Hey there brainiacs! If you applied to graduate schools this year, hopefully
you’re fortunate enough to find yourself gearing up for the next round of excitement — interviews!
It’s been a minute, but eight years ago, I was in your shoes;
I bought a suit and some nice (comfortable) shoes, read a bunch of advice on how to interview well,
and spent every weekend for two months flying all over the place to visit different universities
and meeting brilliant neuroscientists to try and decide where I should go to grad school.
Those interviews will probably look a little different in 2021, but the end goal is the same:
choosing an institution that will best fit your interests, goals, and needs as a grad student.
So, as someone who got accepted at every university I interviewed at,
it seems like the perfect time to share some of my thoughts on how to choose the grad program
that’s right for you. And even better,my good friend and thoughtful neuroscience professor,
Ashley Juavinett will be giving some insider tips that can give you an edge
in this process. Stick around until the end of the video to hear from Ashley herself
and learn how you can enter to win a copy of her book, “So You Want To Be A Neuroscientist”!
If you clicked on this video, I’m assuming you’ve already applied for grad schools and
are in the process of preparing for interviews at those schools, so you’ve already done some
of the legwork. But now the possibility is becoming a reality; often, reaching
the interview stage is a pretty good indicator that a graduate program is interested in you
as a potential student. At this point, you’ve just got to find your perfect match and seal the deal.
It might seem like choosing the right grad school is all about finding the right research
environment, but it’s important to remember that PhD programs in the U.S. last upward of 5 years,
and often can take up to 7 or even more years to complete. That’s a long time,
and those years often span important life milestones — years where you may be thinking
about building a life-long network of friends, developing hobbies and interests, buying a home,
getting married, having children, and more. So my biggest piece of advice is to take a holistic
approach to your interviews - learn about the programs, people, campus, /and/ the research,
and figure out which combination of traits is the best one for you. With that said,
let’s cover how to evaluate your options and prepare for the interviews themselves.
Side note: I’ll primarily be talking about science-oriented PhD interviews, but some of this
advice may apply to other post-Bacchelaureate or non-STEM programs, so strap in!
Before you start meeting with faculty at any given program, spend some time learning about
them and their work. Interviews are a great time to identify potential research mentors and sus
out whether or not their field of research and mentorship style might be a good fit for you. If
your interviews don’t include meetings with some of the faculty whose work you’re interested in,
see if you can send them an email and set up a separate conversation with them. I know that
“networking” can be an annoying or nerve-wracking activity, but making that connection will make it
wayyy easier to know if the person - and the program - might be the right fit for you. It’s
important that you identify several faculty in each program with whom you might want to work;
don’t choose a university just because of one rockstar professor. Their work may be cool,
but putting all of your eggs in one basket could end poorly for reasons outside of your control;
they may not be taking students, or you may not click with their mentorship style or personality.
You don’t need to read every paper from the faculty you’re interviewing with,
but read at least a few abstracts and get a good feel for their work. And be prepared to
discuss your own research experience. You may feel like you don’t have much to talk about,
especially if you don’t have a lot of research experience, but really, your interviewers just
want to see that you can think and talk about science clearly, get a feel for what kinds of
questions you’re interested in asking, and hear how you might go about answering them. Be prepared
to talk not only about the techniques you’ve used, but also the bigger-picture research questions
you’re working on, and what kinds of projects you’d be interested in working on in the future.
For example, when I was interviewing during grad school, I talked a lot about my interest
in studying specific molecular pathways that were involved in axonal regrowth that might be
interesting to look at in the context of spinal cord injury. I didn’t end up focusing on spinal
cord injury research, but it helped me demonstrate my awareness of ongoing research in the field.
During interviews, have a list of questions you’d like to ask
and make sure you also set up times to talk to trainees and staff in the labs of faculty you
might be interested in working with. This can be a great way to get multiple perspectives.
