So I’m about to embark on the quest to spend a good portion of my twenties in graduate school (for chemistry) and, looking back at the somewhat similar application/visit/decision process that I experienced when I decided where to go for undergrad, I realize that there’s a lot of stuff that I wish I had known then about college life. Naturally, this means that there is probably a ton of stuff about graduate school that I don’t know and that I’m basing some assumptions on nothing but a romanticized version of it I have in my head. So, to those of you currently in graduate school or who have done it recently, what do you wish you could go back and tell your former self? Since I’m going for chemistry it’d be nice to hear from some natural science people, since I don’t really have any idea how different it is across different disciplines.
I was very recently in chemistry grad school. Can’t say there’s much of anything I’d have done differently had I known better. I can offer some random advice though.
As early as possible, figure out which group you want to join and make it known to that prof that you want to join. Ask to attend group meetings. Someone with limited funding may take the first to express interest or the one(s) who seem the most interested.
Once you’re officially in a lab, make yourself seen. Most chem grad programs have students start in the lab in January, although that varies. You won’t have a whole lot of time for lab work while you’re still taking classes and probably teaching, but you can grade and do homework at your desk in lab. This can help make a better impression than if you’re always off working in the library or at home. You really don’t want your boss and your coworkers having “where the fuck is the new kid?” thoughts. If the boss is in on the weekend, be there too. While in lab, don’t spend all your time reading the SDMB :o
Luckily, I’ve developed that ability to be seen very well (if I do say so myself ) so hopefully that’ll serve me well. What about the graduate stipend? Did that provide enough to live off of - i.e. should that be a huge factor in my decision?
Do apply for financial aid, even if you can get by on the assistanceship. You don’t have to take loans out, but might be able to get a grant just for applying.
I disagree. Unless you have children, the stipend is plenty to live on. If you don’t make a habit of staying out at clubs till three , you’ll be fine. If you make a habit of staying out at clubs till three, then you are not really interested in chemistry anyway. You can go out till ten than come back to work up a reaction if you like. The lab is a nice place to be late at night. If your smooth about it, you can bring a few beers. (You probably need to know the personality and schedule of the lab to get away with this.)
Chemistry rarely works well on a 9-5 schedule. When a procedure says, reflux for five hours then work-up, that doesn’t mean reflux for five hours then turn the hot plate off and go home. Reactions have good stopping points, but you need to be familiar with them to know where they are. You will lose lots of product if you think you can just walk away from a new reaction.
Pick a project that is useful, not one that just looks cool. Projects that just look cool are usually very difficult and they don’t get funding. Look at projects that have lots of publications, even if they are useless. My coworkers basically just spent their time putting new combination of the same functional groups and published every other week with completely meaningless garbage.
And most importantly, shock sensitive means don’t try and scrape it out of the flask.
Bolding mine - um… what? I think I know what you’re saying, that is to pick something that would produce tangible results and not just look pretty or be theoretically interesting, but if you (the universal you, not you) just spend your time rearranging functional groups, wouldn’t your superiors know that it’s kind of… well… bullshit?
That the Calculus required in Princeton was about at the level my 10th grade Calc had been and not, as I had thought, beyond my university-level Calc.
Not very helpful when put in those terms, I know, but I guess it amounts to: find out the syllabus for any course as soon as possible. And avoid those teachers whose idea of a syllabus is “oh, I’ll wing it, it’s not like they will notice anyway.”
Ask about time to completion and what sorts of jobs recent grads have taken. In my social science program, students are guaranteed funding for 5 years, but avg time to completion is over 7. This leads to lots of crankiness among 6th, 7th, and 8th year students. Knowing how grads of the program you’re considering fare on the job market is also important info. Are they getting the sorts of jobs you’d like?
One of my main memories of graduate school is that it involved a lot of attending talks where neither I nor almost anyone else in the audience could understand what was going on. Now I was a graduate student in pure math, so most of the talks I attended involved lengthy proofs. Chemistry may be different. However, I think that it’s generally one of the obligations of professional academics to show up at talks, meetings, conferences, colloquia, and so forth and pretend to care even when you don’t.
I’m in an astronomy program, so I’m trying to give advice that’s broadly applicable
That most of the professors are lousy teachers and some don’t care about the teaching at all. I’m in a small department, so I couldn’t avoid the lousy teachers, but if you can, do it.
You need a good group of people to do homework with. This really would have helped me.
Try to find a mentor among the faculty or older grads. This doesn’t have to be anyone you want to work with. It’s just important that someone know and care if you’re having difficulties.
It might not be possible to take medical/mental health leave.
Some advisors are hands-on. Some advisors are hands-off. Know what you need and pick accordingly.
Ditto on finding out what your predecessors have done for work. Astronomers who go on to non-academic jobs basically disappear. You probably won’t have as big of a problem with this, but it’s good to think about early.
Keep it real. Remember that your professors are living in Academia World, which doesn’t have much to do with Corporate Job World. There is life outside the university. There is stuff to worry about outside of department politics. There are people to meet outside of your research group. You have a life outside of school.
I agree wholeheartedly with being very careful about choosing a research advisor. I was charmed and impressed with my research advisor but slowly realized (too late) that her whole area of research was useless bullshit. If I wanted to stay in academia, it would have been cool because there is a whole subset of academia in this discipline that gives each other handjobs over that kind of stuff, but for the real world it was useless. Fortunately I managed to finagle myself into a postdoc that was a little more practical, but I really wish I had done something else in grad school.
I understand what you’re saying, but how would one tell the difference from the outside whether it was bullshit or not? In other words, did the whole “applicability to the real world” issue not enter into your choice of a research advisor, or would you have had no way of knowing until you were deep into it that it was kind of useless?
It seemed that their primary (Or only) reason for interacting with grads was for what they could get out of them. They seemed indifferent (to varying degrees) to the grad students’ reason for being there.
“If you’re not here to assist me in my project, I don’t really care about your presence here beyond what is required of me.”
) so hopefully that’ll serve me well. What about the graduate stipend? Did that provide enough to live off of - i.e. should that be a huge factor in my decision?