs there. My top choice hands down is UT because it's basically a perfect fit for my research interests. OSU doesn't do interviews, so I don't expect to hear from them until March. UT and UNC won't be sending out invites for about 2 weeks, so it's more waiting. IU should be sending out invites this week, though!

I don't entirely agree with you on this one. You do make some good points, such as younger students not necessarily wanting to go to the club/bar with students who are 20+ years older, or a professor saying "most of you weren't alive when this thing happened" while having a certain student in mind. However, it's not at all accurate to state that all younger students will have boyfriends and casual partners. Quite a few will be married, and some will have kids (married or not). Plus having a spouse does not create some magical divide that separates you from the non-married. I have found that there is little difference between having a spouse or being in a long-term relationship. Mostly the only difference is a piece of paper. I also find your statement interesting, because many of the people I went to high school with got married between 24 and 26. I think the national average is something around 25. Assuming grad students follow the national trend, that means they would probably be in serious relationships upon entering grad school or develop them shortly thereafter. So I really doubt there would be a lot of "casual partners." I'm also not sure that having an old study or event happen in your lifetime but not during that of the younger students really makes a difference. Sure, the professor might say "most of you weren't alive yet," but aside from maybe making you feel a little old, it's not like the class is going to think negatively about you for it, and they will likely forget about that comment in a few minutes. As an undergrad, I was a little older than many of my fellow biology students (I was 25 when I started the program) and there were actually quite a few students in their 30s and 40s. None of us had issues with younger students thinking we were old or not wanting to work or socialize with us. There was even this guy in his late 30s who had a wife and kids, and everyone absolutely loved him. I don't know if he ever went out anywhere with them, but he was always socializing with younger students around campus. I also wonder if drinks and dancing are actually that common in grad school. Maybe I'm boring, but that doesn't sound like a good way to spend my precious free time. In my masters program, we get together for dinner someplace or a bbq at someone's house, and there's trivia night at a local restaurant. I've also gone hiking and camping with my fellow students. None of these things are age-restricted. Maybe it's because we're a bunch of biology students (and most of us are into ecology), but we don't really do anything that might be awkward with someone significantly older than us. Come to think of it, our professors often join us, and they are almost all 20+ years older.

I'm not working on a PhD right now. I'm in a masters program. I don't know if that makes a difference, but based on your application season, I'm guessing that you're in a masters program, too. It wasn't really intentional, but I have a very light course load for my last semester. I'm only taking one statistics course and I have my thesis credits. I actually wouldn't have any courses to take if the math department hadn't screwed up last spring and scheduled the stats class we all need at the same time as several graduate biology courses. I'm actually going to have 3 extra credits beyond my requirements because of that, and I am also missing out on a great class I would have liked to take in the spring. Although I only have one course, I will still have a good amount of work preparing my thesis and defending it. However, in all honesty, it will not be very difficult, just time consuming polishing my written component and preparing a presentation. It will definitely not require the time and work commitment that 6 credits of coursework would require.

I used to drink. For about a year and a half. Then my sister took me out and I'm surprised I didn't die. There's nothing like being carried out of the bar because you can't walk anymore. Since then alcohol hasn't quite sat well with me. I did drink on a weekend trip for a class during undergrad, and while my much younger classmates thought I was awesome, my 28 year old body that hadn't had a drink in six years did not feel awesome the next day. So yeah, I don't do coffee or alcohol. I just enjoy occasional tea and frequent soda.

I second coffee. I like it in tiramisu (or perhaps it just pairs nicely with the rum). However, I just don't like the taste when I drink it. I've tried it black, with creamer and sugar, as a latte, iced, frozen... it just doesn't taste good. I suppose it's tolerable when I add cream and sugar, but that's because I fill half the cup with flavored creamer and use about 12 packets of sugar. But then it's usually cold. Also, baby pictures on Facebook. I don't mind if someone sends me a Christmas card with their baby on it, shows me some photos on their phone, or even brings a photo album to work to show me. It's fine. What I can't stand is when baby pictures pop up in my news feed everyday. It's even more annoying when their amateur photographer spouse sets up a photo shoot every week and posts 20 professional-looking photos of the baby basically in the same pose. Every. Single. Week. And baby bumps. I hate photos of people posing with their bumps. Maybe I associate it with the hundreds of baby photos that will follow in a few months.

I'm fairly certain IU looked over applications that week too, because I got an email from the department saying my application was being sent to the committee right around then. UNC had a December 2 due date, but my POI said the adcomm wouldn't meet until early January. UT's due date was today, so they should start reviewing shortly. I submitted my app way early (December 5), so I'm kind of hoping they might have already had a look.

Even though you are not looking to work with a specific POI, I have found that many professors list former lab members and their current positions either on their lab websites or CVs. Many programs have lists of faculty by interest, so you might be able to look at the lab websites of some professors in your areas of interest and see what their former students are up to.

