#phd advice

[tobequitefranco]

I had a really good conversation last night with another student in my PhD cohort. This person is another student of color—there are very few of us in the program—and they are finishing their first year in the program, which puts them at a very similar position to where I was just a year ago. The student asked me for some tips about being in the PhD program, about writing and graduate school and academia, and I guess as someone who is about to finish their coursework and has been working with grad students for 5 years, I have /some/ insight.

So if you’re going to get your PhD

First, you need to learn to advocate for yourself. This can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes it will mean needing to ask your instructor for deadline extensions because you’re sick and overwhelmed. Sometimes it means double-emailing your advisor because you need their signature to get into a certain class. And sometimes it will mean asking other students for help, asking for another explanation, telling other people that you need something that you are not being provided. Asking if a class is going to be offered soon. Asking if a class can be substituted. Doing things to help yourself get ahead. I have an especially hard time with this because I hate being perceived as a pest. I come from an environment where my emotions were not prioritized, and it makes it hard for me to speak up. But I do it. Sometimes while struggling to send the email or make the call, and with acid in my throat, but I do it.

Second, the biggest obstacle to student success is usually not the rigor of classes—it is usually an external obstacle that can’t be solved because of lack of student support. You get in a car crash. You have a medical emergency. You have an unexpected layoff at work. Something outside of the academic setting, outside of your control, happens. And you can only plan for this so much. But I have seen then again and again—it is the number one reason why students don’t complete. It’s something personal. The best you can do in these instances is make a plan—a plan to pause, a plan to return, a plan to slow down, if that’s what you need.

Third, you need to have support. This can come from a lot of places. Friends, family, instructors, other students, other places. Sometimes it’s a person who will remind you to eat. Sometimes it’s someone who will tell you you are doing a good job. Sometimes it’s just people who remind you why you’re on this path, for whatever reason that is. You CAN do this without support, and a lot of the time, you will be…alone. That’s part of the nature of this work, how solitary and isolating it is. But you SHOULDNT make it harder for yourself if you know there are people who want to support you. Join an org, join a club, take up some hobby that gets you outside of the academic space 1 day a week. Something positive to help you emotionally.

Next, trust your skills. They have carried you this far. You know enough of what you are doing to continue forward. Believe in yourself. Even when you aren’t doing it perfectly, you must believe that there is someone else out there doing it worse than you and not worrying about it. So you deserve to finish it too.

Accept that there will be times when your best isn’t enough. Tragically, you can’t always do it all. There will be times when you have to walk away from something. Many grad students are also spouses and professionals and parents, and those things are important to them, personally. If you can’t give 100% to grad school, THATS TOTALLY NORMAL. No one gives 100% to the institution—no one has THAT much of themselves to give. Now, if you are sometimes having to prioritize school above other things, that’s okay. Just remember that sometimes a crappy job is okay as long as you get to advance.

Don’t compare your progress to anyone else’s. Everyone has their own journey. This is the one that I think is the worst piece of advice on this list because I can’t always make myself do this. I wish I could put on emotional horse-blinders and ignore the students who are breezing through their programs so fucking quickly. If it makes you feel better, I got through my program as quickly as they would let me (max credits since I got here, no summers off), and I struggled VERY much. So. Other people are also struggling. It’s not just you. And if you’re not struggling, then be gracious. Offer support and don’t be so smug. There isn’t an award for suffering or not suffering.

And finally, do what works for you. I have been saying all this shit, but I don’t know everything. No one knows everything. I wouldn’t want you to try to do everything exactly like I’ve done it. There are things I would go back and change if I could.

And that’s it. I’m sure there are other things. More technical things. Things other people would prioritize in my advice. You probably know some or all of these things. But I know sometimes it’s different hearing it from someone else.

You’ll finish. I will finish. Someday, all this stress will feel foreign to you and you’ll hardly remember why it felt so all-consuming. I can say that for sure.

[notesbyash]

Congrats on getting into your dream phd program!!! Would you mind sharing a little bit about what you mean by cold emailiing working? I'm going to have to start applying to phd programs next year and I'm feeling nervous about it and would love to hear how you did it. Thank you!!!

So. (this is a long rambly post, beware)

PhD applications and programs are unique from undergraduate applications (and most Masters programs) in that it's more of an apprenticeship application than anything. There are certain programs where you're admitted to the program as a whole but in my experience these are relatively rare.

