Jimbo2

Dear Professors,
If you were to informally canvass your retired predecessors and ask them what the most rewarding experiences of their life were, none of them will answer with the hundreds of hours they sat per week in front of a computer by themselves in an office. I suspect they're all male because a certain sex is more predisposed to take responsibility for supervising children should people actually try and have a family, which puts them at a productivity disadvantage relative to the other sex. You'll be getting 40 hours a week, up to 60 depending on special circumstances involving rigid, uncontrollable deadlines. If placement is so difficult following graduation, perhaps the field as a whole should be ponzi scheming training less Ph.D.s and using the leftover money to pay its graduate students a reasonable salary.
Thanks,
Students

P.S. lol@$20,000 annual salary for 100 hours of work a week. Shame on you.

Dear Professors,
If you were to informally canvass your retired predecessors and ask them what the most rewarding experiences of their life were, none of them will answer with the hundreds of hours they sat per week in front of a computer by themselves in an office. I suspect they're all male because a certain sex is more predisposed to take responsibility for supervising children should people actually try and have a family, which puts them at a productivity disadvantage relative to the other sex. You'll be getting 40 hours a week, up to 60 depending on special circumstances involving rigid, uncontrollable deadlines. If placement is so difficult following graduation, perhaps the field as a whole should be ponzi scheming training less Ph.D.s and using the leftover money to pay its graduate students a reasonable salary.
Thanks,
Students

P.S. lol@$20,000 annual salary for 100 hours of work a week. Shame on you.

The connotation here is that being born into a situation of opportunity makes a person less respectable when they succeed.

1. The shame in coming from money is that you've been handed a position in life rather than earning it.
2. You can't buy a position in graduate school and you can't buy your thesis; you have to work and earn these distinctions.

Therefore, while there certainly are people that are born into situations that put them in an advantageous or disadvantageous position to succeed at the graduate level, there is no shame in succeeding here because of the opportunities a person is born into.

For example, I was raised in a military family and I know many people that had virtually the same upbringing and therefore opportunities that I had. These peers exhibit the full spectrum of success and failure in life: some have used the same opportunities I have had to earn important jobs and others have wasted these opportunities and are drug addicts that live with their parents. Your opportunities might provide you a door, but you have to walk through it in graduate school. This isn't your dad's business that hands you a big salary job after skating through college.

The connotation here is that being born into a situation of opportunity makes a person less respectable when they succeed.

1. The shame in coming from money is that you've been handed a position in life rather than earning it.
2. You can't buy a position in graduate school and you can't buy your thesis; you have to work and earn these distinctions.

Therefore, while there certainly are people that are born into situations that put them in an advantageous or disadvantageous position to succeed at the graduate level, there is no shame in succeeding here because of the opportunities a person is born into.

For example, I was raised in a military family and I know many people that had virtually the same upbringing and therefore opportunities that I had. These peers exhibit the full spectrum of success and failure in life: some have used the same opportunities I have had to earn important jobs and others have wasted these opportunities and are drug addicts that live with their parents. Your opportunities might provide you a door, but you have to walk through it in graduate school. This isn't your dad's business that hands you a big salary job after skating through college.

The connotation here is that being born into a situation of opportunity makes a person less respectable when they succeed.

1. The shame in coming from money is that you've been handed a position in life rather than earning it.
2. You can't buy a position in graduate school and you can't buy your thesis; you have to work and earn these distinctions.

Therefore, while there certainly are people that are born into situations that put them in an advantageous or disadvantageous position to succeed at the graduate level, there is no shame in succeeding here because of the opportunities a person is born into.

For example, I was raised in a military family and I know many people that had virtually the same upbringing and therefore opportunities that I had. These peers exhibit the full spectrum of success and failure in life: some have used the same opportunities I have had to earn important jobs and others have wasted these opportunities and are drug addicts that live with their parents. Your opportunities might provide you a door, but you have to walk through it in graduate school. This isn't your dad's business that hands you a big salary job after skating through college.

The connotation here is that being born into a situation of opportunity makes a person less respectable when they succeed.

1. The shame in coming from money is that you've been handed a position in life rather than earning it.
2. You can't buy a position in graduate school and you can't buy your thesis; you have to work and earn these distinctions.

Therefore, while there certainly are people that are born into situations that put them in an advantageous or disadvantageous position to succeed at the graduate level, there is no shame in succeeding here because of the opportunities a person is born into.

For example, I was raised in a military family and I know many people that had virtually the same upbringing and therefore opportunities that I had. These peers exhibit the full spectrum of success and failure in life: some have used the same opportunities I have had to earn important jobs and others have wasted these opportunities and are drug addicts that live with their parents. Your opportunities might provide you a door, but you have to walk through it in graduate school. This isn't your dad's business that hands you a big salary job after skating through college.

