Most professors receive volumes of "junkmail"
from students fishing for an advanced degree. Typically
these emails are hastily written, vague and/or tragically misguided.
Set yourself apart! Only
correspond with faculty you are interested in working with. Research
them and the institution carefully
(e.g., review admittance standards, websites, talk to students)
and then craft (and carefully edit) all
correspondence.
Why pick Coastal Carolina and the
CMWS MS Program?
1. Small core of highly motivated
faculty and students
2. A great variety of wetland types within minutes of campus
3. Broad multidisciplinary focus with faculty expertise ranging
from prions to global weather patterns
4. All students receive a small research stipend and most are provided
with paid research and/or
teaching opportunities
What I look for in a student - Having
come to academia via a nontraditional path I believe that life
experience often trumps stellar undergraduate grades and test scores.
Solid students that have
overcome obstacles (e.g., an awful semester, fulltime jobs, a long
break after a degree) that are
motivated, write well, and have a high level of self-awareness can
be extremely successful at Coastal.
Questions that I am currently developing:
1. Do tropical Ecuadorian reforestation
plots increase native biodiversity?
2. Can the distribution of rare endemic plant species be predicted
using statistics and GIS?
3. Does fire really promote plant diversity/uniqueness in Carolina
Bays?
4. How many roads can a turtle cross to get to another pond?
5. Can conservation easement oversight provide tangible evidence
that biodiversity and working landscapes can share time and space
6. Does US Supreme Court Justice Scalia really think that wetlands
that are not directly connected to surface waters should not be
protected under federal law?