Join us
Interested in joining the team?
We are grateful up to receive several dozen enquiries per month about joining us as graduate students. Emails vary greatly in their effectiveness. Please consider the following:
Motivation
Do you really want to conduct research? Or do you really want to be in wonderful places to safeguard animals and their habitat/resources? We receive many emails that primarily or exclusively express a wish to participate in research that might help conservation in general or for particular taxa. Often, people are really keen about working in the Great Bear Rainforest, or studying fabulous creatures like bears and wolves. Often missing is a statement of any conceptual/scientific interest. This is a concern because success in graduate school requires not only passion (bring it!) but also some scholarly interests. Accordingly, we would like to hear about your scholarly research interests (and not illustrated by Rainforest Wolves or Spirit Bears, but rather grounded in ecological or evolutionary theory). If this is a challenge or unappealing, then graduate school might not be a good fit for you. The good news: if you focus on doing good science, this opens the door to spending time in special places and contributing towards positive change. In fact, we support the engagement of our team with communities, the media, and in conservation debate.
Communication Style
Please know that we manage a great many emails in any given week. Your approach will particularly capture our attention if you express yourself well. Please write clearly, professionally, and concisely. Attach a CV (with file name that starts with your last name, so that we can easily save it), undergraduate transcripts, and any other evidence of your scholarly performance (eg. Honours Thesis, peer-reviewed papers, etc).
Other Information
There is no application deadline for graduate school entrance per se, but those received before 15 January are considered for departmental fellowships. Your previous scholarly performance matters; only those with GPAs more than 7 (on UVic’s 9 point scale; ~A-) are considered for fellowships. Additionally, those who have applied for external fellowships (especially NSERC) the fall before projected entry will be given special consideration. This requires being in touch in the summer before NSERC applications are written, themselves due a full year before intended entry the following autumn. Our lab philosophy is to maintain our group at modest numbers of students, all of whom are supported at very high financial levels compared to other labs. Key to this strategy is supporting prospective students early and well before their time with us begins.