Prospective Graduate Students
Hi! I’m so glad you’ve found this page and are interested in graduate school! This page is designed to make transparent as much of the “hidden curriculum” behind applying to graduate school in EPIC (which stands for Experimental Petrology & Igneous Processes Center, the second “p” is silent :) as possible.
How graduate school funding & admittance work in the School of Earth & Space Exploration at ASU
Like most Earth & planetary science graduate programs in the US today, graduate students are accepted into the graduate program in the School of Earth & Space Exploration after their application is both approved by the School’s graduate committee and a specific professor in the School agrees to accept primary advising responsibility for the student, which includes a commitment to assure the student is “fully funded”.
Being “fully funded” means MS & PhD students receive a 12-month salary and have their tuition and research expenses covered by a combination of research grants and working as a teaching assistant for classes taught in the School of Earth & Space Exploration @ ASU.
The good news is that this means that graduate students do not pay out of pocket to attend graduate school. The more complicated news is that this means acceptance into graduate school depends on how many applications a particular professor and graduate program gets, how they evaluate applications, and how much grant funding a particular professor has, in addition to the strength of the prospective student’s application*.
*There are exceptions to this, such as when student bring their own grant funding and/or the primary advising commitment is made by a group of professors rather than a single one but these cases are rare.
In addition to a primary advisor, graduate students in the School of Earth & Space Exploration develop an advising committee composed of multiple professors and/or research professionals after their first semester enrolled in the program. PhD students in the School of Earth & Space Exploration are also required to do a research project with a different professor as part of their course of study, which also provides an opportunity to work with other professors and on different topics beyond those of the primary advisor and their research group/lab.
In the EPIC lab, during a five-year PhD, the cumulative cost of a student’s salary, tuition and research expenses are on average covered by 6 semesters (i.e., 3 academic years) & 5 summers of funding from research grants and 4 semesters (2 academic years) of working as teaching assistant. For a two-year MS degree, the breakdown is usually approximately 2 semesters & 1 summer of grant funding and 2 semesters of teaching assistant funding.
You can find more information on the requirements and process of applying to graduate school in the School of Earth & Space Exploration here.
The School’s graduate committee uses this rubric to evaluate graduate applications, and does not use the GRE in our admissions decisions.
You can apply for a need-based waiver to cover the cost of ASU’s graduate application fee. Please check back here closer to the application deadline for the process of how to apply for a waiver for Winter 2024-2025 application cycle.
Specifics of applying to work in the EPIC Lab
Because graduate school admittance depends in part on having a professor commit to primary advising and funding responsibility for the applicant, prospective graduate students may be advised to email professors they are interested in working with prior to submitting their application and start a conversation about research interests, funding prospects, and specific research projects. Perhaps such advice is what brought you to this page.
After much thought, since Fall 2021 I now refrain from having these personal conversations in advance of reading all applications. This is in order to not bias admissions decisions in favor students who received more advice, have had more past opportunities, or who have connections to me through colleagues. Rather I strive to provide equitable access to graduate opportunities in EPIC for anyone who decides to apply, through sharing information on this webpage, reviewing applications based on the same prior information, and through the same process. As part of this, in place of individual meetings I will host a series of three open Zoom Information Sessions in Fall 2024 about graduate school in EPIC and applying to the ASU Dec. 1, 2024 application date for graduate school starting in Fall 2025:
EPIC Grad School Info Sessions (via Zoom): Sign up to attend any of the three times using this link.
Monday September 30, 2024 1:00-2:00 PM MST (same as Pacific)
Monday October 28, 2024 4:00-5:00 PM MST (same as Pacific)
Wednesday November 20, 2024 2:00-3:00 PM MST (same as Mountain)
Because of the significant amount of grant funding necessary to obtain a graduate degree, I do not accept new graduate students without previously securing at least some grant funding for them. Therefore, while I hope to accept a graduate student for a Fall 2025 start, whether this will become a reality will depend on our funding situation at the time I am making admissions decisions.
Graduate applications for the School of Earth & Space Exploration are due December 1 to start the following Fall and October 1 to start the following Spring. If you are interested in working with me as your primary advisor, please list me as one of the faculty you would like to work with on your application (you will be asked to list up to three).
