PBGG Recruitment Open House

We're Excited to Meet You!

The faculty and students of the Plant Biology Graduate Group (PBGG) are looking forward to your visit! During your visit, you will have an opportunity to learn more about us—the people, the interdisciplinary research, the extensive research facilities, and the collaborative academic environment that make UC Davis a great place to undertake graduate studies. We hope this event will help you ascertain whether study at UC Davis is a good fit for you, and vice versa. 

This page contains a lot of information. Please read fully and carefully to ensure you are prepared for your visit!

Program of Events

This schedule is tentative and subject to change!

Thursday, February 5

Arrive to Davis by 2:00pm (ideal flight arrival to Sacramento Airport by 1:00pm). Check in your luggage at the front desk of the Aggie Inn Hotel (hotel check in isn't until 3:00pm), unless you are local to the Davis area. 

2:30pm: Welcome Reception in the Green Hall CBS Dean's Office Lobby. Here you will meet your student hosts! Food and beverages will be provided.
3:45pm - 4:45Pm: Tour of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.
5:00pm - 6:30pm: UC Davis Designated Emphasis Presentations (Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology and Host Microbe Interactions) and PBGG Student Panel
6:30 - 8:30pm: PBGG Student Hosted Dinner; Return to Aggie Inn Hotel

If you end up having to choose a flight that gets you here before hotel check-in time (3:00pm) on Thursday, or have some down time between the end of our event (11:00 AM) and your outgoing flight on Saturday, this is a great thing to consult with your student host about when you are introduced to them via email. If one of your preferred faculty is not able to formally interview you, perhaps they can meet with you in the downtime you have between arriving in Davis and checking in to the hotel. Your student host can also provide you with restaurant suggestions!

9:00 - 11:00am - Farewell breakfast hosted by PBGG Faculty Dr. Ken Shackel. Visiting guests will be picked up from Aggie Inn at 8:40am. Visiting guests departure time will vary. 

Travel Information

It is your responsibility to arrange all travel between your home to/from UC Davis. Depending on your current physical address, the program may be able to provide payment to offset the cost your lodging and travel expenses. Please check your email for specific travel payment limits.

If you are booking travel, it is recommend you select tickets with some flexibility. UC Davis is unable to reimburse incomplete travel (i.e. cannot reimburse flight if student cannot attend event due to illness).

Travel payment checks are typically received 6-8 weeks after your visit to campus.

Hotel

Students travelling from beyond Sacramento, Solano, or Yolo County will be provided a hotel room at the Aggie Inn for the nights of February 5th and 6th.

Your hotel room will be shared with another prospective student. You will be given an opportunity to let us know any additional needs or preferences for your hotel stay, although we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate all of them.

Other Details

Dress

East Coasters: Feel free to adhere to your own comfort level, of course, but California "business casual" is moderately more relaxed than what you're used to. Google has some good examples. 

There will be considerable walking, so comfortable shoes are highly encouraged; nobody will judge you for wearing sneakers, especially if they're going to make your day walkable! (Interviewees with significant mobility-related concerns can be accommodated; you will have an opportunity to let us know your needs when you RSVP to the event.)

Weather

In early February, rain is always a possibility, so bring an umbrella or rain jacket. Day-time temperatures are usually in the mid-50s to low-60s.

Faculty Interviews

You will have two to four scheduled interviews with PBGG faculty. You will receive your interview schedule ~3 days before your visit. These interviews are designed to gauge your preparation for graduate education and, specifically, for the PBGG program. Therefore, you can expect questions related to your interests in the program and your previous research/academic experience. We recommend you briefly learn about the faculty you are interviewing with via their Faculty Profiles. However, you are not expected to have a deep understanding of the faculty's research.

We do our best to pair students and faculty with similar research interests. However, this may not always be possible due to scheduling conflicts; we hope you will still be able to connect with your preferred faculty during other program events. PBGG is a rotation-based program, so students will have amble opportunities to meet and work with their preferred faculty before committing to a laboratory.

