Transition from undergrad to grad school?

[TheKop]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and I thought this was the right place to ask for your opinions about the transition from undergrad to graduate school.

 

For those already in graduate school, what aspect of your undergrad career was the best preparation for graduate school?

 

how important was your first year in graduate school to achieve a high level of knowledge to become a better researcher?

 

I appreciate any and all advice and hopefully this will be helpful for most of us!

[McKenna]

As a marine bio major I have found my grad program to be much less difficult academically than I expected.  My major seems to be pretty laid back and my project is the only one in the deparment that is on track timewise. But since I don't believe in going into debt for an education I have a timeline worked out with my PI to get me out of here on time, with no extra semesters needed.  

The biggest change for me is living 2000 miles from home, three days each way to go home for the holidays, could only stay for 10 days since I was depending on cohorts to keep my animals alive, having a roommate, making friends in a new city.

Housing has really been my biggest adjustment and I don't think you can prepare for it.  I did all of my apartment hunting via the internet after I had visited the area the previous summer.  Studios and 1-bedrooms were/are few and far between.  The campus I am attending only has enough dorm space for about 15% of the undergrads so there is fierce competition for the better places to live in good neighborhoods, along with higher paid oil/refinery workers and multiple military bases in the area.  After losing my studio after 3 months to a condo conversion I am now living in a 2/2 townhouse with an undergrad.  I really don't recommend it but you have to follow the money.  

And although cohorts are a nice group, I am significantly younger than most of mine.  They have SOs, some have purchased their own homes, most SOs have jobs that allow my cohorts to live a less frugal lifestyle than me.  The singles like me seem to be bent on sowing last of their wild oats.  There are some pretty wild parties.  So I signed up to volunteer on Saturdays at a local museum, spend free time taking my dog to the beach, and keeping my project on time.

In the end, if you are accepted to a program, the academics should not be beyond your ability.  Your academics should feel comfortable.  More important is time management skills, ability to work without supervision, self motivation when everyone around you is not sometimes, willing to take on the hard work in the department.  But I find the living and social issues to be more challenging than the academics.

[Chemcki]

I can tell you that it really depends on the program you are in, and the choices you make. You can succeed in graduate school either way: you can be a straight A nerd know a lot or you can be someone who do extremely well in research in a certain area. Some programs are more challenging than others, and at the same time, some majors are more challenging than others. If you are not very ambitious just find a senior student learn about how they succeed in the program and copy their act. If you want to make the most out of your graduate life, then you got to learn as much as you can. Unfortunately, you will probably meet graduate students that are more like undergrads, and they ended up graduating just fine, there are people who spend a lot of time satisfying their bosses and they usually ended up doing extremely well but there are also people who have objectives and do more than they are asked to. 

 

Of course knowing more is better than less, it is always a matter of what you want. 

 

You will be doing a lot of presentation, lab meetings, and research meetings. Then you have committee meetings, qualification exams, teaching responsibilities, and also conference presentations. So you probably cannot read all chemistry book during the next 6 months, but you can train yourself to be comfortable at presenting your own work, it will take a lot of stress away when you are in grad school. Most people I know who struggle cannot deal with the stress that comes with oral presentations. 

 

Oh, by the way, if you are in anyway going to be teaching organic chemistry or some kind of high level undergraduate lab, have fun now while you can. 

Edited February 1, 2014 by Chemcki

[Eigen]

The biggest challenges I've seen for our first years in general are:

1. Presenting themselves as professionals rather than students in interactions in the department.

2. Transitioning from classes being important to being minimal, and your research and grasp of the literature becoming primary.

3. Time management in general, and treating lab work as a consistent job.

[Geologizer]

I agree with every one of Eigen's points. His points are very succinct, so perhaps it's helpful to build on that a bit. 

 

In grad school, it is no longer job prep, it is your job. You are being paid for the work you're doing, your department is now your workplace, and you should be mindful of that. At the very least, you are "colleagues in training," not joe shmoe that doesn't know anything. That being said, you aren't expected to know everything right away, rather you are expected to be proactive and able to learn everything you need to learn. So, don't freak out and hold yourself to the "I am a grad student therefore I must know everything right now" standard and save yourself the anxiety that goes along with it. Furthermore, comparing yourself to all the other grad students, and especially undergrads if you're in cross listed classes, is going to be a sure fire way to stress yourself out. Figure out what you need to know, and focus on that. Building core knowledge centered around your research is critical to passing your comps/quals/orals/ whatever qualifying exams you have to take, which is usually in the first 2 years sometime for PhD. This is really in line with Eigen's 2nd point comes in. Classes you take may be important for your exams to an extent, but your grasp of literature is going to be what propels your research, and after your exams your classes (if you are even taking any after) will contribute significantly less, if any, to your learning. 

Edited February 1, 2014 by Geologizer

[TheKop]

Solid advice everyone!

Grad school seems like such a daunting task but I'm sure a lot of people feel that way and suceed.

[YaBoyAR]

Great post. Glad to get some insight from those who've already made the transition.

[Boron]

The biggest challenges I've seen for our first years in general are:

1. Presenting themselves as professionals rather than students in interactions in the department.

2. Transitioning from classes being important to being minimal, and your research and grasp of the literature becoming primary.

3. Time management in general, and treating lab work as a consistent job.

I disagree to some extend with classes being "important to minimal". While it maymay be true for people already in groups, I see classes during your first semester of your first year as being crucial. Professors have no knowledge of first years and at what level they are at, so they use first semester grades to see what they are getting.

I know professors that judges students based on their grades and would not even take a look at them if they had something lower than expected (my friend's PI expected A and A- in all his classes)

[Eigen]

I think in general you should be getting As in almost all of your classes in grad school. 

 

But a B+/A- here or there isn't a big deal, and an A+ isn't really that big of a deal. Additionally, your interactions in the class are far more important than the grades you make. Do you bring up good discussion points? Do you have a rounded view of the literature? Can you place work in its importance in the field?

 

If you get all really high grades, but aren't doing research, you run the risk of being identified as someone who's not making the grad school transition well. I've seen it mentioned by PIs in my departments when first years are spending too much time studying or focussing on courses. You want to do well, but you're expected to do well without devoting a lot of time to it. 

 

Also, I'm not familiar with any programs where you won't be doing research your first semester. Some won't require it, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. If a department doesn't organize official rotations before selecting a group, it's well worth your time (and your reputation) to ask a professor you're interested in if you can work in their lab. And from then on, it's going to be entirely your reputation as a researcher that will matter.

 

So yes, professors don't have a lot to judge you on before you start working in the lab, and yes you're expected to get good grades, but classes are still of minimal importance, and something that most first years focus way too much on.