Halek

So, Last year I applied to graduate schools. I didn't get into any of my schools but I did get feedback from almost all of them. The only thing they could all say was that I had no publications. Unfortunately, this is rather hard to fix. Since then I have been working as a field technician in my field (ecology) and I have talked to my PI about authorship. She said that I can take an active role in the papers that come from the research I'm doing, but that these papers likely won't be even closed to published when I apply to graduate school. Since this was my only feedback last time I applied, does anyone have any additional advice on improving my application, since these papers won't be on there? Some general stats: Graduated in 2016 with a BS in Biology: Ecology and a BA in History from the University of Texas: Austin GPA: 3.5 GRE Verbal: 85th percentile GRE Quant: 51st percentile GRE Writing: 90th percentile Research Experience: Worked in labs since my freshman year, internship at the EPA, senior project and poster presented at my university's poster fair, field technician position, a poster at the end of this summer and most likely a paper eventually. I'm planning on retaking the GRE in September to hopefully improve the quantitative score. Not much I can do about my GPA at this point.

Thanks for your advice! I have also been looking at conservation biology and geography programs, but I wasn't aware conservation psychology was a topic of study so I will also look into that. I'll start looking into the key texts. Also, I'm going to be involved with writing a paper this fall, but nothing will be published by the time that I apply to grad school.

I'm planning on applying for fall 2018, that being said I've started to research programs over the past months. I am interested in how humans have used the land in the past, and how we can use that information to inform the way we conserve ecosystems. Initially I was just looking at ecology programs, however I keep finding anthropology programs that seem to fit very closely with what I'm interested in. However, I'm nervous to apply to these programs since I don't have a lot of direct experience with Anthropology (besides an introductory cultural anthropology class I took as an undergrad). As an undergrad I double majored in Biology(with a focus in Ecology) and History. This year I have been working as a field technician on a project looking at how the warming climate will impact grass communities in the upper midwest. While this isn't directly related to anthropology, it has given me experience on proposing research questions, making a plans, and carrying out that research in the field (and also trouble shooting because nothing goes right when you're doing field work). So, questions: 1. Is there anything I could do to specifically make my application seem more appealing to Anthropology programs? 2. What should I keep in mind when applying to an Anthropology program? 3. Should I contact professors directly that I am interested in working with, or should I contact the departments? In ecology you contact the professors, but I've gotten mixed signals from social sciences and liberal arts. 4. If a school asks for a writing sample, what should I provide? I have some fairly long papers from my history degree. I did do a senior project in ecology, but that was presented in poster form so there is not written component to submit.