GeoDUDE!

somtimes a postdoc > tenured faculty. Postdoc's know most what it takes to make it through grad school and get a job right after... they just did it!

I acutally know a grad student at OSU's earth science dept and he's really cool! seems like a nice dept.

Acceptance rates are also kinda useless in a lot of PhD admissions. for some fields, its all about funding that year and how many students apply to work with a particular professor. Also, why is this in the GRE forum?

I think bsharp's assessment is correct if you are a salaried (or even hourly) employee with "general" responsibilities. This is not the case however. The money that is paid in GRAs is generally tied to a grant: IE money that pays for specific things. That's why this is different.

I don't know if your doing a PhD or not: I don't know how you can do graduate level earth science work without calc or physics. I'd be pretty shocked if you could get into ANY program without a year of each, to be honest. I'm sure its possible, but you need to show some sort of working knowledge in the basics. Petrologists (and mineralogists) need to be able to ground their work with geophysical observations (if they are doing experimental work) and that comes from geophysicists. How are you going to read papers? Can you do both? Get a job and take calc 1 and physics 1 ? Thats going to be very similar to what graduate school will be like, in terms of workload. 4 programs is not a lot. If your application isn't stellar, you should apply to around 10. what's your research experience? if you have a reasonable amount, more field experience won't help as much as filling in those gaps. Do you have a professor who can write a recommendation that highlights your quantitative abilities ? Are you applying to top departments ?

I think the general advice is sound, but there is a lot of conflating it, lets break it down. In the workplace, the boss determines how work should be done. You were paid for hours you did not complete. Therefore, if you cannot do the work that the boss wants, in the way the boss wants it, you should give back the money. This is not complicated.

To add (and agree) what TakeruK says, most of the top departments in my field don't even allow students to pay their own way: If they are a student in department they are funded.

Its important to note that just because someone is funded by their PI doesn't mean funding isn't guaranteed for the duration of their PhD. I am funded by my PI (and some external fellowships) but if those dried up I have a guaranteed TA spot: the department is obligated to fund me for 5 years with or without PI support. I assume this is the same for most STEM students.

If you are entering your 2nd year of graduate school (masters or PhD) you can apply that year.

I'm really not understanding why thats different in this case vs the current case: they would bring the domestic student in anyway if the grant can only fund domestic students (or certain internationals ect)

sure, but the amount of grad students and certain grant requirements are independent.

I disagree, part of the reason international applicants have difficulties is because the higher cost at state schools: less grad students in the department means more resources put into each grad student, theoretically.

Shamrock that is a pretty typical load. You should be talking to your advisor or someone in your department

I can't believe this is a topic.

have you asked your advisor? There are people that can handle 20 credits and do fine with research, there are people who have trouble with 9 credits.

a lot of grant/fellowship/scholarship applications are due in december. You should talk to your major advisor quickly IMO. And just a lesson in general: you are going to need to speak candidly about funding with many people in academia. If you find this topic touchy, get used to it.

Learning new software is not a good reason to do a PhD in Earth Sciences. The requirement for a PhD is much greater than learning new software: you are better served just learning it on your own (even if you have to pay out of hand). If the job you want requires you to get a PhD, then get the PhD.

I'm sorry you feel that wasn't advice. There are other options besides going to graduate school and paying. Going into a program where you must research and take out loans is a type of stress you should not consider. You are destined to fail. Some people come through ok, but many don't. Research is a fickle thing, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Do you really want to wrack up debt on something that variable? I'll let you know that I also switched fields, got into a single funded masters program and used that to leverage myself into the PhD program of my choosing. you can do this too, I had terrible grades in undergrad. Luck plays a role, figure out a way to get lucky.

I would not pay for a graduate degree, especially one that involves a thesis.

Are you going to a public school? Then you should change residency for instate tuition... even if you pay for it or not.

Assume you will pay, let him pay for you if he offers.

TLDR (from thread): She has money. She wants to pay someone to do something a certain way. You are not doing it that way. If you do not do it that way, you will get fired. Figure out what that way is or you will be fired. You have the chance to learn a life lesson without having many negative consequences, I suggest you take it.

Something I did with my advisor is go over her expectations for me for every quarter. It turns out my advisor doesn't care how or when I do it as long as everything in the quarter gets done. It sounds like you haven't done this, and it might be a good thing to do for your next meeting: send her an email before hand, reacting to her comment that you might get fired. You obviously want to continue to work with her, but you need to know what your up against. It seems like you are just assuming people think like you: That is wrong.

What kind of Geophysics are you interested in? Inverse methods will be better for general geophysics, but if you are interested in exploration geophysics, then obviously take exploration seismology. My bet is that inverse methods will be the tougher class, as its basically a math class when taught correctly where as in exploration geophysics seismology depending on the treatment you won't even need more than calc 2.

if you could get linear or calc 3 (or both) while keeping your major that would be really great imo.