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waderpanda

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  1. Upvote
    waderpanda got a reaction from TakeruK in POI first email format   
    I recently did this a bunch of times and every single time was as intimidating as the first. But here's how I went about it:
    Hello Dr. [name of POI],
    My name is [your name] and I am currently [doing something]. I am interested in the [school and department/program] and I was wondering if you are planning to take new students in [year you plan to apply]. 
    [A few lines about what they do that interests you and how that fits in with your overall interests]
    [ a few lines about your academic background and/or current work. If you are doing/have done any research related to their work, definitely include that info]

    I have attached my CV and a short research statement with this email for your consideration. If you would like any additional information, please let me know.

    Thank you,
    [your name]
    Any variation on this should be good. Just remember to show real interest in their work and keep it short.  You can expand on your research interests and past work in your research statement, but mention it in a few sentences in the email. That way they can quickly skim the email and find out what you're about, and, if interested, can get a better idea by reading your statement.
    The website link from @shoupista is a good one and helped me when I was writing my emails.
  2. Upvote
    waderpanda got a reaction from nikkimx in University of Washington - Seattle Fall 2017!   
    Hi all!
    I'm heading in for a PhD. I'll be moving there in late August/early September. I started looking for apartments but it looks like most places listed right now will be gone by the time I plan to move. Though I've been talking to another incoming student about rooming together, we're still keeping out options open because we'll be moving in at different times so I'm also potentially looking for a roommate. Super excited either way!
  3. Upvote
    waderpanda reacted to fuzzylogician in Advice for presentation for PhD interview   
    Following the advice above, here is what I would do: 
    1. Keep it short, these things tend to take longer than you think, especially if you might get interrupted with questions. 4-6 slides seems like a good target to aim for. 
    2. Spend maybe 30 seconds talking about yourself, but keep the title slide (that is, don't have a slide with your personal info, just talk through that part): your name, where you're from, what school you're attending now, your major and sub-specialization if there is anything non-obvious about it, any other fun fact you'd like to share. 
    3. I would recommend doing both a broad overview of your interests and details on a project. Specifically, I'd suggest first having a slide on your broad interests: the type of questions you're interested in, any projects you've been involved in, one-line each, with just a brief description of what questions you were asking and what you found. 
    4. Pick one, maybe it should be your thesis, and go into a bit more detail: what question(s) are you asking? what is your methodology? what are your findings? what conclusions did you draw? As always, slides should be easy to read, so bullet points, graphs, pictures, are all good choices. But because you might be nervous, if it helps you to have more text, I'd in this case ignore the (generally very correct) advice to keep it minimal, and do what you need to be comfortable. 
    5. Either as a slide or against this last slide from the previous batch, talk very briefly about what you hope to do in grad school, keeping in mind that broad and vague is good because it's very likely that you will change your mind once you're actually in school.
    6. Practice! Run through your slides a couple of times to make sure you know what you want to say. The beginning is usually more difficult, and then you get into a rhythm; if that is true for you, think more carefully about the wording of your first couple of slides, and then things should start falling into place. 
  4. Upvote
    waderpanda reacted to Quickmick in Advice for presentation for PhD interview   
    That is interesting. I'll just make a couple of general suggestions as opposed to being content specific. Our group generally uses the 1 slide per minute guideline... and people tend to talk over so maybe 4-6 slides? While I like your ideas regarding projects/direction I would be careful of making the slides too wordy (people will read instead of listen). Maybe a slide could be a pic of you actually working on the project? My guess is you will do better describing it verbally anyway, so maybe just use the slides for talking points...
    good luck!
  5. Upvote
    waderpanda reacted to TakeruK in Advice for presentation for PhD interview   
    Here's some quick advice in case you are not used to giving these short presentations. They'll make you sound like an experienced grad student and you'll fit right into the department
    1. I second the "one minute per slide" guideline. To account for the general tendency of going over, I include the title slide as part of the count (i.e. for a 5 minute talk, it's title slide + 4 content slides). Alternatively, practice practice practice to get the timing right.
    2. Each slide should only convey one single message. Make that message the title of your slide. Then, include whatever schematics, plots, data, etc. you need to support that point. I also second the suggestion to cut as many words as possible. I very rarely have any words at all on my slides, only labels and figures. Use the software's "Presenter Mode" in order to see notes on your screen but only project your slides.
    3. Ensure every slide is legible from the back of the room. One figure per slide! Feel free to "doctor" the images, e.g. if the axis labels are too small, draw over them in Powerpoint and make bigger labels. If they are very jargon-y or use abbreviations, replace them with more clear labels. If a figure is complex and have a lot of data points, you can either: recreate them with the minimal material necessary to convey your message (if they're your figures) or use Powerpoint to block out or highlight important points.
    4. When introducing yourself, don't make a slide on it. That is, don't have a slide that just lists your previous projects and your background etc. Keep the title slide on the screen and spend 30 seconds talking about yourself.
    5. Make sure you have citations and attributions for everything you put into the presentation. If you are putting your own figures, label it as such (e.g. "waderpanda et al., in prep"). If you are putting someone else's figure, be sure to cite it. For extra points, if you are presenting something that someone at the dept works on, use their version of the figures and cite their work. This shows that you understand their contribution to the field.
