Steps for Admitted Students

Complete Admissions Requirements

Accepted students receive information from CSU's Graduate School, GDPE, their Advisor's home department and, perhaps, from any funding sources regarding forms or requirements to continue the admissions process.

Be certain to read the information and respond to any deadlines to ensure the enrollment process continues smoothly.

Communicate with your Advisor and the Department

• Find out who the departmental contact is.
• If you received any funding, find out what the funding procedures are and who the contact is.
• Inquire about what resources are available to you (computer access, mailboxes, work space, keys to facilities). GDPE maintains all student files for those enrolled in the program, but other resources are provided by the advisor's home department.
• GDPE students may have additional requirements set by their home departments (e.g., first-year seminars, M.S. Comprehensive Exams, etc.). Students are responsible for inquiring about these expectations during their first meetings with their major advisors, and planning accordingly to make sure they complete all these requirements.

Contact the GDPE Program Coordinator

1. Sign up for the GDPE Social listserve
2. Update your email address
3. Submit short bio and digital image to the GDPE Coordinator
4. Reserve the date for the GDPE Orientation the week before classes begin
5. Provide GDPE office with eid name to allow internal access to your directory data on the website

Connect with the GDPE Community

Students and faculty in GDPE are located across the CSU campus, both physically and departmentally, making GDPE social events and sponsored seminars an important opportunity to get to know your student and faculty colleagues. We expect our students to genuinely invest in the program, in terms of sponsored GDPE events that include, in addition to formal course requirements, seminars, speakers, social events, and the Front Range Ecology Symposium. Being engaged in the community increases your personal and intellectual growth, as well as generates a wonderful collaborative environment.

GDPE acknowledges the many demands on your time while you are in graduate school; we believe that an important part of your graduate education is the opportunity to interact with students and faculty from diverse fields within ecology, and we trust that you will find your academic and social interactions within GDPE and the greater CSU community to be rewarding and valuable experiences that you will carry with you as you advance through your academic and professional life.

GDPE is a wonderful community of very dedicated graduate students, but it isn't all work and no play! And there are certainly things within CSU that are of concern to all graduate students. For more general questions about the graduate student community at CSU, a good place to start is the Colorado State Graduate Students Facebook group. For social activities, a good resource is the GDPE Social listserve. The listserve is also a good place to post questions regarding things to do in and around Fort Collins, housing, ride-sharing, etc. The graduate students in your lab or department are also a good resource.

Front Range Student Ecology Symposium

FRSES is a student-run symposium typically held in mid-late February that provides an opportunity for Front Range students doing research in ecology to showcase their work and network in a friendly and supportive peer environment. Highlights of the event include a keynote address by an engaging invited speaker, a full day of poster and oral presentation sessions, an awards banquet to recognize exceptional student work, and a social gathering to celebrate the success of our participating students. The FRSES also features a lively lunchtime panel discussion related to the annual theme.