Don’t blanket a department contacting every faculty member, because that makes it look as if you don’t have specific interests in their particular work, but do contact those whose work is interesting to you. After I contact a student, I let them know how useful contacting faculty is. It really can promote your application!

It looks like the application for the summer program will be live on December 8, 2009.

The priority deadline is February 15, 2010.

Complete applications are due by 5:00 PM on March 1, 2010.

If you have any questions about our program, please let me know. I will be updating here with more news as it becomes available.

In the sciences, you should never have to pay tuition and additionally, we pay you!

Our program pays you a competitive stipend to attend graduate school. You also receive a full tuition waiver and enrollment in the student health and dental plan.

Because living in Lincoln is so economical, you can do quite well living on our stipend. One student told me he was actually saving money every month because he came to grad school here. We want to be competitive with other schools, and this is another area in which we excel.

Going to graduate school will soften current economic issues, and give you a greater advantage when you graduate with your degree. Students with higher degrees do earn more money than those with none.

And because we pay you, you do not graduate with huge debt. So many students have piles of debt as an unfortunate graduation gift to themselves. When you study in the life and plant sciences, that should not be the case.

We are pleased that we are able to offer students this. So check out our program, and give us a try!

Admissions process – this is the process to get you admitted to a university. The process is different at every university and often between departments. This process usually means filling out one or more online applications, having transcripts sent to each school, reference letters written about you and sent, paying an application fee, taking the GRE test and having scores sent to each school to which you apply, and any other information a school might require. Our application process is described here.
Matriculation – actually attending school, going to classes. Having been admitted to a college or university.
Degree seeking – you can attend college and just take a course or two and not be degree seeking. Or you can have a degree program (MS or PhD) which you seek.
Degree granting: PSP is not a degree granting program. We have students do rotations if they choose, but the student is either admitted to the Agronomy department or the School of Biological Sciences through our program.
Stipend – the money we pay you to attend graduate school.
Fellowships – students sometimes are awarded a fellowship. This is money that has no official work associated with it. Often fellowships do not have a tuition waiver associated with it so students sometimes will be billed for tuition. Schools sometimes have other awards associated with a fellowship, so tuition will be waived. This is something you need to consider when you accept a fellowship.
Research assistantship (RA) – this is money you receive that has some form of work associated with it. Initially, rotations are the “work” associated with the stipend. Afterwords, the research you do in a lab is the “work”.
Teaching assistantship (TA) – this is money you receive to be a TA, a teaching assistant for a course in a department. These usually have tuition waivers associated with them as well.
Rotation – You do smaller research projects in different labs to see the kind of research that you like. Usually completed the first semester of your first year. This is an excellent opportunity because it allows you to check out different departments, to see where your interests lay and to check out different faculty. You can discover the best fit for yourself.
Tuition waiver – a tuition waiver is having your tuition paid by the institution. When you receive an assistantship, like our program provides, your tuition is removed. Some schools offer partial waiver, others full. We provide a full waiver.

If you have any questions, please let me know at vharris2@unlnotes.unl.edu. Have a great day!

Wildhalm J.R., van Oostende C., Furt F., Basset G.J.C., 2009.
A dedicated thioesterase of the Hotdog-fold family is required for the biosynthesis of the naphthoquinone ring of vitamin K1. PNAS 106:14, 5599-5603.

PDF
Full Text