REGGIE >> Welcome back everyone! This is future PhD, Dr. E and this is another episode of
'Putting the U back in Graduate School'
and today we're gonna talk about
how to prepare for a graduate school visit and how to choose an advisor.
So let's get into it. Before we get into it this episode is primarily for interested
PhD students. However if you are an interested master student who wants to
have a research experience jump to how didn't choose the advisor segment to
learn more. And with that lets really get into it.
So if you've done it, you put massive efforts into researching schools and
programs, spent hours studying for tests, stressed over writing your essays, turn
in your applications and dreaded over the decisions, you look at your emails
and you find the magic letter. Congratulations, you've been accepted to
graduate school. 'But wait a moment!' You say to yourself as you're looking at
the letter. What is this funding package? And what is
this welcome visit? And today we're gonna talk about that right now.
So let's talk
about the money first. We will start with Masters because
I have a lot more to say to PhD students. Now that you're in you want to look at the
programs that your school can reduce the tuition and/or give you a stipend. Some
schools allow Masters students to TA class and there may be university jobs
exclusively for grad students. I suggest these messes because while you can find a
job part-time in the city you live in, hours the University are probably more flexible
with your schedule. So let's talk about funding packages. Last time I said PhD
programs are fully funded so that means you get tuition paid for on top of
stipend. However not all stipends are equal. Some schools have a lot of money
so they use it to pay their students with large stipends. On the other hand
some schools don't have so much and they can't pay their students. For me I'm a
graduate student in University of Michigan and I make around 30k a year
Which may not sound like a lot but Michigan is pretty affordable at 30k a year.
I do have some buddies that make 25k a year at the UC system and I have
another buddy who makes 40k at MIT, so the stipend can vary. Around 30 K is
considered average though but you want to consider the cost of living too. You
aren't in grad school to make money but you want to survive and you want to make
sure that the school you attend allows you to survive. Grad school is stressful
enough and you don't want to add bad finances on top of that. You also want to
check the terms of your funny package. like I mentioned in my first video not
all PhD programs are fully funded for five years. Personally though, I wouldn't
consider a program that doesn't have a full five years funding. To me, if this
school isn't willing to secure full five years of funding, then they aren't a
school that believes in you and you don't want to go to school that doesn't
believe in you. So alright, now that that's out of the
way let's go to the next part of the video: the visit weekend!
At the bottom of
your letter you've probably got an invitation to visit the school a certain
date and if you got multiple letters you probably knows that the dates are
probably summer between February and March starting on Thursday, end on a
Sunday and more than likely if you have few
invitations they're happening at the same time. If you did, congratulations!
This is the Welcome weekend and I suggest you go. Why? Because first, they're
free and you get a lot of free stuff. Second they're fun. Third, this is the
best time to get to know your future cohort and more importantly this is the
best time to get to know your future advisors. That said, you probably should
limit your visit to four visits tops. And I say this because the first welcome
visit is amazing the second is great the third is good but once you get past
three or four you they start to become a chore. After all you're traveling a lot
in a short amount of time and you don't have much free time at this point.
And while I think you should approach each visit with an open mind, you don't want
to have too many options. So again, you should visit the top four schools you're
interested after they accepted you. But what do you do if the two schools you
want to visit have conflicting schedules? First don't panic - this is intentional.
Grad schools make it this way so students are forced to choose.
My recommendation: go to the school you really want to visit and ask if the
other school has any alternative welcome weekend or if they're willing to host
you for a private visit. If the school says no then great - the decision's made for you.
If the schools not willing to do this that means they don't believe in
you and again you don't want to go to a school that doesn't believe in you.
Okay so I've rambled way longer than I thought I would so let's get into the
next part of the segment: How to prepare for a welcome visit.
So the first questions you want to ask yourself are the following: Who am I and
What do I want? I know, I know these are very basic questions but work with me
here. You only have three maybe four days to
get all the information you need to make a life change decision like grad school.
So you want know you need to be intentional. Oftentimes people are
dissatisfied with their path in grad school because they weren't intentional
enough in these questions. This has happened to me a few times too and I
don't want them to happen to you. But back to the questions. So when I say Who
am I you want to know what kind of person you are. For example, do you need a
personal connection with your boss to do your best? Do you explicitly need
instructions or do you thrive in ambiguity? Are you quiet and prefer to be
alone or do you need a group setting? These questions are something you need
to ask because those questions will lead you to what you want. For example I'm a
type of worker who needs to know the project is and there's restrictions as
well as a deadline. As long as I get to work on the project how and how I want
and when I want to and I want to work in a lab that allowed me to have an advisor that
didn't micromanage. And voila! I found one. You may be different so what
you may want may be different but here's some sample questions you should ask
yourself about who you are and what you want.
Aright I'm going to be real with you. For these weekends, you are royalty.
These schools are fighting for you to attend, not the other way around.
You should know that you should definitely enjoy it.
And if a school is making it seem like they're doing a favor to you to attend,
that's not the school for you. And sorry I really didn't have a good
place to put that but I just wanted to tell you right now. So let's get to the breakdown
So first: free flight. The program should pay for your airfare and
no ifs ands or buts. Usually the program will book the flight
and airport of your choice but sometimes you have to do it yourself.
