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9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD

June 23, 2021 | 15 min read

By Andy Greenspon

The ideal research program you envision is not what it appears to be

Editor's Note:  When Andy Greenspon wrote this article, he was a first-year student in Applied Physics at Harvard. Now he has completed his PhD. — Alison Bert, June 23, 2021

If you are planning to apply for a PhD program, you're probably getting advice from dozens of students, professors, administrators your parents and the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to know which advice to focus on and what will make the biggest difference in the long-run. So before you go back to daydreaming about the day you accept that Nobel Prize, here are nine things you should give serious thought to. One or more of these tips may save you from anguish and help you make better decisions as you embark on that path to a PhD.

1. Actively seek out information about PhD programs.

Depending on your undergraduate institution, there may be more or less support to guide you in selecting a PhD program – but there is generally much less than when you applied to college.

On the website of my physics department, I found a page written by one of my professors, which listed graduate school options in physics and engineering along with resources to consult. As far as I know, my career center did not send out much information about PhD programs. Only after applying to programs did I find out that my undergraduate website had a link providing general information applicable to most PhD programs. This is the kind of information that is available all over the Internet.

So don't wait for your career center or department to lay out a plan for you. Actively seek it out from your career center counselors, your professors, the Internet — and especially from alumni from your department who are in or graduated from your desired PhD program. First-hand experiences will almost always trump the knowledge you get second-hand.

2. A PhD program is not simply a continuation of your undergraduate program.

Many students don't internalize this idea until they have jumped head-first into a PhD program. The goal is not to complete an assigned set of courses as in an undergraduate program, but to develop significant and original research in your area of expertise. You will have required courses to take, especially if you do not have a master's degree yet, but these are designed merely to compliment your research and provide a broad and deep knowledge base to support you in your research endeavors.

At the end of your PhD program, you will be judged on your research, not on how well you did in your courses. Grades are not critical as long as you maintain the minimum GPA requirement, and you should not spend too much time on courses at the expense of research projects. Graduate courses tend to be designed to allow you to take away what you will find useful to your research more than to drill a rigid set of facts and techniques into your brain.

3. Take a break between your undergraduate education and a PhD program.

You are beginning your senior year of college, and your classmates are asking you if you are applying to graduate school. You think to yourself, "Well, I like studying this topic and the associated research, and I am going to need a PhD if I want to be a professor or do independent research, so I might as well get it done as soon as possible." But are you certain about the type of research you want to do? Do you know where you want to live for the next five years? Are you prepared to stay in an academic environment for nine years straight?

Many people burn out or end up trudging through their PhD program without a thought about what lies outside of or beyond it. A break of a year or two or even more may be necessary to gain perspective. If all you know is an academic environment, how can you compare it to anything else? Many people take a job for five or more years before going back to get their PhD. It is true though that the longer you stay out of school, the harder it is to go back to an academic environment with lower pay and a lack of set work hours. A one-year break will give you six months or so after graduation before PhD applications are due. A two-year gap might be ideal to provide time to identify your priorities in life and explore different areas of research without having school work or a thesis competing for your attention.

Getting research experience outside of a degree program can help focus your interests and give you a leg up on the competition when you finally decide to apply. It can also help you determine whether you will enjoy full-time research or if you might prefer an alternative career path that still incorporates science, for example, in policy, consulting or business — or a hybrid research job that combines scientific and non-scientific skills.

I will be forever grateful that I chose to do research in a non-academic environment for a year between my undergraduate and PhD programs. It gave me the chance to get a feel for doing nothing but research for a full year. Working at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the Space Division, I was the manager of an optics lab, performing spectroscopic experiments on rocks and minerals placed in a vacuum chamber. While my boss determined the overall experimental design, I was able to make my own suggestions for experiments and use my own discretion in how to perform them. I presented this research at two national conferences as well — a first for me. I was also able to learn about other research being performed there, determine which projects excited me the most, and thus narrow down my criteria for a PhD program.

4. Your current area of study does not dictate what you have to study in graduate school.

You might be studying the function and regulation of membrane proteins or doing a computational analysis of the conductivity of different battery designs, but that doesn't mean your PhD project must revolve around similar projects. The transition between college or another research job to a PhD program is one of the main transitions in your life when it is perfectly acceptable to completely change research areas.

If you are doing computation, you may want to switch to lab-based work or vice versa. If you are working in biology but have always had an interest in photonics research, now is the time to try it out. You may find that you love the alternative research and devote your PhD to it, you might hate it and fall back on your previous area of study — or you may even discover a unique topic that incorporates both subjects.