The way that I conceptualized PhD applications, and the way that I was suggested to conceptualize them by my mentors, was to approach it as applying to work with a particular faculty member/lab. From an institutional perspective, think of it as a hiring process. Faculty members write grants to get money to fund some project, then the pick from a pool of PhD applications to find someone that they think will best fit the bill and be able to produce research. This is why it's helpful to not only have a solid GPA (something I didn't have) but also to have prior research experience and publications under your belt (I have research experience but no publications which. f). You're trying to boost the case that if you're handed money, you will be able to make "good use" of it.

So in review - faculty are looking for someone who has an academic or industry background that matches their research intent, has the qualifications to be trusted with a long-term project and displays a level of dedication to not dropping out when the going gets hard. Seems straightfoward enough.

Now comes the networking. See, research lab websites are notorious for not being updated. Faculty profiles are notorious for not being updated. It is incredibly difficult from an outside perspective to even know if a faculty member has the funds or space in their lab to take on a new student. If you've applied to a program but there's no faculty member who has the funds or availability to take you on, you're out of luck before you're even measured against the other candidates.

The fastest way to save time (and money because jfc these apps aren't cheap) is to straight up cold email the faculty member or lab you want to work with and ask if they're taking students. Include a little bit about yourself, your background and why you're emailing them. Talk about how your interest matches theirs. Reference a paper or two they wrote recently. Not everyone cold emails faculty, so this is a great way to stand out and get them to see you as an individual, not just an application number. From there, you'll get a response. Sometimes the lab/faculty won't have the funds to take on a new student in which case you've saved yourself time and money. Sometimes they do have funds and will want to know more about you or see some work. These conversations don't always have to be long, but it allows you to get an idea of the faculty member, the lab, and/or the program culture. It gets your foot in the door and a chance to see what the next 4+ years of your life might be.

The core of this is that when you apply to a PhD program, you apply to do research. You should be going into a PhD program with, basically, an idea of what you want to do with your life (academically speaking) and how you want to contribute to the field (I was asked point blank what I wanted my contribution to the field of aerospace to be when I died at the end of my career). You find a faculty member or lab that you want to work with because that allows you to fulfill your own dream research, because the work that they are doing is work that you want to contribute to and that you believe in.

Cold emailing faculty members allows you a chance to directly communicate with the people you want to work with and tell them that this is where you really want to be, that you have a clear goal and that you're dedicated to your craft.

(And it means that sometimes, you happen to be exactly the person they are looking for.)

[thatfrenchacademic]

On PhD research questions and the agony of, you know, finding one.

So recently I got two pretty similar questions, and realized I had this way-too-long post in my drafts on the topic, that I had never published because I didn’t feel particuarly qualified to give any definitive answer on anything PhD-related. I still absolutely do not feel qualified, tbf, so this is more me sharing the lessons learnt from my experience, and the experience of friends who went through the same process of finding the right research question. 

TL;DR : If I sum up all the (good) advice I have been given as a PhD student regarding what a good research question for a PhD project is, I end with this checklist :

It is new : we do not have the answer yet, although nearby questions may have been adressed.

It is important : or in the sweet, sweet words of a Professor of mine : “your research being interesting does not give it a point” (ouch). In kinder words : it must matter to you, but also to others ! (maybe less if you are self-funding...? Unsure)

It is doable : consider the logistics, the time frame, the money required. All questions matter, not all can be answered by you, right now.

It advances your field : even as a small increment. Maybe it’s a new idea, maybe it’s a new approach, maybe it’s a new case, maybe it’s a new factor, maybe it’s a new voice. But it is new.

It captured your attention won’t. let. it. go. you can see yourself working on it for a fairly long time. IT must matter to you, not necessarily one a personal level (a thesis is not your whole life!), but at least on an intellectual one.

(Way longer explanation and reflections under the cut!)

I really encourage anyone who would like to add their own points, their own perspective, their own experience, if you see that something has not been covered (which is definitely the case, since I draw from a limited experience here). 

1. First, how long will be your PhD ? Depending on the field and University/program, they can range from 3 to 7 years. You want to do something which will be tractable in the time you are alloted. 

