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GeoDUDE!

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  1. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Victor Awosiji in Skype Interview   
    I think it depends. I think a lot of POis like talking to their prospective students at least once before throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars to educate them. 
  2. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Victor Awosiji in Skype Interview   
    it would be good if you could list projects that you thought were really interesting, and why. IE, when he/she asks, tell me about your research interests?, have some specific papers in mind that you really like. They don't have to be his/hers but they should be related and it should be fairly obvious why you want ot work with that POIs. 
  3. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Aptorian in Embarrassed of my grad school   
    I guess the point of going to school is so other people are jealous.  No wonder you are unhappy.
  4. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Aptorian in Embarrassed of my grad school   
    No one will ever like you with that attitude, no matter how prestigious of a school you go to (and UCSD is very prestigious) you cannot succeed acting like that. Perhaps academia is not for you.
  5. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Quickmick in Is there any good graduate school in Atmospheric Science in USA?   
    It depends on what you want to study in atmospheric science. 
    Among the best are Scripps, Woods Hole Joint Program, UC Irvine. University of Rhode Island and Uni Hawaii are also great programs. You will find that all earth science disciplines  are scattered across different departments due to the interdisciplinary  nature of the earth sciences. 
  6. Downvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in Writing a Letter of Recommendation for myself   
    Just because something is commonplace does not mean it is ETHICAL. Cheating, lying and stealing happens all the time, does not mean we should do it. If the advisor asked him to apply for travel grants, and is unwilling to write the letter for the required grant, that is just wrong. Furthermore, this isn't a cherry picked opinion. I'd advise you to read the opinions of the stack exchange question. Furthermore, look at who writes the answers: almost all the people who are against this practice are professors. Many of them tenured at top universities in their field. This is a big deal, tread lightly.
     
    You wont endorse it, but you certainly are by telling him to do it. If my advisor asked me to do this, I would not apply for the grant. 
  7. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from collegesista in Deciding between well-ranked PhD program and reapplying to medical school?   
    It's even more crazy to enter a PhD program when you don't want to do it.
  8. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from shoupista in which major has the smartest students?   
    This is so obtuse. 
  9. Downvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from 0002684179 in Questions to Ask Before Acceptance to a PhD program?   
    what else would it be used for ?
  10. Downvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from kinseyd in Gender discrimination as a TA/student attendance   
    I dont know the situation, but If the TA was cute (and yes, being a women is required to be cute in this case) I would rather speak to her than the dude. But I'm guessing that kinda gender bias is more acceptable? 
  11. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! reacted to Eigen in Male profs being friends with male students?   
    I feel like you're mixing together things that aren't a big deal with things that are. 
    The male student forming friendships with faculty is not an issue- in fact, it's a large part of what grad school is about. 
    The issue, as I would read it, is that there's such a strong connotation of impropriety for female graduate students forming friendships or doing things with male professors, and that's a hard one to change. I can't quite read from your comments, but do you actually want to form strong 1 on 1 relationships with your male faculty? Or is this something that you would also consider inappropriate?
    Overall, this is something I've had to struggle with a lot as a young male professor. I'm generally informal with students, and I have a lot that I would consider friends. I find myself having to be a lot more cautious and reserved with female students than male students, largely due to the worry of what it looks like from the outside. I try to interact with groups, and all of the students doing research with me are (currently) female. 
    But I could easily take my male students out for the weekend and go camping or fishing, and no one would think anything of it. Doing the same thing with my female students would invite a lot of scrutiny, and likely have negative effects for both them and me. Similarly, I've let my (male) students crash with me if they need a few nights here and there between, say, semester and summer housing. Again, having female students stay with me (even though I'm married) is a line that would likely get me in a lot of trouble. 
    It is a double standard, and I do find that it hurts my female students, as there are fewer people they can "appropriately" form close mentor relationships with, but I'm at a loss for solutions short of "broad sweeping change in perceptions and opinions". I feel this is an issue that needs a lot more attention (broadly) in the academy, where the general rule seems to be that male faculty should be very cautious around female students, but that male faculty/male students and female faculty with either male or female students can be a lot more personable. It's not something I see openly discussed much at all, but it's something that does worry me. 
    I would say that you and your predominately female cohort could do a lot of good brainstorming ways to open up the social behavior of the department- I second the ideas of inviting faculty out for drinks after seminars, etc. as small groups. That said, as mentioned, I wouldn't think it would be productive to try to disrupt the relationships the male student in your department has formed- the idea is for you all to be able to form similar relationships, not for no one to be able to!
  12. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Chai_latte in Modelling vs. Experimental work   
    I disagree that you will have higher impact in experimental vs theoretical: if you are doing truly novel work it won't matter. I also disagree thta modeling allows you to publish faster. One of my simulations takes about 3 months to run on ~500 cores. This isn't that uncommon, this is why there are several NSF funded high computing centers.
    I actually don't think it matters which you pick.... though I picked pure modeling (over an offer to do both analog and computer models) because I thought while doing both would be cool, the computational skills I am learning now give me a better back up plan : I can work for companies like google, goldman sachs or even bloomberg. 
  13. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Yunix in 2016 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    I took 0 geology classes in undergrad, didn't actually know the difference between a rock and am mineral, and taught intro geology my first week of graduate school. 
    Stay 1 week ahead. 
  14. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from klippe in Course suggestions   
    It depends on what you want to do.
    I think taking the programming is a good idea. How are you going to analyze all that data without python/matlab scripts ? Taking at least 1 formal programming class will give you much stronger footing for the maybe more complex scripts you might have to write in the future. Though, if you want to go into industry, unless you are a very good programmer, I'm not sure how much "a little programming" will do for you in terms of job prospects.
    S&T students at my uni tend to be very technical. So all of them have taken linear/differential equations, and upper division statistics.  However, these are all PhD students (we have few S&T master students). That being said, I think just taking Linear is a bit of a mistake. Linear is a core mathematics course that gives you the tools to do much more advanced mathematics: such as Analysis and Differential Equations (and Partial). I'm a bit surprised that Linear is not prereq for that Diff EQ course. Sometimes linear is even a pre req for Calc 3.  But with out taking those other courses, I feel it will be too abstract for you to really help you in your career, or even research. Unless you plan on going onto a PhD, I think taking the math courses is a non-starter. This is of course unless you major advisor tells you to take these courses. 
    Something else you might ask is maybe that grad level stat course teaches R or Matlab. For example, at my MS program, our earth science stats class was done entirely in matlab, so people who took that course became decent matlab users. 
    If your goal is going into industry, I think Intro to Remote Sensing makes the most sense. You will learn about all the measurements Earth Scientists take, from seismology to spectroscopy: Remote Sensing is O&G's bread and butter. The fossil fuel class seems good too. 
    that's just my 2 cents. 
     
