Interested in graduate work in my lab?
I am always interested in new graduate students who are highly motivated, however space in my lab is limited.
Keys to success:
- Identify your interests.
- Think about what types of questions you are interested in pursuing.
- What are your career goals?
- Do you want to include field work in your project?
- Do you have a specific species/taxa/question in mind for your graduate research?
- Also consider what skills you would like to acquire or improve, e.g., GIS analysis, mark-recapture, census techniques, habitat modeling, PVA, etc.
- Are you interested in a M.S. or Ph.D.?
- BEFORE YOU APPLY, contact me.
- Consider a visit or contact some of my current students.
- Apply to the program.
Please keep in mind that we generally only support our MS students for 2 years and PhD students for 4 years — that means a MS project may have only 1 field season and a PhD project only 3 field seasons in practice.
Since space is limited, I will give preference to students who contact me before applying. I would be happy to answer your questions about the graduate program and work in my lab. I am particularly interested in your research interests and qualifications, which may include previous research experiences, a CV, GRE scores, and/or GPA.
If you are seriously considering pursuing your graduate studies at BGSU, then a trip out to visit the lab and to tour the BGSU campus is a good idea. This will enable you to meet with me as well as interact with the other faculty and graduate students in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at BGSU.
You can also contact my current students to find out what they are studying and what life is like as a graduate student in the Root lab. A list of my current students and their email address can be found on the Biology website.
You can find all of the information for the graduate program in Biology at BGSU on the web site and instructions for applying to the MS or PhD program.
What am I looking for in a graduate student?
There are some key traits that I look for in a prosective graduate student: some research experience; motivation — usually with clear career goals; persistence in the face of adversity (i.e., a willingness to continue even when things go wrong); and openness to collaboration with others.