2. Second, a PhD is... surprisingly underwhelming regarding the size of the contribution we are likely to make ?? Most of the time, we do not revolutionize the field or present a groundbreaking theory which will change the entire understanding of the discipline (disappointing, I know...). I think as undergrad and grad/master’s students, we are often misguided in what we consider “good/important research”, because what we have read so far, academically, has been the Important Stuff. The big names, the paradygme-shifting publications, the stuff that That One Researcher in your discipline worked on, that Changed Things. But that is the work of a whole life. That One Researcher probably published this work at 40 yo, with research assistants, after a life of letting it mature through successive works. But that is not what academic research is, in general. If there is one thing that both Kuhn and Popper agree on, it is that science moves in slow, slow increments, one stone after the other. Your PhD will be a few bricks, not a whole house, and that is FINE. That is what is expected.

3. More than being big and large, our research question and the answer we plan on providing must matter. It brings something new. Something small can suffice, if it is clearly new and necessary. Now, what is “new and necessary” depends on the field. Different field focus on different things at different times. Have a look at the titles of the thesis of current PhD students at Unviersities which would be of interest to you, they can give you some insight on what is likely to be funded and considered doable as a PhD student in your field right now. 

3. A research question is generally one to which... we can provide an answer. Which sounds obvious, but often, one starts or wants to do a PhD with a research topic, more than a research question (heaven knows I did). And often, for the aforementioned reasons, the actual question covers only a portion of the topic. From my experience, a good way to see if you have a research question rather than a research topic is to ask yourself : what would satiate my curiosity ? What sort of answer, of data, of finding, of theory, of arguments, would make me go “Aha, there is the answer! ALRIGHT, NEXT”. If there is none, if you cannot envision what an answer would look like (Without getting into whether this is the right answer or not!) then you do not have a research question, you have a research topic, and you need to narrow it down, focus on one of the many questions (itself can be made up of a few different sub questions!) and envision what an answer would look like. 

4. It bugs you. That is the only way I can describe the “right” question for a PhD  research, and I think the ultimate test to see if your research question is right for you, and not just right for Academia. This is the “unofficial part”, that is not in the ~serious Research Method books~, but it’s my take on it. It makes you go : “No but seriously, why is that???”, “Ok, but really, there is no answer yet and we are fine with that ?”, “I know it is not THE issue, but still, we should look into it no???”. Not like it keeps you awake and makes you loose appetite, it’s not your obsession, but it just makes you frown when you read article that get close to, but does not, actually give and answer. Like, come ooon. It bugs you. It is the right level of slightly stubborn, persisting intellectual curiosity that will get you through the rough patches, without making you loose your mind when it, inevitably, does not go as expected.  

To conclude, your research question is liekly to change and shift during your PhD. What you are looking for, in a PhD proposal, is more something that can show a selection Committe “I know what I want to research, and I know how to come up with a pertinent research question”. It does not have to be a beacon of perfection substance-wise, it needs to show that you know what you are getting in. 

[bonkersforeternity]

academia tumblr help

hello tumblr academics! hope you're doing well :)

i'll get straight into it, so i want to apply for a PhD but i honestly don't know how to go about it. the PhD positions opened in the universities i've looked at aren't something i want to spend years working on, i want to do it on something i'm really passionate about (or do you think that's a wrong approach?).

i do have a proposal in mind (i haven't written it down yet which i really need to but utjhhhfidjekkk), shall i identify profs in my preferred universities and send them the proposal and hope for a response or shall i introduce myself give, a short summary of the proposal and see if they're interested and then send them?

also i'm working full time and i've seen some PhD positions are paid for but I'm guessing if it's my own proposal then it won't be paid unless i get a scholarship?

anyways, these are some of questions if you can drop me a message or reply to this post about how you got into the your PhD life it would be super helpful.

thanks!

zai

[gliagirlphd]

Hi there,

I’m a undergrad student who’s working on experiment project which I can’t carry on my experiment due to COVID-19 and my supervisor told that he will get the results from his phd student who’s working on similar research but I haven’t heard anything from my supervisor and I want to email him but I don’t know what to say to him cause I don’t want to sound rude. Any thoughts on what to say?

Heya! So I’m confused about who you want to contact, the PI or the grad student?

You can contact the grad student with something along the lines of:

[salutations]

I am an undergrad in Dr. X’s lab and my work is closely related to your project. Dr. X mentioned that due to COVID-19, I would be able to continue my research with your assistance in this/X experiment while I am away from lab. I was wondering if you had a chance to complete this experiment, and if so, could share any results from the experiment? Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Alternatively, you can contact the PI directly with something like:

[salutations] Dr. X,

As per our previous conversation, I wanted to follow up on my project. I was wondering about XYZ experiments and the progress on it so I can utilize the data for my research paper/thesis/etc. Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

[your name]

I hope this helps! 

