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Over
the past 14 years, hundreds of undergraduates have assisted with
my research. During many conversations, it became blatantly obvious
that most
have received little, if any,
information on how to go about getting into graduate school.
Rather than restricting my advice to my inner circle of
associates, I am repeating it here as an attempt to help the
larger community of ill-informed undergraduates that have no clue how to
successfully get into graduate school.
Graduate school formats do vary by discipline so I will
restrict my advice to those seeking postgraduate degrees in
ecology, evolution, or wildlife biology (i.e. those postgraduate degrees
with research theses / dissertations). Admittedly, my advice is
slanted towards the American education system but is largely
applicable to the Canadian system (save the GRE requirement)
as well.
Having undergone the process myself and having served on several graduate school entrance committees,
I can offer the following first-hand advice:
- Get good grades as an undergraduate
- Participate in graduate classes and
lab reading groups
- Score high on the GRE (graduate record exam)
- Have good references
- Have good work experience
- Try and get a publication or two
- Identify a potential advisor
- Try and get funding (research, scholarship, fellowship)
- Know whether you want an MS vs PhD
- Know where to apply
- Read peer-reviewed publications
- Attend a National meeting
- Play the odds
- Have your timing down
Good grades
Many of us enjoyed our undergraduate experience (some of us a
little too much). If you are reading this as someone who is
currently engaged in an undergraduate degree, work hard to get
good grades. It does have an effect on graduate entrance
committees. If you've already graduated and are reading this,
what's done is done. You have two options: (a) take some
refresher classes and show that you can get good grades and / or
(b) make up for the low GPA in other ways (see below). Important
classes to take if you want to continue in biology include
statistics (as many classes as you can take), ecology,
evolution, and an independent research project.
Participate in graduate classes and
lab reading groups
Sitting in or
participating in graduate level courses (as an undergrad or
recent graduate) is an excellent way to
get extra training in courses that are relevant to your future
graduate career. Attending lab reading groups (aka journal
clubs) is another way to
familiarize yourself with recent research topics, a chance to
meet faculty members, an opportunity to interact with graduate
students, and another way to get a letter of reference from a
faculty member (see "have good and relevant
references", below). Most faculty will welcome any
undergraduates that want to attend reading groups. Typically,
the group will read a selected journal article and discuss it
each week. It may also be a venue for bouncing ideas off the lab
group, etc. There is no need to feel intimidated by such groups
- it's an excellent way to immerse yourself in the academic
culture (something you rarely experience by just taking
undergraduate classes). See also "have good work
experience" regarding working in a campus lab.
The GRE
Scoring high on the GRE is not an indication of your future
success but it does inform graduate entrance committees about
how you perform relative to others in your same position. I
don't know how many times I've heard the excuse that "I
don't do well on standardized tests". Get over it - none of
us do. Work hard to get a good GRE score and you'll be well on
your way to getting your foot in the door. Make sure you've
mastered geometry so you can score well on the quantitative
portion of the GRE. Some schools also
require the Biology GRE so you should check each school's
requirement.
Have good *and* relevant references
If you plan to apply to graduate school, you want to have
references with clout writing the letters. While you may get a
glowing recommendation from the restaurant manager where you
worked during your summers, this is not going to mean anything
to an entrance committee. They want to see academic references -
the better known the person writing the letter, the better its
effect on the committee. Failing academic references (including
graduate students), having a biologist or other scientist write
a letter is the next best thing. If you're really desperate,
only then would I use non-academic, non-biologist
references. I guess they are better than nothing, but not
by much. With proper planning, you should be able to have three
solid academic references. If you don't, then you haven't done
your homework. As mentioned above (see "participate in
graduate classes and lab reading groups"), by
attending lab reading groups; you expose yourself to various
faculty members and it is a chance to get to know them (and
impress them) so that they'll write you a future letter.
Professors that teach you during your undergrad are another
source of letters. Unfortunately, they tend to have only limited
contact with you and usually can only comment on your
performance in class. And, of course, the best way to get a good
reference from an academician is to work for one (either paid or
volunteer). See the next section "have good work
experience" for more on this.
