About your dog: I think that depends entirely on you and your program. I am in a social science program where the majority of my analysis and writing can be done from home, and I prefer to work from home or from a library (as opposed to my cube in the windowless cube farm). When I was taking classes I was generally there from 9-6 or so, but now that my coursework is finished I am rarely at the school itself. I go for meetings, seminars, interesting kinds of things and I do most of my work remotely. My time is verrry flexible, and if my building didn't prohibit it I would get a dog in a heartbeat. Another thing to keep in mind: a dog can be a great comfort when you're all stressed out over graduate school.
Advice?
Age:
-Don't feel like you have nothing to offer just because you are younger. I was 22 when I started graduate school. You got accepted to the program for a reason, and chances are you are just as equipped as any older students are to successfully complete the program, just in a different way.
-Your older classmates may be just as terrified as you. Talk to them. You have a lot in common. You are, after all, in the same place.
-You will feel like an imposter, like you don't belong, or like you are constantly behind. Or all three. It's normal. It will pass. (Well, sort of.) People of all ages go through this.
Adviser related:
-If you are lucky enough to get both research interest fit and personality fit perfect, congratulations! But sometimes, personality fit is more important than research interest fit as long as the research isn't too different. A great adviser is interested in your career development, likes you as a person, advocates for you, and wants to hear your ideas. Even if his or her research is quite different from yours, they may give you the autonomy to work on your own projects and just supervise you. A bad personality fit will drive you nuts, even if you love his or her research. Consider that when evaluating your adviser fit. (This will vary by field: research fit may be less important in the humanities, more important in the natural and physical sciences. Social sciences are somewhere in-between.)
-Don't be afraid to be straight up blunt with your adviser when it comes to asking about your progress. Ask if you are where you should be both academic program wise and getting-a-job-after-this-mess-wise.
-Be proactive. Advisers love when you draw up an agenda for your one-on-one meetings, come with talking points and progress to share, have concrete questions to ask, and have overall shown that you have been thoughtful and taken control of your own program. Of course, this won't immediately come easily to you, but in time you will work up to it. Every semester I type up my semester goals, and at the beginning of the year I type up annual goals. I show them to my adviser and we talk about whether they are too ambitious, or whether I need to revise them, and how I can meet them.
-Don't expect your adviser to actually know what courses you have to take to graduate. They will know about comprehensive exams and the dissertation, but a lot of professors don't really keep up with the course requirements, especially if their program is in flux. Get you a student handbook, and find out what you need to take. Map it out in a grid, and check off things when you finish them. Show this to your adviser every semester. You may have to explain how such and such class fills a requirement.
-Nobody loves you as much as you, except your mother. Keep this in mind as you take in advice from all sources, including your adviser. Your adviser is there to guide you, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything he says.
Studying:
-You will have to read more than you ever did before, in less time than you ever have before, and you will be expected to retain more than you ever have before. The way that you studied in undergrad may need some tweaking. Be prepared for this.
-Corollary: you may find that your methods change with age or interests or time. I preferred to study alone in college, but in grad school, I prefer to study in groups. It keeps me on task and the socialization keeps me motivated. You may find that you shift from being a more auditory learner to a visual learner or whatever.
-You will feel behind at first. This is normal.
-At some point you will realize that your professors don't actually expect you to read everything they assign you. This, of course, will vary by program, but there will be at least one class where the reading is actually impossible to do in one week. The point is to read enough that you know the major themes and can talk intelligently about them, and then pick some of the readings to really dig into and think more deeply about.
-For most programs, don't worry so much about grades. If you stay on top of your work and do what you're supposed to, you will probably get an A. How much grades matter varies from program to program. In some programs, a B is a signal that you are not up to par, and more than a few Bs will warrant a discussion with your adviser or the DGS. My program isn't like that - A, B, it's all meaningless. My adviser doesn't even know what my grades are. But at almost all programs, a C means you need to retake the course, and two Cs means you have to convince the DGS not to kick you out.
