First Year Retrospect
Sep 20, 2015
So I recently got involved with a student panel to be held at the orientation for new students in my grad group (Horticulture & Agronomy). Each of us four (continuing students) are going to say a few words on:
things you think will help the new students, whether that has to do with classes, research, communicating with your Major Professor, life in Davis – or whatever you think is important.
(Try to think of the things you wish someone had told you when you started as a grad student.)
The orientation is tomorrow and I’m just sitting down to collect my thoughts on what exactly to say and thought this would be good to write about as a blog post/note to self. Writing is helpful because I’ll probably be brief in person at the actual event tomorrow but I don’t have to be here (though I might be still). So here goes…
I sat through a similar orientation/student panel last year when I was starting out. Similar to what the panel is going to be like tomorrow, a lot of the continuing folks dropped precious knowledge on my cohort. A lot of the things/experiences they were talking about, I didn’t immediately relate to BUT I wrote them down knowing that I would at some point. When someone more advanced than me in my field gives me advice about topics/situations I am not familiar with, I take it (with a boulder of salt!), I like this about myself. So this first point is just repeating what I found most useful from last year’s talks:
Work - Health - Social life balance
A peer last year said something along the lines of “If you find yourself bummed/burned out at any point in your time through school, ask yourself if you’ve been doing well on all three of those things. More likely than not, you’ve been focusing on one or two at the expense of the other(s).”
- Work includes research projects and classes
- Health includes physical and mental well-being
- Social life includes friends/peers, family, and significant others
It isn’t hard to see how all those things are interconnected. A social issue that affects your mental well-being will result in a less productive you; a shoddy outcome for all parties invested in you. Manage your time well, read voraciously, be curious, eat right, exercise (whatever that means to you) often, be a little social, do things that give you energy, and remember to call home(!).
Some ideas for mixing it up: Present your results/ideas whenever possible (FROGS at UCD is a good forum for the shy), help peers with their field experiments, go to a journal club, attend (or volunteer for) meetings/symposiums, etc.
Set (realistic) goals and take charge of YOU
It is easy to “go with the flow” and add unnecessary time to your projects and degree. In the smaller picture, map out things you would (again, realistically) like to get done in a week. Once you have this, write down the days of the week you plan to get specific things done and then do them! Project related accomplishments are very important (#1 priority) but so are classes and academic things on the side. Some examples of things on the side include journal clubs, seminars, grad group things (like this one!), and learning a new skill/analysis.
- Note on classes : I say classes are important not because anybody cares about your grades (though scholarships do!) but because this is where you can quickly broaden your backgrounds, add to your scientific toolbox, have some fun while still being productive, and even get some outside input on your projects. Last year I shot a little philosophy of science documentary, exchanged lots of ideas about my current project in a relevant class, learned to do a RNA-seq analysis and to very elementarily code in python, and more.
In the bigger picture, map out your time in grad school year by year. It doesn’t have to be very detailed. My two goals for Year 1 for example were to finish all required classes and to finish at least one project. It’s nice to add some details to these goals to help plan (classes can have scheduling conflicts, plant related projects have climate related timelines). Going in to year 2 now, I have 1 required class left and I am nearly done with a project which brings me to the next thing which was also this thing…
Be REALISTIC and FLEXIBLE
More than once I’ve overbooked myself, imposed unrealistic deadlines on myself, failed to account for uncertainty, and/or a combination of these things(personal favorite recipe for disaster). Don’t do that. Respect time, yours and others. If you would like feedback on something, give your reviewer enough time. If you know a lab activity is going to need a serious time commitment (for say field work), get your other affairs in order before. Having said that, some times you will HAVE TO do things in crunch time which is why it’s important to be flexible.
Don’t wait to get help
If you’re stuck with something, go ask somebody. There is definitely somebody on campus that is an expert (or knows significantly more than you) on whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Find the somebody and ask them nicely, they will never turn you away. Finding the somebody can be tricky as they might not be within your department. Maybe they’re in the statistics or the animal science or the (yet another) department, think outside your organism/context if need be and ye shall find. Beyond (and maybe even more so than) professors, I find post-docs to be super helpful resources. They usually have more time and immediate knowledge of very specific methodological details.
Have a support system in place
We all have bad days and need to vent sometimes when it gets too much. When that time comes, it is nice to have a person that you feel comfortable talking to. This could be anyone; friends, family, major professor, other professors, grad group advisor (we have the nicest one on the planet), or whoever else.
Get shyness out of the way quick
The grad group core classes are a very good environment to do this. Be curious, think deeply, ask questions, ask the instructor to repeat something if it didn’t make sense. I’m sure you’ve heard them tell you “if you have a question, ask it because more likely than not other folks have that question too.” I tested this last year, I had some questions I felt bad about not asking. I asked my peers if they knew the answers, they did not and so the questions did indeed remain questions. I force myself to ask the questions now, it has worked great. I’m very proud of this (part of) email from a professor:
Your total score put you in the A- range, but you were among the most active in-class contributors. Therefore, I elevated your grade to A as I was entering the grade set. Keep being involved!!
Learn to learn to code
The heading did not have a a typo. Very quickly you will realize that you need to use at least R (much more if any kind of bioinformatics is involved) to do part of whatever analyses you’re doing. Don’t wait for the realization and please don’t wait for “the class that will teach you R.” The workshops and such will get you to a starting point. Remembering beyond that takes practice, failing, and spending countless hours on stack overflow/biostars. Start NOW, set small goals (today I will learn to import my data, run a PCA, make a pretty plot, etc), and google A LOT. The most important thing for folks that don’t need to be expert programmers is to know how to describe your problem. If you can do that, you will find an answer on the online forums.
Be humble BUT bold
You are starting something new and exciting! You are at one of the undeniably greatest schools in the world for what you are studying. Be bold and take a lot of pride in that. Now work harder and do better!