jimmay

Hi friend. FYI this thread is a few years old, so probably not the best place to find current applicants. If you go to the Earth Science home page, there's a thread for 2019 applicants, linked here. Results can be found on www.thegradcafe.com where there is a box for you to enter search terms. You might try "Berkeley" or "earth" or "Berkeley Earth" to see all results for UC Berkeley, regardless of field; all earth science results, regardless of school; and UCB Earth & Planetary Sciences department-specific results. Please don't follow recent trends, and use the results board as a forum to ask for applicant stats, or whether anyone has heard anything: the Earth Sciences forum is the place for that.

For which Stanford department? And are you at Cornell? Interesting setup, I'll be curious to see if they stick with the individual visit thing.

Update on this: I'm messaging you now, but decided it might actually be useful for other people to know re Cornell. My visit was suggested a couple weeks ago by my POI, but I was given a choice of dates so it seems very individualized. (A bit upsetting too: I like to meet my future cohort.) I know next to nothing about how many rounds of admits they do, etc. Identifying details like POI name I'll keep for the PM.

Yeah I think you are likely in. Most places the dept selects you but then the official bureaucratic graduate school has to approve that you meet their minimum standards. Only a couple times have I heard of people not passing that stage, or the opposite: the graduate school tells you you meet their minimum standards but it isn't meant to be interpreted as an actual admission to the program.

I've done both, it usually seems to have no impact on the decision so sadly I'd say to just (Netflix and) chill. Like my Stanford app still says incomplete lol, I asked and they copy pasted the FAQ at me even though it only says they take all of January to sort out documents (I emailed second week of February). Never saw such snark before. No idea what they meant regarding Stanford, that's what I was commenting on too (hadn't seen anything about geological sciences). I don't know much but i'll message you later today about Cornell. Thanks for the congrats

Harvard decisions came out last week if I remember, visit days are in three weeks (3/7-8) and I don't think we usually see a second round, sorry

Hey gang, geoscientist here. My last 2 app cycles, I've told the Earth Science forum about a resource I use to help weigh the values of offers, and figured I'd share for all. It's www.phdstipends.com, there's details about offers people get (though sometimes the reporting is weird, like people include tuition value in the stipend dollar amount lol) and how that compares to the living wage (not sure how accurate this is, but still). Anyway, I've found it a good first order resource for determining how badly I'll penny pinch during school - hope it's useful. Also, NerdWallet cost of living calculator might prove good, too. I'm not affiliated with either, just another broke boy trying to make it who's generally disinclined to go to a place that doesn't value me enough to let me survive. Good luck with apps/congrats on admits/you can still do this even if you've gotten rejected! (Trust me, I know about the latter.)

One other PSA: I've said this in the past, but a resource I've found helpful is www.phdstipends.com - I'm in no way affiliated, but my partner and I used this to help estimate how far my stipend would go. It can really help you figure out whether financial stress will weigh on you over the course of grad studies, which I definitely have found to be bad enough without having to pinch pennies. Also consider adding your own data to it, like I do, so it remains up to date. There's also cost of living estimators, such as that provided by NerdWallet that can help. Lastly, I know this is shouting into the ether, but whoever made PhDstipends.com, thank you!

Rice usually goes after top people mid January, but not sure how long they roll the admits out. Still, I'd say less and less likely with each passing week Oregon usually admits first 2 weeks of Feb, rejects in first week or two of March.

figured WHOI was done - there was that batch of admits last week that seems to be par for the course for them, but Stanford surprises me... there's been no peep about Geological Sciences. They seem like a weird dept though (heavy oil focus, big on the geophysics and ESS) so who am I to know. How are you so up to speed with these programs?

On mobile so can't seem to get rid of the quote box. Anyway, I did mine in front a laptop so I felt comfortable looking up something if I needed. More importantly, it let me have a doc of bullet points that I wanted to be sure I touched on, out included in my app so I could make sure I heard close to the story I had projected in my statement so I would sound more coherent and be reminded of how to show my interests and how everything I've done, whether intentional or not, helped me get to the point I'm at. Include also any details you don't want to forget like thesis results if you think that would come up. Lmk if you need more advice, I don't want to prattle. Good luck!

who got the UCSB admit? I only got invited out, never actually accepted. Curious to know why there's also only the 1 ASU result so far. Would love either poster to PM me!

This is really hard to hear, but I think the silver lining is that you should be glad the POI didn't take you on. As someone transferring institutions because of a bad advisor fit and no other lab to switch into, I wish I had heeded warnings more prior to coming here so I wouldn't have lost 3 years and some confidence. You'll end up in a place that's a great fit, where someone cares about you, meshes well with you, and will work with you for whatever is your goal at the end of the PhD. Don't be afraid to have a frank discussion to this end with prospective advisors; it can make all the difference. And if you haven't realized already, those aforementioned things should probably be most of what makes your decision for wherever you decide to enroll. Good luck!

where else did you apply @rocksandstuff? you never posted a profile

Maybe -- but for example, Harvard EPS has moved to GRE optional stance to my knowledge because of how standardized tests add cost to applicants and only vouch for things like socioeconomic status, both of which reduce diversity. As someone who got into Harvard with a terrible undergrad record, I'm much more convinced it's the statement that makes the biggest difference in any package. If you have a clear goal for what you want to do, how your trajectory has prepared you for that work, and how this slots into your present view of your long-term aims, you're okay. Add in what benefit the department will get from you being there (as opposed to just what you will get out of the relationship) and you're even better. It also never gets said enough about how things like funding make a huge difference...the same application in 2 different years could see 2 very different results. Same goes for advisors, one might be okay taking a chance on someone, others (I can think of one in my current dept) are much more particular about boxes applicants have to check to be considered qualified for entry, but as long as your POI is vested enough to pull you in, that's all that matters. Of course, none of us have sat on adcoms and so this is mostly speculation, but this is my 4th application cycle so I like to think I've gotten some anecdotal sense of what can help you rise in the pile.