2013 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

[InquilineKea]

Now that it's the time of year again, let's get it started!

______________________________________________

Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school, such as big state, lib arts, ivy, technical, foreign (what country?)... Overall Reputation in EAPS?)

Major(s):

Minor(s):

GPA in Major:

Overall GPA:

Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?)

Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?)

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q:

V:

W:

P:

TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this)

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School - Department - Research Interest

School - Department - Research Interest

School - Department - Research Interest

[Nikii]

Hi there guys!!!

Has anyone finalised their univs and sent out any applications?

My univs are finalised and the application process is happening.

I am applying for a PhD and I dont have an MS. This kinda confuses me whether I will actually get an admit to a Phd program. But still I am willing to give it a shot.

Please let me know what you guys think! I have a Bachelors in Civil Engineering and I am from India. I have around 8 universities to which I am applying.

Thanks

[Mr Buttons]

Undergrad Institution: Big state school

Major(s): geological sciences

Minor(s):

GPA in Major: 3.96

Overall GPA: 3.99

Position in Class: Near top

Type of Student: Irrelevant

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 164

V: 157

W: 4

P:

Research Experience: Couple of years with my prof, presented a couple times at conferences. Summer internship with NASA doing remote sensing work

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Basic academic scholarships, small research grant

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: NASA intern, student research assistant for my research advisor

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Should have pretty good recs, applied for fellowships, good connection with a couple of profs at prospective schools

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: plan on submitting my thesis to a journal, indicating it in my statement of purpose, transferred from a top 25 school after my freshman year where my GPA was 3.54

Applying to Where:

Stanford - GES - sedimentary geology

Columbia - EES - structure, earth history

UTexas Austin - DGS - structure

Princeton - Geosciences - earth history

Mines - Geology - economic geology

Harvard - EPS - earth history

UC Davis - Geology - .

UArizona - Geology - structure

[glinker]

Undergrad Institution: In far away India.

Major(s): Physics

Minor(s): none

GPA in Major:

Overall GPA: oops

Position in Class: Marginally above average

Type of Student: International/ Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 800/166

V: 730/168

W: 4.5

P: 870

TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this) 118

Research Experience: Thesis work is significant (or so I'm told). One publication, second author out of two. Possibly one more in the pipeline (being listed as such in the apps). Five or six interns at various research institutes, no special outcomes.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A fellowship, some minor academic honors

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I keep mentioning that I have experience with crowd control, dunno why.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Being Indian might actually hurt my chances, since there are so many of us already in US universities. Diversity factor probably will not count at all.

Special Bonus Points: I'm in grad school now, tons of grad courses, better grades than undergrad.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: none

Applying to Where:

I'm looking to work on planetary atmospheres and climates.

UWashington - Earth and Space Sciences

Caltech - Geological and Planetary Sciences

UCB - Astronomy

MIT - Earth and Planetary Sciences

Harvard - EPS

UChicago - Geosciences

Princeton - Astrophysics

Given my profile, it seems my list is biased rather high. Oh well, it is what it is.

[redandshiny]

Undergrad Institution:Princeton

Major(s): Earth Sciences

Minor(s):

GPA in Major: 3.75

Overall GPA: 3.7

Length of Degree: 4 years

Position in Class: high? dont know exactly

Type of Student:female

GRE Scores:

Q: 790

V: 730

W: 5.5

Research Experience:

lots of undergrad physical science lab and modeling research, 3 summers of geo/oceanography fieldwork and modeling research, 1 published abstract from a AGU conference

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

a few scholarships, department honors and awards for independent work, school specific grants for research

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

worked for the past year in energy/finance industry

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

none? pretty good academically/research wise, but am applying to a field semi-different from the one i majored in undergrad and have connections/experience in. if this were oceanography it could be a different story...oh well

Applying to: interdisciplinary tech/earth science/policy programs

Stanford - MS&E

Berkeley - Energy Resources Group

MIT - TMP MS/PHD

UW - Policy and Tech PHD

2 down..2 to go as of now!

[RafAkd]

Undergrad Institution: UCV (International - Venezuela)

Major(s): Geophysical Engineer

Minor(s): ---

GPA in Major: 3.0

Overall GPA: 3.0

Position in Class: Top of the class

Type of Student: International - Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 158/?

