Go to grad school with your eyes open!

Stipends in grad school are.... modest (see above) and don't allow the kind of lifestyle that you can maintain with a "real" job. You're still a trainee in grad school, hence all of the comics pertaining to eating ramen noodles and the obsession with free food in PhD Comics, and other blogs about grad school... (and if you didn't think you could live on this kind of stipend [barring personal or family emergencies], why did you sign up for this?)

This past week, the Professor Is In blog began a survey of PhD debt to assess whether reports she'd heard about credit card and loan debt in the 100s of thousands of dollars could be real (i.e., >$260,000 in debt for a philosophy degree). Slate Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Chronicle of Higher Education all have articles about this survey too. You can go to the results of this survey through the above link, but here's a 2012 summary from a similar NSF survey:

Over 60% of the respondents reported zero debt, but nearly a quarter reported debt over $30,000. You can enter numbers for your own grad school experience at the Professor Is In blog. Post-grad school debt is much less of a problem for students in the physical sciences and engineering probably because most of those students are offered both a stipend and full tuition when they're admitted, and because those students spend only ~5 years on average in grad school.

As an undergraduate, I went to a local state university and my parents paid for my tuition. As a graduate student at a big research university, I was single and childless, drove a 15-year-old car, shared an apartment in a less expensive neighborhood that was a bit of a drive from campus, ate a lot of pasta, and didn't eat out much. I had a teaching assistantship for $12,000 (for 9 months) and my tuition was covered by the university. I graduated with $0 debt and had a blast in grad school (and I never took a loan, never had any credit card debt, and never worked another job apart from being a grad student). So zero debt is absolutely possible.... you just have to live like a student.

I really don't understand students that complain about being broke yet buy lunch out daily, drink Perrier instead of drinking out of the free water cooler that the department keeps, buy organic berries from Whole Foods (aka "whole paycheck"), get regular facials, or drive a new car. These examples are based on real people and they are what I consider pretty outrageous choices for someone in school.  If you're in grad school in the physical sciences and you're accumulating serious debt, you're making some seriously poor lifestyle choices, or you made some bad decisions en route to grad school (perhaps a you got a philosophy/religion/english degree at an expensive, small liberal arts college back east and piled up debt?). As a grad student, you're still a trainee (you don't have a degree yet!) and can't expect the same standard of living that your roommate(s) who got a job at Google straight out of college might have. But consider, your roommates may make a whole lot more than a typical grad student, but they have regular work hours, might have a dress code, get only two weeks of vacation per year (and can't leave for an awesome backpacking trip to Chile for 3 weeks at the drop of a hat [without getting fired]), and have to regularly meet deadlines (with complete, quality work...gasp!).

If you're thinking about grad school, go read the "Why did you take out the loans" comments in the PhD debt survey, think about what living like a grad student means, and consider if grad school is right for you before diving in...

(Lack of) Recognition for women in science

In looking for information about the 2013 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco that my students and I attend each year, I ran across this photo of the 2012 Honors Ceremony to recognize scientists that have made significant contributions to the earth sciences:

I count about 23 medals hanging around necks in the first two rows of seats, and there is exactly one woman. (Did the photographer put her in the front row to make sure we see her?) I think this is appalling.

The reasons for such a small percentage of women being recognized for their contributions to earth science probably reflect in part why the numbers of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines steadily decreases from the students graduate from university through the rank of full professor and beyond:

I don't want to re-hash the various arguments about why women don't stay in STEM fields in academia - they range from "old boys club" sexism in hiring and a hostile work environment to wanting to have kids while trying to earn tenure to wanting higher salaries for less work required outside academia to a lack of support from their spouses at home to dual career couples who can't make it work - but rather to point out that whatever the reason(s), women remain underrepresented in STEM fields and that needs to be corrected.

What can you do with a degree in Geology?