Extracurricular activity: What's that? No, seriously:
-A lot of your time will be unstructured. You will have coursework, but most grad classes meet once a week for two hours and you may have three classes. You may have meetings with your adviser every so often and some seminars or things to catch (like we have grand rounds and colloquia that are required), but a lot of time will be unstructured. However, since you have so much more work than you had in undergrad, you actually will have less free time than you had in undergrad. This may initially cause you great anxiety. It did for me. Some people love unstructured time, though. (I don't.)
-Because of this, you'll have to be planful about your non-grad school related stuff.
-TAKE TIME OFF. DO it. It's important for your mental health. However you do it doesn't matter. Some people work it like a 9-5 job. Some people take a day off per week (me) and maybe a few hours spread across the week. Some people work half days 7 days a week. However you do it, there needs to be a time when you say "f this, I'm going to the movies."
-Find your happy place, something that keeps you the you you were when you came in. I love working out. It gives me energy and I feel good. I stay healthy. I also love reading fiction, so sometimes I just curl up with a good book, work be damned. You have to give yourself permission to not think about work, at least for a couple of hours a week. You may also discover new hobbies! (I never worked out before I came to graduate school.)
-Your work will creep into all aspects of your life, if you let it. This is why I hate unstructured time. You will feel guilty for not doing something, because in graduate school, there is ALWAYS something you can do. ALWAYS. But since there will always be more work, there's no harm in putting it aside for tomorrow, as long as you don't have a deadline.
-You may need to reach outside of your cohort for a social life. None of my close friends are in my doctoral cohort. I've met master's students in my program, master's students in other programs, and I know a few non-graduate students I hang out with, too. Go to graduate student mixers. (If your university doesn't have any, organize some, if you like planning parties.) Join a student group that doesn't take up too much time. I had a doctoral acquaintance who kinda laughed at me because I joined some student groups other than the doctoral student one, and I was usually the only doctoral student in those groups, but I met some close friends (and future job contacts) and had a good time.
-DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR WANTING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL. This is paramount. This is important. You are a well-rounded, complex, multifaceted human being. NEVER feel bad for this. Everybody wants some kind of life outside of work. Yes, you may loooove your field, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day long. Some other doctoral students, and perhaps professors, may make you feel bad about this. Don't let them. Just smile and nod. Then disappear when you need to.
Career:
-This is job preparation. Remember that from Day One. Always be looking for ways to enhance your skills. Read job ads and find out what's hot in your field, what's necessary, what's in demand. For example, in my field statistics and methods are a hot commodity, and they're not a passing fad. I happen to really like statistics and methods, so I have pursued that as a concentration of mine.
-Don't be afraid to take on volunteer work and part-time gigs that will give you skills that will be useful both inside academia and out, as long as it's not against your contract. Your adviser may be against it, but he doesn't have to know as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.
-If you want to work outside of academia - if you are even *considering* the possibility - please please definitely do the above. Even if you aren't considering it, consider the possibility that you won't get a tenure-track job out the box and that you may need to support yourself doing something else for a while. You will have to prove to employers that you have developed usable, useful skills and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. But don't overdo it - get the degree done.
-For more academic related ones - always look for opportunities to present and publish. Presentations look good on your CV. Publications look better. When you write seminar papers, wonder if you can publish them with some revision. Write your seminar papers on what you maybe think you may want to do your dissertation on. Even if you look at them three years later and think "these suck," you can at least glean some useful references and pieces from them. Discuss publication with your adviser early and often, and if you have the time and desire, seek out publication options with other professors and researchers. But if you commit to a project, COMMIT. You don't want to leave a bad impression.
-If you can afford it, occasionally go to conferences even if you aren't presenting. You can network, and you can hear some interesting talks, and you may think about new directions for your own research. You can also meet people who may tell you about jobs, money, opportunities, etc.
-Always try to get someone else to pay for conference travel before you come out of pocket. Including your adviser. Do not be shy about asking if he or she can pay. If he can't, he'll just say no. Usually the department has a travel fund for students, but often it's only if you are presenting.
