ssynny

My advice is to take a weekend and figure out if you still really want to do a PhD: Why did you want to pursue your field of study? What do you love about it? Why did you want to go for a PhD? What did you want to do with it? Do you still feel the same way? After thinking about it generically, then think about your experience in your department and why you chose it in the first place. Is it still a good fit for you? If not, is there a way to fix that? If after considering all of this, you still feel like it's not that right choice, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm really trying to emphasize that you're not quitting. You're just doing what will make you happy. Good luck with everything!!!!

I have (graduating this year) a BS in EES. I contacted a few professors at all of my schools before I applied and I think that went fine. I've also had a decent amount of research experience. For CU, I applied to their atmospheric science PhD program. I know they have money and are accepting students, but unfortunately it's not a lot. I never even considered that the flooding may have caused trouble I just really hope I'm not in the mid-March group since most of those are rejections :'( (my top choice is still UCI)

Yeah a lot of rejections come out in march... I'm nervous since I haven't heard back from anywhere

On the gradcafe results page, CU Boulder sent out some emails to their planetary science applicants. The ones posted were all rejections, but maybe the rest of us will be hearing back soon!

Does anyone know if schools are announcing anything today or tomorrow??

Oh definitely. My boss did his PhD there

It's really tough to just arbitrarily say which schools are the best for atmospheric science because there are so many subdivisions. In my opinion, Scripps is a fantastic school for oceanography and atmospheric science and I know a good amount of people who have gone on to teach and do research at schools like MIT and Harvard. CU Boulder is good for ice core and paleoclimatology research. That ranking site posted above is actually pretty helpful. For PhDs, it's about the department and researchers and less about the name of the school. So Princeton is a great and prestigious university, but their atmospheric science department isn't too strong. But it's still Princeton haha.

Oh modeling is tough work! I'm more into analytical chemistry and there's not a lot of people who do that unfortunately. The schools I applied to were all ones that my lab has relations with since we have field seasons in Antarctica and Greenland together for ice core drilling. That way I can run away from modeling haha. I actually applied to both Washington and Wisconsin, but I withdrew my application from Wisconsin :\. Colorado State was supposed to be low on funding so I decided not to apply. I saw your profile and you have some really good schools on your list! Just waiting on these emails....

Hi all! Thanks a bunch for always posting in this forum. I've been checking my email all day hoping for a response from somewhere. I applied to UC Irvine, Stony Brook, CU Boulder, and UW to study atmospheric chemistry and haven't heard a thing..... And I don't think these schools have a results page. I wish us all the best when the emails start coming !!