Additional Session Resources
Finding a community and/or mentors:
- EEB Mentor Match: for people from underrepresented groups applying to graduate school or a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Project Short: provides mentors for those applying to graduate school or medical school
- WOC in EEB: an online community for women and non-binary people of color in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and allied fields.
Nuts & Bolts of Grad School
Grad School Jargon Definitions
Types of Graduate Degrees
Master’s Degree vs. PhD
Best and Worst Reasons to Attend Grad School
What to Expect in Grad School
Academia’s “Hidden Curriculum"
Grad School Exams and Program Requirements
Relevant Twitter Accounts to Follow
Comics about Grad School
- Grad School Jargon (University of Georgia)
- The One-Stop Shop for Academic Jargon Definitions (Ohio State University)
- Abbreviations and Graduate School Jargon (Grand Valley State University)
Types of Graduate Degrees
- These Are the Different Types of Grad School Programs (and Why They Matter) (Niche)
- What Are the Different Types of Graduate Degrees? (WayUp)
Master’s Degree vs. PhD
- Master's vs Doctorate: Which Degree is Right for You? (Franklin University)
- Master’s or Ph.D.: Graduate Degree Options (Peterson’s)
- The degree debate: Should you get a master’s or Ph.D.? (USA Today)
Best and Worst Reasons to Attend Grad School
- Reasons to Attend (University of Georgia)
- Should You Go to Graduate School? (Harvard Business Review)
- A Guide for Potential Graduate Students: Should You Go To Graduate School? (Peterson’s)
What to Expect in Grad School
- What is Grad School Like? (ThoughtCo)
- 6 Ways Grad School Is Different From Undergrad (Mental Floss)
- 7 Big Differences Between College and Graduate School (Inquiries Journal)
Academia’s “Hidden Curriculum"
- I Felt Lost In A New Academic Culture. Then I Learned About The Hidden Curriculum (Science Magazine)
- The Hidden Curriculum (Inside Higher Ed)
- Grad School’s Hidden Curriculum (Scatter Blog)
Grad School Exams and Program Requirements
- Surviving Your Comprehensive Exams (Dynamic Ecology Blog)
- Comprehensive Examination (Wikipedia)
- PhD Qualifying Exams & Dissertation Requirements (UC San Diego)
Relevant Twitter Accounts to Follow
Comics about Grad School
How to Apply & Timeline
General advice on applying
Master’s programs with funding
Application fee resources
Awarded research grants
Servers with posting for advertised graduate student positions
GRE resources
GRE and success in grad school are NOT correlated
Preparing for interviews
Elevator Pitches
If you didn't get into graduate school
Master’s programs with funding
Application fee resources
Awarded research grants
Servers with posting for advertised graduate student positions
- ECOLOG-L: listserv with postings relevant to members of the Ecological Society of America
- EvolDir: directory of postings related to evolutionary biology
- Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Job Board
GRE resources
- Schools that do not require the GRE (may not be complete list)
- GRE fee reduction program
- GRE accessibility accommodations
- Free GRE studying resources
GRE and success in grad school are NOT correlated
- A test that fails (Nature)
- The GRE over the entire range of scores lacks predictive ability for PhD outcomes in the biomedical sciences (PLoS One)
Preparing for interviews
- How to Ace Your Graduate School Interview: Communicating Your Research Competently and Confidently (Científico Latino)
- PhD Interviews: How To Do Well On Your PhD / Doctorate Program Interview (r3ciprocity)
- What to Do When They Say, ‘Tell Us About Your Research’ (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- How to Prepare for a PhD Interview (Academic Positions)
- To ace your Ph.D. program interviews, prepare to answer—and ask—these key questions (Science Magazine)
Elevator Pitches
- The Elevator Pitch: Presenting Your Research in Conversation (University of Notre Dame)
- How to Write a PhD Elevator Pitch (Academic Positions)
- Elevator Speech: An Effective Way to Communicate Your Work (University of Washington)
- Communication: Two minutes to impress (Nature)
If you didn't get into graduate school
Funding & Grant Writing
Cost of Living
Fellowships
Applying for the NSF GRFP
Fellowships
- 2020 Scholarships and fellowships list (Immigrants Rising)
- Internal fellowships (UC Davis)
- External Fellowships (UC Davis)
- DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
- Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
- USDA NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship
- PD Soros Fellowship for New Americans
Applying for the NSF GRFP
Finding a Good Fit
Suggested questions for finding a good fit
Other articles and resources
- Questions to ask yourself based on our top five tips for finding a good fit
- A list of questions to help you find a supportive PI and lab (curated on Twitter)
Other articles and resources
- Choosing a Ph.D. program – what’s important and what’s not (Sociobiology blog)
- How to choose a PhD program (Dynamic Ecology blog)
- Graduate School - How Do I Choose a School? (UC Berkeley Career Center)
- How to Choose a Grad School (The Princeton Review)
- Finding Your Best-Fit Graduate Program (Columbia University Center for Career Education)
- How to choose an advisor (Students for STEM)
- How to write an email to a prospective advisor (The Contemplative Mammoth blog)
- How to reach out to potential advisors
Is this Right for Me?
Best and Worst Reasons to Attend Grad School
Surveys of PhD Students & Recent Graduates
- Reasons to Attend (University of Georgia)
- Should You Go to Graduate School? (Harvard Business Review)
- A Guide for Potential Graduate Students: Should You Go To Graduate School? (Peterson’s)
Surveys of PhD Students & Recent Graduates
- Nature’s 2019 PhD Survey
- Where Will A Biology PhD Take You? Infographic (American Society for Cell Biology)
- A Data-Based Guide to the North American Ecology Faculty Job Market (The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America)
- Academic ecosystems must evolve to support a sustainable postdoc workforce (Nature)