GeoDUDE!

Wait a year if you are in a program.

Man, no wonder they let me into grad school, I'm pretty clever eh ?

Write about what you want to do in graduate school.

Tinder is great for hard days, fwiw.

Call them tomorrow, the graduate school. They will help you out. This is the easiest solution

I think I also made a huge mistake. I went to one of the best schools in the world for undergrad and went to one of the best schools in the world for graduate school and it isn't my mentality or personality holding me back, it has to be the weak name brand of me going to top 20 schools overall in the world.

All of the students in my department, MS or PhD (which are both researched based) are fully funded at the same level (except PhD candidates, where they get a raise for passing the qualifier). 90%+ of the MS students at my last department were also funded (and if they werent funded, the 2 or 3 who werent, got a 2/3s tuition waiver). Most strong departments in the sciences fund all their research students. Professional Masters are a different matter.

I got a 3.05 in undergrad and studied some. I got a 3.85 (3.7 at time of application) for my masters and didn't study a lick. That was over 9 classes, including graduate level analysis (where I was the only non math graduate student), advanced field geology (where I hadn't taken even intro geology), and quite a few statistics and geophysics courses. Perhaps its field based, or perhaps my undergraduate preparation was much better than it appears from my GPA. It's entirely possible. But the point of a graduate student isn't to get As in their classes, its to get research done. My classes in my PhD Program (I have to take 6, because almost every top program in my field doesnt let masters classes count towards phd if you did it at another school) have been easy as well. Read a paper, give a presentation. No tests. No problem sets. The goal is to get familiarized with the relevant literature. No one cares about your GPA in graduate school, they just want you to pass quals and get your research done. I got into PhD programs on the strength of my thesis, if there was no thesis, but i had a 4.0 masters gpa, no one would have even looked at me. Sure, it was probably nice for them to see me mostly get As, but its not like i put in any more effort (and actually less). I spent less than 10 hours a week on my own classes (when taking 2-3).

It all depends. I heard from my current school in January (jan 15th deadline). I heard from a few schools in feb, and a few schools in march, and most of the rejections come in april and may.

Do not compare yourself to your peers.

I personally would never pay for graduate school. I know that isn't an option for everyone, but if i Didn't get both my MS and PhD fully funded (with livable stipend), I would have found other means for supporting myself. Remember that there is not just a financial, but also an opportunity cost to going to graduate school. You have to devote a lot of your time for a reasonable period of time when you are in a very productive part of your life. You have to ask yourself, what does working vs not working get for me. Are you going to be a rockstar if you don't work and take out more loans? Or will you get a similar level of production, just under less stress. What does going into debt buy you?

Probably has a template. Probably has written a ton of grants. Probably doesn't need to be as careful as someone who is writing (probably) their first grant. Besides, we all know that the only people who get the GRF come from UW-Madison. Why fight over that?

Because graduate classes are super easy, since graduate students are supposed to do research. In undergrad, your job is to get good grades (sorta), where as in graduate school you are expected to get good enough grades.

If this is MIT/WHOI They should be relatively tailored in my opinion. WHOI is an oceanography research institute while MIT's focus is broader, Earth Atmosphere and Planetary. WHOI has a graduate school, but it is not a "school" per say. The required courses will be different at each (i'm fairly sure), and while your POIs there might work for both, there are restrictions on who can be your primary advisor in each.

Not to be a homer, but also https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/ has a great program it seems as well, if we are talking about california.

Why would you be surprised at how strict they are? They are an undermanned organization where people fight for their money. If you couldn't color within the lines in kindergarden you are going to have trouble getting funding from them.

Your Letters should be sent directly from your letter writers (electronically or by snail mail). This is especially true if you have waived your right to see them (which you should have).

They are usually sealed and sent by your registrar to be offical.

Read this post: http://3dpancakes.typepad.com/ernie/2005/03/re_phd_with_low.html The author is a full professor at a top 5 CS department, over half his students are working in academia now.

X% where X>= 0

You should check out Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (columbia) in your own city!

Its actually the smartest thing you can do.

I think the GREs that stop people from getting in are below 310 at competitive schools, in general. I cant see programs cutting off 320+. Even at a place like MIT, Can't imagine more than 25% of its applicants getting 320+ combined. Think of all the international students that get close to perfect in the Q but in the high 140s low 150s in the V.

The reason they invest a lot of time in picking the right candidates is because their graduate students build their researcher program more than they do themself. Thats the key to a successful researcher program, and of course, getting tenure.

A postdoc is an academic position.