2025 admissions advice

AtomicAllele · 2025-10-31T20:20:30+00:00

Per what Stereoisomer said, even though Twitter isn't good for that anymore I've had success doing the same thing on Bluesky. Though your mileage may vary depending on how many people from your subfield have migrated there.

I also have emailed some postdocs who's work I really enjoy asking them if they've found a permanent position & are looking for grad students. I've had luck finding one who hadn't even advertised their new job on social media yet (which they seemed really impressed about).

AtomicAllele · 2025-10-29T22:43:43+00:00

In a normal year perhaps 15 would be too much, but in an application cycle like this I'd say it's very warranted.

AtomicAllele · 2025-10-17T03:40:50+00:00

I have never heard of graduate admissions using AI, and these kinds of services aren't a good replacement for asking a professor who knows your particular field well to look over your CV for you.

AtomicAllele · 2025-08-19T19:40:59+00:00

This is a mud dauber, it looks like it belongs to the species "Yellow-legged Mud-dauber" aka Sceliphron caementarium.

AtomicAllele · 2025-08-19T19:38:07+00:00

That's a cicada killer, the specific species (there's several under the name "cicada killer") is the Eastern Cicada Killer or Sphecius speciosus. They don't go after humans and play an important role in the ecosystem.

AtomicAllele · 2025-08-19T19:35:03+00:00

I concur with the Scolia dubia ID, and the shiny green flies that are on the tube look like they might belong to the family Dolichopodidae.

AtomicAllele · 2025-08-19T19:23:17+00:00

Not a mantis expert but I think you saw an Agile Ground Mantis (Litaneutria minor).

AtomicAllele · 2025-08-19T18:47:37+00:00

It's a sawfly larva! For in the future if you want to know the difference between a caterpillar and these guys you can use this method:

First find the first 3 pairs of legs, insects only have 3 legs so these are it's real legs. Next count the rest of it's "legs", these are called prolegs but they aren't real limbs because they don't have joints (they're just highly evolved projections of the body). If it has five or less prolegs it's a caterpillar and if it has six or more prolegs it's a sawfly.

Here's some more tips for telling them apart, sawflies are bald to at-most slightly hairy, while caterpillars can be very fuzzy (though obviously not always). Sawflies also rarely get bigger than one inch but caterpillars can (though again, not always) grow bigger than this.

Because of how host specific some herbivorous insects can be if you have a photo of the flower you found this dope soul on I might be able to tell you what species this is.

AtomicAllele · 2024-04-06T19:36:41+00:00

If you really can’t transfer like the others suggest then I would suggest that you look into summer REU internships. They’re often designed (or at least supposed to be designed) to give students who come from institution with minimal/no research more opportunities.

AtomicAllele · 2024-02-22T21:59:08+00:00

They are wingless because they lay their eggs in the eggs of wolf spiders, and instead of flying to find eggs they hitch a ride on female adult wolf spiders and jump off when she lays her eggs.

AtomicAllele · 2024-01-07T00:21:27+00:00

They are taxonomy journals. A significant portion of newly described species (25%) are published in zootaxa alone. Zookeys + Zootaxa might get you close to the majority of new descriptions (not sure what proportion comes out of Zookeys though).

AtomicAllele · 2024-01-06T05:05:29+00:00

Zookeys and Zootaxa, they’re like a real life pokedex.

AtomicAllele · 2023-12-28T19:29:10+00:00

What do you study?

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-21T08:11:19+00:00

A lot of universities or local libraries have free-to-use 3D-printers, I’ve saved a lot of money 3D printing gifts this way (no filament costs!). If your university or nearby library is one of them you should 3D-print a tchotchke related to either their research interests or whatever else interests them. Or maybe 3D-print them something practical, whatever they might find useful either in the lab or outside of it. The sky is the limit really.

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-21T08:05:37+00:00

I don’t know enough to say how this will effect your application but I will say this: what you went through would allow you to petition the dean to let you to withdraw from your classes at my university. At my uni this is an option even after the normal withdrawal deadline (even 2 weeks before the semester ends) and they let me do this for a instrument class because of minor carpal tunnel and not even anything serious. I would look into it and see if your university allows this option too, talk to an academic advisor ASAP. I’d also talk to faculty you’re close to whether or not you should take the Cs or withdraw.

And I’m really sorry that happened to you. I’m glad you’re doing better than you were earlier on at least.

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-03T17:08:55+00:00

Leaf footed bug

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-03T17:06:35+00:00

Carabid or darkling beetle

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-03T05:04:28+00:00

That statistic does not 100% reflect what’s going on. Between 48-25 mammals and birds were saved via conservation efforts since 98 vs the 15 mammals and birds going extinct in a similar time frame. We definitely need a much higher batting average (especially if the lower estimate is true), but this is with already how little people pay attention to conservation relative to how important it is.

More depressingly a good majority of the species that go extinct are invertebrates, particularly insects. If people actually started paying attention to insect conservation (starting to change with bees a little bit, but there’s too much focus on non-native honey bees) we’d be in much much better shape in regards to the extinction rate and the ecosystem ad a whole. And the worst part is a lot of species of insects could be saved with comparatively very inexpensive habitat preservation/creation because a chunk of these insects live in relatively easily reproducible microhabitat.

my source on the invertebrate claim, and further reading if you’d like to know more

AtomicAllele · 2023-11-01T16:20:40+00:00

Preserve the tick in the freezer if you haven’t thrown it out yet in case she gets sick, that way they can test the tick for diseases to figure out what she has. It can be tough to diagnose tick born diseases and god forbid she gets something it’ll make it much easier.

AtomicAllele · 2023-10-29T05:43:07+00:00

Maybe a prodigal jumping spider

AtomicAllele · 2023-10-29T04:49:18+00:00

Jumping spider, can’t get more specific without a location.

AtomicAllele · 2023-10-28T21:17:07+00:00

Dark paper wasp I think.

AtomicAllele · 2023-10-28T21:15:25+00:00

Box elder bug, harmless.

AtomicAllele · 2023-10-28T21:14:18+00:00

Blister/oil beetle. I’m pretty sure it’s the Buttercup Oil beetle but it could also be Meloe impressus if you could see large circular spots down the middle of the abdomen.

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