In 2012, Forbes magazine listed Geology as the 7th most valuable college major with a starting median salary of $45,300, and a mid-career median salary of $83,300. Many positions have much higher starting salaries depending on the field, for example, mining and petroleum industry positions: petroleum engineers have median earnings of $120,000. A recent study from Georgetown University noted that there is virtually no unemployment in the field of geological and geophysical engineering. Most geologists are employed in the western U.S., and in the south-central U.S. (Texas and Oklahoma) where jobs in the petroleum industry dominate. A recent American Geosciences Institute workforce evaluation estimates that by 2021, some 150,000 to 220,000 geoscience jobs will need to be filled. The AGI report notes that at current graduation rates, most of these jobs will not be able to be filled by U.S. citizens.



Graduates in geology may pursue a wide range of careers in the earth sciences and related fields:

• Environmental and Geotechnical consulting firms
• Energy companies such as petroleum exploration firms
• Mining companies
• Government agencies such as the U.S. Geologic Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
• State/local agencies such as the California Geological Survey, Caltrans, Water-Quality Control Board, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, city planning offices, state and federal highway departments
• Non-profit groups that work to study and protect environmental quality
• Engineering geology to oversee the planning and construction of buildings, bridges, roads, dams, landfills, and tunnels
• Informal educational institutions such as museums
• Technician for science departments in universities or other institutions
• Teaching at high school, community college, university levels (university teaching and research require a graduate degree)
• Science writing
• Environmental law
• Publishers and producers of science books, magazines, computer software, web material, television shows
• Asbestos consulting and testing labs
• Professional Geologist, Certified Hydrogeologist, and/or Certified Engineering Geologis

The GRE (with a 2020 update)

GRE scores are required with most applications to graduate school. You must (MUST!) study for the GRE because you can improve your quantitative score dramatically even if your math skills are good (even very good), and the quantitative scores are what science faculty look at first. And despite the GRE's shortcomings, the majority of faculty looking at graduate applications give the scores A LOT of weight. The verbal scores are frankly less important (to me and some other faculty, even at large research universities) because it better reflects an applicant's economic background (and, of course, whether an applicant is a native English speaker), and tells us nothing about your ability to write. If I want to know if an applicant can write (and if they're savvy), I look to their e-mails to me and to their statement of purpose.

October 2020 update: There is no statistical correlation between GRE scores and success in graduate school. According to this article in The Atlantic, student performance on the GRE correlates more closely to a combination of factors that includes access to expensive test prep courses and other educational opportunities that prepare students for the test, and even the "student’s own insecurities regarding race and gender." A UCSF study showed that success in graduate school is better predicted by letters of recommendation from faculty advisors who know the student well, and the amount of research experience the applicant already has under their belt.

The Earth & Climate Sciences Department at SF State has joined the growing ranks of geology/Earth science departments that have ended the practice of requiring GRE scores be submitted with grad school applications. Many universities have ended this requirement; some make reporting your GRE scores optional which makes the choice of whether or not to report your scores a new kind of problem (I advise against it unless your scores are top tier). It is not yet universal, but the number of programs adopting this new policy is growing particularly following the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, letters of recommendation aren't a perfect means of evaluation. A 2016 study in Nature Geoscience showed that women are "significantly less likely to receive excellent recommendation letters than their male counterparts" and the length of letters written for women are much shorter.

There is no easy fix here. Faculty in the Earth & Climate Sciences Department at SF State have started to use evaluation rubrics for hiring new faculty to avoid implicit bias. I think it's time to start using a similar rubric to evaluate graduate program applicants... and without a column for GRE scores!

The Statement of Purpose

Graduate program applications generally require you submit a generic application form of some sort, your university transcript(s), GRE scores*, a CV, letters of reference (these should go directly from the letter writer to the university), and a statement of purpose. The SOP is important both for its content and for how well you express yourself.