It's not a holiday if my family members (in particular my mom and sister) aren't bitching about someone else in the family. Sometimes they can barely even make it out of the room with these people before they start. Of course, the men tend to be more straight forward. One thanksgiving my brother called our mom an immature bitch and told her to f-off because he was having a kids-free Christmas party and she had already committed to babysitting my niece that night and didn't know if she could get our grandmother to do it.

From talking with my letter writers, sometimes the system does send out reminders automatically. I don't know if they periodically go out or only close to the deadline, but either way, I'm sure your LOR writer won't be annoyed. I'm sure it's specific to either the school or the application/LOR system used, which is why you only noticed that it happened with just this school.

Mayanway - I applied to the Environmental Sciences program. I suppose I could just ask my POI about it. That would make things a lot easier! I don't if it's common to EEB programs, but it sure seems like the majority look at applications much later than other science programs.

It's finally January! At last, all of us with January deadlines (or adcomms that don't meet until January) can start freaking out about the upcoming interview invites. IU should be sending out invites next week, and UNC and UT will be later in the month. I wish I knew if Oregon did interviews. The results search only has results for the masters in Environmental Science, and it seems that there were no interviews for them. Can't find anything about Utah State.

I definitely sometimes feel like I'll never make any close friends ever again. All of the people I truly call friends I met in elementary or middle school, with the exception of one person I met at a job about 7 years ago. I actually would be fine with having just this group of friends, but the reality is that we have all been moving in very different directions. One is a stay at home mom with young kids and we really can't get together unless we're doing a kid-friendly activity. Another joined the air force and is currently in Las Vegas, which is quite far away! A third is moving to North Carolina in a few weeks, and another lives a few hours away in State College. The last who still lives here and doesn't have kids has a very different schedule than me these days, and we just don't get together often. Plus, by this time next year, I'll hopefully be settled into a PhD program in another state. So in August of next year, I'm going to be pretty isolated from all of my friends. I'm not sure how easy it will be to make new ones. As an undergrad, I made friends with other students, but not good friends. We really only hung out in between classes and went to different school events. After I graduated, I didn't really see any of them again. We just comment on each other's Facebook posts. At my current school where I'm doing my masters, I've sort of made some friends. During my first year, I didn't really talk much to the other grad students, and I'm the only grad student in my lab. This past semester, I started seeing some of them more since I started my grad assistantship and I did some work outside of my lab, and we planned a few grad student social events. However, only five of us ever go! So I'm not too sure that these relationships are going to turn into strong friendships. I guess I don't have any master plan for acquiring new friends in my future PhD program. I am a bit quiet until I get to know someone, so that makes things even more difficult. Ultimately, I will have labmates that I can try to connect with, and my top program choices have social events (UT even has a grad student retreat camping in the Smokies in September). So I shouldn't have trouble actually meeting people. The trouble is making sure I don't act too socially inept!

I have favorite pens for different things. I love Pilot G2 pens for note-taking and other everyday writing. They come in great colors, write smoothly, and don't smear. They are also great for correcting/commenting on papers. When I'm doing research in the field, I use rite in the rain notebooks and use a Fisher Space Pen. It's supposed to write at any angle, in extreme temperatures, under water, and in zero gravity. If I'm in the lab, I use a Zebra Sarasa pen. It's supposed to be one of the best pens for writing in lab notebooks. I find that it smears easily, but based on the following link, it will hold up to spills the best. http://colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/labnotebooks

Just remembered... I also had bug spray and special sunblock for my face in my zip lock bag, too. So that means I had 2 sunblocks, 1 shampoo, 2 conditioners, 2 body washes, toothpaste, mouthwash, and bug spray. That's a lot of stuff. Plus, the shampoo and conditioner lasted a whole week, and I used it almost everyday (and my hair is quite long). I only used half of the second body wash, too. So I think you will be able to fit everything you need for an interview weekend just fine. Just plan for what you need! Also, if anyone is interviewing somewhere warm and you are going out hiking or something outdoorsy as an activity, I highly recommend Buggspray if you don't mind deet. The clean scent smells pretty good, and it actually works. Plus they sell a travel size.

I totally wish I had this problem! Although 5 of my 7 schools haven't begun looking at applications yet or at least won't be sending invites until sometime in January, I definitely feel your pain. I feel really good about my applications to UT, UNC, and OSU (I've made really good connections with POIs at each), and to an extent my USU application (have a good POI there, but funding is an issue). So I feel like I have a really good shot at invites for UT and UNC (not sure if the others do interview weekends). It would really suck, though, if those two interviews overlapped. So even though I feel a little pained when some folks have 7 interview offers and can't go to them all due to overlap, I completely understand where they are coming from, too. I'd be really bummed if I was excited about two programs and could only go to one interview.

