🐦 Winging It with GAJ 🌱 - My 2025 Graduate School Applications 🥲 Part 1/3
Posted on: 1/28/2026
Every graduate school cycle comes with its own unpredictable circumstances. Speaking as a 2025 applicant, I had no idea that the dramatic decrease in government funding could affect my chances so much. Therefore, when it's your turn to jump into the application cycle, make sure to ask multiple sources for advice and not be afraid to rely on your instincts a little more. Every program differs slightly in the application guidelines. It is crucial to pick those details out in advance. In this blog post, I will exhibit my timeline and experience preparing my application materials. As a first-generation student, I felt very lost at times during the application process, as it was all new to me, and many details were never made explicit. As my current PI (primary investigator) likes to put it, there is a hidden curriculum we have to find out for ourselves to be successful in academia.
1. Late May: Conducted research on potential institutions, programs, and PIs (primary investigators)
On May 26, 2025, I began researching programs that conducted top-tier disease ecology research that overlapped with my academic goals (strong disease modeling line of research, investigated zoonotic diseases and/or diseases in wildlife, potential field work component) in specific locations (close to family, affordable, near an urban city, diverse population, etc). I made Google spreadsheets with information about the program and each professor I would be interested in joining their lab. For the program spreadsheet, the headings I included were institution, program, program email, application materials, due date, fee, potential waiver, financial aid resources, stipend, and notes on what makes the program unique. For the faculty spreadsheet, I included their name, email, description of their lines of research or recent project from their website or paper I read, description on how our research interests overlap, accepting students (yes/no), space to make more notes on the professor, and a link to their website.
2. Late June: Making contact with potential PIs and asking for informational sessions
The faculty spreadsheet made drafting a perfectly tailored email to each professor introducing myself, sharing our overlap in research interests, and expressing my desire to join their lab as a graduate student much easier. All the information was there; I just needed to put it into an email format. I sent my first email on June 26, 2025. Below is a rough template I used to construct my emails.
Dear Dr. ___,
I hope this email finds you in high spirits! My name is Alexandra Juarez, and I am a research assistant in Dr. Grace Smith-Vidaurre’s BIRDS Lab at Michigan State University. I would like to pursue a PhD in disease ecology starting in the fall of 2026.
I am broadly interested in researching [introduce your research interests and goals]. My long-term career goal is to [introduce your goals after graduate school, hinting how they help you get there]. I would also like to [impact you want to make in your career].
I would like to inquire if you have any openings for PhD students. [Share how you could see yourself contributing to their lab, what you hope to gain out of having them as an advisor, and how this experience will help you achieve your long-term career goals].
Attached are my CV and cover letter to provide more information about my background. I am available via email, phone, or Zoom if you would like to talk more. Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
I sent 16 uniquely tailored emails to professors I was interested in joining their lab. Out of the 16, 12 responded. Of the 12 that responded, 6 were maybe accepting students. Only 4 professors agreed to meet with me over Zoom.
Either via email or over Zoom, all 6 professors expressed that, despite their desire to accept a new graduate student, they were uncertain if they would be able to support them financially. This was very shocking to me, as I expected more clarity on who would be willing to sponsor me as a graduate school applicant by the due date.
Next week: My 2025 Graduate School Applications 🥲 Part 2/3
I would like to continue detailing my experience preparing for graduate school of holding informational sessions, crafting a personal statement/statement of purpose (pt 2), contacting letter writers, and formatting my CV with overall reflection at the end (pt 3).