-If you are interested in academia, you should get some teaching experience. There are two traditional ways to do this: TAing a course, and teaching as a sole instructor. If you can help it, I wouldn't recommend doing a sole instructor position until you are finished with coursework. Teaching takes a LOT of time to do right. You should definitely TA at least one course, and probably a few different ones. But don't overdo it, if you can help it, because again, it takes a LOT of time. More than you expect at the outset. If you are in the humanities, I think sole instructor positions are very important for nabbing jobs so when you are in the exam/ABD phase, you may want to try at least one. If your own university has none, look at adjuncting for nearby colleges, including community colleges. (I would wager that the majority of natural science/physical science students, and most social science students, have never sole taught a class before they get an assistant professor job. At least, it's not that common n my field, which straddles the social and natural sciences.)
-Always look for money. Money is awesome. If you can fund yourself you can do what you want, within reason. Your university will be thrilled, your adviser will be happy, and you can put it on your CV. It's win-win-win! Don't put yourself out of the running before anyone else has a chance to. Apply even if you think you won't get it or the odds are against you (they always are), as long as you are eligible. Apply often. Apply even if it's only $500. (That's conference travel!) Money begets money. The more awards you get, the more awards you will get. They will get bigger over time. If you are in the sciences and social sciences, you should get practice writing at least one grant. You don't have to write the whole thing, but at least get in on the process so that you can see how it's done. Grant-writing is very valuable both in and outside of graduate school.
-Revise your CV every so often. Then look and decide what you want to add to it. Then go get that thing, so you can add it.
-The career office at big universities is often not just for undergrads. I was surprised to learn that my career center offers help on CV organization and the academic job search, as well as alternative/non-academic career searches for doctoral students. In fact, there are two people whose sole purpose it is to help PhD students find nonacademic careers, and they both have PhDs. This will vary by university - some universities will have very little for grad students. Find out before you write the office off.
-It's never too early to go to seminars/workshops like "the academic job search inside and out", "creating the perfect CV," "getting the job," etc. NEVER. Often the leader will share tips that are more aimed towards early graduate students, or tidbits that are kind of too late for more advanced students to take care of. This will also help you keep a pulse on what's hot in your field. It'll help you know what lines you need to add to your CV. And they're interesting.
Other:
-Decide ahead of time what you are NOT willing to sacrifice on the altar of academia. Then stick to it.
I'm serious. If you decide that you do NOT want to sacrifice your relationship, don't. If it's your geographical mobility, don't. I mean, be realistic, and realize that there will always be trade-offs. But you have to think about what's important to you for your quality of life, and realize that there is always more to you than graduate school.
-If you don't want to be a professor, do not feel guilty about this. At all. Zero. However, you will have to do things differently than most doctoral students. Your adviser will probably never have worked outside of the academy (although this may vary depending on the field) so he may or may not be able to help you. But you have a special mission to seek out the kinds of experiences that will help you find a non-academic job. Test the waters with your adviser before you tell him this. My adviser was quite amenable to it, but that's because I told him that my goal was to still do research and policy work in my field just not at a university, AND because it's quite common in my field for doctoral students to do non-academic work. If you're in a field where it's not common (or where your professors refuse to believe it's common, or it's not supposed to be common)…well, you may be a little more on your own.
-Every so often, you will need to reflect on the reasons you came to graduate school. Sometimes, just sit and think quietly. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you love your field? Do you need this degree to do what you want to do? Usually the answer is yes and yes, and usually you'll keep on trucking. But sometimes when the chips are down you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through this in the first place.
-To my great dismay, depression is quite common in doctoral students. Graduate work can be isolating and stressful. Luckily your health insurance usually includes counseling sessions. TAKE THEM if you need them. Do not be ashamed. You may be surprised with who else is getting them. (I found out that everyone in my cohort, including me, was getting mental health counseling at a certain point.) Exercise can help, as can taking that mental health day once a week and just chilling. Don't be surprised if you get the blues…
-…but be self-aware and able to recognize when the depression is clouding your ability to function. Doctoral programs have a 50% attrition rate, and this is rarely because that 50% is less intelligent than, less motivated than, less driven than, or less ambitious than the other 50% that stays. Often they realize that they are ridiculously unhappy in the field, or that they don't need the degree anymore, or that they'd rather focus on other things in life, or their interests have changed. All of this is okay!
