2015 Ecology/Evolution/Organismal/Marine Biology Applicants

[mayanway]

alejandromolina - I applied there too (assuming you mean Michigan State and not another MSU) and haven't heard anything either.  Given their early deadline, I'm hoping it's soon. 

 

Also, I almost added another school when a colleague forwarded me a link to a position that looked great, only to find that it's only open to UK citizens : /

[alejandromolina]

Yes, it is Michigan State... I actually applied to the EEBB PhD program, but in order to be admitted to that program, you have to apply via other department, so I applied to the zoology department. The EEBB program had a later deadline so I'm not sure how they handle those applications...

[Pitangus]

Yes, it is Michigan State... I actually applied to the EEBB PhD program, but in order to be admitted to that program, you have to apply via other department, so I applied to the zoology department. The EEBB program had a later deadline so I'm not sure how they handle those applications...

 

Applications are reviewed at the department level first, so applicants are accepted into a department and then accepted into EEBB if they submitted EEBB applications.

Zoology reviewed its applications the week of Dec 15th. Fellowship nominations were in the works in late December and may have been ongoing into early Jan. Invites to the recruiting event (Feb 5th - 6th) should be going out soon by email (they usually go out by mid Jan). 

[Crucial BBQ]

Basically anyone in this forum not applying to a biomedical program. Our deadlines are later and we get lost in the main thread so I thought I'd start a new one.

 

How's everyone's application season going? I just submitted my last application over the weekend (yay!) but I had one of my LOR writers miss a deadline (>.<).

The schools in your sig were the same schools in my original list last year.  

 

Seven of my twelve programs had their due dates on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.  It was not until Jan. 4 before I realized I had yet to send them my transcripts and GRE scores. I got in touch with the programs ASAP to see what I could do and without repeating myself from the other thread, those programs are now off the table. 

 

One of my recommenders is totally flaking on LORs, but that is okay as I have four recommenders total. 

 

The rest of my applications are going good.  

[shadowclaw]

 

Seven of my twelve programs had their due dates on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.  It was not until Jan. 4 before I realized I had yet to send them my transcripts and GRE scores. I got in touch with the programs ASAP to see what I could do and without repeating myself from the other thread, those programs are now off the table. 

This sucks soooooo badly. I'm sorry it happened to you... I've been rooting for you since I first started reading your posts. Hopefully all will go well with your remaining apps.

[Enhydra]

The schools in your sig were the same schools in my original list last year.  

 

Seven of my twelve programs had their due dates on Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.  It was not until Jan. 4 before I realized I had yet to send them my transcripts and GRE scores. I got in touch with the programs ASAP to see what I could do and without repeating myself from the other thread, those programs are now off the table. 

 

One of my recommenders is totally flaking on LORs, but that is okay as I have four recommenders total. 

 

The rest of my applications are going good.  

 

Oh geez, that's awful. I'm glad your other applications are going well, though! I'm curious since you applied to the same schools last year that I am applying to now, what was your research focus?

[shadowclaw]

Well I just had my phone interview at 1:00. I was a little annoyed because he said he wanted to call in the morning a little after 9, so I was basically sitting next to the phone for over an hour, feeling anxious and getting worried. Then he shot me an e-mail asking if he could call in the afternoon. At least he didn't leave me hanging all day I suppose. It sounds like a good research opportunity. He's very flexible about the exact project I'd be working on, and it seems the reason he advertised this position so late is because one of his grad students bailed on him unexpectedly after being in the program for a year and a half. I don't know if that's a good sign, though he more or less said that she didn't like Miami and was from Europe and might have been expecting graduate school to be a bit different based on the European education system.

 

The application process is a bit silly. I have to fill out the application online like anywhere else, but then I also have to e-mail copies of everything to the department (including having my recommenders e-mail their LORs after uploading them to the application). He said the reason for this is that the university is huge and things tend to get lost. So if the department has unofficial copies of things when the adcomm meets, they don't have to worry about missing GRE scores or letters.

[Solanus]

Thanks everyone for the replies! So I guess I haven't been doing it wrong; just my approach is not quite right.

 

It's likely that timing of contacting POIs can influence whether they respond. When have you been contacting them, early in the semester? Near any breaks? For example, my MS advisor recommended waiting several weeks into the semester because profs are swamped early on. Making contact around holidays like Thanksgiving may also make it more likely your email gets lost in their inbox.

 

YIKES. This may be a large part of my issue; even my follow-up e-mails have been at the times you listed. Thanks! I'll definitely be more conscious of my timing.

 

Could you post a general outline of your e-mails? Even if you are writing great e-mails, sometimes you just don't get responses from doing a "blind e-mail," which is basically when you find a POI and e-mail them when they don't have any advertisements out.

