breadwinner

Anyone going to Boston University? I made a thread in meet and greet that had gotten no traffic. But my new PI only knows of about four people admitted to their EBE program this year so I'm not guaranteed to find any of them on this forum.

Didn't see a current BU thread. I'm going to be attending the EBE program here. Anyone else in the bio department? Or just attending the school?

Hi Bidisha, from my own experience, they are not totally fixated on these if the rest of your application is strong or you show quantitative experience in other ways. For example, you could try to find am advanced statistics class to show that you acquired relevant math skills. I didn't take any college physics but still got accepted a few eco/evo/behavior places that encouraged applicants to have taken it. However, it's much better to take them if possible, especially calculus since that directly relates to some of the things many biologists do. Perhaps you can take them over the summer at your equivalent to a community college or just any other school that will let you take a few classes.

I got accepted into the Richard Gilder school at AMNH. I wanted to go there until I heard so much negativity about a handful of its scientists. I am finding it hard to go through with rejecting them, especially since I still have to hear back from two schools I would like to go to and since I am probably one of only five or so students that got in.

Nervously awaiting UT Austin decision. I know there are results up but I am hoping that my decision just got pushed back because I interviewed 19th-20th of this month. Interview went really really well and profs seemed to think I would get in...

Hey are we supposed to reply to acceptance emails if we haven't made a decision yet? I know I have until April to decide but I am wondering whether I need to send a short message of some kind just for the sake of politeness or to let them know I received their message. Did you guys come up with anything that sounds both noncommittal and grateful?

I just got into UMich EEB. Feels good to be accepted. However, I am waiting to see whether I get into the other schools I interviewed at (BU and UT Austin) before I decide. I think Mich has a strong program, so it won't be bad if it's the only place I get in. Has anyone else been accepted there?

Thanks kimmibeans. I agree with what you're saying. I was super impressed by the research and resources they have there and the curators are definitely at the top of their fields. However, in the weeks since I posted this topic I have heard some things confirming my suspicion. I, and everyone I talked to, agreed that the research is great and the scientists are really intelligent, so the program as a whole doesn't have a bad rep. However, a number of the very parsimony-centric people there, some of whom are also perceived as somewhat mean-spirited by some other phylogeneticists, are apparently sufficiently disliked so as to drag down the reputations of their students when they apply for certain jobs. I have had 3-4 unaffiliated organismal bio/phylogenetics profs at multiple schools tell me that working with the specific (very senior) people I wanted to at RGGS would hurt my CV just in terms of the social climate of the field. It's a shame because they have a super cool program, but the only people who really do the stuff I want to study are also the worst-perceived.

Hey EEB and comparative bio people, does anyone have a sense of how Richard Gilder is perceived by "the scientific community" i.e. the givers of employment and grants? Or just contribute anything you've heard about them from sources outside of the program. Especially with regards to the recent Cladistics twitter feud. I'm doing my interviews now and my first was at RGGS, which I really really liked. However, they are a very young program so it's difficult to get a sense of their reputation and one unaffiliated professor told me attending would be "professional suicide". A little startling considering how positive the interview made me feel and how well the graduates seem to be doing. Are these people considered wackos by everyone else? Is this school considered subpar? Thanks!