Tall Chai Latte

I'm still a first-year, but finishing up. Here's some thoughts as the end of the semester approaches:

1. Be professionally assertive. I am a shy person, sometimes I am afraid to speak up for things I want or say no to unreasonable requests. All first-years want to leave good impressions on their peers and professors, but remember -- you have your priorities to take care of, for example, classes. Professors know classes are important, but some will push you to do more nonetheless. Be assertive, so people can't take advantage of you. Grad school is very demanding for sure, but you have the responsibility to take care of yourself.

2. Learn the politics quick. Crucial for survival, especially first-years who are the weakest because they are new to the game.

3. Know that undergraduate research is very different from graduate research: research was all fun and games when you were an undergrad, but once you put the grad student hat on, it's all serious business and your PI will demand a lot out of you. Be ready for the intensity! Think as much as you can, be as creative as you can, and be as productive as you can. The competition is fierce.

4. Exercise and find a hobby that you enjoy outside of work. Being in grad school puts you in that thinking mode constantly, but it can't be all work and no play. As professors will tell you, you need to eat, sleep, breathe grad school and it's all for your sake, but what they are not telling you is you need something to balance that workload (they might not want to hear about it either ). Taking your mind off work once in a while will help prevent burnouts.

5. Sleep and eat well. Never never compromise sleep and meals.

That's all I can think of for now, and I hope this helps any incoming grad students. It's a new chapter of your life, make the best out of it and you will be just fine!

1. If you have a low UG GPA, it might not matter so much if you have good research experience and decent GRE. LORs are very important.

2. Make sure you have backup LOR!! That screwed me over when I applied, some schools don't look at your app at all unless everything is in... Including LORs.

3. When it comes to decision time, regardless how many people suggest/advise you about choices, always make sure you are okay with what you decided on. We all get cold feet moments with major decision times, but which school to attend a very personal choice. Trust your instinct!

I'm still a first-year, but finishing up. Here's some thoughts as the end of the semester approaches:

1. Be professionally assertive. I am a shy person, sometimes I am afraid to speak up for things I want or say no to unreasonable requests. All first-years want to leave good impressions on their peers and professors, but remember -- you have your priorities to take care of, for example, classes. Professors know classes are important, but some will push you to do more nonetheless. Be assertive, so people can't take advantage of you. Grad school is very demanding for sure, but you have the responsibility to take care of yourself.

2. Learn the politics quick. Crucial for survival, especially first-years who are the weakest because they are new to the game.

3. Know that undergraduate research is very different from graduate research: research was all fun and games when you were an undergrad, but once you put the grad student hat on, it's all serious business and your PI will demand a lot out of you. Be ready for the intensity! Think as much as you can, be as creative as you can, and be as productive as you can. The competition is fierce.

4. Exercise and find a hobby that you enjoy outside of work. Being in grad school puts you in that thinking mode constantly, but it can't be all work and no play. As professors will tell you, you need to eat, sleep, breathe grad school and it's all for your sake, but what they are not telling you is you need something to balance that workload (they might not want to hear about it either ). Taking your mind off work once in a while will help prevent burnouts.

5. Sleep and eat well. Never never compromise sleep and meals.

That's all I can think of for now, and I hope this helps any incoming grad students. It's a new chapter of your life, make the best out of it and you will be just fine!

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

The decisions you made early on have big impact on your career later.
How lonely grad school can get, both emotionally and scientifically.
Constantly being judged, and often taking blames for things you have no control over.
Most professors have no interest in teaching and training students.
No one will go to the bat for you unless there's benefit in doing so.

That it ends too quickly.
How much decisions you make (often inadvertently) early on affect who you become by the time you go on the job market.
How many opportunities you are not aware of. 

Contact current graduate students.  They have to live somewhere and they will be very candid as to whether they like or dislike where they choose to live.  Also look at the citydata forums for Chicago.  It's a great source of information although I have found that a lot of people visit that site to convey negative information which may reflect only one incidence and not the whole. 
Google Earth is friggin fantastic.  If you know the location of the apartments, you can use Google maps or Google Earth to roam about the neighborhood using street view.  You'd be surprised how much you can learn from using that! 
I moved across country for grad school so I used all of these methods while researching places to live. 

Love your doge taco! 
 
This is my fifth year in Ann Arbor. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. 