V: 156/?

W: waiting for results

P:

TOEFL Total: 112

Research Experience: Published the results of a 2d seismic reflection data interpretation which I did as my major's final thesis.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: I got the maximum score at my major final thesis

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I have been working over two years in the Venezuelan Oil exploration industry as a Seismic Interpreter and Reservoir Geophysicist.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points:

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Social aid supporter, former national competitive swimmer

Applying to Where:

Washington University in St. Louis - Earth and Planetary Sciences

University of Houston - Department - Research Interest

University of Minnesota - Geology and Geophysics - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy

University of Wyoming - Geology and Geophysics - Sedimentology and Petroleum Geology - Seismic Inversion

University of Nebraska (possibly) - Earth and Atmospherics Sciences - Petroleum Geology

University of Tulsa (possibly) - Geosciences - Petroleum Geology

[Queen of Kale]

I'm a freakishly private person, and I feel strange about putting myself "out there" like this, but this thread really helped me figure out my target schools last year so here goes nothing:

Undergrad Institution: unranked

Major(s): Earth Science

Minor(s): none

GPA in Major: 4.0

Overall GPA: 3.88

Position in Class: no idea

Type of Student: short freckled female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 162 (85%)

V: 168 (98%)

W: 5 (92%)

Research Experience: REU internship, national lab internship, NASA internship

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: general pats on the back from my school

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: applied to NSF GRFP (for the apps that ask), contacted professors at all schools (fairly early), and feel really really jazzy about the research I want to do (which I hope comes across in my SoP)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I'm a licensed cosmetologist (yup, seriously)

Applying to Where:

Brown University

University of Chicago

University of Texas

University of Minnesota

Washington University in St. Louis

University of Michigan

Edited December 16, 2012 by Queen of Kale

[Mr Buttons]

Anyone else out there? Anyone who has applied to stanford?

[jande48]

I applied to Stanford. ... but want to work in CO2 storage rather than sedimentary geology.  Hopefully we both get in there, hehe.  Here are the full details.  

 

Undergrad Institution: LSU (Petroleum Engineering) Boston College (MS - Geochemistry)
Major(s): PETE & GEO
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: ?
Overall GPA: LSU (3.2) BC (3.6)
Position in Class: not sure
Type of Student: run of the mill domestic white male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163
V: 162
W: 4.0
P:


TOEFL Total: 

Research Experience: Worked for Shell Oil as a petrophysicist for 2 yrs.  MS thesis on the transport of geochemical tracers that may turn into a publication?

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: nothing major

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: full time with Shell Oil, undergraduate internships with BP & ExxonMobil

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: volunteered in Bolivia for 1.5 years working with Engineers without Borders on potable water projects.  

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

Stanford - CO2 storage

UT Austin - Hydrogeology, but may try to work with petroleum stuff 

Wisconsin - Hydrogeology

Duke - Hydrogeology

 

 

Thanks for sharing.  Good luck with your applications!

[Queen of Kale]

Anybody hear anything yet? The results thread is deeeeaaad for geop*|geol*|geos*|earth|planet*|space|ocean* and the wait is making me a little crazy. My only formal feedback thus far was an e-mail from Washington University encouraging me to apply for a fellowship and stating that decisions would come out in the next few weeks. How is it going for everyone else? All quiet on the grad school front?

[Usmivka]

There is unlikely to be anything except rejections for incomplete apps until after the early February NSF deadlines. Faculty are just too busy until proposals are in, and these are one of the two biggest deadlines of the year for grants. Take a look at prior years on the results and you'll see this timing is pretty consistent.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Usmivka

[mylonite]

Don't really know what the competition out there as a whole looks like, but I hope I have a chance to get into one of these schools!