[This is a personal preference, but I find that emails that are short and to the point are great; we (as in grad students) are often super busy so we hate having to read long emails.]

[gliagirlphd]

a reminder to self when writing;

remember to not compare your first draft to someone’s final draft. everything takes time, and writing is a process. your first draft will be shit, and that’s okay. the goal of the first draft is to get it all on paper, not perfection. 

[gliagirlphd]

I start my PhD in molecular genetics on the 1st and I’m casually terrified! Any advice at all?

Hi Anon! OMG, I hope this isn’t super late.

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Since you’re in molecular genetics program, I assume you might be doing rotations right? Here are some things I wish I knew earlier -- 

Before you join a lab/doing your rotations: 

If your first two rotations turned out pretty well, go outside of your comfort zone for your third rotation and do something explorative. I know this feels a bit risky, but it’s worth it - especially if you learn something new and can bring to your lab a new technique. 

Pick a lab based on the mentor, not the projects available. Seriously, I cannot stress this enough. Your mentor will make or break your PhD experience. Know what kind of mentor you want and need (absent, super involved, somewhere in between, etc.). Know your PI’s expectations. Be open and able to communicate with them. 

Check the funding status in the labs you rotate. Do they have grants for your project and equipment? Will you have to TA during your graduate career?

Be friends with senior graduate students; they’re great for advice in navigating grad schools, how to dealing with PIs, knowing what class to take, etc.

Don’t act like the smartest person in your cohort. Trust me, you do not want to be that person. It brings you the wrong kind of attention. (I cannot tell you how many times how awful it was dealing with people like that).

Build a support system for yourself - with fellow cohort members, with other grad students, etc. Grad school is lonely and often feels isolating, but only if you make yourself like that. Get involved with the graduate communities on your campus.

Imposter syndrome is fucking real. If it ever catches up with you, you should know that you deserve to be there, and all things take time. If it gets really crippling, either trade your imposter syndrome for con-(wo)man syndrome or get professional help.

Be nice to the undergrads in the lab you rotate in/join.

Once you join a lab:

Write as you do your experiments; it will save you a lot of heartache. That being said, also make figures as you go along.

Storyboard your experiments! This will help you realize what experiments you need to do, and what’s missing from your research story. (You know those plot-holes you hate in stories? Yea, you want to avoid that in research.) (Sometimes it’s okay to leave things on a cliffhanger, cause that might be your next paper!!)

Set a day for reading/writing. Yes, you want to get into this habit as early as possible. Also, get yourself a writing buddy.

Don’t overwork yourself. Yea, we’re all super busy and want things done, and get our results, etc. But seriously, you’re human, you need rest, you need a hobby, you need friends, and you need to see the sun.

Get comfortable with failures and troubleshooting.

Also get comfortable with critiques.

Also practice giving presentations. Lord knows how much public speaking you will have to do in grad school (I really wish I knew this before hand cause boy I hate talking).

[afrofuturiststudent]

Hi, I hope you’re well and safe! I was just wondering how possible a phd is. I’ve just finished my undergrad but know I’m coming out with a low 2:1 cause health issues that messed up my second year. I wasn’t open about this issues at all in second year and I’m just really scared it’s going to stop me from later pursuing a phd. I know there’s time but I was just wondering what I could do now to support any future applications and I guess balance out how I did in undergrad

Hey! Hope you are also well. First of all, congratulations on your degree!! It's a massive accomplishment and even moreso this year with all the disruption 🎉 A 2:1 is still very good!

So, I'm assuming you are in the UK (advice may not be applicable to other countries or even in other fields), but a 2:1 at undergrad is usually fine for a PhD. I got a 2:1 at undergrad and was accepted into the PhD programme before I'd received my MA results. It was the funding that was more awkward because of my undergrad result but I was awarded funding when I reapplied with my MA results. Funding bodies usually want top grades and/or experience, and I had no experience so a lot was riding on the MA.

In short, it is definitely not impossible to do a PhD but funding might be awkward and dependant on your MA result. But again, not impossible! If anyone has more advice, please share!! Or if anyone has Q's please ask!