In general, your statement of purpose (SOP) is a 1-2 page typed description that addresses three areas: (1) Your educational experiences and how they have led to your interest in graduate study in the geological sciences; (2) a description of any scientific research you have conducted (be specific and include field experience, lab/analytical work, a summary of your findings); and (3) a description of your research interests for graduate school and your career goals. A well-crafted statement of purpose is specific about what you want to study and the geology faculty member(s) you are interested in working with. Do your research about the faculty and department to which you are applying and tailor each of your SOPs to that faculty member/department. You do not need to know exactly which one faculty member you want to work with - it's OK to include two or three names (maximum) if they are working in related/complementary fields (but don't include, for example, a geophysicist, a geomorphologist, and a hydrologist - that would demonstrate that you have no idea what you want...). Nor do you need to know exactly which project you want to work on - be as specific as possible about your interests ("extensional terranes", "metamorphic core complexes", "ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism") and certainly include a description of how your research experience has prepared you to tackle your proposed research. Look through the websites of potential graduate advisors to see which projects are active. You can also search the National Science Foundation website to look for active research grants for those prospective advisors (although not all research funding comes through the NSF, that is a major source of funding in the Earth sciences).

This web site and this link have good descriptions of the basics of the SOP (even though these are intended for graduate programs in psychology) and some things to avoid. Whatever you do, don't start your SOP off with the all-too-common "I have loved geology since I was just a kid starting out with my first rock collection" sort of statement. Gag me. Just start with your college experience, or perhaps one notable trip you took where you learned about geology. Be matter of fact, as specific as possible, concise, and use the SOP as a place to elaborate on things only briefly included in your CV (like your research experience) or to discuss things that don't appear elsewhere in your application and that are relevant to your application (e.g., if you need to explain poor GRE scores or a D in a chemistry class in your freshman year). Stay positive and don't make excuses.

Spell check, proofread, and have someone else read your statement and give you feedback before submitting it (a grad student, a faculty advisor, swap SOPs with other students). The rest of your academic record can't be changed at this stage, and you can't control what your letter writers say, but you CAN write an excellent SOP.

*GRE scores are no longer required to apply to the MS program in Geosciences at SF State.

The CV

You need a basic CV as you progress through your career as a scientist: to apply for fellowships and grants, graduate school, internships, etc. Read through this thorough description of a basic science CV by Richard Reis in The Chronicle of Higher Education and see several resources on How to Craft a Winning Résumé on the Science Careers (AAAS) web site. Once you have all your basic info down, you should take particular care to 1) proofread your CV for typos, 2) make sure it is formatted simply so that it is easy to find critical information (e.g., year(s) of your degree(s)), 3) avoid excessive wordiness (less is more - don't use complete sentences to describe your skills, instead use bullets), and 4) keep it to a maximum of 1 or 2 pages unless you already have a PhD and can justify a longer CV (i.e., have you used an 11 pt. font, played with the page margins and spacing? Have you already removed all items related to your high school record? hobbies? and anything else that isn't DIRECTLY related to your career as a scientist?). In early versions of your CV, err on the side of INCLUDING small awards or presentations (a scholarship from the local gem and mineral society, a poster competition in your College of Science, etc.). Include other languages you speak, specialized lab techniques you have experience with, specialized software you use (no, we don't want to see that you've mastered MS Word).

Things that SHOULD NOT be included in your CV: a photo of yourself, your birth date or age, your marital status, an exhaustive list of your college courses, your hobbies (unless you happen to have an Olympic medal or some other very notable "hobby" that will make your CV stand out but perhaps work that into your Honors and Awards section).

Finally, look at CVs of other academics for formatting ideas and ideas for what to include in your CV. I happen to like the way my CV is formatted (I don't overuse bullets, but instead use more bold type, italics, underlining, and creative spacing to make the information easy to find. You should include the dollar amounts of any awards/scholarships in your CV). Then have someone (an advisor or graduate student) look at your draft CV before you send it off. Send your CV as a .pdf file and not an MS Word file to avoid software problems.

