clinco

Thank you both for the surprisingly quick responses. newms: That's wonderful to hear. As far as specific papers, I've been scouring journals for awhile now so in that regard I think I'm in good shape. It's been two years since I've contacted any of my undergraduate professors, so I'm somewhat worried about that. If that's not a problem, I could get good letters of recommendation. I had good relationship with professors in both departments, and some philosophy professors as well. UnlikelyGrad: I'm not near a university (or almost anything else for that matter). The non-degree approach makes a lot of sense since I could make new contacts and I'd love to get some research experience. I'm willing to wait to attend, but if I can help it I'd prefer to get back in as soon as possible and take the more direct route.

I'm twenty-eight and I graduated from college in 2009. I majored in biology and chemistry. Unfortunately, since then I've done various odd-jobs and been employed as a...bartender. What's worse, I have no research experience save for brief field study. I didn't really have any well-defined goals throughout college, except some vague ideas of medical school. I've decided that I want to go to graduate school, and I have a serious interest in tropical conservation ecology, especially integrated with zoology. Right now I feel very distanced from my educational background, and anxious about how far removed my job has been from anything I hope to pursue in graduate school. Does anyone have any advice on good ways to pursue a graduate program or, if that's not possible, get back on track? Would I be completely out of line in hoping a strong statement of purpose would suffice for acceptance without research or a related interim job? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.