 

 

 

Undergrad Institution: Unranked, Large State School
Major(s): Geology
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 4.08

GPA in Minor: 4.0
Overall GPA: 3.57
Position in Class: Top student in department
Type of Student: 

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 167
V: 160
W: 4.5



TOEFL Total: 

Research Experience: 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Six-time recipient of an university award (given to the top student in each STEM class every semester). 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: substitued for TA's in Intro Geo classes

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:
 

Colorado School of Mines - Hydrogeology

 

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Hydrogeology

 

Georgia Institute of Technology - Environmental Engineering/Hydrogeology

 

New Mexico Tech - Hydrogeology

[Queen of Kale]

Yeah, I've definitely checked out previous years results (well, I'm downplaying the obsessiveness a bit) and I am expecting many results for several weeks as you suggested. On the hand, I know that there's always a bit of unofficial news that isn't reported on the results page (which I remember from when I was around last year) and I also just wanted to nudge the thread and make sure it stayed alive until people actually begin getting official results. I'd hate for new earth science people to visit the page once, see how quiet it is, and never come back. Plus, lo and behold, as soon as we both mentioned how quiet the results page was a new result was added last night

But I appreciate the advice about NSF deadlines, it's something that's easy to put out of your mind if you're not in an NSF-funded lab.

[InquilineKea]

Well, the first Penn State admissions committee meeting will be on January 15th (I know since the prof I'm interested in [who I have near-perfect research fit with] told me that he looked at my app and said he said that he's interested in taking me).

 

It would be difficult to convince me to leave Brown, but at least I'll visit.

 

I also know that historically, different schools have different timelines. Yale invites people for visits insanely early. Harvard does much of its stuff in January/early February. Caltech is entirely done by late January. Most of the state schools, MIT, and Columbia seem to read apps/make decisions later.

 

==

 

My site is also getting a lot of logs from Princeton AOS (which I decided to apply for at the last minute)

Edited January 13, 2013 by InquilineKea

[DEVGRU]

Here I am ... :-) Good to see you fellas.

 

Undergrad Institution: Peking University (Beijing, China)

Major(s): Environmental Science
Minor(s): none
GPA in Major: 3.63
Overall GPA: 3.64
Position in Class: Top 3
Type of Student: International

GRE Scores (old version):
Q: 800
V: 710
W: 5.0

TOEFL Total: 115

Research Experience: One undergrad research project (accomplished), which is unfortunately not pertinent to earth sciences. One data processing work while at Dept. of AOS, UCLA. Currently working on an interesting program on Holocene temperature reconstruction of China.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Not worthy of mentioning

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Nope

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Exchange to UCLA for one quarter

Special Bonus Points: Recommenders, I guess ...

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Writing samples I guess? Additionally I got some of my pretty slides for course presentation submitted.

Applying to Where:

Stanford - EESS - Paleoclimatology (Interested in Prof. Dunbar, but he did not reply my email)
UCSD - Scripps - Paleoclimatology (Perfect place for ocean-based research; want to work with Prof. Christopher)

Caltech - GPS - Geochemistry

Harvard - EPS - Paleoclimatology (Prof. Schrag is very respectable in the field)

UC Berkeley - EPS - Geochemistry

MIT - EAPS - Paleoclimatology

Princeton - Geosciences - Paleoclimatology (the only interview I got so far)

UCLA - Geography - Palynology (aim at Prof. MacDonald, who was my course instructor at UCLA)

 

These are tier 1 and tier 2 schools I am applying to.

Edited January 13, 2013 by DEVGRU

[DEVGRU]

Anybody hear anything yet? The results thread is deeeeaaad for geop*|geol*|geos*|earth|planet*|space|ocean* and the wait is making me a little crazy. My only formal feedback thus far was an e-mail from Washington University encouraging me to apply for a fellowship and stating that decisions would come out in the next few weeks. How is it going for everyone else? All quiet on the grad school front?

 

Hi, seriously there is no need to worry. I don't think they screen material as fast as chemistry guys do. My upper classmates told me most of the departments may send notification in February or March.

 

BTW I got an interview invitation from Princeton; all other schools remain silent.

 

Anyway, it won't be a bad time to continue contacting faculty members and grad students for more "inside" information.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2013 by DEVGRU

[kupchak]

==

.(my advisers told me to apply to other programs just in case things don't work out here, which I think is good advice).

Your advisers encourage you to apply for other programs?

Sounds incredible

[mylonite]

I applied to Stanford. ... but want to work in CO2 storage rather than sedimentary geology.  Hopefully we both get in there, hehe.  Here are the full details.  

