Help! Clueless undergrad wanting to learn about Grad School

[randymarshh]

I am just a humble geology undergrad but I've heard that an MS is the basic degree necessary to break into the workforce, so I'd like to be prepared for eventually applying to grad school.

----How high of a GPA and GRE does one need to get into a decent school?

----What are some good geology grad schools?

----If I am not looking to go into academia, would it be frowned upon if I did my masters at the same school as my bachelors? cuz I hear my current school has a good program

Any and all other geology grad school info would be much appreciated as I am pretty ignorant and google searches have remained fruitless

[waddle]

Hi randy,

Just another undergrad here (and not even in geology!) so don't take my words as gospel.

----How high of a GPA and GRE does one need to get into a decent school?

Depends on what you mean by a 'decent school'. If you mean a reputable school that everyone's heard of (i.e. not No Name State U.), then you will obviously face some competition. But since nobody really cares about the GRE or GPA, I'm guessing you'll only need ~1350 and ~3.5, respectively, to be competitive, assuming you have some experience in research or have had some exposure to industry (e.g. via an internship), and come from a well-known school.

----What are some good geology grad schools?

Off the top of my head, UT Austin and UCLA have nice M.S. programs in the geosciences.

----If I am not looking to go into academia, would it be frowned upon if I did my masters at the same school as my bachelors? cuz I hear my current school has a good program

Do you have a potential advisor with whom you've already gotten in contact at your current institution? If you haven't made any inroads into your own department's work yet, now's the time to do so. Also, there would be no point in constraining yourself to the same school if you didn't already have an idea for a Master's thesis topic with a professor at your school (unless you have other reasons--financial, family, etc.--for staying where you are).

Any and all other geology grad school info would be much appreciated as I am pretty ignorant and google searches have remained fruitless

Try consulting with the faculty in your department. I'm sure they'll be much better resources than Google searches.

waddle

P.S. Moderator, please move this thread into the Earth Sciences subforum--now that it has a proper home, I think it'd be much more appropriate located in that subforum.

Edited October 22, 2010 by waddle

[katerific]

I think waddle addressed everything, but just to add:

1. Yeah, aim for >1300 and >3.5, but know that research experience/fantastic rec letters can help compensate for lower scores and grades (but still learn some vocab for the GRE!).

(edit: Most programs have a ~1100-1200 and/or 3.0 minimum requirement.... check the websites.)

2. UT Austin is the place everyone from my school goes to to get a master's, it seems.

3. No. To the industry a degree is a degree (of course, better schools might be more highly regarded). Work on figuring out which schools/professors would be a good fit for you, so apply eslewhere, too. If you end up attending your alma mater, that's fine.

If I think of any other advice, I'll add it.

Edited October 22, 2010 by katerific

[UnlikelyGrad]

UCLA is a great place to go if you're going to go into academia. But if you're just shooting for an industry job, I'd recommend trying Colorado School of Mines. The petroleum companies know and loooooove it, because they have the #1 petroleum engineering program in the world. And while they may come for the pet eng students, the same companies also advertise for geoscience majors at career fairs there.

To help you further--what is your area of specialization? Mineral exploration? Geophysics?

[randymarshh]

Thank you so much everyone. I am just a sophomore right now so I don't have a specialty or anything. I know research is important and I keep trying to get involved but I don't know how to get how to get started??

I'm at UT austin right now so I guess I shouldn't go here for my MS also, but Colorado school of mines sounds awesome!

[Kitkat]

Thank you so much everyone. I am just a sophomore right now so I don't have a specialty or anything. I know research is important and I keep trying to get involved but I don't know how to get how to get started??

I'm at UT austin right now so I guess I shouldn't go here for my MS also, but Colorado school of mines sounds awesome!

I would say see if there is anybody there who has a lab position open for undergrads, preferably in something that interests you, but something is better then nothing. Talk to the professors that you have, that sort of thing. As for good geology information,you can always go look at places the the GSA website or the AGU website.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Thank you so much everyone. I am just a sophomore right now so I don't have a specialty or anything. I know research is important and I keep trying to get involved but I don't know how to get how to get started??

You can't really walk into a professor's office and just flat out ask him to do research. Well you can, but you probably won't get very far...

First, build a relationship with each professor. Maybe not all of your professors, but the ones whose personalities you like. Go into office hours--for tough questions if you need to, but definitely for "little things"--things you almost understood (but not quite) in lecture, questions that go one step beyond the lecture, etc. The reason you have to go in for little things is that they don't take much time and--if your prof is like most profs--he's tethered to his office for the rest of his office hours. If no one else is there, he may well strike up a conversation about other things, like your career goals. As long as you're talking, ask him about his research...

Do this two or three times, THEN (if you're interested in what he does), ask if you could do some research with him. If you're willing to do it for research credit only, not money, he'll probably be happy to take you. (Money is nice to have, but most profs don't have enough to pay their undergrads.)

[InquilineKea]

You can't really walk into a professor's office and just flat out ask him to do research. Well you can, but you probably won't get very far...

Actually, you can. At least in the astronomy department over here. I don't think it's that different for the atmospheric sciences.

[OH YEAH]

You can't really walk into a professor's office and just flat out ask him to do research. Well you can, but you probably won't get very far...

What? Are the natural sciences THAT much different than mathematics/computer science?

[Usmivka]

You can't really walk into a professor's office and just flat out ask him to do research. Well you can, but you probably won't get very far...

I completely disagree. Most geosciences profs I know would be thrilled to have this happen.

Also, University of Washington has one of the top Geology departments in the country in terms of name recognition, grant funding, and publications.It is an especially good choice if you want to do something unusual, like geobiology or planetary geology. Cornell is also very well regarded.

If you want more ideas, go to the AGU website and look at where people were presenting from at the last annual meeting.

[Kitkat]

I completely disagree. Most geosciences profs I know would be thrilled to have this happen.

Also, University of Washington has one of the top Geology departments in the country in terms of name recognition, grant funding, and publications.It is an especially good choice if you want to do something unusual, like geobiology or planetary geology. Cornell is also very well regarded.

If you want more ideas, go to the AGU website and look at where people were presenting from at the last annual meeting.

I think that it depends on the program that you are in, the one that I am in is pretty small and the profs do love it when you walk up to them to talk about stuff. I'm not so sure about how it is at UT- Austin. It might be similar. Earth and environmental sciences seems to be generally good for this sort of approach(as long as you do your homework), if just because there are fewer students, and less competition to get into a lab.

[InquilineKea]

I think that it depends on the program that you are in, the one that I am in is pretty small and the profs do love it when you walk up to them to talk about stuff. I'm not so sure about how it is at UT- Austin. It might be similar. Earth and environmental sciences seems to be generally good for this sort of approach(as long as you do your homework), if just because there are fewer students, and less competition to get into a lab.

Yup definitely. That - and all sorts of skills are useful. It's not like math/CS, where you're completely useless if you're not analytically talented enough.