Before you submit an application for a PhD program....

After you take the GRE* and after you've chosen a few graduate programs to apply to (see my previous posts here and here), you should take a few steps to make the initial contact with potential future graduate advisors. First, do your research about the faculty member online and maybe read a recent paper or two of theirs. Then draft a professional e-mail to introduce yourself and enquire whether a faculty member anticipates taking any new graduate students for the next academic year. A generic e-mail (from your university e-mail account) might read like this: Dear Prof. X, My name is Jane Doe and I will complete my B.S. in Geology at San Francisco State University in May 2011. I hope to begin PhD research next fall and I am very interested in your research on Interesting Topic Y that I read about in your X et al. (2010) paper in Important Journal of Research. I completed a research project on A and B with Prof. Z at SF State and believe I am well-prepared to start research on Interesting Topic Y at Prestigious University. Do you anticipate taking any new PhD students next fall? I would like to discuss any opportunities you might have to join your research group. I see that you have a poster with Unknown Person [the first author on the poster that you're referring to] on Wednesday morning of the AGU meeting in San Francisco - if you plan to be at the poster that Wednesday morning, may we schedule a time to meet briefly? I am attaching my CV for your reference. Many thanks for your consideration. Best Regards, Humble Student Because the process of applying to graduate programs starts in the fall term, you have two opportunities to make further contact with potential graduate advisors (particularly if their university is too distant to justify a road trip for a casual visit): at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America meeting (in October or November) and the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (in December). For my students who always attend the AGU meeting in San Francisco, I recommend checking to see if the faculty member is presenting a talk or poster at which you might introduce yourself, hear about their research, and ask intelligent questions: Search the Fall Meeting program for their last name. If you get zero search results back, you can still ask whether they will be at the AGU meeting in San Francisco, and might be able to meet - they might be planning on being a "conference tourist" (i.e., attending but not presenting) or, if not, you get bonus points by showing that you will attend that meeting. You should certainly invite a potential advisor to visit your poster if you're presenting one - be sure to include the details of your poster (i.e., T32E-47) and when you plan to be at your poster (your poster stays up all day, but you will only likely be present for 2-4 hours). If you are an M.S. student writing this e-mail, you should include a few more details about your interest in the faculty member's research and certainly more details about your research experience (tailor it to the specific faculty member: field work, lab/analytical techniques, a one-liner about the preliminary results of your research). Then proofread your e-mail: Fix typos, check the spelling of the faculty member's name, etc. I would add a "signature" at the bottom of your e-mail that has your name and contact information (kind of like a business card): Jane Doe M.S. Candidate Department of Geosciences San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Avenue San Francisco, CA 94132 Tel: 415-555-5555 (cell phone is OK) Fax: 415-555-5556 E-mail: jdoe@sfsu.edu Home page: http://online.sfsu.edu/~jdoe If you are going to send several of these e-mails, MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that you have used the correct name of the faculty member, the correct topic of their research that interests you, and the correct name of their university before clicking 'Send'. It's very easy to change the Dear Prof. X part, and forget to make similar changes to the body of the e-mail. Don't embarass yourself. Then, depending on the response you get, you plan your meeting with him/her at AGU (dress nicely [smart casual, no tie needed], bring a copy of your CV, read the abstract of their poster/talk in advance, etc.), or you reply "Thank you very much! I plan to submit my application to Prestigious University in the next few weeks. Regards, Humble Student". If they say 'no thanks', still take the time to thank them for their response. Whatever you write back, don't just reply "thx", but format your e-mail professionally similar to the first. The whole point of this is to introduce yourself to a potential future PhD advisor so that your application stands out from the rest (or so that you don't waste time and money applying) and so that they remember communicating with you, or meeting you, in a positive light.

*GRE scores are no longer required in applications to the graduate program in Earth & Climate Sciences