After the applications are forwarded by the university to individual faculty (usually by mid- to late December), I evaluate them all using this rubric. Shortly thereafter, I will set up one-on-one virtual meetings via Zoom with the top 25-30% of applicants based on the rubric evaluation to get to know one another better and discuss the potential of joining the EPIC lab. I use the results of these meetings to determine the final applicant(s) for which I will commit to being the primary advisor, which includes a commitment to full funding as discussed above. Sometimes depending on the situation and number of applications that year, I will offer finalists a chance to visit the lab and ASU prior to making my final decision.
Once admitted into the School of Earth of Earth & Space Exploration, all accepted students are offered an expenses-paid trip to visit ASU and the EPIC lab prior to making your decision to accept the offer (COVID permitting). During these visits prospective students have one-on-one discussions with their desired mentors, and other graduate students and researchers in the department. These trips usually happen in February to provide adequate time for consideration prior to the April 15 decision deadline.
If an admitted applicant decides not to come to ASU prior to the April 15 decision deadline, acceptance into the EPIC lab may be offered to another finalist.
More about graduate school in the EPIC lab
If you haven’t already, have a look around the EPIC webpage, my personal website, and those of current lab members and lab alumni to get a sense of our work and research interests. MS students in the EPIC lab usually complete one project and PhD students complete a minimum of three projects/chapters for their PhD, sometimes all related, sometimes not. I encourage all of my students to think of a graduate degree as a skill building opportunity (in addition to working on particular engaging scientific questions), and encourage them to build their tool kits to include experimental work, analytical geochemistry + modeling and field work. Thus, if you do you graduate work with me, you’ll likely do some of all of these activities, with the amount of any given one depending on your projects and interests.
As a mentor, I also prioritize building the myriad skills necessary to thrive as a scientist beyond doing the science itself, including effective science communication, grant writing, constructive peer review, time management, overcoming obstacles, maintaining and prioritizing our mental health in academic environments, improving belonging, accessibility, equity and justice in the sciences, assessing potential career options and more. We work on these skills in our regular EPIC group meetings, in one-on-one meetings, classes I teach (including “Equity in the Academic Sciences” and “Science Communication”) and through scaffolded reading and other resources.
Learning from peers and building a community of collaborators is also essential to success in graduate school, so we employ cohort advising models in EPIC, with cohorts of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students engaging in peer mentoring and supporting one another.
I hope with this information you remain enthusiastic about applying to work with me in EPIC. I also recognize applying for graduate school is costly and if you are not able to afford the cost, you can apply for a need-based waiver to cover the cost of ASU’s graduate application fee. For more information on that please see the instructions here.
How graduate school funding & admittance work in the School of Earth & Space Exploration at ASU
Like most Earth & planetary science graduate programs in the US today, graduate students are accepted into the graduate program in the School of Earth & Space Exploration after their application is both approved by the School’s graduate committee and a specific professor in the School agrees to accept primary advising responsibility for the student, which includes a commitment to assure the student is “fully funded”.
Being “fully funded” means MS & PhD students receive a 12-month salary and have their tuition and research expenses covered by a combination of research grants and working as a teaching assistant for classes taught in the School of Earth & Space Exploration @ ASU.
The good news is that this means that graduate students do not pay out of pocket to attend graduate school. The more complicated news is that this means acceptance into graduate school depends on how many applications a particular professor and graduate program gets, how they evaluate applications, and how much grant funding a particular professor has, in addition to the strength of the prospective student’s application*.
*There are exceptions to this, such as when student bring their own grant funding and/or the primary advising commitment is made by a group of professors rather than a single one but these cases are rare.
In addition to a primary advisor, graduate students in the School of Earth & Space Exploration develop an advising committee composed of multiple professors and/or research professionals after their first semester enrolled in the program. PhD students in the School of Earth & Space Exploration are also required to do a research project with a different professor as part of their course of study, which also provides an opportunity to work with other professors and on different topics beyond those of the primary advisor and their research group/lab.
In the EPIC lab, during a five-year PhD, the cumulative cost of a student’s salary, tuition and research expenses are on average covered by 6 semesters (i.e., 3 academic years) & 5 summers of funding from research grants and 4 semesters (2 academic years) of working as teaching assistant. For a two-year MS degree, the breakdown is usually approximately 2 semesters & 1 summer of grant funding and 2 semesters of teaching assistant funding.
You can find more information on the requirements and process of applying to graduate school in the School of Earth & Space Exploration here.
The School’s graduate committee uses this rubric to evaluate graduate applications, and does not use the GRE in our admissions decisions.
You can apply for a need-based waiver to cover the cost of ASU’s graduate application fee. Please check back here closer to the application deadline for the process of how to apply for a waiver for Winter 2024-2025 application cycle.
