As a current student who helped out with grad recruiting this year, I have gotten a few letters that have made me chuckle. Usually it's because the letter writer has unintentionally said something slightly presumptuous. For example, it is not necessary to go out of your way to reassure people that their program is a great one -- we are glad you liked it, but honestly as long as you're not coming it doesn't really matter to us whether you think we are "great." That is for the job market and our general reputation in the field to decide. Also, it is not necessary to imply that we might be upset or offended by your rejection. Of course we wish you had come, but it's not like we're going to take it personally, and it can almost sound like you're fishing for us to reinforce your sense of self-importance: "Indeed this is a dark day for our program! It troubles me deeply to know that YOU will not be coming!" (How else am I supposed to respond to that kind of comment? "Actually, it would have been great if you'd decided to come, but it's really not THAT important to us"?)
I don't mean to poke fun. I'm sure I said some of these things myself last year. I know that these comments are completely well-intentioned, and that declining an offer can be a very emotional experience. However, it is just not as emotional to the programs whose offers you are declining (even if they are truly disappointed you won't be coming), so there's no need to write your letter as though it is. Just thought I would share my perspective, since clearly this is a hard thing to get right when you've only been on the applicant side.
I'm not done yet (graduating in 2011), But I'll also echo especially points 6,7, and 9.
(6) I got super lucky that my famous mentor for my PhD is also an AMAZING mentor but I would gladly have traded for better mentoring over fame, easily. Getting quick responses to emails, being pushed in a positive way, being allowed to pick my topics and forge my own questions have brought me to a potential I never thought I had. My master's mentor sucked in this regard, I did my whole master's thesis without her, she never answered emails, I met with her once and had one phone call and waited almost 2 months just for her to sign a form. Talk to current students if you have the option to choose your mentor (i.e., your admittance wasn't conditional on a certain lab). They will be honest with you, I always am. I'm careful in my criticisms, but they can read between the lines.
(7) Yes! Balance. I got a dog my second semester. And then, unexpectedly, a boyfriend, who with his laidback style made me less workaholic and OCD, and wow, I was still incredibly productive. I definitely needed to learn that balance.
(**9**) I would probably stress this one the most. I was constantly comparing myself to others (and sometimes still do, eep!). I wanted to make sure I was on track or doing the right thing or not letting my advisor down. Well, it turns out a lot of the people I thought were all-stars weren't, and paving my own way was the right thing to do. I just wish I had done it with some blinders on so I wasn't as anxious all the time. If you're worried about pleasing your advisor, set concrete goals for meetings, set up deadlines when things will be done (be realistic!!), prioritize jointly with them what should get done first. Then you will have objective criteria to measure your progress, instead of guessing based on, "oooh I heard student Sally talk about this paper she's almost done/conference she got accepted to/award she got."
Since I just defended my dissertation recently, I felt compelled to offer some advice to new biomed PhD program applicants and students. Although many of you may already be aware of the following, I hope it'll be useful for at least some of you:
1. Acceptance is more dependent on NIH funding than the strength of your application. In past years, generous NIH funding allowed the acceptance of a lot of students. Because biomed PhDs in the US are usually fully funded (tuition, insurance, and stipend), a dept will only accept as many students as the # of PIs who can support them for the whole duration. Here (which shall remain unnamed), we went from taking 100+ students a year (total of all biomed PhD programs plus MSTP) to 60.
2. Your minority and citizen status matter a lot in terms of acceptance. Foreign students have the hardest time getting in, since they do not qualify for funding such as F31. Minority ethnicity students are favored in terms of NIH funding, and they used to (if not still) get automatic funding via minority supplement if the PI already has a R01. Depts and PIs often will accept a minority applicant for no other reason than that it's free labor, even if the student is boneheaded.
3. Your life does not hinge on getting into grad school. For some of you, not getting into grad school may very well lead to another career path which turn out to be very rewarding and successful. Plenty of PhD students soon find out it's not the life for them, and they quit to go on to other pursuits in life, be it med school or what not.
4. Finding a lab will be a challenge. As a follow-up to #1 and #2, just because a dept accepted you does not mean you get to work with any faculty member in the dept. The current funding situation caused a lot of labs here to not take new students. This may mean that you'll end up studying something you didn't plan on studying. Don't worry - it happened to me too, and it worked out for me in the end.
5. Apply to places that you normally wouldn't consider. For those of you living on the East and West coast, consider applying to schools in the Midwest and the South. There are a lot of great research being conducted at many institutions, and competition isn't as fierce. If your app isn't top 5 or 10%, I would strongly recommend it. I used to be a West coast guy and ended up in the South.
6. Your advisor's mentoring ability is more important than fame. Talk to former or current students, and ensure that the lab you join is not a factory where one conducts the same assay over and over for 4 years. While you may end up with a lot of papers, those papers will also be full of co-authors, and none of them can explain clearly the original rationale for the study.
Many high-powered labs have PIs who dictates which experiment to do next, which honestly is a crappy way to train a grad student, resulting in the latter having a poor grasp of the big picture. For a PhD, you'll want someone who can help you grow as a researcher, and someone who can take you through the whole process, from study design (most important), implementation, data analysis, and manuscript writing. Now there are plenty of high-powered famous PIs who are also good mentors, and a more junior faculty is not guaranteed to have more time to mentor you. In short, investigate each PI thoroughly before you commit to joining his/her lab.
7. Balance life and research. Don't do what I did - spend all your time in the lab and go home only to sleep. You'll eventually burn out and may even end up depressed, which will end up killing your creativity and productivity. Maintain a good balance of productivity and hobbies outside school. Make friends with fellow grad students so you can commiserate over your shared miseries. Curb drinking - there's better ways to spend your hard-earned stipend. Note this does not mean you should only put in 40 hours a week. I recommend 9-10 hours a day, with a mandatory lunch period to clear your head. Work half day on Saturday on most weekends, and keep Sunday free to relax.
8. Try to match your work day with your boss. Just like out in the corporate world, no matter how productive you are, it's easier for your boss to find you and see you being productive if you're in when he/she's in. Try to sync your work day schedule with your boss. This means if he/she has a family, he/she will likely come in early and leave early to pick up the kids. You should try to wake up early too. In my case, my boss tends to come into the lab to chitchat and also brainstorm on ideas for follow-up experiments, because he's often in meetings or busy once the day starts. It may very well be the best time to catch him/her.
9. Don't compare yourself with other students. Work on self-improvement and don't compare yourself with other students. Just as other students get accepted despite having a poorer application, other students will finish their PhD despite having done less work. Life is not fair; know it and get over it as quickly as possible. Some fields (protein structure, crystallography, animal models) take a long time to get enough quality data to publish, while other fields can crank out papers all day (non-primary cell culture, doing a gazillion MAP kinase immunoblots). Focus on your own work and be happy for other students as you attend their public defense because you are required to. Remember Yoda's words: Hate leads to suffering.
That's about it for now. Good luck to everyone here.