  15. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from EpiGirl2016 in Materials Scientist PhD Dream   
    The GPA cutoff is a real thing, depending on schools. Most schools require the department to petition the graduate school to admit someone with a lower than their cutoff GPA. That is extra paperwork and it doesn't always work. The larger problem is that professors might not even see your application, depending on the # of applicants, as they might sort by GPA. 
    I got a MS in geology, from a very small relatively unknown program. I had LOR from a research internship i did at a top 5 program in my field, and 2 other LOR from professors I did research with. I had been doing research since the 2nd semester of my freshman year. One thing that might have been a problem was that I did them in physics, however physics majors going into my field is very common. My GRE scores were 320+ (I forget the exact score, you can find it somewhere on here). 
    Here is the thing. Personal Statement, LoR, GRE scores are the biggest differentiators these days.  And in reality, there are more than enough students to fill the top programs with great LoR, GRE  GPA and personal statements.  A masters thesis really can help get you ahead, but even then, there are more than enough people to fill those programs with stellar stats. You really have to get lucky.
    What did you expect? You could be mediocre for most of your college education and get into the top programs without a real struggle? People who were much more consistent than you still struggle to get in.
  16. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from KevinMack in Materials Scientist PhD Dream   
    I have no idea how competitive materials science is... however, your GPA is low. Most people applying to masters programs will be in the 3.5 range. 
    I had a 3.05 GPA coming out of undergrad and managed to get into a funded masters program, albiet at a unranked program. However, my lowest grades were as a freshman and sophomore, and my highest as a junior and senior. 
    Your road is likely to be difficult... I suggest really focusing on getting into a masters program, acing the classes there will really be your only shot at a PhD.
    The other question is... why do you want a PhD? If you plan on only going into industry, it should be possible because it won't matter as much where you get your phd from. However.... if you want to go into academia, you will need to get into a top program for your best shot at becoming a professor. That will require a bit of luck. 
     
