eco_env

If they say not to email, don't, but otherwise- at every grad school advice talk I went to I was advised to email professors in programs I'm applying to. Don't ask questions you could answer for youself- the questions are meant to show that you are aware of their research interests and that you are interested in their work. I found emailing useful for narrowing down the list of schools I applied to- I only applied to schools where there were at least 2 people who would consider accepting me/didn't outright reject me in their email.

according to the poll I posted below () the most common number of applications is 4.

blogging about research is becoming popular in academia, from what I hear. I think it would be good to have professional-related results if they search for your name, provided your blog is appropriately professional.

29 contacted, 14 phone/in person interviews, 0 acceptances, 2 waiting.

You would probably meet them if there are recruitment/interview days anyway.

Take Prof B and tell me who Prof A is so I can go with him.

I thin a t this point no news=rejection or waitlist, if you didn't get an interview. But if you get off the waitlist, I'd think that's likely to happen after 4/15.

does it matter where I get my Master's? would a degree from an unranked program be worthless?

you don't need to pay for registration- you can volunteer there and ESA will waive it. In any case, I don't think it's worth it to pay- you'll have plenty of chances to go with expenses paid in grad school, unless if you are planning to present or weren't accepted to grad school this year and need an opportunity to network.

some programs don't send out rejections until April.

As I become more desperate lines like "I'm sure you'll do great research" (somewhere else) from people that are rejecting me get more and more annoying.

It took 1 week for the school that accepted me, but I'm sure it varies.

from what I've read here, you can try checking earlier- it doesn't necessarily take as long as they say it will.

thanks for the TAMU link. I've been going through ecolog and it looks like it's mostly work for just the summer- and pays very little. can you live on that and pay undergrad student loans (not much, probably $100/month)? also, is that really the kind of experinece that POIs look for to prove "fit" with their lab? I just can't believe that they wouldn't care about my independent research in undergard but would be impressed with fieldwork that involves no research on my part, even if the fieldwork is more conected to their area of research.

I think schoold are more forgiving towards interantional students that have low verbal scores, at least in science.

I voted for research fit, because I feel like that was my shortcoming in applications: I expressed interest in research done in the dept, but didn't have experience to back that specific interest. I think there are 2 problems with programs looking for fit: 1. students don't have a chance to explore new areas in grad school (esp. in my field where you need a pretty much permanent advisor before you get accepted). 2. students can't get into a new area of research that isn't already well established. I think problem 1 is what's keeping me out of grad school this year, despite mostly good GRE scores, education in the field (prertty good GPA and subject GRE), an almost publication, and research experience.

Most grad schools have a minimum GPA requirement around 3.0 for application (the lowest I've seen is 2.75), and there are plenty of applicants to choose from with higher GPAs. Even a 3.4 is on the low end of accepted students in many programs. Sorry.

Be happy- You got into IU! I'm jealous.

what do ecology people do between Bachelor's and PhD? I'm thinking of getting a job, but I'm not sure what kind of job will improve my chances of getting int oa PhD program- fieldwork? something else?

Did you only have trouble with the vocab part of the verbal section? I used mostly WordSmart for the GRE and the prep software that ETS provides, also some practice tests in a Kaplan book, and got an 800. my problem is the writing section- scoreitnow! doesn't seem very useful. anyway, GRE scores are unimportant, at least in my experience.

good point. I modified the question.

I'm wondering if my problem this year was applying to too few programs..

I'm wondering the same thing- I was able to get through the adcomm in many cases this year, but can't find an advisor- in some cases they said they rejected me b/c I wasn't a good fit. my undergrad research is in a different area than what I'm trying to do for grad school (both in ecology, though); do I need to get experience in the specific field I'm interested in for grad school? get a MS with research and courses in that field? how do I make myself a fit? or is the problem that I come up with my own research ideas instead of saying i want to do exactly what my POIs do?

that's what email is for. send it now and she'll take care of it when she's ready. 2 months is a good amount of time to give for LoR writers in general.