Evaluating Applications - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Evaluation of Applications

The typical admissions cycle proceeds as follows. After the passage of the January application deadline, the EEB program coordinator reviews all applications to ensure completeness and reports to the Admissions Committee the status of each file. In cases where applicants have previously contacted and/or identified EEB faculty with whom they would like to work, the EEB program coordinator forwards copies of those applicant files to the named faculty. At the same time, the program coordinator creates a summary report of the entire applicant pool and circulates this report to all EEB faculty. At this time, the process of matching students with suitable faculty advisors begins.

Each spring, the EEB program convenes a symposium on some topic of current interest in the field. EEB faculty frequently invite highly qualified applicants to visit the ISU campus to participate in the symposium and to get acquainted with potential faculty advisors and existing EEB students.

In late February or early March, the EEB Admissions Committee reviews and ranks graduate applications and then makes admission recommendations to the EEB Supervisory Committee. The Supervisory Committee reviews those files recommended for admission, makes a final decision on each, and then matches new admissions with available financial support packages.

EEB faculty and the EEB program coordinator work together to identify sources of financial support and prepare nominations to university fellowship programs, based on the suitability and credentials of individual applicants compared against the criteria for each award. The program strives to support all students who are admitted.

Applications are evaluated on the basis of academic performance and background, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, the degree that the expressed research interests of the applicant match those of EEB faculty, related work experience, and any other relevant information provided by the applicant. Students with a 3.0 GPA or less and/or with GRE scores below the 50th percentile are rarely admitted. The availability of financial support and the number of open positions within faculty research programs will also influence the number of graduate student admissions in a given year.

Questions about any of the information above may be directed to the EEB program office.