-You will, at some point, be like "eff this, I'm leaving." I think almost every doctoral student has thought about dropping out and just kicking this all to the curb. You need to listen to yourself, and find out whether it is idle thought (nothing to worry about, very normal) or whether you are truly unhappy to the point that you need to leave. Counseling can help you figure this out.
-Don't be afraid to take a semester or a year off if you need to. That's what leaves of absence are for.
Lastly, and positively…
…graduate school is great! Seriously, when else will you ever have the time to study what you want for hours on end, talk to just as interested others about it, and live in an intellectual community of scholars and intellectuals? And occasionally wake up at 11 am and go to the bank at 2 pm? Sometimes you will want to pull out all of your hair but most of the time, you will feel fulfilled and wonderfully encouraged and edified. So enjoy this time!
I don't really think highly of myself and I never said I was "smart". I have an average IQ (if that even indicates intelligence). I am surrounded by thousands of people who are essentially smarter than me, but they fail to see the most important part of things, precisely because they are smart and go through the problem quickly without seeing it from another angle. I speak based on facts and figures with no emotional prejudice whatsoever. You do not prefer egotistical people and that is a personal preference. If you are given a chance to decide who should get which scientific position, your personal assessment of the situation should not come into play. Some of the most distinguished scientists like Einstein, Dirac and Schrodinger were extremely egotistical. Einstein once sent an article for publication, when the editor wrote back that he has sent it for peer review, this is what Einstein replied:
Dear Sir,
We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorized you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the "in any case erroneous” comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.
Respectfully,
In a way, being egotistical is part of what defines how dedicated you are to your cause. Non-scientist examples, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etc. These people at some point in their career, eliminated their partners, because they believed they were being slowed down by their lack of vision. You see an egotistical monster. I see a genius!
Ethical guidelines can never be clearly defined. Numbers speak for themselves. Had it not been for these egotistical actions, companies would have gone bankrupt, people would have lost their jobs and so one.
I'm not 100% sure what you intend to get out of going to graduate school. You sound like you have an impressive background in research but you come across as a bit egotistical. Graduate school applications are full of extremely intelligent people from around the world, applying for very few spots. I've been there, I was a strong student in high school and got into a very good university for college. I went from being a big fish in a small pond to a little fish in a big pond. Everyone I went to school with was very smart. Applying for grad school, you might have become a big fish in your big pond but you're trying to get into a lake. The people are just as smart as you and they're fighting for those few spots. If getting a PhD is something that you really want to do, I would recommend asking Berkeley how you can improve your application for next year. I'd also apply to a lot more programs because you will inevitable not be a proper fit for some programs. That might even be the case with Berkeley. But if you're in it just to use the equipment, you're better off just getting a job in a lab.
I demand full transparency because 1) Berkeley is a public university which is funded by taxpayers' money. So the "I reject you because I can" response is not acceptable. They need to provide equal opportunity based on merits. I am not seeing that here. There are very clear rules and regulations. They asked for a minimum CGPA of 3.0 and a general GRE (no minimum score required). I look at university application as a kind of peer review. If you reject me, you need to give convincing reasons. If you claim that there are more qualified candidates, you shouldn't have any problem disclosing the data (of course, not the private info, but what exactly do you mean by more qualified). 2) I paid an application fee. You are offering a paid service. I am the customer and you are obliged to respond to my enquiries.
