Applications and Reading

Lot's of good stuff today.

I'm almost done with the Montana online application. I should look closer at the faculty for more potential advisors. I'm waiting to hear back about some questions, though, so I'll have a few days to do some of that. The only bad thing about waiting is that the electronic requests for letters of rec. don't get sent out until I actually finish the application. The SOP for them is a hard copy, so I'll have to make it visually appealing in terms of spacing and such. I think Wisconsin has an option for a file upload or a copy and paste form. It's so confusing because every school has a different process and every online application is a little different. They all pretty much want the same thing but in different ways. It definitely pays to read the directions very carefully and more than once.

I sent my transcript requests for Wisconsin. I had to request more because I had bad instructions for the OSU application. I sent the materials to OSU yesterday with an unofficial copy of my SJC transcripts because I still haven't received them yet. Once I get them I can send the official ones. It should be fine, though.

I also spent some time on the Wisconsin application and looked around their website some more. I found some great stuff, including a rather thorough document about how to make the most of graduate school. I look forward to reading more of it to give me some perspective on where I'm headed and what I can do along the way. I'm undertaking a graduate degree in order to make a career, after all, and I'll have to actually make it.

I also looked around at publications to see what is easy for me to access and read regularly. I found the ESA's main publications on JSTOR up through 2009. That should be plenty to browse for a while. I also looked around on the ESA website and discovered a few cool things. One is that the 2012 ESA Conference is in Portland! It's in August and I am definitely finding a way to go--to the whole thing, all week. Another is that they have three podcasts I can get on iTunes about various ecology stuff. And the third is that they have an free, online-only journal. More good reading.

Definitely getting some things done.