GeoDUDE!

Just got an acceptance from ATOC at CU-Boulder  Heard from PI they were aiming to have them out by mid Feb so was super surprised to see it. Good luck to those of you who also applied there.

You can also apply to national fellowships like those through NSF and the DoD.  
 

the other problem could be that you applied to work with 11 people at once place....... 

Fwiw, what is very common in our field is accepted student vitists: where the department lobbys for your commitment to the program. This is pretty competitive, and if you have a very focused field, they probably know where you were also accepted (at least possible places). I'd go there expecting to learn a lot about the program: I think its important to remember that interviews are not just there for the department to find out about you, but for you to find out about the department. Ask good questions. Graduate students are more often measured by the questions they ask and not the things they can immediately answer. 

That's pretty competitive, but pretty in line with my departments statistics(maybe UT is slightly harder?), though we get less applicants and accept less people. In general, getting into competitive grad school programs in the sciences you are looking at 5-15% acceptance rates. 

Fwiw, what is very common in our field is accepted student vitists: where the department lobbys for your commitment to the program. This is pretty competitive, and if you have a very focused field, they probably know where you were also accepted (at least possible places). I'd go there expecting to learn a lot about the program: I think its important to remember that interviews are not just there for the department to find out about you, but for you to find out about the department. Ask good questions. Graduate students are more often measured by the questions they ask and not the things they can immediately answer. 

This is 100% false. Wanting something for yourself is not selfish. Wanting something at the expense of others is. Grow up. 

Take a look at your thesis. Look at the authors you reference. Apply to work with those authors. That is if you want to continue on a similar research path. 

Contacting potential advisors will not lead to even weekly correspondence. I talked to my current PI 3 times before getting accepted, and I think that is a lot, and it was her contacting me.
Most professors that I've talked to keep a list of people that have contacted them and look for their applications. Getting on that list is important, but your application is still going to determine if you get in or not.  

Take a look at your thesis. Look at the authors you reference. Apply to work with those authors. That is if you want to continue on a similar research path. 

Back again for more! Gotta say, thread seems much more dead than in past years. Anyway, since apps are in...
Undergrad Institution: SLAC
Major(s): Geology
Minor(s): Env. Analysis
GPA in Major: ?
Overall GPA: 3.14
Position in Class: Very much middle
Grad Institution: Not-so-great large public
Major(s): Geology
GPA in Major: ?
Overall GPA: 3.9
Position in Class: ?

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162/83%
V: 163/93%
W: 5.0/93%

Research Experience: 2 REUs, 1 field camp abroad, 1 senior thesis (Bachelor's); 1 master's thesis. 5 abstracts, 2 first author papers in prep.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Couple merit scholarships, Sigma Xi, GSA grant

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA in UG, Adjunct Lecturer in grad, tutor on the side, spent time in industry between ug/grad.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Admissions officer for UG school, organized grad field trip, couple workshops

Special Bonus Points: idk, the master's?

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: idk

Applying to Where: PhD - I guess basically all are for petrology stuff

URI GSO
CUNY Grad Center
Harvard
Columbia
Rice
UC Davis
Wisconsin

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. 

