geographyrocks

My favorite Geography professor has a MA in Anthropology.

So this is where everyone is. I've been over in the physical sciences thread feeling lonely. I've applied to UC Boulder, University of New Mexico, University of Nevada-Reno, and University of Denver I just found out today that although my professor swears he filled out a LOR, Denver doesn't have it in their records. As if this isn't stressful enough, now there are technical problems as well. :-D

I would mention it in a general fashion, but definitely do not post the idea as if it is the only thing that you would like to study. I hear graduate committees and advisors hate that.

I highly recommend taking a few GEO based courses at a local community college. I doubt you'll have any problem with the science given what you've taken so far. Your past statistics will play in your favor. The biggest problem you have is that most Masters programs will expect you to know the basics of earth processes. If you want to work in the mining/petroleum field (still a top paying field for Geologists), you'll have to know how natural resources are made, how to obtain them, and (especially) where to look for them. You're gonna be using GIS programs and Remote Sensing. Classes on GIS are generally mandatory and Remote Sensing is highly useful in your chosen field. You also want to look at schools that focus primarily on Masters programs such as the CO School of Mines. The University of Arizona is big on research so they'll probably want their candidates to be interested more on research and less on industry. I've been looking at all of the options in the SW/West as well, but my field is hydrology.

I plan on going into either a Geography or Environmental Science program. Like most people, I'm questioning whether my application will be strong enough to overcome a decent, but not spectacular, GRE score. Here are my qualifications: GPA 3.88 GRE: 156 Quantitative 160 Verbal *still waiting for Written score Just completed a summer research program which should lead to being the second name on a published paper. I will be a teaching assistant for this school year. Excellent LORs including one from the chair of the Geography department (who was also the state Geographer for 2 years). I have 10 years of "real world" job experience including a year and a half at an energy consultation company. I will also have a senior thesis that can possibly be published. I'm looking into mostly Ph.D. programs because they offer the most financial aid, but I'm throwing in a couple of Master's programs to be on the safe side. I'm visiting all of the schools that I'm interested in in a week and will be meeting with different people in the departments. I also plan on writing an excellent SOP. Here are the schools I'm interested in: University of Denver (private) UC Denver UC Boulder Colorado State Fort Collins University of New Mexico Any thoughts would be great. I'm really concerned that the 156 Quantitative score isn't high enough to be competitive. Thanks in advance!