University of California-Berkeley (Plant Biology)

Although Berkeley is a top school, their plant biology program doesn't sound that great. Coming from an ecological background, there isn't much offered here; it's all molecular and cellular biology. It may be better to go for Environmental Science, Policy, and Management if you want to go to Berkeley for plant ecology or a similar field of botany. Nevertheless, there are some really cool sounding courses. The GRE scores don't have to be too terribly high to get in, and they offer full funding, which is promising since it is so expensive for out-of-state students. TA'ing may be a hard requirement to get waived, and their pre-requisites may be difficult to meet if you don't have a background in botany. Overall, I can't recommend this school for this program, unless you are insterested in doing something with plants that involves the molecular and cellular side of them.

Areas of Emphasis: Basic Plant Research, Development of Biotechnologies, Molecular, Cellular, Genetic, Biochemical, Physiological, Developmental, Structural, Plant Microbe Interactions

Degrees offered: PhD only

Min. GPA: 3.0

GRE: No min. score required, but current enrolled students have an average of 620 on the verbal and 700 on the quantitative portions of the test.

Subject GRE: Not required, but recommended

Appealing Courses: Diversity of Plants and Fungi, Biology of Fungi, California Mushrooms, Biology of Algae, Environmental Plant Biology, Digital Imaging for Biologists, Plant Biochemistry, Plant Molecular Genetics, Plant Cell Biology, Grant Writing and Research

Total in-state Costs: $31,702
Total out-of-state Costs: $46,708

Financial Aid: Guaranteed support of approx. $25,500 stipend. (All students are completely funded, currently, with all students having health insurance.) Research Assistantships or TA positions support students during the second year and on. Out-of-state fees are covered as well for the first year, after which time students are expected to have gained California residency. Fellowships are also available.


TAing Requirements: Required for 2 semesters; no information on whether or not it can be waived.


Pre-requisites: They say that you should have an undergraduate curriculum that is, "Roughly equivalent to undergrad program in Genetics and Plant Biology." The requirements for this major are listed below. They do not indicate if you can make up deficiencies or not.

• Chemistry (General and Organic)


• Physics (1 semester)


• 1 yr. Calculus


• Computer Literacy Statistics


• Biology focusing on the molecular, cellular, and development side of things


• Biology focusing on ecology and evolution


• Plant Morphology


• Plant Developmental Genetics


• Cell and Developmental Plant Biology


• Physiology and Biochemsitry of Plants


• Several Upper Division Plant, Chemistry, or Biology Courses

US News & World Report Ranking: 2/152

University of California-Berkeley: Molecular and Cell Biology

This program sounds intimidating to me, perhaps because I have no background in molecular or cellular biology but also because of the entrance requirements. It is a top school, so it would stand to reason that it would have more rigorous admissions policies. For all science programs at Berkeley, it seems you can only earn a doctorate. While they encourage students from all science disciplines to apply, strong applicants are those who have not only 2 semesters of calculus and 2-3 of chemistry, but also have lots of advanced coursework in genetics, biochem, and other aspects of cell and molecular biology. Plus, to get admitted, the subject GRE is strongly recommended, and the lowest score they tend to accept for the general is the 80th percentile! The costs of attendance are also high, especially for out-of-state students, and although they claim to fully-fund their students, I find it hard to believe that they would provide the full $46,000 for the first year. With such high standards, the program itself is probably highly demanding and terrifying as well, but if you have the background, go for it. I don't think I would unless I first had a master's in cellular and molecular biology, so if you're like me, you might want to find an easier program.

Areas of Emphasis: Neurobiology; Genetics, Genomics, & Development; Cell & Developmental Biology; Immunology & Pathogenesis; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Degrees offered: PhD only
min. GPA: 3.0
min. GRE: 80th percentile overall or in all subjects (they don't specify)
Subject GRE: Not required, but strongly recommended
Appealing Courses: Microbial Diversity Workshop, Advanced Stem Cell and Developmental Biology, other stem cell courses, Cancer and Immunobiology, Principles of Neuroscience, Molecular Biology of Animal Viruses Workshop, Dietary Determinants of Cancer, Heart Disease, and Ageing
Total In-state Costs: $31,702
Total Out-of-state Costs: $46,708
Financial Aid: All students receive full funding for 5.5 yrs, after which time you can apply for another semester of funding. This includes health insurance and out-of-state tuition and fees, and averages at around $27,000 a year. However, funding is competitive. NIH Training Grants are available as are fellowships. They expect students to gain residency as quickly as possible.
TAing Requirement: Yes. I can't find any information on getting the requirement waived.
US News & World Report Ranking: 2/152

Pre-requisites:

• 1 yr. Calculus
• 1 yr. Physics
• 1 yr. General Biology
• 2-3 semesters of chemistry, including general, organic, and physical
• Advanced coursework in such areas as: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Neurobiology.