I know this is an old thread now (maybe someone else in a similar situation will find it helpful), but I am familiar with some of the programs on your list and I might also be familiar with some of the programs you went to in Canada. 
First, I would say that if you are aiming for a Geophysics PhD, then a Physics background is fine. Many geophysics students in my program (one of the ones you're applying to) do not have a geology degree at all and most would have some kind of physics or engineering degree. However, of course, they did take geophysics classes in undergrad and your geophysics Masters degree will be fine to cover that. The other geology will be covered as needed while you're in your PhD program. For example, in my department, there is a "geology 101" class (meant for people with zero geology background, like me) that covers the basic stuff that you need to know to work in an Earth Science department (my work is on planetary science, studying planets around other stars). This is a graduate level class is designed for and required for all incoming planetary science & geophysics students (those with geology experience can take a different class instead). What I am trying to say is that some schools won't really require you to take "leveling" courses (i.e. catching up with undergrad courses) but instead already offer courses that will catch you up as part of your PhD course requirements. This is because most schools have very diverse earth science departments where people come into the program from all sorts of fields (my department admits people with degrees in physics, astronomy, math, biology, chemistry, environmental science, geology, geophysics, and some engineering programs too).
And now to answer your questions:
- Given my current situation, is there anything I can do in the next 2 years during my Master’s to help overcome my low undergraduate cGPA? I will be taking Quantum, Condensed matter, crystallography and electrodynamics (Jackson) graduate courses. I hope by doing well in these courses I can strengthen my application.
For the Earth science programs, these courses won't be particularly helpful. But of course, doing well in these courses will certainly be a good thing, even if the only thing they do is raise your Masters GPA. Doing well in these courses will definitely help in your physics applications. And, if the professors on the committee have some physics background (they should!) then even in the Earth sciences, doing well in a notoriously difficult Physics course such as Jackson E&M would stand out. E&M might not be that relevant to geophysics, but a strong performance will demonstrate your strong quantitative skills. 
Another thing you can do while in your MSc years is to apply for fellowships. Winning a OGS (if you're in Ontario, other provinces have similar things) or a NSERC will help your PhD application.
** But keep in mind that you will be applying to PhD programs about one year from now, after only half of your Masters is finished. If there is a class or a conference or a paper/project you want to do, do it in the first year otherwise it might not be complete by the time you want to apply.
- This is might be silly to ask, but what are my chances of getting accepted to these groups? do I have a shot, or am I delusional?  
It's hard to say what your application will look like after your Masters. If you were to apply right now, I think it would be really hard to get into these schools. But with a better GPA and much more research experience during your Masters, you should have a shot, in my opinion. But I will be honest---your undergrad GPA will still be a part of the equation and at some of the top schools in your list, it will hurt you. 
- I have read that a MSc can a help or destroy one's application. In my case, I don’t think I have much choice, a masters will give me a GPA bump, 2 years research, an additional and potentially stronger LOR, and something to add to my CV. I understand that the quality of my research matters, but due to the nature of my work, having a chance to work on the lab techniques and mastering the equipment and procedures, puts me at an advantage when applying to the particular research groups I am targeting. Is there any way this can backfire?
Most of the time when I tell people that a MSc can "backfire", I'm referring to US masters degrees (either the coursework only terminal degrees or the "consolation Masters"). In these cases, doing poorly in the Masters program will hurt the applicant more than help, in my opinion. But since you're from Canada, the Masters then PhD route is the normal route and it won't be a problem. That said, since the goal of you doing the Masters is to improve your application, you must do better in the Masters program than you did in the undergraduate program if you want it to help. So it could "backfire" if you end up showing that there is no upward trend between you as an undergrad and you as a MSc student. But maybe for this case, "backfire" is the wrong word since you won't really be worse off than without the Masters.
- Is it fair to say that the geosciences graduate programs are “easier” to get into than traditional physics programs?
No. You might get this impression though if you apply "Physics grad school criteria" to the students that apply to Geophysics vs. Physics PhD programs. For example, if you compare the GPA of physics BSc holders who apply to Geophysics PhDs vs. Physics PhDs, you might see that the successful Geophysics PhD applicants appear to have lower GPAs. But that might only be because the most grad schools will weigh relevant coursework more strongly. And for a student in a Physics BSc program, more of the coursework will be relevant to a physics PhD program than a geophysics PhD program, so the geophysics applicants are likely judged on a different set of courses than the physics applicants. But since a Physics BSc is going to have mostly Physics-relevant courses, the overall GPA for those not applying to Physics could be lower. This creates the false impression among Physics students that Physics is the "most rigorous" field, because they see only the highest GPAs going to Physics while lower GPAs go to other fields. But I hope you see what I mean by "false impression" here!
- If I do research relevant to my PI of interest at the target school, do I stand a better chance of getting in? Can a PI vouch for me?
First question is yes. Mostly because when admissions committees are looking for students, they are trying to match students with professors. In particular, they want to match students with professors who need students. I know that at my program, you could be a good match for someone but if they are not interested in having more students, and you're not a good match for anyone else, then you might not get accepted. So, my advice is to not limit your research interests too much. That's the purpose of a PhD, not a BSc or MSc. Don't "put all your eggs in one basket", unless of course, there is really only one person at a particular school you want to work with, then if you can't work with them, you would rather be rejected. But that also comes with a warning because what if you go to that school and then the person turns out to be a jerk, or they leave, or something else happens etc.
Second question: this depends on the school. At some places, you must have a PI vouch for you to get in. At others, professors that want a certain student can let the admissions committee know. Or, they might only have an influence if they are on the committee itself. It varies a lot between departments.
---
Finally, some last comments:
I don't think your list of schools is necessarily "too large" since you have a riskier application (lower undergrad cGPA for these schools). Also, this is about 1 year before you will actually apply, so I would imagine that you will refine and edit this list over that time. If you want a comparison, I'm a Canadian student that did BSc at a top 3, a MSc at a mid-level Canadian school and then applied to top 10 only US PhD programs. I applied to 8 schools total (7 US plus one Canadian). My advice for applying as a Canadian are:
a. Don't apply to US schools that do not offer something better than the best Canadian school you can get into. (Unless you have other reasons to be in the US). 
b. Apply to more private schools than public schools because public schools admit fewer international due to funding issues. So if you are to cut schools from this list, cut the public ones.
c. The goal is not to get as many acceptances as possible! When you make your list of schools, don't make it a list of schools you think you have a good shot at. Instead, make it a list of schools you have a small chance at but actually want to be there. For example, if you apply to 10 schools where you think you have a 20% chance of getting in, then you will likely get 1 to 3 acceptances, which is all you need. A lot of people will apply to 10 schools where they think they have like 70% of getting in, and then end up with 6-8 acceptances. It's nice to see that many acceptance letters, but you can't attend 6-8 schools. It's far better to choose between 1-3 schools you really want to go to than to have 6-8 options that are less exciting.
d. That said, be realistic too. I said the above for effect, but in reality, you don't want to only apply to schools that are "20% chance". You should make your list mostly these schools, then maybe 1 or 2 "70% chance' and one "safety" school (>95% chance). That way, you will have the most chances at getting into a good school you're excited about but if you were wrong about your chances, there should be at least one other option that you would still be happy attending.

