shadowclaw

I agree, it's unlikely that this person has actually written something negative. I feel confident that there are very few if any malicious professors out there who would write a terrible letter for a student. If she/he truly did not have anything good to write about you, then the person would have declined. I also agree that you should definitely not ask about the letter. You cannot do anything about it, and since you already know the only potential undesirable comment, you can be prepared to talk about it if questioned. I'm also guilty of not asking for strong letters, but I already know that my writers have written good things about me. They didn't tell me, but I know. I think I have a small advantage in that I asked to writers who wrote for me for my MS applications. My graduate coordinator told me that my letters were stellar and were the key item that got me accepted (I have a very hairy undergrad record), so I know those two letters will be awesome.

This blog post describes US ecology programs perfectly. There are some exceptions which do lab rotations, but of the 30 - 40 ecology programs I've looked at in my search for the perfect PhD program, most work like this blog describes. It really has been like applying for a job! I searched wildlife and ornithology job boards for PhD positions, plus I'm on the Ecolog listserv. Some POIs just wanted a CV and a cover letter when I contacted them, others wanted transcripts, writing samples, and references, too. I even had a Skype interview with a POI prior to formally applying to the program. I got turned down by a few because they were being very selective and only taking students with very specific research interests and research experience. However, I also found some really great matches for my interests and I'm extremely excited by the possibility of working with these POIs. While I think this process makes it more difficult for the prospective PhD student to find and successfully apply to a program, I think it probably results in much happier and productive students.

I think it really depends on your chosen roommates, as well as your own personal needs for alone time. I had a pretty inconsiderate roommate when I briefly dormed as an undergrad, and that pretty much ruined it for me. I also have some friends who have had some terrible roommates over the years. Mostly the problems involved roommates who wouldn't clean or ate everything. However, sometimes it was way worse. I have one close friend whose education pretty much got put on hold for 5 years because one of her roommates (who didn't have a drivers license) decided it would be a great idea to take her car without her permission and totaled it. She didn't get any insurance money because he was unlicensed and she wouldn't admit to the police or insurance company that he had stolen it because she didn't want him to get in trouble. School was too far away to walk, bike, or take the bus, and she couldn't afford to dorm or move closer. It took her 5 years to get back to school after that, mostly because she lost her scholarships when she withdrew when the car was totaled, and she was even homeless for a while, sleeping on couches until she saved enough money. That's pretty extreme, but unless you room with someone you already know, there's no telling what can happen! My best friend and her husband are actually considering getting a roommate. They are moving to North Carolina and want to be by the beach, and it's much more economical if they get a roommate or two. So it also depends on your priorities. If you want to live in a specific location, a roommate may be the only way to make it feasible.

If an application says that you're writer has activated but not finished a letter, it might be a good idea to check in with him to make sure he doesn't think he completed it. I've had a few instances where one of my writers uploaded their letter but didn't actually hit the submit button or whatever it is you do to finish the process. However, you probably don't need to freak out about thy upcoming deadline too much. It seems that many professors wait until the due date to upload letters, even if they already have them written. All of my writers have finally submitted all of their letters. I was surprised that one did his on Christmas morning. Maybe it was the first free moment he had to devote to it. I was expecting both of my remaining writers to upload on New Years Day, so I'm happy. I was having a little bit of a panic about my current PI, because he left town for the holiday and won't be back until January 5. So I was worried that he might not get to it on time for the January 1st deadline for my top choice school.

Well, I was right on the money with my estimate (haha that was so punny... sorry). The calculator for Florida gave me $1098 if I was single and $1170 if I'm married. I have done a little bit of apartment hunting in the cities of my programs already to get an idea of how much we'd be allocating towards rent. This has actually been a little bit problematic, because my husband really doesn't like living in the city and would much rather live half an hour away in a more rural area. I would rather be in biking distance of the school. This would allow us to have only one car and I wouldn't have to worry about parking at school. Pet-friendly apartments are also a bit more difficult to find, although thankfully we only have 2 cats and not a dog! I've come across more cat-friendly places than dog-friendly.

