I know it's silly, but...Chance?

musicguru5
Fri, 25 May 2012 01:39:38 +0000

You’re in the hunt, so give it your best shot. I’d especially play up your fun and unique extracurricular things - pick something you do that you’re really passionate about and use it as your selling point. (My essay was about eating bugs as a volunteer at a butterfly house and how that translated to my passion for science, so…clearly weirdness is something they embrace.)

That being said, I hope to see you in a few years at AGU as a next-generation Carleton geo lady! (AGU is the biggest geology conference in the country, and we always have multiple-generation Carl parties there - things often get delightfully out of hand.) The geo department is among the best in the country, and as mflevity points out, the geo folks are almost perfectly matched on the lady front. As far as how the department matches up, here’s a nice little list that Earlham puts out for the number of earth science Ph.D.s that come from a given undergraduate institution, when corrected for the size of the school. http://legacy.earlham.edu/ir/bac_origins_report/earthsci.html

In the most recent generations, Carleton comes out as #2 or 3 for the greatest proportion of undergrads from the whole school that end up with earth science doctorates. Which is awesome, because geology nearly requires some sort of advanced degree to practice in the field (M.S. or Ph.D.), meaning that folks don’t just get a geology degree, they actually intend to continue using it. But don’t sweat all that just yet - anyway, grad school in geology is, um, free. Also, awesome.

You will be outside from about, oh, week 3 of intro geo (need the first week or two to learn some rocks and minerals) until the day you graduate, minus winters for the most part (having to shovel outcrops = not awesome). Field work is a huge part of the geology experience at Carleton, so get ready to get on outcrops and get dirty. The department ends up being an incredibly tight-knit bunch, because, well, you spend untold hours with them in all sorts of incredibly weird situations. (Hunched under canoes to wait out hailstorms? Learning to make PROPER coffee with a delightfully cantankerous Eritrean? Developing a gift for speeding in minivans, and chilling beer in bathtubs? Check, check AND check!)

Anyway, I just think this is marvelous, because relatively few people come in wanting to be geology majors (we pilfer heavily from other science departments - I was a biologist). So, if you have any questions about Carleton’s department, or geology in general, then shoot!