Have good work experience
Like the previous category, having worked as a painter, sales
clerk, or lifeguard is not going to have any effect on the
entrance committee. They are not going to care that you are fastidious
about balancing your till at the end of the night or that you
are the best-selling floor person at the Gap. Find good work
experiences (paid or voluntary) that are related to your biological interests. If
you think you want to work in a molecular lab, you should be
working in a molecular lab on campus. If you want to study
marine mammals, then you should be working with people that
study marine mammals. Most undergraduate campuses are diverse
and have a number of labs conducting relevant research. Even if
the lab is not quite a perfect fit, getting research experience
is very important and much more meaningful to the entrance
committee. Of course, working in a lab also means you'll have at
least one academic reference (see the previous section) and it will offer you a chance to
get a publication (see below). I also recommend that you work
for academicians when you graduate. Working for state agencies or private organizations is less desirable than working for a
professor at a university who is conducting research. You will be exposed to the
way faculty members attempt to ask research questions. You will
have a good letter of reference from that faculty member. And
you will increase your contacts in academia. The longer you are
in this game, the more you will realize how small the world of biologists
is. If you want to get into graduate school, surround yourself
with an academic environment. Try to avoid working for state or
private organizations that are involved in monitoring or surveying
organisms. While this is an important endeavor, it's not going
to help you realize your goal of getting into graduate school.
Stick with professors at major universities where possible. Like
I mentioned above, immerse yourself in the academic culture.
Get published
Besides GRE scores (see above), a
sure-fire way to get an
entrance committee's attention is to show that you have a
publication or two. The committee is trying to assess your
ability to be a successful graduate student. Having a
publication demonstrates that you can come up with original
ideas, know how write, are experienced with data manipulation /
analysis, and have the motivation to be productive. A
publication will almost always trump a poor GPA or GRE score.
Volunteer in a lab, find a research topic that interests you and
discuss your ideas with the faculty member in whose lab you are
working. Tell him/her that you are interested in working towards
a publication. They will most likely help you achieve this goal
if you show the determination and motivation, especially as a
volunteer.
Identify an advisor
If you are applying to a graduate program in ecology,
evolution, or wildlife; almost all departments require you to
have identified a potential faculty advisor before you apply.
While other programs may simply have you blanketly apply to a
program (similar to how you applied to undergraduate schools),
graduate programs in ecology, evolution, or wildlife almost
always (caveat: many cellular / molecular programs have you
rotate among labs and later choose an advisor) require that you have a faculty advisor on board. This
faculty member should want you in his / her lab as a graduate
student and should be willing to go to bat for you when the time comes to select
the students being admitted to the program. You should have
contacted a potential faculty member well before you apply. You
should be familiar with their current research and you should
have some sort of idea about what you'd be interested in
studying for your graduate degree. You may even elect to visit
the professor to find out more about the school, the professor,
his/her other graduate students, etc. If the professor does express
interest, you might also want to find out more about the person.
Some faculty members look great on paper but are a real pain to
work with. The best way to find out about someone's track record
is to query other graduate students in the department. You can
try asking his/her own graduate students but they may not give
you a level assessment of their advisor. Asking other graduate
students outside of the advisor's lab is probably the best
strategy. Finding graduate students
that have nothing to lose, and who are usually on top of all of
the departmental gossip, is the best source of scuttlebutt on a
potential advisor. You could also ask others in their field
about potential advisors. This would best be done with people with whom you are familiar.
Another method would be to meet the person at a meeting (see
"attend a National meeting", below)
How do you go about finding a potential
advisor in the first place? See "where to apply" and
"reading peer-reviewed publications" (below). But, make sure you find an advisor. Sending an
application to a department without having spoken to a potential
advisor is an utter waste of time. They will almost certainly
toss your application in the trash.
Funding
(a) Getting your own funding
Applying to graduate school with a scholarship or fellowship
in tow is almost a sure-fire way to get admitted. If you come
with funding, there is a much lower risk to the institution and
it looks good to have students with such awards. There are many
funding methods - National Science Foundation, National
Institute of Health, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research
Council (NSERC-Canada), US Forest Service, US Fish &
Wildlife Service, National Parks Service, The Nature
Conservancy, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund,
various societies (AOU, Cooper, ISBE, ABS,etc). There are also
scholarships for minorities, women in science, etc. Be creative
and find out what's out there. Landing a "full ride"
scholarship makes it that much easier to get admitted to
graduate school.
(b) Finding an advisor with a grant
When faculty members write research grants to NSF/NIH/NSERC,
etc; they often write in positions for graduate students. If a
faculty member has received a research grant, they may be
looking for a graduate student(s). If they advertise nationally
for a student, you will be competing with at least 50-100 other
applicants. If you contact them and they have funding but have
not advertised for a graduate student, you may have hit the
jackpot. If your interests fit with the theme of the
research position, the potential advisor may be more than
willing to bend over backwards to try and get you as a student.
The down side to this approach is that you may be pigeon-holed
into a research project that is already conceived and planned
out. It allows less creativity for you to develop the project to
suit your interests.