Contacting potential advisors will not lead to even weekly correspondence. I talked to my current PI 3 times before getting accepted, and I think that is a lot, and it was her contacting me.
Most professors that I've talked to keep a list of people that have contacted them and look for their applications. Getting on that list is important, but your application is still going to determine if you get in or not.  

you should apply to the schools you want to go to... your scores/stats aren't so far off that you couldn't get into any school you want. Admissions isn't linear, there are many ways to make a compelling argument for admission. I did so with much worse stats than yourself (~3.00 GPA). 

you know what is also crappy. being hungry. 

you know what is also crappy. being hungry. 

A quick forum search:
 






 
Your welcome. 

I'm not sure how much environmental science programs require having a faculty sponser, in earth sciences it largely depends on the place you are applying. For example, my program its virtually impossible to get in without contacting your advisor, but in some programs they just take the 10 best candidates and let them decide which labs they want to go to. Some do a a little of both, which I think is the most common. 
If you think you are a good fit for the department as a whole (would work with multiple people if needed) then I would go ahead and apply. If your POI did not respond, and he/she is the only person you want to work with there, do not apply. That's what I would do, but I would also talk to professors/advisors at your school for better advise. 

So I am in a predicament with my Doctorate.  
My husband is military, so I can go to approximately 1 school for my PhD.  Everything was going great, spoke to a faculty member I wanted to work with, he was willing to take me on.  However, funding is an issue here.  It is a geological oceanography (paleoclimatology) program, there are no undergrads at the College of Marine Science so no TA positions (too bad, I already teach at a College).  Funding is solely based on research grants and school scholarships and stipends.  So the faculty I was talking to did not get his grants.  So he has no money.  He told me I was not scholastically strong enough to really get a school scholarship.  What do I do? 
Is there a way to make my application stronger?  My undergrad is pretty terrible scholastically, but I did my masters at a top 5 institution for oceanography and have a 3.5 overall Grad GPA.  Would GRE scores matter?  I did pretty well (80% quantitative 5.5 written, 60% on that other section), but I am not against taking it again if it would strengthen my application.  Would taking a class at this college as Non-degree seeking in the Spring help my application for the fall?  I don't want to spend that money unless I know it will help me.  
Any input is welcome.

Almost none.  The research I did in undergrad was observational and experimental .... and I wasn't even in the earth sciences. It wasn't a full blown research proposal... it was more like " I am interested in using methods x " to attack problems y and z .  There was more connecting the department to that research than actually proposing a full blown problem. Another thing that worked well is I gave a specific example of how I solved a research problem. I didn't go through the entire history of my research experiences, that's what the CV is for. Your statement of purpose is a meant to be a compelling argument of why you want to attend a specific program. 

I don't think you are giving enough information for us to help you. You are clearly not telling us what you know \. 

Maybe you just didn't want to talk about it a lot, but I really think you should have a much better idea of what you want to do other than "something related to the environment in anyway". There's so much research going on in earth and environmental science that even narrowing down to water issues would be good. Do these school focus on research you're interested in? If you really have no idea, it's not too late to do some internships are work in a lab for a year. Best of luck though!

You are being so cryptic it's impossible to form an opinion. I can only conclude that you posted this in order to get everyone to agree with you and not actually get insight on your situation. 

Advice please - I emailed my professor to thank her for understanding about my draft, but her reply was: "I also want to talk to you about the draft you gave me for my course. The fact that I did not make a formal charge does not mean that I consider it your work. I am simply giving you another opportunity to show me what you can do on your own". What does this mean? I already attended a facilitated meeting with her, 3rd person, and my witness....and she had decided that there was no plagiarism.....but she still wants to talk? Btw, the draft was shown to her for next summer. It was not submitted as part of her course.