 

Sure! I've contacted a mix of POIs that have advertised and not (1/2 advert responses, 0/2 non-advert). Here's a 'formula' for one that I sent to a POI who had advertised, and I was REALLY interested in working with, but didn't respond even after 3 follow-up e-mails:

[4 sentences introducing myself]

[4 sentences explaining interest and how it relates to your lab]

[7 sentences explaining a research idea I have]

[2 sentence tagline]

Here's one for my most recent contact, who responded within a day referring me to a colleague better suited for my interest (to which I agree):

[2 sentences introducing myself]

[2 sentences explaining interest and how it relates to your lab]

[6 sentences explaining in-depth interest and research idea]

[2 sentence tagline]

From what I'm getting from other people, even that is too much... how the hell am I supposed to convince someone with barely any explaining?

 

At this point, if you are looking to start in the fall, you will have to get moving if you want to apply to a PhD program. Many deadlines have passed, and the next big one is January 15.

 

Yeah, I'm looking at Spring 2015 or Fall 2016 at this point (unfortunately).

 

My personal experience is that when someone sees a long email, they subconsciously feel like they have to write a long reply. And if they don't have time then and there, it often doesn't get written at all. I personally advocate writing a concise, clear email fo no more than 2-3 lines before your signature.

WELL THEN. I think this might be it. The MINIMUM I've sent in an interest e-mail was about 15 sentences/lines. I'll check out the post you're referring to. Should I be bothering to explain my interests? Or should I say "our interests relate" or "I'm interested in project X"?

Thanks again everyone! Sounds like a congrats to the FIU position, shadowclaw!(?) It sounds very similar to the position I had sated, but then rejected - the professor sounds eager.

[Crucial BBQ]

This sucks soooooo badly. I'm sorry it happened to you... I've been rooting for you since I first started reading your posts. Hopefully all will go well with your remaining apps.

Yeah, I was bummed for sure but am over it now.  I do have that what if feeling and I imagine it will linger for a while yet my top two choices are still in the running.  In a way it is a good thing: less money spent and less programs to worry about (and less potential bragging rights ).   

 

Something that I did not mention in the other thread is that I now also have the time to retake the GRE for my top two programs if I choose to do so.  

 

I am now feeling excited once again (y)  

[Crucial BBQ]

Oh geez, that's awful. I'm glad your other applications are going well, though! I'm curious since you applied to the same schools last year that I am applying to now, what was your research focus?

The generic answer:  coastal processes.  A more refined answer:  the biological response to fluvial sediment transportation and deposition.  The actual answer:  not telling  I'll just say that my intended research requires a certain geological feature and a type, or types, of benthic organism.  I am not limiting myself in my SOPs but my actual research interests, if I end up pursing them, are limited to a particular coastal morphology and a particular ecological distribution of organism.  That also limits the schools I can apply to.  There are two other things relevant to my intended research interests that would make my intended research topic more flexible in terms of grad school, but for the sake of anonymity I remain hush hush.   

 

Really, my intended research is part physical oceanography, part geological oceanography, part biological oceanography, and part EEB.  Or for simplicity, coastal processes.  

[sfrie]

As a heads up: If anyone else applied to UCLA's EEB program, I just got word from my POI that the admissions committee is about to start meeting (likely next week). 

[Crucial BBQ]

Sure! I've contacted a mix of POIs that have advertised and not (1/2 advert responses, 0/2 non-advert). Here's a 'formula' for one that I sent to a POI who had advertised, and I was REALLY interested in working with, but didn't respond even after 3 follow-up e-mails:

 

What are you putting in your subject line?  I usually use something such as:

 

Prospective Student; Hydrology Program at UC Awesome; Fall 2015.  

 

If your subject line appears to be at all spammy it will probably be treated as spam.  Same with nonprofessional email addresses. 

 

I am not sure if your emails are too long or not.  Frankly, I don't think anyone knows.  It seems that for every number of POIs one contacts via email there are an equal number of proper protocol.  Some want the initial contact email to be short and sweet, others do not mind novellas.  Some want you to include your CV, others claim that soliciting your CV without prior agreement is bad, bad, bad.  Some love emails from prospective students, others will raise holy hell if you even just think to email them.  Last year I had mixed results; what I found to work better this year was something like:

 

Dear Professor Cool Guy,

 

I am a prospective applicant to the Marine Biology program at University by the Sea.  I am searching for a potential mentor/advisor and pulled your name from the program's website.  A review of your personal webpage/lab indicates you as a potential fit for my research interests.  If you will be taking on students for the Fall of 2015, and if so inclined, I would like to continue this conversation at your convience.  Attached you will find my most current CV which includes my email, home phone, and Skype.