(c) Departmental Funding
Some departments guarantee funding as part of the admittance
procedure. That is, if they are willing to accept you, they are
also willing to make sure you are provided a teaching
assistantship during your tenure as a graduate student. In
exchange for working up to 20 hrs per week as a lab instructor,
you will be provided funding to live on. Other departments only
admit students that are funded through other means
(scholarships, advisor's grant, etc). Some departments only
provide limited T/A'ships and make graduate students compete for
those positions. Almost universally, graduate schools look down
upon (or even outright prohibit) part-time employment outside of
academia. So, unlike undergrad where you may have supplemented
your income with a part-time job, this is not really accepted
among graduate schools. As a graduate student, you are expected
to devote all of your time to your studies and other
departmental commitments.
MS vs PhD
Graduate degrees in North America come in two forms: Master
of Science (MS / MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). If you
want to teach at a 2-year college, go into government, work for a
consulting firm, or be a professional biologist then you most
likely would be interested in a Masters degree. These are
typically 3-year degrees with 2 to 3 field seasons of research.
If you want to go on in academia and become a professor or work
in a higher level research position then you should be pursuing
a PhD. Some schools don't offer a choice - they only grant PhDs
and only issue MS degrees as a concession when a student isn't
cut out for the PhD (often referred to as the "terminal
Masters"). Other schools, especially wildlife programs,
offer MS and PhD degrees. Some people, like myself, choose to
embark on an MS to begin with. It gives you a chance to
experience graduate school and learn more about the field
without having to commit to 5-7 years of PhD research. You can
cut your teeth so to speak and figure out what you'd like to do
for a PhD once you are finished with the MS. Others, typically
those that have only done PhDs, will argue that you shouldn't
waste time on an MS if you ultimately want a PhD. These people
go directly from undergrad into a PhD program and work very hard
to get themselves up to speed to the level where they can start
developing a dissertation topic. It's been my experience that
very few undergrads are prepared to come up with novel ideas
immediately after completing undergraduate degrees. It takes a
number of years to catch up with the literature and become
familiar with what research has been conducted, what ideas are
novel, and determining a future research direction. Masters
degrees put much less emphasis on the level of research
questions as do PhD degrees.
Where to apply?
In my opinion, there are 3 main factors that should help you
determine where to apply.
(1) Advisor: You are going to spend the next 3-7 years
working with your advisor. You want someone that you can get
along with, that is going to help you realize your goals, that
is conducting research that fits with your interests, and that
has the personality that meshes with the kind of person you are.
Also realize that the more famous a person is, the more unlikely
it is that you will have quality one-on-one time with them.
Junior faculty members tend to have less students and more time
to nurture graduate students. Faculty with large labs will also
have less time to devote to you. They will rely on senior
graduate students or postdocs to help you out. Some faculty
members will be very good at hand-holding and others will be
very hands-off. It depends on the type of person you wish to
work with. Some will give constant positive feedback and others
will only share feedback when it is negative. But, of all the factors, the
advisor you work with should be your number one decision on
where you apply.
(2) School: The quality of the department to which you wish
to apply needs to be assessed. Don't go by a school's overall reputation. Some schools may be held in very high regard by
the public because they have an excellent Law or Medical school.
These very same schools might have a very poor department with respect to
ecology, evolution, or wildlife. Just because a campus may have
some old buildings adorned with ivy doesn't necessarily mean it
should be your number one choice. Again, as a neophyte, you may
not be familiar with each school's reputation for your field of
interest. Talking to faculty members at your undergraduate
institution may help you separate out the better schools. There
are also
ranking systems that you can look up.
If you are interested in Wildlife programs, you should
specifically target
those schools that offer such programs.
(3) Geographic Location: Many students I have spoken with
want to go to school in a particular state or region of North
America. I've heard students say they won't go to school in
Canada because it's too cold or they don't want to go to the
midwest because it's too flat or they want to avoid the South
because it's too hot. Get over it. You shouldn't determine your
entire future based on a few years in a location that isn't top
on your list. Your focus should be on your research program and
less on your social life and the local activities. You most
likely will not end up where you go to graduate school anyway,
so why worry about the location? If the faculty member you have
identified to work with happens to be at a great school in a
great location then you are set. But, unfortunately, the reality
is that you may be lucky to get 2 of the 3 (advisor and school)
- the geographic location is simply not that important. Besides,
there is nothing stopping you from conducting your field research
in some locale that you do fancy. Spend your school year in
Chicago but your field season in the Galapagos, for example.