And they're always usually basic seating but whatever is free right? Pro tip: if
you have a preferred airline tell the representative booking your flight your
rewards number. Visit weekends are a great time to rack up those points.
There should also be a shuttle or a person to pick you up from the airport to the hotel.
This can vary from airport and hotel as some are scheduled for you and
some you may need to schedule yourself, but they should still be free to you.
Sometimes if you're arriving super late or super early you may need up to pay
for an uber or lyft to the hotel yourself. However during these times
these trips should definitely be reimbursed. At some point either before
you leave your flight or soon after you arrive to your hotel, you should get a
packet of activities scheduled for the weekend as well as free swag. You should
look at the schedule as soon as possible because your days will be packed - like
seriously, during my visit weekends my days are packed from 9:00 a.m. to
midnight and I was doing various things like socializing, lab tours, meeting
professors, dinners, and of course partying. However, I know many of you may be
introverts and you may need some downtime between events. Do not be afraid
to ask for it. The visit weekend is supposed to be informative as well as
fun and the moment it stops being fun there's no point to it. And with that
we're going to go to the final segment: How to choose an advisor.
So at some point during the visit weekend you'll have 15 to 30 minute
individual or group interviews with the advisors you're interested in. And I want
to give you some pointers on how to make a successful pick. First keep an open
mind. Don't get fixed on an idea as you move further into your grad school life
and career you'll find out the opportunities are not as narrow or as
rigid as you originally thought. Secondly trust your intuition - do not try to
reason with it. It's telling you something you may not be even articulate
but you should definitely trust it. A lot of grad students ignore it and are
often unhappy with their decision otherwise. Remember, grad school is often 5 years.
And number 3: Choose a person not a project. I know a lot of people choose
labs based on a project that interests them and while you should work on a
project you like in work and in grad school people don't quit a project they
quit a person, so you definitely want to find someone you like. Number 4: You should
choose an advisor that you feel that best supports you emotionally and
professionally. You want to pick an advisor who will develop you into the
best person yourself even if that advisor is not in the field you're
originally interested. If you're an amazing scientist in one field, people
will definitely believe you can be an amazing scientist in another.
Alternatively, you want to choose an advisor you want to be like. You might be
smart yet quiet and if you find a charismatic advisor they can help you be
more charismatic or vice versa but I think you should choose an advisor that
can fill some of the gaps you have. And lastly you should have three advisors
you want to work with in case things don't work out. Okay okay you might be
thinking this is great advice, but I'm not really telling you anything so I want to
give you some things you should think about.
So you may be wondering if you should choose a young inexperienced professor
or an older established one and I think there are pros and cons of each one.
Let's start with an established professor first. You have a lot of doors
to open if you graduate with an advisor with a big name on top of a school with
a big name. Also, the lab has an established culture so the advisor could
potentially give you better scaffolding as you develop into a scientist.
However, established professors are often traveling a lot so you may not see your
advisor a lot. A younger professor on the other hand doesn't have the name nor
experience so there'd be a lot of growing pains as you build a lab and the
professor grows with you, so you may need an extra year to graduate while you get
things up and running. However, the advantage is you'll be well set up as
they have a lot of ideas they're thinking and they want to try out and
they might give you a first author publication on things they actually did.
So for those who don't know, your publications and research are your currency
so you definitely want a lot like as much as you can and another advantage of
a younger professor is they will have more time for you if you need it.
Also, being in a lab is well appreciated if you're working industry as they are
skills most people don't have. Other things you want to consider is if the
advisor has money for you if you attend the upcoming school year. Don't imply,
actually ask if they have the money for you. If they can't give you a different
answer keep in mind you might be gambling to
get that money and if they don't have it you might have to look for a different advisor.
In my opinion you should choose an advisor who has money for you already
and one you like. Another thing you want to look for is postdocs. A postdoc is a
person who has their PhD already and is working on research to become a
professor themselves. They're often knowledgeable about various topics and
they can help you if your advisor can't or if they're away.
My advice though is you should look for a lab that has at most 50/50
postdocs/graduate students. Because if the lab has more postdocs than graduate
students, you can probably infer that the adviser doesn't have a lot of investment
in the graduate students and they might not be interested in mentoring. You also
want to check out the environment a lot. Socially, I mean. Does the lab gel well
together? Do they seem like great friends? And most importantly, do you think you
can fit in the lab. This question is important because if
you don't think you can fit well in lab and you and you go into it and you don't
fit in, you have a very hard time. Finally you should ask the advisor what is the
typical 5-year plan they have for students. If they're good, they will ask
you on your goals and if they're not, tell them. And you should see how they try to
accommodate you and how they accommodate your style for your broader research goals.
If they don't, you shouldn't go
with them. If they try to make them into a mini them, you should not go.
You want to find a mentor who is flexible. Also you should talk to the current and
past members of lab. Advisors can be very charismatic during an interview and
talking to an actual postdoc or current and past grad students will show how the
advisors truly is when they're not on their best behavior. And now I'm going to
be giving you another list of questions you should ask during the interview.
Okay! That's the end of this episode. Next time we're
going to talk about how to survive your first year of grad school.
this is future PhD, Dr. E, signing out. Bye Bye!