Concerns re: courses in my PhD

[NonparametricBananas]

Hello! I wanted to get some opinions from people who are doing their PhDs in the US.

 

I'm going to an American university in August to start my PhD in Zoology. Currently, I'm doing my MSc at a Canadian university -- the general focus of my research is behavioural endocrinology. 

 

The lab that I will be joining for my PhD is largely an endocrinology lab. Recently, I got an email from the grad school and department reminding me to enroll in courses for the fall semester. In my current program, graduation requirements only entail two courses and your thesis. The information that I have available thus far is pretty vague -- the grad handbook only gives degree requirements and nothing else on what you need to take throughout the program. Nonetheless, I contacted my supervisor and asked him to recommend some courses and he suggested endocrinology, some biochem, and some biotech. While he didn't mandate that I take any of these courses (save for endocrinology and intro to biotech), I am just concerned over my ability to succeed in these courses. My training is predominantly in ecology/evolution/behaviour and while I can certainly make the effort to try to succeed in these courses, I am just worried about the potential outcomes (probation, being removed from the program for not meeting GPA requirements with the grad courses).

 

Are these grad courses difficult? I've had friends tell me that grad students are typically graded more leniently as opposed to undergrads. 

 

I hope I haven't painted myself as having jumped into the lion's den. I knew I was joining an endocrinology lab from the get-go, but I never expected the prospect of having to take advanced biochem courses (I do not have a foundation in this whatsoever). Endocrinology (the course) I can totally do, but otherwise....ehh. 

 

Please give me your thoughts and advice. 

[gellert]

I don't have specific experience in these courses, but I imagine your adviser suggested them because he sees them as foundational for the work in his lab.  Have you considered taking undergraduate biochem (etc) as refreshers first, and then take the others next semester?  Obviously you don't want to fail out, but presumably your research will suffer if you don't at least touch up somehow, and advisers' suggestions tend to be more than just 'suggestions' if you know what I mean.

[NonparametricBananas]

How do courses typically work? Do you take a full course load the first year with 5 courses or something? 

[rising_star]

5? Ummm, no. This is not undergrad. 3 is usually the max number of courses one should take if you're at a school on the semester system. 

[bsharpe269]

How do courses typically work? Do you take a full course load the first year with 5 courses or something? 

 

I would email the director of your program to clear up the requirements. I will probably take 2 courses is the fall (the first semester of my PhD program). I think that 2 courses is probably normal for the first semester of PhD. The director of the program can give you more info on what is normal for your program. Maybe you can comprise on taking biotech and endocrinology in the fall and review undergrad biochem on your own. Then in the spring you can take biochem and will feel more prepared for it. I'm surprised that this info isn't in the handbook. You should definitely get info from the director on the specific course requirements.

[NonparametricBananas]

I would email the director of your program to clear up the requirements. I will probably take 2 courses is the fall (the first semester of my PhD program). I think that 2 courses is probably normal for the first semester of PhD. The director of the program can give you more info on what is normal for your program. Maybe you can comprise on taking biotech and endocrinology in the fall and review undergrad biochem on your own. Then in the spring you can take biochem and will feel more prepared for it. I'm surprised that this info isn't in the handbook. You should definitely get info from the director on the specific course requirements.

 

Thanks for your response! I agree -- the documentation available isn't helpful at all and entering a very different system from the one that I'm used to in the absence of sufficient info via the handbook and calendar and whatnot has been a bit stressful. 

[xolo]

I have a similar question. I'm starting a PhD program in the fall and the graduate adviser suggested I only take 2 classes, 3 max, and that seemed like so few. So after several discussions I ended up with 2 TA practicums (This is in connection with an undergrad class I will teach, which I've never done before, and I don't know how much of a study load a practicum would be), plus a grad math class (this class seems meaty), plus another class (this class seems like some work too) for a total of 4 classes plus additionally teaching one class (but only two classes are traditional classes, the other two are teaching practicums). 

 

Is this a balanced workload?

[bsharpe269]

I have a similar question. I'm starting a PhD program in the fall and the graduate adviser suggested I only take 2 classes, 3 max, and that seemed like so few. So after several discussions I ended up with 2 TA practicums (This is in connection with an undergrad class I will teach, which I've never done before, and I don't know how much of a study load a practicum would be), plus a grad math class (this class seems meaty), plus another class (this class seems like some work too) for a total of 4 classes plus additionally teaching one class (but only two classes are traditional classes, the other two are teaching practicums). 

 

Is this a balanced workload?

 

The graduate advisor suggested that you only take 2 because at the PhD level, your focus shouldn't be on course work anymore. Taking too much won't make you look impressive, it will make you look like you don't understand the focus of grad school. I suggest you take the least amount of coursework you can while meeting your requirements so that you can impress your advisor with your research.

