Hello. I have just been informed of my acceptance to a Geoscience/geobiology M.S. program with a great advisor on the east coast. The only catch is a total lack of funding as of now. The professor pulling for me has told me she has a few pans in the fire for securing funding but that they are all somewhat unlikely and that given the burden of 27,000 tuition that she does not expect me to matriculate.
My question to all of you kind and intelligent Ecologgers is: Should I take this position or should I wait? Here is some background to help you understand my situation: I am an aspiring researcher/professor of astrobiology or some such related field (geomicrobiology, extremophile microbiology etc. with a bachelors degree (2.74 GPA) in biology from BU and a current teaching position at a local high school. I intend to obtain a PhD as soon as possible (although maybe that is a poor plan) I have about 3 years of collective experience in labs ranging from biogeochemistry to extremophile microbiology and am hoping to be published in the coming months. My GRE scores are: 162 in the verbal reasoning putting me in the 90th percentile 159 on the quantitative reasoning putting me in the 75th percentile 4 on the analytical writing putting me in the 56th percentile. I am also taking 2 graduate courses at local universities as a non- matriculated student and expect to do well in them. (ArcGIS & Chemical oceanography) My largest unknowns are; my lack of real understanding as to what sorts of employment opportunities exist for me to recoup my expenditure in the short term and the mysterious nature of the graduate funding machine... The real question is... should I wait until next cycle and try my luck again, hopefully with better results since my grades from my grad courses will now be in and my publication should be completed. OR is the nature of these things pretty ephemeral and should I just jump on this opportunity and recoup the loans later? (The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects great growth and median salary for geoscientists at a masters level.) WHAT DO YOU THINK!!!??? thanks so much everyone!
