Saturday, December 02, 2006

Applying to Graduate School

I’ve submitted my first three applications to graduate school at:

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)- Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Massachusetts (Amherst)- Organismal & Evolutionary Biology
University of California (Berkeley)- Environmental Science, Policy, & Management

It feels good to have those out of the way. I had to spend over an hour on the phone with my mom in the U.S. to complete the U of M (Michigan) application online. I was having trouble getting it to work here in New Zealand and the U of M tech people told me that their system is not compatible with dial up so their solution was that I should go find a faster internet connection! Well, I would if I could without paying heaps more money. Do they really think I’d choose dial up if there were a faster option? So my mom filled in questions on their forms and uploaded the appropriate documents for me over their fast connection in Dayton (by the way, that’s my parents winning our unofficial blog viewing contest :-). U of M had other annoying features on their online application site, so if I had to grade them, they would get a D-. They should’ve asked my opinion on their site before putting it online. I’d give them an earful.

The UMass online application was much simpler. I only had trouble when it came to paying the application fee, so they get an A-. UC Berkeley’s site was actually fast to load over dial-up but it had a few quirks, so they also get an A-.

Carrie

P.S. Still no more bats.

4 comments:

A Family Abroad said...

Go Carrie, Go! Good luck with the rest of the process. Let me know if my high speed connections can ever be of help.

xxx

AdamB said...

Awesome! Good luck!

How many are you thinking of applying to? Have you checked out globes.nd.edu? I hear their application process is really easy! (I just made that part up.)

P.S. "heaps"? Sounds like kiwitalk to me!

Unknown said...

Adam just wants you guys to live near him. Then Seth will move and it will be like a constant Earlham reunion with lots of fun and frisbee. Actually, that sounds really good....

Carrie Seltzer said...

Ok Adam, I finally looked at the globes program website. It does sound really cool. Are you in the Globes program for economics? Yes, heaps is Kiwitalk.

If all of us just move to the same city imagine what a blast we'd have! I am selectively applying to graduate schools in places that are supposed to be fun places to live (although the list is not exhaustive because not all fun places to live have bat ecologists. Unfortunately, Madison, Minneapolis and Boston are lacking).

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