FAQ
A contribution of The Cephalopod Page
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First, a little background, I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1990 and went out into the real world, got a job, did the 8:00 - 5:00 thing for several years and realized that I wasn't doing what I really wanted. Both my wife and I are certified divers and go as often as we can, mostly up into the Puget Sound area of Washington State. I have been an assistant instructor with SSI for about three years now and find that there is almost nothing that makes me happier than being under water. Diving in the Pac. NW, we often get the privilege of sharing the underwater environment with a friendly giant octopus which, for both of us is a great thrill. Anyway, to bring these two points together, I decided about a year ago to go back to school and pursue my PhD in Biological Oceanography or Marine Biology and specifically study cephalopods. I will be attending the U.O. again next fall (I have to pick up another B.S. as my first one was in Poli. Sci.). After that it's on to grad school. I have been seriously considering SCRIPPS, but want to know if there are possibly better alternatives for what I want to do. Any suggestions you might have would be very helpful. I apologize for the length of the message and for the life-story, but thought it might give you some insight (or a good laugh). Thank you in advance for your time. Jeff McBride Beaverton, OR |
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| Good to hear from someone else who is interested in cephalopods. There are several different strategies to selecting a graduate school - one is to pick a really good school, with a great reputation, and then do the best you can in choosing your advisor. This will net you a degree from a well known prestigious school but you may get shunted into a project that you don't like. SCRIPS is one of the best schools in the country but I'm not aware of anyone there who specifically works on cephalopods. If you are primarily interested in an advanced degree in marine biology or biological oceanography but 'would like' to do it on cephalopods you might want to go for the most prestigious school you can get into (and get $upport at). If you (foaming at the mouth) must work on cephalopods then read on and I'll tell you what I did.
Before committing a large part of your life to this endeavor (it takes an average of 5.3 years to get a PhD from the biology department at Dalhousie, and my lab certainly isn't lowering that average) you should seriously think about what it is you want to do with the PhD and what the job prospects are likely to be. Perhaps becoming a full time dive instructor would allow you to be in the water doing what you truly enjoy. I don't want to discourage you in any way. However, you should know that getting a PhD by no means assures you a job afterwards. The strategy I used was to target specific scientists working on interesting projects with cephalopods. This strategy will greatly increase the chance that you will actually do a project that is interesting to you instead of say, counting bacteria cultures of fecal coliforms (yes, I have done that :-( ). Another advantage is that if a prof. is interested in you, you WILL be accepted. Please see: ”The Cephalopod Page / FAQ on Grad” for a partial list of potential advisors (feel free to update me on this). Of course, the best way to get a prof. interested in you is to already have an external source of funding - like an NSF Fellowship, etc. Or to have high enough grades/gre scores/etc. to qualify for a University Scholarship. As prof.'s don't have to pay out of their own pocket to support a grad. student with a scholarship, these students can get accepted almost anywhere and are always picked first. Also I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket. Look into as many options as you can find and apply to 3-6 of the best ones. Anything that makes you different such as practical experience ('I have been an assistant instructor with SSI for about three years now...') will help as well. You can bet that all the top students will have great letters of recommendation and good essays. There is more on how to get into graduate schools in the post below. You may want to subscribe to my ceph list server, and even better, try to get on to the FastMoll list server (membership is more restrictive). Why not simulate the whole experience in the comfort of your own home? Check out Graduate School(tm): The Game. Good luck and Keep in Touch. If I'm ever out near you I'm going to look you up and get your advice on where to dive - seeing a giant octopus in it's natural environment is on my lifetime to do list. :-) Dr. James Wood |