 

Undergrad Institution: LSU (Petroleum Engineering) Boston College (MS - Geochemistry)

Major(s): PETE & GEO

Minor(s):

GPA in Major: ?

Overall GPA: LSU (3.2) BC (3.6)

Position in Class: not sure

Type of Student: run of the mill domestic white male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 163

V: 162

W: 4.0

P:

TOEFL Total: 

Research Experience: Worked for Shell Oil as a petrophysicist for 2 yrs.  MS thesis on the transport of geochemical tracers that may turn into a publication?

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: nothing major

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: full time with Shell Oil, undergraduate internships with BP & ExxonMobil

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: volunteered in Bolivia for 1.5 years working with Engineers without Borders on potable water projects.  

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

Stanford - CO2 storage

UT Austin - Hydrogeology, but may try to work with petroleum stuff 

Wisconsin - Hydrogeology

Duke - Hydrogeology

 

 

Thanks for sharing.  Good luck with your applications!

Hey! It's not often you find a fellow hydrogeologist! Is it Wisconsin - Madison you're applying to? If so, who are you hoping to work with there? Any info on when we might find out whether or not we're accepted? Hoping to work with Jean Bahr and/or Michael Cardiff at UW - Madison.

[InquilineKea]

Your advisers encourage you to apply for other programs?

Sounds incredible

 

Mostly research funding/fit issues (my advisers don't have the funding for the research problems that I'm interested in), and the fact that I have both Asperger's Syndrome and ADD, which makes things a lot more unpredictable. The funding issues might be solved by NSF/NDSEG/DOE CSGF, but I'll have to wait until April to find out about those.

Edited January 15, 2013 by InquilineKea

[jande48]

Hey! It's not often you find a fellow hydrogeologist! Is it Wisconsin - Madison you're applying to? If so, who are you hoping to work with there? Any info on when we might find out whether or not we're accepted? Hoping to work with Jean Bahr and/or Michael Cardiff at UW - Madison.

 

Hey Mylonite,

  

   Great to hear from you!  ... Your background appears to really good to get into those schools.  ... Is UW-Madison your first choice?  ... I applied there as well.  Also, I contacted Jean Bahr and talked with her at GSA this year.  She seems really nice and has some cool projects in the works. 

 

   I haven't anything (positive or negative) from any of the schools that I applied to.  ... ... But I will keep you in the loop.

 

  Great meeting you! .. I hope that we get to work together in some capacity in the future.  Cheers!

[glinker]

It seems admits are out at MIT, Caltech and UCSD. Someone got into all of them out on the results page.

[Usmivka]

It seems admits are out at MIT, Caltech and UCSD. Someone got into all of them out on the results page.

Depends on which program within EAPS (for MIT that is). I know the one's I'm affiliated with and know people in (read "most") have not made decisions. It is certainly possible that a few students have been given offers early because the advisor already decided or some such, but a number of programs in EAPS haven't even met yet to look at application packets.

 

Also, I see no results within the last year for any sort of earth science at UCSD/SIO. And not to throw cold water on this, but it seems a little fishy that the person who got into Caltech and MIT actually heard from both on the same day, and this early to boot (at least two weeks earlier than anything since people started posting). Trolling sadly does happen...but lets give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

 

Anyway, don't stress, I'm still confident the majority of folks won't hear anything until the February NSF proposals are in.

 

EDIT: Ah, found UCSD, it wasn't cross referenced properly. And hearing from all three on the same day...well it must have been a magical day for them!

Edited January 17, 2013 by Usmivka

[InquilineKea]

Well - I heard back from Penn State and basically got in there as one of the top applicants there. They had their first meeting on January 15th, and the visiting day will be on Friday, February 15th.

 

I'm not trying to get too excited about it though since I have a history of being disowned by advisers, so I'm being cautious.

[Usmivka]

Well - I heard back from Penn State and basically got in there as one of the top applicants there. They had their first meeting on January 15th, and the visiting day will be on Friday, February 15th.

 

I'm not trying to get too excited about it though since I have a history of being disowned by advisers, so I'm being cautious.

And congrats to you IK!

[Mr Buttons]

Got into UT-Austin with JSG fellowship.. extremely happy!