Graduate Students
Our lab is currently full and I will not be accepting new students for 2023 or 2024.
Check back in the future!
Graduate school can be a total blast, ripe with intellectual enrichment, exciting field work, and amazing peers, and it can suck the life right out of you, with demands on your time, hurdles you struggle to overcome, and insecurities. I know, I’ve been there and have had both experiences (although overall, I loved it, or I wouldn’t be a professor today). There are lots of good resources for preparing for graduate school on the web. In the sciences, it is much different than being an undergraduate--you will take many fewer classes, but will have a great deal of independent research to do. Being successful relies on your own willingness to achieve what is necessary to complete your degree.
Graduate Study in the Coastal and Marine Fish Ecology Lab at Western Washington University
We are located at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA within the College of the Environment (CENV). The CENV Graduate program in Environmental Science and Marine and Estuarine Science is a small program with ~20 students admitted per year. We are a new-ish lab affiliated with the Department of Environmental Sciences and the MACS Program.
If you're thinking of applying and want to email me, here are some pointers that will help me figure out who you are and what you're interested in:
Attach your CV (similar to a resume--lots of online resources for making a good one), transcripts, and a significant piece of writing (thesis , paper, op-ed to the newspaper) for which you were the lead author
Make it clear that you know what our research is about and how your interests align
Follow these prompts:
Identify 1 paper that really interests you—can be something recent or something you read as an undergrad—and let me know what it is about that paper that excites you and engages your curiosity. If you haven’t been reading a lot of research papers, you can link to a project and tell me a bit about what you find interesting.
Identify a few topical areas or specific research questions that you find compelling. Specific ideas (even if seemingly small) will be more informative to me than something really general (e.g. “What makes good habitat?”).
These questions are so I can get an idea of things that interest you and try to determine how your interests intersect with my own. Vague topics (e,g, “ocean conservation,” “marine ecology,” “sustainable fisheries”) will not tell me your research interests and how those interests interact with, and potentially build upon, the body of work in our lab.
Some other tips:
Let me know if you were referred by one of my colleagues
I'd also like to know if you have identified or applied for any fellowships or potential funding opportunities. Perhaps you have tuition reimbursement through your employer or belong to a group that provides scholarships? Funding is a major consideration in taking on a student and anything you bring to the table is a + for you.
Lastly, have a look at the CENV Graduate Program information. It would be helpful for me to know that you meet the minimum qualifications.
The application deadline is Feb. 1.