Reading peer-reviewed publications
One of the best ways to find a potential advisor is to read
peer-reviewed publications. You can find journals associated
with various topics: Birds (Auk, Condor, Wilson Journal of
Ornithology, or Journal of Field Ornithology); Mammals (Journal
of Mammalogy) Behavior (Animal Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology,
Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology); Ecology (Journal of
Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Ecology, Ecological
Monographs, Ecological Applications, Ecology Letters, American
Naturalist, Oikos, Oecologia); Evolution (American Naturalist,
Evolution); Wildlife Biology (Journal of Wildlife Management); Conservation
Biology (Biological Conservation, Conservation Biology) and the list goes
on. Peruse the latest issues or do searches on topics that
interest you. Almost all peer-reviewed publications can be viewed online
through your school's library or viewed directly by visiting the
library. Unfortunately, local libraries will usually not carry
peer-reviewed journals so you will have to have access to a
college or university library. If you can't get access to a university library then I would
recommend Googling research topics and go from there. Almost all
faculty members have web pages in this day and age. Most will
list their publications and information about their current
research. Try and keep current. Reading a paper that someone
wrote in 1974 is not going to help you understand what their
current interests are in. Look at their web page and look for
more recent papers (use the Science Citation Index or Web of
Science to look up their recent publications). Make sure the
person you have identified as a possible advisor has an academic
position somewhere. Many authors will be graduate students or
government scientists. You need to tease apart those who are in
a position to accept graduate students from those who are not.
Look at the author's affiliation and then go to their web site
to confirm that they are a faculty member associated with a
university (and that they are not retired or worse, deceased!)..
Faculty members move around quite a bit as well. So, if you are
reading a publication that is over a decade old, the affiliation
may not be current. Again, Google the person and find out their
current location and status.
Attend National Meetings
Almost all of the major journals
mentioned in the previous section are run by societies
(e.g. Ecological Society of America,
Society for Conservation
Biology, Animal Behavior Society) and have annual meetings. There is no better way to find out what
research is current and meet major players in your field of
interest. Google a society's web page and they will have
information on their next annual meeting. These meetings will
feature hundreds of 15-min talks arranged into sessions. Showing your
motivation for graduate school by attending a national meeting
is a great way to impress a potential advisor about how serious
you are. Often, you can pre-arrange to meet up with potential
faculty members if you contact them before the meeting to see if
they are attending. You can also approach speakers after their
talk to find out more about them. Meeting programs are available
well before the meeting takes place. You can look at the various
themes that are being discussed and look up individual
presenters to find out more about their background and
interests. If you've done your homework, you could meet up with
10 or more potential advisors at one meeting (especially one of
the major meetings like the Ecological Society of America [known
as the "Ecology meetings] or the
Society for the Study of
Evolution [known as the "Evolution meetings").
Play the Odds
To successfully get into a graduate program means that all of
the stars have aligned in the correct orientation. You found an
advisor with your particular research interests, who happens to
be interested in you, who happens to have room in his/her lab,
who happens to be at a school that you want to attend, etc etc.
There are many reasons you may be turned down for graduate
school. The department may be more equitable and give first
priority to faculty members who don't presently have graduate students.
The potential advisor you have identified might be going on sabbatical for a year.
The advisor may have just accepted two students the previous
year. You can't bank on just one person when applying to
graduate school. My advice is that you apply to 10 schools. Yes,
it might be a bit pricey in terms of application fees, GRE
scores, etc but it's well worth the investment. Play the odds
and realize you have a slim chance of getting in at any one
school. By spreading your applications about, you increase the
probability of at least one of the schools coming through for
you.
Timing
Don't leave applying to graduate school until the last
moment. Most schools will have application deadlines some time
between December and February. You should be planning out your
application process at least a year from the application
deadline (if possible). That year will give you a chance to get
your GREs out of the way. It will give you time to read up about
and contact future advisors. You want to plant the seed early so
that they are interested in you with lots of lead time. You
don't want to spring this on a potential advisor with only a
week's notice. Some potential advisors might even try to write
you into a grant if they know you are interested. NSF grants are
typically submitted in early July and early January. Coinciding
your contact with a potential advisor before they submit their
grants can certainly help. On the flip side, advisors will find
out if their grants were funded some time in May or November.
They may start looking for graduate students at that time if
they are successful. All the more reason to start early. And, if
you apply early enough, you might even suggest working for or
volunteering with a potential advisor. It's a great way to get a
head start on your research, a way to impress the potential
faculty member, a chance to assess whether you like working with
the faculty member and their lab, etc.
Good luck - I hope this primer can help you get into graduate
school! Send me a note if you have any comments, suggestions, or
success stories.
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