I'm at the same stage as you in my program, also battling fading interest. I heard/read about various alternative careers over the years, and those opportunities sound much more attractive than the gloomy academia career. I thought about quitting many times throughout the years; I even attempted to leave my program but our program director convinced me to stick around. 
 
But true reason I'm still here is that there are plenty of resources at my institution for people who want to step away from the ivory tower: workshops, seminars, and career development groups. I would have no access to them once I cease being a student at this school. Maybe your institution is the same way? You could look into on-campus student groups or other opportunities to network or gain some volunteering experience related to the alternative career you interest in. 

1. It depends, but I don't think there's an end to reading. You need to stay current on the literature, so that means reading often.

2. This is an important skill to learn. I'm still learning how to do this, but according to my PI, you can start from reading review articles published in your field (and not just some random review articles -- the ones published in prestigious journals are the most ideal). In some of these review articles, authors will explicitly state what are the unanswered questions in the current field, and that can give you some leads. Or you can simply read a lot and make connections between findings, sometimes an interesting question would pop up. The latter method is harder in my opinion.

3. Having a mind map definitely helps. At your current stage, you can use it to track general informations rather than jumping straight to opportunities for research. At one point I had one of those mind maps, but it was too labor-intensive for me to go back and forth between reading and making the map. Now I just take simple notes to help me remember things I read.

Feeling lonely in grad school is a common thing across all disciplines. I moved from the east coast to midwest for grad school, and my first year at this very cold and snowy town was pretty miserable. I only made maybe one friend during my first year here! It definitely felt like I didn't belong, I guess people could tell I'm not a midwesterner. 
 
But after year two, things started to improve. I joined a lab and started interacting with a group of people on a daily basis. I also got to know their friends, and their friends of friends... Social circles expand over time. It was some time during my second year that I felt 'ok, I think I have a place here'. I understand how you feel, been there felt that... But it will pass. 

My mentor is the professor I worked for during undergrad. He was patient and never stingy about sharing his knowledge. This is the reason why I decided to pursue a PhD and potentially research as a lifelong career; the experience has been positive, and I took away a lot of valuable skills with me. Although I do largely different things now as a PhD student, I still use some of the old knowledge! I still stop by his office and say hi if I'm home for the holiday.  

When I prepared for my prelim, my advisor only gave me 10 full days off. And those were the 10 days prior to the actual exam day! I had to find time between experiments to read papers and study one-two months prior. Many fellow students in my department didn't get too many days off either. 

Following my post on "How to build a motivated research group", the same author, Uri Alon, has compiled a list of useful readings in many, if not all, aspects of being a scientist. Though not everything is directed to graduate students. I find it useful when I read through some of them (particularly the one titled "how to give a good talk" since I get intimidated on stage...).

Materials of Nurturing Scientists


I hope you all find this useful too!

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

Hurray for Ginger pets!

Oh hey! I haven't revisted this thread for a while. Here's the cat pic for mandarin.orange:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4w7HnV4z6uLUnVQdTlWWFdBcWs/edit?usp=sharing

Oh hey! I haven't revisted this thread for a while. Here's the cat pic for mandarin.orange:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4w7HnV4z6uLUnVQdTlWWFdBcWs/edit?usp=sharing

Eigen has good pointers. I want to add that things will be much harder in grad school, especially during your first year. Be prepared! Your wellbeing is the top priority. You can't work 24/7! That said, schedule in down times to unwind. Seek supports from your cohort and be friends with them, or find a hobby that you can do when you are not studying/doing research. This will make your transition a lot smoother and prevent burnouts.
 
It is especially important to stay optimistic. Being pessimistic will really erode your motivation slowly, to a point of causing you to drop out. This is most prevalent when you are in the middle of your PhD. I have bouts of existential crisis and doubts of my own ability from time to time, the advice I got is "never fear, push forward!". Take baby steps when it seems too much. 

I second liddy's comment above. I think it's good that these PIs are telling you they don't have funding to take on a student in the fall. That way, you don't fall into a trap where you've wasted precious "chances" to rotation just to find out you can't join after all. So yes, it's better to pass and look for other viable options. 

wildviolet, that was what happened with the first cat candidate I was trying to adopt. On the second time around, the rescue group called the leasing office directly and made sure our apartment complex is allowed to have pets. It eventually worked out in one week. 
 
The new cat is great, though she is kind of clingy at the moment. She follows everywhere I go (immediately locates my bed and lies on it lol)... Hopefully she grows out of it after some time.