So you’ve decided to go to grad school. Congrats!! This is a big step in your life and you should be proud to decide on what to do next. While you know what you want to end up doing next (aka going to grad school), how exactly do you get there? In the marine/geosciences field, this is a little difficult to figure out if you are the first in your family/friend group to do so. This post will talk about some things that I did to land me into grad school (both my Master’s and PhD), and other things I wished I knew about.
Timeline
- Late Summer/Early Fall – Research potential advisors and put together a list
- Early Fall/Mid-Fall – Put together/update your CV; Reach out to potential advisors
- Mid-Fall – Reach out to people you want letters of recommendations from (give them at least 2 months notice)
- Late Fall/Winter – Write your statement of purpose for applications and anything else you might need for applications
- Late Winter – Apply to grad school!
Finding Advisors
Instead of looking at the school/program, I typically like to look at the advisor first. This basically means, I am looking for advisors who I share similar research interests with. My main questions I ask myself when doing this is “are they doing exactly the type of research I want to do?” (i.e., coral nitrogen cycling) and if not then “are they broadly in the area of research I want to do?” (i.e., nitrogen cycling or nitrogen in general). To find the answers to this, I normally 1) google my area of research I am hoping to do my grad school work on (i.e. nitrogen biogeochemistry) and look for the potential advisor’s lab website or 2) look at the authors of papers that really interested me and look up the authors (typically the last author is the PI of the lab).
Once you know that you like their research, add them to your list by writing down their write down their name, institution, research interests (for later), email address, and copy and paste their website there as well (if they have one). You can find an example of how I organize potential advisors in this excel file which can also be found using the button below (I used myself as an example for what to write in). Make sure that the professor is still teaching at the school and that they are not retired! Now that you know where the advisor(s) teach, you can also consider if the school has a lot of money for research or not. Typically R1 schools will have larger amounts of money than R2 schools for research. You can look into which schools are R1 or R2 schools in the US here. This will give you somewhat of an idea on what schools will probably have more money for grad students than others. With this information in mind, I then like to rank the advisors at this step based off of their research interests and where the school is located. If they are doing research that really gets you excited in a place that you can see yourself living in, they would go in the upper tier and be one of the first people you reach out to. Alternatively, if their research doesn’t excite you as much or it’s a place you know you definitely do not want to go to, they would be in the lower most tier and be one of the last people to reach out to if you still have the mental capacity to do so. Funding is going to be the main factor deciding if a potential advisor can take a student or not. Keep in mind that only a small percentage of those you reach out to will email you back. Although it is unfortunate, it is often the case. So don’t get too discouraged!
Cold Emails
Now that you have a good long list of potential advisors, you need to see if they are currently taking in grad students! This part is probably one of the most nerve wracking parts, as you need to reach out to someone you (probably) don’t even know and hope they like what you have to tell them. While you want your email to be easily transferrable for all the other people on your list (your background section can probably be the same for everyone), you still want the email to not sound like it was something you sent out in a mass email to all potential advisors. It should be personalized to that specific advisor, including why you are interested in their lab and research, your research interests, and what you could bring to their lab/how you could fit in well with their research topic. Be aware that funding is most always a limiting factor, so mentioning that you would be willing to apply to grants or scholarships is always important! Also keep in mind that the potential advisor you reached out to may already have a full lab and cannot take on more grad students. I like to ask if they are aware of anyone in their network could be potentially taking in a new grad student if they do not have funding or already have a full lab to keep my options open and to utilize their larger network and knowledge of people who are already in the field. Below is an example of an email (using myself as an example). Anything underlined would be what I would personalize for each potential advisor.
Hello Dr. Donnelly,
My name is Heather Donnelly, and I am currently a master’s student in the Soils and Water Sciences department at the University of Florida (UF) under Dr. Ashley Smyth. My master’s thesis focuses on the effects of shellfish on sediment nitrogen cycling, to which I was recently awarded the Ben Skulnick Fellowship.
Prior to my time at UF, I received my Bachelor of Science at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in both Marine Biology and Geological Oceanography, and a minor in Underwater Archaeology. My key research experiences as an undergraduate include conducting a study on the community metabolism of Porites astreoidesin response to flow rates in Bermuda as part of a study abroad program and research on the distribution of macroinvertebrates along an anthropogenic gradient in the Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island funded by the NSF as part of the RI EPSCoR SURF internship. Additionally, I investigated nitrous oxide production between two species of oysters, one from a temperate climate and one from a tropical climate, in response to nutrient loading at URI. As a result of the last project, I was selected to present at the 2016 ASLO Ocean Sciences conference with a scholarship to fund my travel expenses and provide mentors and guidance through the ASLO multicultural program. Following graduation from URI, I was employed as a lab technician in the chemistry lab at the wastewater treatment plant for the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, in Atlantic City, NJ. My research interests lie in nitrogen loading to marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs (this should come from your excel sheet about their research interests), which I feel closely relates to your ongoing research. Due to my specific interest in the research in your lab, I am looking into the PhD program at the Boston College and was wondering if you were looking for any prospective graduate students to start in the fall of 20XX.
I understand that funding is often a limiting factor for graduate research positions and am actively searching for fellowships such as the NSF graduate fellowship. If you know of any other fellowships specific to your university for first-generation college students, such as diversity fellowships, please let me know. Finally, I understand if there are no openings within your lab and would appreciate it if you knew any labs with similar research interests looking for graduate students.
Attached to this email is my CV. Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Heather Donnelly
Good luck!