Does the program have any sort of priority deadline for being considered in the first wave or for funding? I've seen a few programs that have two deadlines, one when all applications must be in and an earlier one where applicants may be considered for fellowships or just an early admissions decision.

I'm not sure exactly how much comes out of a paycheck for federal vs state taxes, but let's assume after taxes, that UF stipend leaves me with $1100 each month. An apartment plus utilities will cost at least $600, if not more. I have a car payment of $240, so that leaves $260 left each month for food and other things. That's not much to work with, especially if something went wrong with the car. Granted, if I didn't have the car, the stipend would be more appropriate, and I could likely find cheaper rent if I got a roommate. However, I have no desire to be car-free. Of course, none of this matters anyway, because I have a family and there's no way for both of us and the cats to live off of $16,000 if he can't find a job quickly.

TakeruK, you are always full of great wisdom! I think I am a bit lucky in that most of the programs I am applying to are in cities and towns with fairly low cost of living, so my stipend will go father. I agree that there are lots of other factors to take into account when choosing a school, but I still feel funny asking a school a school about stipends before applications are due! I do agree that avoiding schools with low stipends out high living costs is better for both the school and me.

Oh dear. I hope something like this doesn't happen to me. I'm down with hiking, canoeing, or something else I already know how to do, but I would be completely mortified if I was taken out skiing. I haven't skied since I was about 11, and it didn't go well for me back then!

I don't really feel like asking is a good way to go. Maybe they won't care if I ask, but I don't want to come across as if I'm picking programs based on money. I feel like most of the places I'm applying to will be ok, but you never know. UF for example has a program that offers a stipend of $16,000 and basically says on the website that the educational experience is so good, you should be happy to get that much. I can't imagine living off that little for just myself, let alone two people plus two cats. Of course, I'm really hoping to get the NSF GRFP, which provides a good stipend for 3 years.

One thing to do is to definitely check out local ordonances/laws. For example, my current school's town requires that you purchase a biking permit to ride your bicycle in town (it's a one-time $10 fee and I have no idea how they enforce it). My hometown had restrictions on fires (such as no fires after dark and flames of a certain height), and where I live now requires a pool to have a fence around it if it's under a certain height (including those blow up pools from WalMart). There are a lot of things that seem like they would be harmless and you might have neighbors who seem cool, but you never know who might turn you in for something. Usually that means you just have to correct whatever is wrong, but you could end up getting fined. The prospect of moving is also a bit unsettling for me, too. One of my biggest concerns is finding a job for my husband. I'm hoping for a stipend big enough that we'll be fine if he can't find one right away, but pretty much all of my prospective programs don't list stipend amounts. I've also seen some pretty low stipends for ecology programs in my research, but also some high ones.

That would be awkward.

I second this. I'm super jealous and can't wait for January to roll around when most of my programs will start sending out invites.

Ha. I just got a rejection from a program I didn't apply to. Well, really a lab. I had emailed a POI way back in August about positions in his lab, but he was looking for a student to work on a project I wasn't interested in so I didn't apply. I just got a rejection email from him that I wasn't chosen for the position, even though I told him I wasn't interested.

Huh. My professor gave me an A instead of an A- for my official grade. I actually did e-mail him because I noticed an error in the grade summary after angrily staring at for a while, but that just brought my grade up to a 92.9 (but still an A-). Guess he decided to round up, or perhaps someone else complained about those stupid quizzes. So I guess my venting was for nothing.

The gifts sound great! I gave small gifts to three professors I did research with or mentored me, along with thank you notes. My gifts were less serious than yours (I got a great book on the worst test answers for my advisor), but my professors really appreciated it. I also received a few gifts as well. All of this happened before graduation, too, so I wouldn't worry about that.

No, although technically I applied to the biology program, not EEC (but I did specify research interests in ecology and conservation biology). I found it odd that the person listed the result that way rather than biology.