Ask about the advisor’s mentorship style and research expectations. How many hours a week
do trainees typically spend in the lab? How often do they meet with their advisor one-on-one? How
long does it take someone to graduate from this person’s lab, and are their trainees generally
happy? Different people have different mentorship needs; some folks prefer to be pretty independent,
working closely with other staff and trainees and only checking in with their advisor infrequently;
they may want to join a big lab with lots of funding that produces a lot of research quickly
with big teams of researchers. Others, like me, prefer to have a more hands-on advisor, with a
smaller lab and lots of one-on-one meetings and a project that they can really take ownership of.
Consider what kind of guidance you’d like to have from your advisor and find out from other trainees
if the people you’re interested in working with can provide that kind of support for you.
Speaking of support, you’ll want to ask other kinds of practical questions, like, what kind of
funding support is available? Most grad programs in the U.S. are funded by a wage stipend, which
also covers things like tuition and healthcare costs, so you literally get paid to go to school;
but sometimes that requires a lot of time spent teaching classes,
or may require that you secure your own additional funding through grants. Talk to the faculty and
students to learn how the program is set up, what the expectations are regarding funding,
and what happens if you’re not able to get your own grant. If you’re looking for a collection of
these questions and others, I’ve included a link in the description to a one-page document about
what to ask when selecting a potential advisor. It might be helpful during your interview process.
Beyond this, learn what kinds of career development resources are available for students.
How supportive do the faculty seem of the types of careers that you’re most interested in? Many
faculty only feel comfortable advising students on how to pursue an academic research career,
since that’s what they’re most familiar with, but most universities will have additional support
for graduate students, including professional development resources. Sometimes that can include
things like networking events and panels, alumni networking resources,
career fairs, and even assistance identifying and applying for internships.
It’s also good to speak with other students to learn more about the institution and the graduate
program more generally! One of the primary reasons I chose UC San Diego for graduate school
was because of how great I thought the other students were. It seemed like everyone was super
smart and working hard on their research, but that they /also/ had a lot of diverse interests
and personalities. There were students who loved to surf, who did a ton of backpacking, who all
played in a band together, and who were into nerdy science fiction and fantasy novels like I was.
Plus, most of the students seemed like genuinely cool, relaxed people who valued work/life balance.
I knew that having time to explore my interests outside of research was important,
so seeing other students who felt the same way was really valuable. I could see myself
hanging out with a lot of the students I met - and once I arrived on campus, I did!
Finally, consider the location. Often interviews will give some opportunities to learn more about
the city the program is located in; UC San Diego’s interviews included opportunities
to visit the San Diego Zoo, go kayaking, go on brewery tours, and even go hiking by the ocean. It
might be a little harder to do this in a virtual interview, but talk to the current students about
their favorite activities in the city, and think about how it might fit with your own interests.
For example, if you’re super into opera, San Diego’s probably not the best fit for you - but
New York might be! On the flip side, if you want a university where you can surf before you head
to lab in the morning, you pretty much can’t beat UC San Diego. If you want a small, hometown feel,
Chicago may not be a great choice, but Ann Arbor or Lawrence, Kansas could fit the bill!
You should also think about more practical matters, like cost of living. What kinds of
expenses do you expect to have as a grad student? Your income needs are pretty different if you’re a
single person living with roommates compared to someone who is supporting kids or other family.
How much is the stipend from the university, how well does that cover the cost of living in the
city you’d be in, and how will that affect your ability to lead the kind of lifestyle you’d like
to be leading? Rent in San Diego is comparatively really high so I lived in grad student housing the
whole time I was a student there - but at another university I interviewed at in the Midwest,
I could have bought a house and paid a mortgage with my graduate stipend!
Ultimately, where you choose to go to graduate school will come down to balancing
all of these considerations; almost no one university is likely to be the *perfect*
fit - though if you /do/ find the perfect fit, lucky you! Generally, you should take your time,
talk to a lot of people, and spend a while thinking about and even writing down your
impressions and feelings. There’s a lot to be said for the ol’ pros and cons list.
And whatever choice you make, you’re going to do a great job!
Starting grad school was exciting, and hard, and exhausting, and so much fun.
(in front of computer with Ashley on screen?) But you don’t have to just take my word for it!
My friend Ashley Juavinett wrote the book, “So you want to be a neuroscientist”,
which is full of advice for anyone who is considering a career in neuroscience.
