Potential Graduate Students
We are always looking for bright, enthusiastic, and ecology minded students to join our lab. The Ecology and Evolution group conducts admissions, qualifying exams, etc. separately from the cellular and molecular group side, although the department is well-integrated across all other aspects. Because ecology and evolution is a small group, we look for students who can bring something to the group.
Typically, an ecology and evolution student takes five to six years to complete the Ph.D. Ecology and evolution students take two years of course work and must pass a comprehensive exam (in the second year) and a prelim exam (late in the second year or early in the third year). First year students are supported by a Department which allows students to jump right into research without having to teach. Thereafter, support comes from a combination of teaching assistantships, training grants, and fellowship support from individual faculty research grants; the latter two sources typically provide support beyond the fifth year. Students are also encouraged to apply for outside support sources such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and EPA STAR fellowships, among others. The ecology and evolution faculty play an active role in assisting students with these applications and the group has been quite successful in obtaining such outside fellowships.
Typically completed applications must be received in early December. Before the New Year, the ecology and evolution group sits down and decides whom to interview. The number of interviewees depends on the number of available slots and the quality of the applicant pool. The department runs the interviews over a weekend, usually in early February. We try to balance offers across the faculty but we are all very committed to taking the very best students regardless of their interests and "openings" in particular labs.
For additional information, please visit the Department’s website:
http://www.bio.upenn.edu/programs/graduate/