     
  17. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from geofizic in Can I make it into these programs with my low cGPA?   
    I'll just say that all my PI's students (i'm a geodynamist) except 1 have been a physics major in undergrad. All three of the geophysics faculty here have degrees(BA/BS) too. Especially if you are modeling focused (instead of observational or exploration geophysics) a physics background is more important than a geology background .
    I really encourage you to read Takeruk's post carefully, as its mostly spot on to what I have seen. 
    The Earth Science programs you are applying are to  as competitive as top level physics programs. I think there might be the case were lower ranked geoscience programs are a bit easier to get into than lower ranked physics programs, but I think thats mostly because there is still a decent amount of oil funding at lower ranked earth science schools ( I mean outside of the top 30 or so). But at top level programs, in all sciences, funding is generally plentyful (even if faculty there want more, departments always want more money), and they can take as many students as they can hold. If you are a really strong candidate, fit with a particular PI, and a candidate like you doesn't come around often (every few years), they will make sure you have an offer. This is still possible with a low cGPA. It all depends on the type of argument you make with your statement of purpose, interviews (meeting or speaking with POIs is important) and letters of recommendation. With a masters degree, they want to see someone turning into a 3rd year graduate student, not someone who needs the training of a 1st year. They want 5 soild years of research, instead of the 3 or sometimes even 2 they actually get out of candidates coming out of undergrad. This is because, as all graduate students realize, your ability goes up exponentially year to year. What you can accomplish year 1 is very small then what you can accomplish in year 3, if all things go well. You need to show that progression. 
  18. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! reacted to Usmivka in Funding through the military ?   
    According to http://www.military.com/education/money-for-school/reserve-tuition-assistance.html, your friend's support from the reserve is maximum $4500 a year, limited to tuition. The limitations also specify masters degrees, with no mention of doctoral degrees, so I think it probably is limited to no more than 2 years (though I don't know that for sure on 5 minutes of googling). Grad school tuition plus stipend for a single student here is nearly $100k. If I was at an equivalent state research school, that would be a bit under $50k a year. Plus whatever research expenses you may have (say another $10k a year). And another couple thousand for medical/dental, if your school covers that. So I think the tuition assistance is negligible compared to the total cost (7.5% or less for a masters, much less for a PhD) . The tuition assistance might be a nice little bonus for the school after they've accepted students, but I can't see it making any difference in the decision making process for who to admit.
    By comparison, the NSF GRFP provides ~35k in stipend/yr, for three 3rs, and no tuition. The NDSEG provides ~$32k in stipend/yr, plus a medical allowance, plus full tuition costs, however high those might be (again, 3 yrs). That is the sort of external funding that makes a difference to the total cost. So your friend is hopefully applying for these!
  19. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from neur0cat in Emailing POIs   
    my answer from : 
     
     
     
    Hello Professor A
     
    I am currently an English student in the UK and want to continue to study X in graduate school. I am particularly interested in particular X, and think that because your work "specific paper" is related to specific X, I think that you and your department would be a great place for me to continue my studies. Are you taking on graduate students for Fall 2015? Attached is a copy of my CV.
     
    Thank you for your time,
     
    Peachpenumbra.
     
     
     
     
    I used a very similar email to all my POIs and got a response from every single one. Even the ones that didnt take on graduate students, they referred me to someone else who they think I might be a good fit with. The email does a few things : 1) it states who you are and what you are interested in. 2) It shows you have at least read 1 thing of theirs and it relates to what you are interested in. 3)  It is very short and doesnt waste the professors time.
     
    I would send 4 line emails and get back essays from them in a response. The CV attachment is important; If your CV is good or impressive they will be more likely to respond knowing you at least have a shot to get in. Many students who contact professors dont have a shot.
  20. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from prairie_canuck in Bad grades in first 3 years?   
    I like this statement more:
    I didn't perform up to my potential during my first three years, but when I matured a bit, figured out what I actually enjoyed studying, I excelled. 
    The wording is important, because you don't want to sound like you are making excuses for your bad grades. Everyone takes classes they aren't interested in. EVERYONE. Everyone with a 3.5+ GPA got good grades in classes they were bored out of their mind. You need to recognize that. 
  21. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! reacted to magnetite in 2016 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    Anyone else waiting to hear from schools?
  22. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! reacted to emmuhhs in 2016 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    Sort of. My POI at UW still has not heard from NSF about his funding proposals so he can't make a decision yet. And CU told me that they do not have any funding but I think they're not rejecting me in case someone turns down departmental funding they can fight for. My hopes are very, very low though.
  23. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from darcandra92 in Is this common   
    the world is out to get you.
  24. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Epi_2016 in Is this common   
    the world is out to get you.
  25. Upvote
    GeoDUDE! got a reaction from Ganzi in Is this common   
    the world is out to get you.
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