They don't call these pre-requisites. However, they say that a strong application will contain these components.

University of Idaho-Environmental Science

Areas of Emphasis: Physical Science, Natural Resource Management, Ecology, Earth Science/Hydrology, Waste Management, Policy/Law, and Environmental Health/Toxicology.

I am not particulary impressed by this college. Their course selection is fairly limited, but not too bad. The online master's program is nice, but likely requires you to have a background in environmental science. It is hard to find information on the program; they don't seem to have much information at all. The program is interdisciplinary. They also don't give much information on financial aid. I cannot recommend this program based on the info. on their website, unless perhaps, you want to take the online option.

They offer an MS and PhD degree. Unlike many other schools, you must have a master's in order to apply for a PhD. They also offer an online MS degree for students who live in other states. They also offer a combined MS/Law degree.

Interesting-sounding courses include Microbial Ecology, Physiological Ecology, Fire Ecology, Soil Mineralogy, Environmental Water Quality, Principles of Environmental Toxicology, Plant Environmental Biophysics, Conservation Biology, and many others that are web-based.

In-state total costs are $21, 050. Out-of-state is about $10,000 more at $31,130. They claim to provide full-funding for all grad students. Fellowships and assistantships are available. TA'ing is required for PhD students.

Pre-requisites:

• Chemistry or Physics
• Physical Geography or Geology
• Biology (2 courses)
• Social Science (2 courses)
• Statistics
• Math
• English

They don't go into much detail about these specific requirements, but they can be made up once one is accepted into the program.

General GRE scores: No minimum score provided.
The subject test is not required.
minimum GPA: 2.8 (3.48 avg. for students entering program in 2001)
The school isn't listed on PhDs.org for environmental sciences/studies, and of course, US News & World Report does not rank environmental science programs.

Washington State University-Botany

Areas of Emphasis: Ecology & Evolution, Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Systematics

Washington State University doesn't offer much about their program on their website. They claim to have excellent research facilities, but I couldn't find anything that really made them stand out. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this school for botany. Their ranking is relatively low in US News & World Report, and they don't offer that many unique plant classes, except, maybe in physiology. However, they could be a good choice for students concerned about costs because they claim to provide all their grad students with complete funding, including waiving out-of-state fees for the first year.

The school offers both masters and doctoral programs.

Interesting-sounding courses: Experimental Plant Ecology, Plant Ecophysiology, Molecular Ecology and Phylogeography, Angiosperm Families of the World, Plant Metabolism, Special Projects in Electron Microscopy
They offer lots of physiology courses.

Tuition & Fees In-State: $22,708
Tuition & Fees Out-of-State: $34, 316

Although these expenses are rather high, especially for out-of-state students, the school offers waivers of out-of-state costs. However, these are only available for the first year, and are limited, so they encourage and expect students to establish residency within their first year, implying that the process is relatively easy. Also, they claim that, "All of our graduate students are fully funded." (PhDs.org claims that the average tuition remission is 83%.) However, most students get TAships, but some receive Research Assistantships and fellowships. There are a good number of fellowships and awards available to botany students. Although TAing isn't required, they do require all graduate students to take the following course: Preparation for College Teaching, which doesn't sound so bad or scary.

Pre-requisites:

• Organic Chemistry
• Calculus

They don't really go into very much detail about pre-reqs, only listing these two as examples. However, they do say that deficiencies can be made up.

General GRE: Minimum score not provided.
Subject GRE recommended
Minimum GPA: 3.0
US News and World Report Ranking: 77/152
Percent Undergrads admitted: 76%


Potenial Advisors:  very limited, not very many plant ecologists
Al Black:  Plant Phyisological Ecology (http://sbs.wsu.edu/faculty/?faculty/6)
R. David Evans:  Ecosystem Ecology, response of soil compounds to climate change, including research with microbes (http://www.isotopes.wsu.edu/)
Cheryl Schultz:  Conservation Biology, Restoration Ecology (http://directory.vancouver.wsu.edu/people/cheryl-schultz)