[rising_star]

eyepod, that depends on how many credit hours the teaching practicums are. If they're only 1 credit hour, then you should be fine. I'm also not sure why you'd want or need to do two different ones in the same semester. Teaching practicums and teaching courses will be available throughout your graduate career so there's no reason to rush into them and possibly be overloaded. 

[xolo]

Really interesting to read your responses. I checked, one class is a teaching practicum (4 units), and the other is research methodology for linguistics/teaching (4 units). The other two classes are fundamental to the rest of the program (4 units each). The grad adviser wanted me to take both plus the math class but I've loaded up one additional class that includes a lab or separate section. 

[TakeruK]

To add some anecdotal "data": In my program, we are on the quarter system (3 10-week quarters of courses, the 4th quarter is the summer). We have 11 required quarter-length courses in our PhD. I chose to get courses out of the way faster and took 3 courses/quarter and 2 courses in my fall quarter of 2nd year, so I was finished all coursework fairly early. Other students have spread their courses over the first 2 years (i.e. approximately 2 courses per quarter). Some courses might be "easy" (i.e. you already took the material in undergrad but not enough to get a waiver, or it's a course you're not interested in and you just want it done with minimal effort) and I tried to balance it by taking one of these types of course per quarter (there was one quarter where all 3 courses were demanding and that was tough). 

[rising_star]

Really interesting to read your responses. I checked, one class is a teaching practicum (4 units), and the other is research methodology for linguistics/teaching (4 units). The other two classes are fundamental to the rest of the program (4 units each). The grad adviser wanted me to take both plus the math class but I've loaded up one additional class that includes a lab or separate section. 

 

16 credits in a semester? Yea, that seems like way too much at the graduate level. You need to figure out what can wait until later. My guess is that it's going to be the research methodology class.

 

I say this as someone that took 3 seminars and a stats class in one semester in grad school. It sucked. I survived it but, it also really, really sucked and I didn't get as much out of anything that semester as I could have. And for the record, I was not teaching a class then. If this is your first time teaching, you may be underestimating how much of your time teaching will take up.

[xolo]

Wow, great input. I'm beginning to understand this process. I am proposing 16 quarter units (10 week quarters). Sorry for the lack of clarity about that. I'm in a program that would be closer to rising_star (social sciences) than planetary sciences (which makes my head hurt to think about).

 

I have little academic background. (Talk about impostor syndrome!!). You guys are echoing the grad adviser (who is a wonderful person to work with), she cautioned me about that fourth class, although none are seminars (except maybe the teaching related stuff)

[echo449]

The graduate advisor suggested that you only take 2 because at the PhD level, your focus shouldn't be on course work anymore. Taking too much won't make you look impressive, it will make you look like you don't understand the focus of grad school. I suggest you take the least amount of coursework you can while meeting your requirements so that you can impress your advisor with your research.

This isn't quite true in the humanities. Our seminars are designed to introduce us to graduate level research and publishable papers for the current state of the field. There are reading groups and such that one is expected to join, but these are supplementary rather than the main show. At the coursework level of a humanities PhD oftentimes seminars ARE our research, rather than something apart from it, if that helps. 

Edited June 12, 2015 by echo449

[NonparametricBananas]

Based off of information I got from the grad secretary, I'm now enrolled in 3 courses for the fall semester -- endocrinology, biotech, and a stats course. My program doesn't have required core courses, so I may be able to ask for some reprieve in the form of alternative courses within the department if I can make the pitch that they will be more applicable and useful to me. 

 

I hope I survive!

[xolo]

Bananas, are you teaching or RAing? Is the lab a big time commitment on top of classwork? I'm sure you'll survive, but the stress level might be another thing! I checked out the textbook for my stats class and it is definitely a class for scientists and engineers. I just wonder if any students in the class will be coming from a pure literature background. They'll be busy!  But I'm with you, the guidelines seem to be blurry with a lot of discretion. [Not that I'm complaining, that's a lot of academic freedom]

[NonparametricBananas]

Bananas, are you teaching or RAing? Is the lab a big time commitment on top of classwork? I'm sure you'll survive, but the stress level might be another thing! I checked out the textbook for my stats class and it is definitely a class for scientists and engineers. I just wonder if any students in the class will be coming from a pure literature background. They'll be busy!  But I'm with you, the guidelines seem to be blurry with a lot of discretion. [Not that I'm complaining, that's a lot of academic freedom]

 

I'm teaching throughout (I really enjoy teaching! Loved it during my MSc). I haven't started my program yet, so I'm not sure about the ratio of lab-classwork time. I spoke to my current supervisor who got his PhD in the US and he said one of the shocks that some new students experience when they first start is the initial investment into coursework, rather than jumping straight into lab work. 

 

Thanks for the kind comment too! I hope I do make it through. I never thought I'd go back to a formal course style since I finished my undergrad aside from seminar courses ...and yet here we are!