What Next?

After your visit, the program will be busy at work processing travel reimbursements, evaluated interviews, and drafting offer and financial letters. Please be patient with us!

Travel Payment

All travel payments are up to the limit stated in your personal invitation email. Costs beyond the stated reimbursement limit are at your own expense.

Travel payment checks will be mailed to the address you provided in your original RSVP. Checks may take up to 6 weeks to arrive after the recruitment event. Please let your graduate program coordinator know as soon as possible if this is a significant financial burden to you.

Admission and Financial Offers

Admission and financial offers are typically extended between March 15th and March 21st, though there are sometimes delays due to administrative factors. If you have not heard back from the program by March 30th, please reach out to your graduate program coordinator.

UC Davis is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and per the Council of Graduate Schools Resolution, you are under no obligation to accept financial offers from UC Davis prior to April 15.

FAQ

• What exactly is a graduate group?
• It's a non-departmental PhD program, where faculty from all over campus can apply and leave voluntarily. 
  
  Faculty are often affiliated with more than one graduate group (the average for PBGG-affiliated faculty is 2-3); they need to be in the graduate group in order to become PI to a student in that graduate group, which is a moderately common reason for faculty to join. More often, it's simply because their research interests are a good match for more than one graduate group. 
  
  Faculty often have students from different graduate groups in their lab at the same time; graduate groups have slightly different requirements of students and faculty, program cultures, etc., but their common characteristic is that any faculty member can join or leave a graduate group without it affecting their status in their home department.
• I'm not getting information in as timely of a manner as I hoped. Who do I contact?
• First and foremost, please double-check the information in your invitation; for example, if the recruitment itinerary will be sent to you "in the week of February 2nd," please do not email requesting follow-up until February 4th. 
  
  For most questions, you will likely contact the Graduate Program Coordinator. Please allow at least 4 business days for a reply, as immediate replies are seldom feasible at this time of year.
• I have another commitment and can’t attend, but I would still like to be considered for the program.  
• Unfortunately, the likelihood of our ability to accommodate these requests is slim. We don’t say this to be discouraging; it’s merely logistically difficult to schedule the requisite number of interviews over Zoom without sufficient notice. 
  
  If you cannot attend but still want to be considered, please email the Graduate Program Coordinator.
• Meeting (name of my scientific idol) is important to me, and I'm not scheduled to meet with them when I visit the campus. Why is that?
• The most likely explanation is that the person you're interested in is unavailable. It's also in our best interest to connect you with the people you want to meet the most, but if they're not free, we will introduce you to prospective mentors who share similar strengths.
• I am interested in faculty who are not affiliated with PBGG. Can I meet them?
• Possibly! We aren't comfortable asking non-members to help a graduate group they're not part of; faculty already do plenty of service for the groups they are affiliated with, let alone others. That being said, if you end up joining PBGG, you are totally welcome to rotate with non-members, and if there is a mutual interest in you joining the lab, they can accept you as long as they are willing to join PBGG. (That's a UC Davis rule, not ours.) 
  
  An interview with a non-member is, unfortunately, impossible for us to schedule as a program. However, you are totally welcome to set up a meeting with them on your own!
• I don't have any interviews scheduled with my preferred faculty. Can you schedule additional interviews for me?
• The program does not have the administrative capacity to schedule additional interviews. However, students are highly encouraged to reach out to their preferred faculty for informational interviews. Most faculty are happy to discuss their research with applicants. Admitted students will have additional opportunities to connect with faculty prior to committing to a laboratory during Fall and Winter Quarter rotations.
• My partner and/or family would like to join this event. Is that allowable?
• This program is for invited applicants only. If partners/families join your visit, they must book and pay for their own travel accommodations and may NOT join any graduate group events.
• I’m sick (or there’s been some other unexpected emergency) and I can’t make it. What should I do?
• Tell the Graduate Program Coordinator. Since the faculty have your interviews in their schedules already, we will pivot to Zoom if possible, and we have an array of virtual resources about the campus we can share with you.