deipnosophistry

For funsies I'm reading A Natural History of Seeing, which discusses the evolution of the eye from photoreceptive pigments to the more complex invertebrate and vertebrate eyes. I'm getting a Master's in evolutionary biology and teaching human A&P, so it's about ten sorts of awesome to me. I'm also reading More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics, because economic theory has always intrigued me. That, and Steven E. Lansburg is frickin' hilarious.

As far as I know, if your program has made a decision, it will send you a link to website where you will receive a scanned version of either an acceptance or rejection letter. There doesn't appear to be a place on the website to check your application status. And, yeah, I'm going berserk as well.

Yeah, I applied to Duke Biology. My prospective advisor has said he will send word once the admissions committee has made a decision, and as I haven't heard from either him or the admissions director, I'm tempted to believe they're still reviewing applications.

I just received word from The University of Chicago's Committee on Evolutionary Biology. Interviews are February 18-22 for any CEB lurkers.

Are there any other EvoBio applicants in these fora? Don't get me wrong, I love you MCB and Genetics folks, but we never apply to the same programs.

I'm currently working on a Master's and today I asked my boss the dreaded question: "If I don't get in anywhere this time around, can I work for you as a tech for a year?" I felt like I was going to vomit, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. Funny thing is, I haven't heard back from any of my schools. The mere fact that I have no safeties is weighing pretty heavily on me. Fiddlesticks.

A big, steaming pile of THIS. I likely took an enormous gamble in applying to only three schools, and I'm terrified it's going to bite me in the ass.

Agreed. Nothing says "thanks" like home-baked goodies and a little card. Of course, this is contingent on your not being a total spaz in the kitchen. I gave each of my recommenders a fresh rum cake and a handwritten note, both of which were well received (though the cake moreso).

I know I'm annoying the hell out of my family with my constant refreshing of status pages. The sad thing is that I sent my apps at the beginning of December, so it's been a maximum of four weeks since I submitted my materials. Intuitively, I know it'll take a bit longer for adcoms to assess all candidates. However, that crazy, compulsive part of the brain rarely accedes to reason in these matters, so I continue to check my email a billion times a day. In fact, my father just yelled from the living room that I'm driving myself insane. I hate it when he's right. :wink:

I applied to only three doctoral programs this go-round, not because I'm cocky or stupid, but because there are very few programs specializing in my field. It's just my dumb luck that those programs are located at UChicago, Harvard, and Duke. I have a good stats--high GPA, solid GREs, and a number of first-author publications and presentations--but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about being accepted. That being said, I refused to waste money applying to safety programs with mediocre reputations or different research trajectories. To the OP, apply to those programs that best match your research goals. Also, contact faculty as soon as possible, and make sure they remember your name. I met with faculty members from each of my schools at a national conference this summer, and after discussing my research interests with them, was offered positions in labs at Harvard and Duke. You may have stiff competition at some schools, but you'll benefit from having faculty advocates willing to fight for your admission.