chaparralcountry

Yikes, I have a feeling Duke might too...

Admitted to the Nic School at 7 pm ET today!!

Right?! Will they email us if decisions come out or are we supposed to check the status page ourselves? Are things taking longer because more folks applied this year or are they trying to standardize the decision timeline? Will funding information be included alongside (if we were to get in) or will that be sent separately? I have too many questions and no answers hahah

It is such a big change! On a personal note, I discovered the whole world of Environmental Management through F&ES when I was a senior in high school and frantically trying to discover career paths that weren't premed or engineering (I went to a high school like Stuyvesant where the parents were just as intense as the students, sigh). Stumbling across the Yale site on a blustery March afternoon and seeing the alternatives available changed the way I saw everything -- I feel like I owe the school a lot just for that. Hooray to the new Yale School of the Environment! Best wishes to all folks who are waiting on these decisions, and I definitely hope the timeline is closer to mid-February than March.

Alright, here I go! Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): Duke University - Nicholas School of the Environment (MEM) Schools Applied To: Just Duke this year! Schools Admitted To: n/a Schools Rejected From: n/a Still Waiting: Duke University Undergraduate Institution: Ivy League Undergraduate GPA: 3.6 Undergraduate Major: Environmental Science GRE Quantitative/Verbal/AW Scores: 155 (hoping to retake but math's never been my strong suit) / 166 / 5.0 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 1.5 years Years of Work Experience: 1.5 years Describe Relevant Work Experience: I've interned for a federal agency and well-known environmental nonprofit (like the Environmental Defense Fund) doing policy and sustainability work. I currently work in academia studying the effects of climate change, and will hopefully have shored up my quantitative + programming skills before I attend any program. Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Pretty good. I've had an idea of what I've wanted to do for a long time (you can probably see from my account history haha) and I think I have a pretty decent arc? Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): I'm happy with them. One is from the federal agency, another from a state agency I interned for, and the last one is from my academic advisor/professor. Other: Good luck everyone! I'm just testing the waters but hoping for the best, attending the Nic School has been a dream of mine since I was in high school.

@alaqua Ah, I'm not applying to SEAS this cycle (I definitely considered it!) but I would've gone for Environmental Policy and Planning, although Conservation Ecology would've been a close second. In that same vein, I'm applying for the Environmental Economics and Policy concentration at NSOE but hoping to take many electives in Ecosystem Science and Conservation. Another day closer to hearing back!

Mid-February also. I applied by the priority deadline and completely put this out of my mind for a few months, but now that decisions are imminent I'm really thinking about it!

Waiting to hear back from the Nic School here!

I would definitely go to Ford, personally. I don't think the prestige factor of HKS supersedes a full ride at another well-known policy program, especially since your funding situation there is uncertain. I mean, it sounds like you already know what you want to do and that Michigan will help you achieve those goals (plus, Ann Arbor's a really cool town!) For what it's worth, I was essentially offered "conditional deferred admission" to my top choice as an undergrad and took it. That year of stasis really sucks - it's sort of like you're just there, waiting for the next chapter in your life to happen...

@missblue - Thanks for your comment, it was really helpful! If you're still on the site I'd love to PM you.

Agreed with the helpful insights! I'm planning on applying this fall to Duke NSOE, Yale FES, and Michigan SEAS. I'm also curious about the funding situation - were scholarships/assistantships + summer work enough to defray most of the costs? Were these things decided by test scores, work experience, or other factors? Also, what's graduate life like at these places? I remember someone in a past thread was kind of snarky about FES being a "hippie" school and praised NSOE for its pre-professionalism, but I honestly wouldn't mind the former, and don't know a lot about SEAS. I've had a chance to visit all three campuses. If these questions belong in another thread, just consider it a free bump. Congrats to those who heard back already!

thank you so much. i’d be focusing my applications on fully-funded programs to be financially pragmatic although i realize that means looking at places with 1-2% acceptance rates (if even that!) the publishing part is comforting because i definitely don’t have that, alas i don’t even have enough for a portfolio. i’m looking at some graduate mfa faqs and “30 to 40 pages double spaced” is so much more than anything i’ve ever submitted, so i’ll have to start from scratch or at least heavily expand what i do have. i recently discovered the option of doing a certificate in creative writing through a local university’s extension program - is this something you’d recommend looking into for the sake of reference letters/receiving faculty critique? or would writing for the heck of it in my spare time (still doing something environmental for now) and getting it proofread by friends and possibly one MFA pal be enough? i think i’d be applying the following cycle, if not the one after that, since unfortunately i don't have much to show for this currently. do relevant jobs or internships matter? not that i can land one at some literary magazine with mostly field biology experience, but i’m wondering if i should express my interest in writing in more ways than just sending in an application and staying where i’m at professionally. i feel like i have more questions but don’t know what to ask! i also seriously appreciate you taking the time to respond, i felt better from reading the first sentence

the title sounds nuts, i know. i was pretty set on environmental science until my last year of college when i had finished all my graduation requirements and essentially took electives for two semesters. i attended undergrad at an institution with a well-regarded MFA program (brown, cornell, michigan, uva, vanderbilt etc.) so i took advantage of this and primarily took creative writing/poetry classes my senior year. i loved it. my original plan was to pursue a MPA which would've made the most sense career-wise considering what i've been doing most of college, but if you were to ask me what i really wanted to do, it'd have been to write (secretly always has been - i went to a stuyvesant-esque high school where everyone went into STEM and never even considered the possibility of focusing in the humanities as an 18 yo). but here i am. has anyone been in this position before? how did you develop your body of work? did you try submitting to any college-based periodicals or publishing houses? how did the application process go? did you take a couple of years off? how about jobs in the interim??? aaaah. i have a couple things i've written for classes that i'm pretty proud of but i know the competition's steep and am wondering if i should give this dream thing a shot.

Free bump. I'm a junior who will probably be applying to the Nic School in Fall 2018, so I'm excited to follow along and see how things are going. What are you all planning on concentrating in?

Hey everyone, I’m currently a sophomore thinking about going into natural resource management/environmental policy in the future. I’ve recently joined a lab, but I’m starting to have second thoughts about it because the work I’m doing isn’t very relevant to my major (it has to do with rabbits, and I love rabbits, but still) and because I’m kind of uncertain about my PI, who’s been friendly to me so far but quite the opposite with the rest of the members in the lab. My high school had a very robust research program, and I kind of went into college assuming I’d continue what I did in the past. But I’m starting to think I’d rather spend my time elsewhere, especially if sustainability-related campus jobs open up that could give me practical career experience as well as be something I’m interested in pursuing. Would it reflect negatively on my applications to places like Yale FES or Michigan if I didn’t have research experience? I feel like that’s such a silly, calculating question to ask but sometimes it feels like the only thing keeping me here… Thanks in advance!