About the "I am better than this class" argument: I attended an Asian university, so believe me when I say that a large portion of or class had 4.0 CGPA. How did they manage to do that? I give you an example, we were taking a programming course. 50% of the marks were based on assignments. Virtually none of the students developed the algorithms and wrote the programs on their own. They simply got a copy from senior student and submitted it. They were kind enough to send me a copy as well. However I refused to do the same. I tried to develop my own program. It was only partially functional, but hey it was working. I got C+, everybody else got A. When I told the lecturer that I expected him to value my original work, he didn't care. Another example, we were taking an optimization course, I developed my own algorithm and achieved 96% correlation, everybody else copied the algorithm from the notes (developed by the professor). They got 99% correlation. I ended up getting A- and everybody else got A.One more: In the Robotics class, my friend and I were the only people who actually solved the equations, rather than memorizing the answer. We never managed to finish answering 8 questions in 1 hour (even the professor knew there were too many questions, so he actually gave the answer a week before so everyone could memorize). Everybody else got A, we got B. I don't regret any of this. Now if you think i am arrogant, well good for you. I believe in doing science in a meaningful and productive way. I was nearly getting an F for not following the lecturer's instructions in a class. He taught us only basic HTML and CSS, I used advanced Javascript and AJAX in my website. He told me I was trying to make him look bad in front of the class! Is that how we are educating our students nowadays? We want them to be mindless slaves? Call me a bad "student", but you can't do that to me.
About SOP and LOR: It's not applicable here. As I said, I only applied because the professor was interested in my work and his collaborator/ ex-post-doc invited me to. Besides, in all my papers, I am the corresponding author. LOR normally applies to those who have been working in a group as a student, so they need some sort of endorsement from the PI in the group. In my case, I was the PI myself and I have students.
I only applied to 1 program because I already have 2 jobs (paid scientist by day, unpaid entrepreneur after working hours). PhD is only a title which is already carried by millions of people. I was only hoping to have easy access to the equipment. I even offered to bring my own funding for a joint research project.
I guess when they were reading my SOP, they thought it was too good to be true!
Thank you -name-. I really appreciate your offer of admission to -such and such school-. However, I have been offered admissions by another program and will be unable to accept the offer to attend -such and such school-. Thank you for your consideration.
********Be cordial and not offputting. These people WILL be your future colleagues.
After being on a bunch of interviews, one thing I learned that I wasn't necessarily aware of before was that the vast majority of the people were not in their last year as undergraduates.
Most people interviewing had worked usually 2 or more years in a lab as a lab tech prior to this application season. I'm fortunate to have been accepted to places, but if I had not, I believe my plan would have been to reach out to the PIs who conducted research I was interested in and see if I could work in their lab as a tech to gain more experience in the field (and also another reference letter too).
EDIT: For example, when I visited UVA, I remember that of the 15 of us there interviewing, only 3 of us were still completing our undergraduate degree. Some people had even worked in labs for as many as 5 years prior to this application cycle.
After being on a bunch of interviews, one thing I learned that I wasn't necessarily aware of before was that the vast majority of the people were not in their last year as undergraduates.
Most people interviewing had worked usually 2 or more years in a lab as a lab tech prior to this application season. I'm fortunate to have been accepted to places, but if I had not, I believe my plan would have been to reach out to the PIs who conducted research I was interested in and see if I could work in their lab as a tech to gain more experience in the field (and also another reference letter too).
EDIT: For example, when I visited UVA, I remember that of the 15 of us there interviewing, only 3 of us were still completing our undergraduate degree. Some people had even worked in labs for as many as 5 years prior to this application cycle.
I wish you luck! It's one of my top choices because I feel like I match really well. Met with a prof there over the summer, and we shared a lot of research and methodological interests.
I have Virginia this Thursday then Denver Sunday and then UNC next thursday. Whirlwind tour of the US over the next 6 weeks. Don't know how much of it is the coffee right now, but I'm unbelievably excited!
Also found out I'll be interviewing with the discoverer of melanopsin at UVA, which is pretty awesome!
No to be rude, but you have two threads open about this topic. This is an extremely personal decision, and no one is going to make it for you. It's also unlikely that most people will know anything about these particular programs either. Make a list of pros and cons and decide for yourself.
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