 

Sincerely,

Crucial BBQ

crucialbbq@bbq dot com

 

I hit ten for ten.  Some did take their sweet time with responding, though, and some did take the time to respond just to tell me "no" or to suggest who I may contact instead.  The goal with my above example was to keep in short, suggest that I had did some research into the program/POI/lab, ask my question, and then to ultimately put the ball into the POIs court.  I wanted to show serious intentions without being pushy, extensive, or brown-nosing. 

 

Hope this helps if it is not too late. 

 

[shadowclaw]

I'm getting excited and anxious. This should be the week that a few of my schools start sending out invites! Eeeee!

sfrie - I just realized that we both applied to UNC. Did your POI(s) happen to mention when invites would be sent out? Mine just said towards the end of the month... there isn't much in the results section to work with. One person said they were accepted on Jan 19 (which might have been an accident and they meant interview), and another put Jan 30 for the interview.

Edited January 11, 2015 by shadowclaw

[sfrie]

shadowclaw-- No word from my POI about UNC, but he is new to the  school, so I expect he doesn't know. I can't imagine it will take much longer since most of the other departments at UNC have already gotten back to their applicants, but who knows with EEB. I'm just sitting tight until the end of the month (and frantically checking my email/the website daily). 

[shadowclaw]

sfrie - Darn, I was really hoping you had better information than me so I can focus my anxiety on specific applications this week. Oh well. I don't even know if the website will show any updated status about my application. Right now it just says submitted, and I feel like it's going to stay that way until final decisions are made. I keep checking anyway My UTK application at least told me when it was sent to the department for review. That made me feel a little better!

[darwingirl]

I've been popping in here looking through these as if I'm still going through this (but I'm not). I hope everyone gets into the program they love and enjoys the ride. It's exhausting and stressful and really, really fun. 

 

I've interviewed at a bunch of schools (listed below) so if anyone has any questions about any of them, feel free to reply or pm me!

UF Biology, Yale EEB, UChicago CEB, UMichigan EEB, UWisconsin Botany, UWashington Biology, MSU Plant Bio/Entomology. 

[atlremix]

Hi darwingirl, when did you receive an admission decision from UMichigan EEB? This is my husband's top choice program and we are super anxious waiting to hear back.

[darwingirl]

Hi darwingirl, when did you receive an admission decision from UMichigan EEB? This is my husband's top choice program and we are super anxious waiting to hear back.

 

For UMichigan I actually missed the initial interview weekend because it conflicted with another, so they scheduled me to come up by myself a lot later (early March). And I heard back from them right after that. I also know some others that went to the interview weekend and I believe they got admission decisions right after interviewing as well.

 

As far as receiving the interview invite, I think it was around Jan 20..so very soon if they are consistent year to year.

[backtoschool13]

Just received an email from my POI at UMich's EEB program. It sounds like faculty members have had a chance to review applications. Now the Admissions Committee will be making decisions in the next few weeks on invitations to their recruitment weekend.

[alejandromolina]

Still haven't heard anything from MSU :'(. Nothing has been posted on the results page... but I'm starting to fear for the worst.

[sfrie]

Have people been hearing back from EEB programs yet? I have no updates from any of my schools and am a bit concerned by the lack of responses. 

[mayanway]

No. I've gotten a couple of "your application is complete" emails, but no status updates.  2 of my programs had December 1 deadlines and will be interviewing in February, and it's starting to seem unlikely that I'll get an interview invite.  The rest of mine had later deadlines and I don't expect to hear anything until February.

[Enhydra]

I heard back from one program with a Dec 1st deadline and have an interview next week (!!) but based on the grad cafe results from prior years I'm not expecting to hear back from anywhere else until late Feb, March, possibly even into April.

[Tuanis]

Have people been hearing back from EEB programs yet? I have no updates from any of my schools and am a bit concerned by the lack of responses. 

I've heard back from three schools, though two were in biology departments (profs with EEB focus). I know the admissions committee for one of my schools doesn't meet until the last week of January, and it seems as if a lot adcoms have only started meeting this week, or won't be meeting until next week. I definitely wouldn't worry about it yet!

[shadowclaw]

I got rejections from two of my schools with the earliest deadlines (Dec 1), but nothing from the rest. The majority of my programs had later deadlines, although I do expect invites to be sent from two of them (UT and UNC) in the next week or two, based on the limited results posted and limited info from my POIs. I know Oregon State doesn't do interviews, so I won't hear back until March or even April. Basically, my top programs shouldn't have sent out invites yet, so while I'm anxious, I don't have a sense of doom yet.