Specifics of applying to work in the EPIC Lab
Because graduate school admittance depends in part on having a professor commit to primary advising and funding responsibility for the applicant, prospective graduate students may be advised to email professors they are interested in working with prior to submitting their application and start a conversation about research interests, funding prospects, and specific research projects. Perhaps such advice is what brought you to this page.
After much thought, since Fall 2021 I now refrain from having these personal conversations in advance of reading all applications. This is in order to not bias admissions decisions in favor students who received more advice, have had more past opportunities, or who have connections to me through colleagues. Rather I strive to provide equitable access to graduate opportunities in EPIC for anyone who decides to apply, through sharing information on this webpage, reviewing applications based on the same prior information, and through the same process. As part of this, in place of individual meetings I will host a series of three open Zoom Information Sessions in Fall 2024 about graduate school in EPIC and applying to the ASU Dec. 1, 2024 application date for graduate school starting in Fall 2025:
EPIC Grad School Info Sessions (via Zoom): Sign up to attend any of the three times using this link.
Monday September 30, 2024 1:00-2:00 PM MST (same as Pacific)
Monday October 28, 2024 4:00-5:00 PM MST (same as Pacific)
Wednesday November 20, 2024 2:00-3:00 PM MST (same as Mountain)
Because of the significant amount of grant funding necessary to obtain a graduate degree, I do not accept new graduate students without previously securing at least some grant funding for them. Therefore, while I hope to accept a graduate student for a Fall 2025 start, whether this will become a reality will depend on our funding situation at the time I am making admissions decisions.
Graduate applications for the School of Earth & Space Exploration are due December 1 to start the following Fall and October 1 to start the following Spring. If you are interested in working with me as your primary advisor, please list me as one of the faculty you would like to work with on your application (you will be asked to list up to three).
After the applications are forwarded by the university to individual faculty (usually by mid- to late December), I evaluate them all using this rubric. Shortly thereafter, I will set up one-on-one virtual meetings via Zoom with the top 25-30% of applicants based on the rubric evaluation to get to know one another better and discuss the potential of joining the EPIC lab. I use the results of these meetings to determine the final applicant(s) for which I will commit to being the primary advisor, which includes a commitment to full funding as discussed above. Sometimes depending on the situation and number of applications that year, I will offer finalists a chance to visit the lab and ASU prior to making my final decision.
Once admitted into the School of Earth of Earth & Space Exploration, all accepted students are offered an expenses-paid trip to visit ASU and the EPIC lab prior to making your decision to accept the offer (COVID permitting). During these visits prospective students have one-on-one discussions with their desired mentors, and other graduate students and researchers in the department. These trips usually happen in February to provide adequate time for consideration prior to the April 15 decision deadline.
If an admitted applicant decides not to come to ASU prior to the April 15 decision deadline, acceptance into the EPIC lab may be offered to another finalist.
More about graduate school in the EPIC lab
If you haven’t already, have a look around the EPIC webpage, my personal website, and those of current lab members and lab alumni to get a sense of our work and research interests. MS students in the EPIC lab usually complete one project and PhD students complete a minimum of three projects/chapters for their PhD, sometimes all related, sometimes not. I encourage all of my students to think of a graduate degree as a skill building opportunity (in addition to working on particular engaging scientific questions), and encourage them to build their tool kits to include experimental work, analytical geochemistry + modeling and field work. Thus, if you do you graduate work with me, you’ll likely do some of all of these activities, with the amount of any given one depending on your projects and interests.
As a mentor, I also prioritize building the myriad skills necessary to thrive as a scientist beyond doing the science itself, including effective science communication, grant writing, constructive peer review, time management, overcoming obstacles, maintaining and prioritizing our mental health in academic environments, improving belonging, accessibility, equity and justice in the sciences, assessing potential career options and more. We work on these skills in our regular EPIC group meetings, in one-on-one meetings, classes I teach (including “Equity in the Academic Sciences” and “Science Communication”) and through scaffolded reading and other resources.
Learning from peers and building a community of collaborators is also essential to success in graduate school, so we employ cohort advising models in EPIC, with cohorts of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students engaging in peer mentoring and supporting one another.
I hope with this information you remain enthusiastic about applying to work with me in EPIC. I also recognize applying for graduate school is costly and if you are not able to afford the cost, you can apply for a need-based waiver to cover the cost of ASU’s graduate application fee. For more information on that please see the instructions here.