In her book, she goes over different kinds of careers in neuroscience,
how to decide if you should go to grad school, how to choose the right graduate program,
and the latest and greatest on what’s happening in neuroscience research right now!
Ashley’s kind enough to hop on a call with me to share some of her top tips for choosing the
right graduate program, and we’re going to give away a copy of her book to one of our viewers.
More on that soon!
Good morning, Ashley! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
Hey! Thanks for having me!
Yeah! Would you mind introducing yourself, so our viewers know a little bit more about you?
Sure! So I'm Ashley Juavinett, I'm an assistant teaching professor in
neurobiology at UC San Diego, and I also do a lot of science writing in addition to teaching.
I have your book with me. Oh my God
Ashley is the author of the new book, So You Want To Be A Neuroscientist, which I
used when I was writing this video, and I wish had existed when I was applying to grad school.
So Ashley, can you tell me about your book. Who is it for? Who should be reading this book?
It's for anybody who's thinking even just a little bit about
neuroscience or wondering about what the field of neuroscience is.
It's for anybody from basically let's say high school to even high school and even there's parts
of the book that could be useful to people in grad school or even people in their postdocs.
So, if you're thinking about neuroscience as a field, wondering what it's about,
this might be a good book for you.
What made you decide to write this book in the first place?
Look, neuroscience is a new field, and the last book that was written about it was in 1906,
by the father of neuroscience, Santiago Ramon y Cajal,
who's great, and we love him, but was a man of his time.
For those who haven't read Santiago Ramon y Cajal's book on this topic,
he had a stay at home wife who took care of his kids.
Yeah I mean he lived in a different time when like scientists would just like...close themselves off
into rooms and like, do some science for a while and then pop out and say "Look I found something!"
You could really just focus on your research because
you did not have to worry about the rest of domestic life.
Totally different time.
So this editor said, Look, do you have any interest in writing a book
for now? And I was like that sounds like a great idea.
So kinda took up that idea, started thinking about the things that
are kind of conversations behind closed doors about how to find an advisor or how to get into
grad school, all these things, and then try to put that in a book so it's just out there,
so that it's accessible to people who may not be behind those closed doors.
That for me has been the main motivation in
writing it and also in trying to share it with other people.
What do you think is the number one thing a person
should do in preparation for their grad school interviews?
Oh man. I mean, maybe the first thing is, relax, because getting an interview is a
huge accomplishment. Beyond that, you're gonna end up talking to like 8-ish different faculty,
so one of the things to do is just to figure out who you're talking to. You'll also need
to talk a little bit about what you do, too, so preparing a spiel that's like a 5 minute,
here's what I do, here's why I wanna go to grad school, that's all really good to do in advance.
I think of the interview as like a date, where you're both kind of evaluating each other, right?
Absolutely. It's totally about finding a fit, with you and the program.
What do you wish that you knew before you applied to grad school about interviewing?
I wish that I knew a little bit more about the field of neuroscience, maybe. I
came from a liberal arts school that just had like one tiny slice of what neuroscience was,
so I think when I got to grad school, or when I was interviewing for grad school, I kind of
was thinking okay, I'm gonna do this kind of research, because that's what I knew.
I was like I'll do fMRI in humans and look at a disease model or something,
but I didn't know about all the cutting edge techniques so it wasn't until I got
through my rotations that I started realizing that like, neuroscience is so much more.
That's one of the really exciting things about your book, right, is that it kind of touches on
all of these different arenas and is sort of like, hey, even if the programs you're
interviewing at don't emphasize this, there's a ton of different directions all of this can go.
Yeah, and one of the big parts of the book is just saying, here's neuroscience.
It's not just like this, it's not just this, it's actually all of these things,
and so like what your school calls neuroscience might be different from what another school
calls neuroscience or what's included in that umbrella could be really different.
What do you think is the biggest thing a person should keep in mind, you know,
you've gone to the interviews, you've met all these people,
you've learned all this information about these different graduate programs,
what is the biggest thing that someone should keep in mind when they're choosing a grad program?