This would aggravate me to no end. I'd be 90 years old and still going on about how I wasn't credited for all the work I did. Although I admit that I am very sensitive to not getting the recognition I think I deserve. For example, I worked with two other students and a professor on a project for the fish commission a few years ago during undergrad. I wasn't very knowledgeable about fish, but I was pretty handy with GIS and getting in contact with people to obtain permission to access streams from their land. So I made maps for like 90% of the places we were going, and they ended up being really helpful, especially the ones with aerial photography. Another kid on that project, who had taken 2 semesters of GIS coursework and was the tutor for both courses, was responsible for the rest (because he claimed to be familiar with the area). He ended up just printing out some Google maps that were pretty useless, and he would text me at 11:00 the night before to get help with them. Flash forward to last summer. He put on Facebook that he got a job with a local environmental group doing GIS work for them. I "like" the group on Facebook, and they posted a link to the announcement that he was hired. There was a paragraph describing his previous GIS experience, and it went on and on about how he did all of this GIS mapping for the fish commission project and that the project would never have succeeded without his GIS expertise. It was all complete bull, and he probably knew he could get away with it because 1) I was heading to grad school and wouldn't be applying for that job, and 2) it's not like if I found out that I'd call the place up and rat him out. It still really makes me mad that he got a job almost entirely based on work that I did (although I'm sure his GIS coursework played a role). He ended up quitting a few months later to work for an environmental consulting company that paid way better, and I wonder if he told them the same bull.

Well I just got excited for no reason. The secretary from Indiana emailed me, but the subject just said something about the biology department and made no mention of the school or the ecology program. So I thought it was an email from the biology program at WashU. Instead, it was just a note that my application was complete and would be sent to the adcomm for review. Ah, the torture of waiting.

Some of my deadlines haven't even passed yet! My top choice has a deadline of January 1st, so it's going to be a while before I hear back. Actually, my top 3 choices won't even start looking at apps until mid-January, so it's going to be a long, rough wait. Washington and WUSTL are actually pretty low on my list, so it's kind of funny that they are the first to send out invites! Still, I really want to hear something, and they are sending their invites this week, so the anxiety is getting stronger!

I know I came across a few programs that interviewed in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 and accepted 5 to 10. I think Cornell's EEB program may have been one of them. So that's in the range of 25-30%. Ecology programs tend to be small and selective, though, so some of the other biology programs may have higher rates.

The Biology deadline was also December 1st. The few results available in the results search are around now (along with WUSTL). Neither are my first choice, but the waiting is killing me!

Are there specific things that the school wants you to include in the personal statement? For one of my schools, I had to write a personal statement describing my research interests, proposed methods, and career goals, and then write a supplemental statement that described my past research experience. So the school might want you to break up your SOP into multiple documents. Sometimes this information isn't on the application itself, but somewhere on the department website.

Similar thoughts have crossed my mind about the holidays. My family has always been pretty tight knit my whole life. We haven't been spending as much time with my extended family in the past few years, but my parents and siblings are always visiting throughout the year, and we never spend a holiday alone. I feel like I can probably visit for Christmas every year, but it won't be like it is now, and I can forget the other holidays. It's going to be weird not seeing my family so often. As for winter break, I think it depends on your program. I do field work in the warm months, so my summer break is non-existent. However, my winter breaks for my masters program have been dull. This year, however, I do have my thesis writing to work on. Although I feel I may not accomplish as much as I'd like, because my committee is very slow to give me feedback on the things I send them. Since you will be working in the lab, I imagine you'll be more like my friend who is also interested in neuroscience. She spent all of last winter break doing research, and she's doing it again this break.

I found a wonderful distraction to keep my mind off of interview invites and wondering when my LOR writers will finally submit their darn letters for the January applications. Baking Christmas cookies! I make a lot... around 20 different kinds. It will keep me busy for a few days, anyway. Binge watching Game of Thrones or Babylon 5 if probably also in my future.