<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I'm a rising college senior studying biology (with a specialization in ecology and evolution) and geosciences at a top research university. I am pretty certain that I want to pursue a PhD in ecology & evolution or a closely related field/subfield. But I'm just as certain that I want to take time off between undergrad and grad school to work and travel abroad. I had been planning to wait to apply to grad school and use this year to focus on applying for jobs and such for the year after I graduate. But I would really like to spend that year in the country or region where I studied abroad, which is not really an easy trip away from the US, and that would make grad school applications very difficult, especially interviewing. It's also possible that I wouldn't have consistent internet access. I had a hard enough time applying for summer internships while I was there.</p>
<p>The bio honors advisor at my school suggested that I apply this year and then defer for a year. I could probably put together a pretty strong application this year, but I'm not really sure what area of E&E I'd like to focus on, so I would probably only apply to programs that are more general and where you do not apply to a specific lab.</p>
<p>My options are to apply this year, though I'd have to assume that they'll let me defer, and get my materials together and take the GRE much faster than I'd planned, or wait two years to apply, with an application strengthened by my BA thesis & any related work I do after graduation and better idea of what I want in a grad school. This sounds like the better option, but I don't know if I want to wait two years. If my plans to go abroad following graduation don't work out or make applying that year feasible, I could do it then. I guess I could apply this year and if I don't like my results or if they won't let me defer, apply again later, but I'll be busy enough with my thesis and other types of applications and I don't want to apply now if it's really not the best time to do so.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice? And if you think it would be a good idea to apply this year, (or even if you don't), what schools have strong E&E programs and what are they like? I've already seen the USNews lists for E&E and paleontology, but I'd like more info than that. I know that some programs are more practical vs. theoretical, or strong for some subfields but not others, etc. Some areas of interest include conservation bio, paleobiology/paleoecology, and population biology. </p>
<p>Thanks much for any advice you can provide.</p>