It comes down to being mostly a personal choice, you know? A lot of people focus on the science and
try to imagine what kind of science they would do in people's labs and I think when it comes
down to it, this is a place, a location where you're gonna spend five years of your life, and
for most people it's like your mid-20s, and those are like great years, you know?
And so like, I think being in a place where like you're with people like colleagues,
other students that you're gonna enjoy being around is really important. If there's like a
handful of advisors that you can imagine working with and being happy in those labs, and you've
talked to people in those labs about what its like and you have a good feeling about that, I
think those are really good things to tune in to. And just like the city, too, like are you excited
to live there? Because you know, you're gonna have a life outside of lab, you're not gonna live
in lab, so find a place where you think you can be happy outside of lab as well.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, some people do live in lab, but
I don't know that that generally leads to the best grad school experience.
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't encourage it.
Yeah definitely.
From a personal perspective, how did you ultimately decide on UC San Diego for grad
school and how did you feel confident that that was gonna be the right fit for you?
I don't thinkI felt confident. I think I was pretty sure, yeah, and I mean, I sort
of feel like any of these big life decisions are always a little bit of a leap of faith, you know,
you don't know exactly what it's gonna be like. When I left college I kind of like...I wanted to
all the things, like I didn't want to chose just one thing, so I applied to PhD programs, I applied
to dual degree programs, I applied to the Peace Corps, I was like let me do all the things. And
so, when it came down to it, I had to fight that instinct to continue to be a liberal arts person
and do all the things. I was like, let me just do neuroscience and I really love the interview I had
at UCSD. I really liked the people. I talked to a couple students after I left who were like very
willing to keep talking about the decision and all of this stuff. That was super helpful. And when
I approached these decisions myself or talked to other people about making these decisions
it's like there's not a bad call here, it's just different. In the end, I think it was a good call.
Well you know obviously you didn't leave liberal arts completely behind
because now you're a teaching professor and a book author.
That's true. I guess we don't change in the end.
Well, Ashley, do you have any parting words for us?
I think the main thing right now is if you're thinking about going into neuroscience or
just thinking about career stuff in general is just to kind of tune into what you're enjoying in
your life. I think it's really easy to like - be really heady about like, well, I need to do this,
or I need to do X Y and Z because my parents want it or because society wants it or whatever it is.
But at the end of the day it's your life. Do what you want to do, spend your time doing what
you want to do, and I really think that that will lead you down the right path. That's what I think.
Yeah absolutely. Well thank you so much for talking to us today, I'm really excited to get
to share your book with our audience and to have some lucky viewer who's gonna be able
to win a copy of it. I'm really looking forward to people getting an opportunity
to learn a little more about all of these different topics and careers in neuroscience.
Yeah thank you for doing this, I really appreciate it. I mean you guys have an amazing audience and
I think it's exactly the audience that the book is for, so I really appreciate you.
We look forward to talking to you again soon and hopefully
having you on the show again in the future.
Yeah, that'd be great! Come back to San Diego sometime!
Yeah absolutely, will do. We'll talk to you soon. Bye!
Ashley’s got tons of other great advice in her book and I’m super happy she wanted to share a
little bit of her wisdom with us. Maybe she’ll show up in a future video, too? Guess we’ll see.
If you’d like to win a copy of Ashley’s book, all you have to do is hop on over to our /new/ Neuro
Transmissions Discord server and leave a comment in the Book Giveaway channel to let us know you’re
interested. See the description below for a link to our Discord and the official giveaway rules.
Please note that any rude or profane comments will be disqualified. Unfortunately, this giveaway is
for US residents only; but, if you’re not able to enter the contest, that’s okay! You can also order
Ashley’s book online - check the description for a link to that too! Even if you’re not
seeking a career in neuroscience, join us on our Discord if you use it! It’s a great place to chat
and share common interests and has quickly become our favorite hangout spot during the pandemic.
Thanks for watching this episode of Neuro Transmissions, and if you’re getting ready for
grad school interviews, good luck! I’m rooting for you. And if you’re a wisened doctor like myself
and you’re watching all the way to the end, well then leave your own tips in the comments!
Every bit helps. Until our next transmission, I’m Alie Astrocyte - over and out.