I wouldn't think that being unemployed would look unfavorable or have any impact on your application. What might look unfavorable is your somewhat low gpa and the B's that you earned in your CS classes. I think that if you had a LOR from one of your CS professors that basically said you were great at programming, hard working, etc. it would help counter having all B's in the field you want to study. Since you are applying to masters program, adcomms tend to be more forgiving of shortcomings like low gpa, but I don't know how competitive CS programs are. I don't know much about CS grad programs, so hopefully someone else can advise you on your school choices.

I went backpacking once in another country for a week and just brought my backpack as carry-on. I bought those tiny bottles of shampoo, conditioner, etc. I also found a small bottle of sunblock, too. If I remember correctly, my zip lock bag had shampoo, 2 conditioners, 2 body washes, toothpaste, mouthwash, and sunblock. The sunblock was the most difficult to fit, because it was tall. There aren't really any special tricks you can do to make your bag bigger, but having similar sized containers that aren't in weird shapes is helpful. The bag does have a little stretch to it, though, so you can squeeze a lot in. Also, I do know that I didn't put my deodorant in the zip lock bag and no one said anything. I've also had lip gloss and chapstick in my purse while flying and never had a problem. I didn't even know these things were considered liquids (well, except for the gloss). I'm not sure how they detect liquids (maybe the x-ray machine shows something), but sometimes they do know. For example, when traveling this past summer, I had bought a bottle of soda in my starting airport and only drank a little. When I arrived at a connecting airport and went through security, they opened my bag and hunted around until they found it. So they have some way of knowing about big things, or perhaps they just saw the shape of the bottle. I don't know! For your meds, make sure they are in the original containers with your name, prescription, etc. on it. You're supposed to have proof of the prescription, so they could give you a hard time about it if you switch containers.

Just thought I'd chime in. I agree with what's been said so far. A general biology degree should have provided you with the basics in ecology, so you should be able to understand marine ecology concepts. Coursework for a masters or PhD will help fill in the gaps and get you up to speed, plus your PI will be able to teach you field techniques. However, as has been suggested, reading up on the subject is a good idea. My own masters program has a marine biology track, and I believe that all of the students following it don't have marine biology undergraduate degrees. I actually had a conversation similar to this with a freshman. He said that he originally wanted to go into marine biology but decided to take the pre-med route instead because he didn't think he'd be able to get a job. Now he's regretting the decision, but I let him know that as long as he takes an ecology class to learn thy basics, he can pursue marine biology in grad school if he still feels the same way.

While I don't have any interview offers yet (most of my schools don't start reviewing applications until January), I am beginning to worry about the almost certain questions about my grades. I am really interested in how the interview went, sr41489, as well as any other interviews you had. I am currently a masters student, and I've done very well in my program and am finishing up a strong thesis. I also did very well as an undergrad biology student, with an average GPA of 3.8 over the course of my program. I worked on multiple research projects plus an internship, and I received two department awards when I graduated. I also won an award for a poster at my undergrad institution's research day my senior year, as well as another last spring for a poster at a state conference. I also have several volunteer experiences, and teaching experiences through peer tutoring and a graduate assistantship at my current school. Plus I have two first-author publications in review. If you just looked at that part of my application, I look like a top candidate However, if you look at my record before I was a biology major, it's a terrible mess. I changed majors several times, transferred between 4 different schools, withdrew from several semesters, failed multiple classes. It's 7 years of madness. It's not all bad. I'd go two semesters on dean's list and then tank the next two, and then repeat the process. Then there was a stretch where I got A's in half my classes and F's in the other half. It was more or less that I did exceptionally well or exceptionally bad. No mediocre grades. Then when I entered my biology program, everything turned around and I haven't had a grade less than a B since (and only got B's on rare occasions). I have reasons for my past performance. They aren't all good reasons, but it isn't as if I just partied for 7 years or something like that. I worked full-time for almost the entire 10 years I was an undergrad, and there were definitely lots of times that I prioritized my job over my coursework. I had several very toxic relationships over the years that took their toll on me emotionally, physically (I was actually abused in one relationship... sorry if that's tmi), and financially. I have also long dealt with depression and social anxiety issues, which when coupled with other things going on in my life had a very adverse effect on my academic performance. My grandfather also went into hospice during one semester and died a week later, and I ultimately just withdrew from that semester. I have resolved all of these issues for the most part. I got my priorities straight in relation to work and school (although now it doesn't matter because my work is at school and is very compatible with my coursework and research). I developed self-respect and gained a sense of self-worth and got away from all the losers and abusers in my life, and now I'm married to someone who doesn't treat me like a doormat. My depression was mainly triggered by my anxiety, and I've been doing well with managing it and I have a support system set up to help me when I slip up. So that was long, but I know that if I get an interview, someone will ask about my sub-3.0 undergrad GPA (it ended up being a 2.8 when I summed all of the schools together). I would like suggestions on how to answer the question. I know enough to focus on how dramatically I've improved, but I'm not sure how to really explain the why. It wasn't really one specific thing... it was a combination of cruddy aspects of my life that piled on top of each other. While that is the most truthful answer, I'm not sure it's one my interviewers would like to hear.