    To answer your specific questions:
    For the format, I think you have three good options, assuming 10 minute talk slot:
    - If all of your projects have a common theme, or answers a common question, then start your talk with 1 slide of background on why this question is interesting. Then spend 1 slide per former project and focus on how this project relates to that question. Just say your main contribution and the main result. Then spend 2-3 slides/minutes on your Masters work. 
    - If your past projects have been very different (this is normal/okay for undergrads), then maybe summarize them all on one slide (but not a list---you can just talk about this during the title slide intro too). Spend 1-2 minutes just mentioning them all and say that you would be happy to talk to anyone further about these projects, but you want to spend your time today on your Masters work. Then, move onto the background and results for that.
    - If you only have a 5 minute slot, I'd skip the previous projects. 
    For the "future work" section, I would advise against listing all of your future research plans for the same reason your advisor gave you. However, for your Masters work, you should have a slide that discusses what's next for this project. That is, talk about what could be done by someone who is interested in pursuing this further, but don't necessarily say that you will be the one doing this. This is an important aspect of scientific talks because it shows you understand how your project fits into the bigger picture. If you don't have time to present this slide, that's okay, make it a "backup slide" to show during questions if it comes up.
    Also, although you shouldn't make your plans for research in grad school an actual slide, you should be prepared to answer the question if someone asks you what you see yourself doing in this department. You can remain non-committal and state that these project ideas are things you would be interested in as potential directions. This will avoid the concerns your advisor has.
  6. Upvote
    waderpanda reacted to TakeruK in Splitting travel cost while interviewing at two schools   
    I did this. Yes, you should fly from one school to another. You should talk to both schools and let them know that you are planning to split the costs. You should probably just propose a split and ensure both schools agree to it. Each school will have its own requirements and rules on what is allowed so ensure you can meet all of that before you make any plans. One tricky thing is if you need to split a single expense but both schools want original receipts! Fortunately, it is likely that the only such expense would be the airfare between the two schools, and it's pretty easy to just print 2 boarding passes (if they need those). 
    I think the best thing to do is to lay out all of your expenses (with estimations of cost for bookings not made yet) and tell both schools what you'll be charging to each school. So you might propose something like this:
    Travel from Home to Home Airport, $20, School A pays
    Flight from Home Airport to School A, $150, School A pays
    Flight from School A to School B, $100, School A and B to split ($50 each)
    Flight from School B to Home Airport, $125, School B pays
    Travel from Home Airport to Home, $20, School B pays
    That would just be an example, for flights and transportation only. You may be able to ask for coverage of meals while traveling too, so add that as necessary. However, note that you probably shouldn't ask School A to pay for expenses incurred while visiting School B. In this above example, I took the most simple case where the flights to/from School A and B are about the same and assumed that both Schools are offering to cover the same amount of cost (or close to it).
    Something more tricky would be if you lived a lot closer to School A than School B so the flight to A is a lot cheaper than B. Then the schools might not be happy with evenly splitting the airfare between A and B. Even if this is not the case, I highly recommend that when you make your actual flight bookings, immediately get a quote for the roundtrip flights to A only and to B only (i.e. pretending that you are only visiting one school). In the first step, when you ask them about their requirements, they might already ask you to do this. But if not, get it just in case. It's normal for reimbursements like this to ask for a quote in the single-school visit only and then they'll reimburse your multi-school visit up to the cost of the single school visit. Also, having this documentation will help you in the case that School A is a lot closer and therefore they only want to pay for a smaller portion of the A-to-B airfare and this can justify to School B why you are asking them to cover more of the airfare. 
  7. Upvote
    waderpanda reacted to BeezKnees in Interview questions   
    Hey everyone,
    Thought I would make a thread regarding interview questions, including:
    - What questions would be good to ask your POI
    - What questions would be good to ask the grad students
    - What questions you're likely to be asked in an interview
    I know there's been things like this in the past that have helped and I've seen a couple of people asking if there's a thread for this year. 
    Couple obvious questions that may be asked/I've been asked in the past:
    - Strengths and weaknesses
    - Why clinical psychology, why that school, why that professor in particular
    - What kind of learner are you and what's your ideal mentorship style
    - What are your future goals for your career
  8. Upvote
    waderpanda got a reaction from hopefulPhD2017 in Interview at two schools but the same weekend?   
    Hi all! I just got invited to interview at two schools, so this is great news. But the unfortunate part is that they have the same dates for the interview weekend. Since I heard from one school a day earlier than the other, I already told them that I would be attending. How should I approach the conversation with the second school/PI? I am equally interested in both schools and both are highly ranked universities. Right now I'm planning to go to the interview weekend for the first school and ask if there is an alternate day(s) for the second school. I'm not sure whether I should simply say that I have a prior commitment which will prevent me from attending the interview weekend, or if I should explain that the prior commitment is an interview at another school. I'm also worried that missing the interview weekend will affect my chances.
    I'd appreciate any advice! Thanks a lot
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