The connotation here is that being born into a situation of opportunity makes a person less respectable when they succeed.

1. The shame in coming from money is that you've been handed a position in life rather than earning it.
2. You can't buy a position in graduate school and you can't buy your thesis; you have to work and earn these distinctions.

Therefore, while there certainly are people that are born into situations that put them in an advantageous or disadvantageous position to succeed at the graduate level, there is no shame in succeeding here because of the opportunities a person is born into.

For example, I was raised in a military family and I know many people that had virtually the same upbringing and therefore opportunities that I had. These peers exhibit the full spectrum of success and failure in life: some have used the same opportunities I have had to earn important jobs and others have wasted these opportunities and are drug addicts that live with their parents. Your opportunities might provide you a door, but you have to walk through it in graduate school. This isn't your dad's business that hands you a big salary job after skating through college.

Hey CF19, I'm a grad student in a marine bio field that hopefully can help you out. I think you might be in better shape than you think because, from my experience, marine science fields place greater emphasis on applied knowledge than theoretical in relation to other fields within biology, so your experiences in the Marines might be a strong part of your application and you can quickly make up any deficiencies you have in knowledge of general biology. For instance skill sets in boating, scuba diving, taxonomy are just as important as your knowledge of concepts taught in biology courses, e.g., if I'm netting fish at night in choppy conditions, it's very important that the person I'm working with understands how to drive and handle the boat rather than they have good "biology book smarts." The other concept that's very important is knowing how to work as a member of a team because fieldwork in programs related to marine biology is very team-oriented. I'm thinking with your background as a Marine you will have a strong background in the importance of teamwork, leadership, and attention to detail, as well as possibly having some experience on boats, which will all be very important when applying to graduate school -- a student can learn the theory/background knowledge related to his research, but it's much more difficult to teach them intangibles such as responsibility.

As far as steps you can take to strengthen your application, I would recommend reading Cambell's Biology book bookhttp://www.amazon.com/Campbell-Biology-Edition-Jane-Reece/dp/0321558235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337816403&sr=8-1 and taking the Bio GRE to demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about broader biological concepts despite majoring in a different field. Research experience is tied to letters of recommendation, so it's important to begin working in a lab, or volunteering if you have to, to build experience and a reputation that can open doors for you.

Once you get a feel for the more specific concepts that you would be interested in developing as a graduate student, begin reading the relevant literature (google scholar is a good place to start) and start contacting profs to see what the funding landscape looks like.

Hope this helps!

i wish they would give you your percentiles and z scores. not really sure what the harm would be -- maybe you could tell if someone reviewed your application and another person's based on an identifying z score number? Tough luck for the people that got a bunch of Es and no award. Boise State syndrome -- do perfect and it won't matter. you were screwed from the beginning because the strength of your schedule (or harshness of reviewers) wasn't tough enough, and it was always out of your control

i wish they would give you your percentiles and z scores. not really sure what the harm would be -- maybe you could tell if someone reviewed your application and another person's based on an identifying z score number? Tough luck for the people that got a bunch of Es and no award. Boise State syndrome -- do perfect and it won't matter. you were screwed from the beginning because the strength of your schedule (or harshness of reviewers) wasn't tough enough, and it was always out of your control

it isn't a problem, people go to other programs than they specified on their application all the time


Well, see everyone next year and congrats to everyone that got an award. Tomorrow begins the therapeutic 2012-13 NSF essay writing experience.

Sparta.

just got an email and got nervous. this is like last year applying to grad school all over again

That was me.

lol @ comment on http://www.facebook.com/NSFGRFP

Im tempted to call the NSF GRFP headquarters and if anyone picks up just go AH-HA! and hang up.

Im tempted to call the NSF GRFP headquarters and if anyone picks up just go AH-HA! and hang up.

Im tempted to call the NSF GRFP headquarters and if anyone picks up just go AH-HA! and hang up.

Im tempted to call the NSF GRFP headquarters and if anyone picks up just go AH-HA! and hang up.

Im tempted to call the NSF GRFP headquarters and if anyone picks up just go AH-HA! and hang up.

it's almost like we should have a contingency plan for meeting on another forum with a heavy duty server for when this one crashes haha

so... if we were to call the grfp headquarters past 5:30 EST (the time that people go home on a typical workday) and someone were to answer, that would indicate that they were there past the normal work time. there doesn't seem much reason for a GRFP person to be at work late unless it's the "big night." overanalysis is fun

so... if we were to call the grfp headquarters past 5:30 EST (the time that people go home on a typical workday) and someone were to answer, that would indicate that they were there past the normal work time. there doesn't seem much reason for a GRFP person to be at work late unless it's the "big night." overanalysis is fun