One of the best aspects of the PhD program is that you can make the research your own. Remember, the answer to the question "Why are you doing this research?" should not be "Well, because it's what I've been working on for the past few years already."While my undergraduate research was in atomic physics, I easily transitioned into applied physics and materials science for my PhD program and was able to apply much of what I learned as an undergraduate to my current research. If you are moving from the sciences to a non-STEM field such as social sciences or humanities, this advice can still apply, though the transition is a bit more difficult and more of a permanent commitment.

5. Make sure the PhD program has a variety of research options, and learn about as many research groups as possible in your first year.

Even if you believe you are committed to one research area, you may find that five years of such work is not quite what you expected. As such, you should find a PhD program where the professors are not all working in the same narrowly focused research area. Make sure there are at least three professors working on an array of topics you could imagine yourself working on.

In many graduate programs, you are supposed to pick a research advisor before even starting. But such arrangements often do not work out, and you may be seeking a new advisor before you know it. That's why many programs give students one or two semesters to explore different research areas before choosing a permanent research advisor.

In your first year, you should explore the research of a diverse set of groups. After touring their labs, talking to the students, or sitting in on group meetings, you may find that this group is the right one for you.

In addition, consider the importance of who your research advisor will be. This will be the person you interact with regularly for five straight years and who will have a crucial influence on your research. Do you like their advising style? Does their personality mesh with yours? Can you get along? Of course, the research your advisor works on is critical, but if you have large disagreements at every meeting or do not get helpful advice on how to proceed with your research, you may not be able to succeed. At the very least, you must be able to handle your advisor's management of the lab and advising style if you are going to be productive in your work. The Harvard program I enrolled in has professors working on research spanning from nanophotonics to energy materials and biophysics, covering my wide range of interests. By spending time in labs and offices informally chatting with graduate students, I found an advisor whose personality and research interests meshed very well with me. Their genuine enthusiasm for this advisor and their excitement when talking about their research was the best input I could have received.

6. Location is more important than you think — but name recognition is not.

The first consideration in choosing a PhD program should be, "Is there research at this university that I am passionate about?" After all, you will have to study this topic in detail for four or more years. But when considering the location of a university, your first thought should not be, "I'm going to be in the lab all the time, so what does it matter if I'm by the beach, in a city, or in the middle of nowhere." Contrary to popular belief, you will have a life outside of the lab, and you will have to be able to live with it for four or more years. Unlike when you were an undergraduate, your social and extracurricular life will revolve less around the university community, so the environment of the surrounding area is important. Do you need a city atmosphere to be productive? Or is your ideal location surrounded by forests and mountains or by a beach? Is being close to your family important? Imagine what it will be like living in the area during the times you are not doing research; consider what activities will you do and how often will you want to visit family.

While many of the PhD programs that accepted me had research that truly excited me, the only place I could envision living for five or more years was Boston, as the city I grew up near and whose environment and culture I love, and to be close to my family.

While location is more important than you think, the reputation and prestige of the university is not. In graduate school, the reputation of the individual department you are joining — and sometimes even the specific research group you work in — are more important. There, you will develop research collaborations and professional connections that will be crucial during your program and beyond. When searching for a job after graduation, other scientists will look at your specific department, the people you have worked with and the research you have done.

At the Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Andy Greenspon talks with fellow graduate students from Harvard and MIT at an Ask for Evidence workshop organized by Sense About Science. He grew up near Boston and chose to go to graduate school there.

7. Those time management skills you developed in college? Develop them further.

After surviving college, you may think you have mastered the ability to squeeze in your coursework, extracurricular activities and even some sleep. In a PhD program, time management reaches a whole new level. You will not only have lectures to attend and homework to do. You will have to make time for your research, which will include spending extended periods of time in the lab, analyzing data, and scheduling time with other students to collaborate on research.

Also, you will most likely have to teach for a number of semesters, and you will want to attend any seminar that may be related to your research or that just peaks your interest. To top it all off, you will still want to do many of those extracurricular activities you did as an undergraduate. While in the abstract, it may seem simple enough to put this all into your calendar and stay organized, you will find quickly enough that the one hour you scheduled for a task might take two or three hours, putting you behind on everything else for the rest of the day or forcing you to cut other planned events. Be prepared for schedules to go awry, and be willing to sacrifice certain activities. For some, this might be sleep; for others, it might be an extracurricular activity or a few seminars they were hoping to attend. In short, don't panic when things don't go according to plan; anticipate possible delays and be ready to adapt.

8. Expect to learn research skills on the fly – or take advantage of the training your department or career center offers.

This may be the first time you will have to write fellowship or grant proposals, write scientific papers, attend conferences, present your research to others, or even peer-review scientific manuscripts. From my experience, very few college students or even PhD students receive formal training on how to perform any of these tasks. Usually people follow by example. But this is not always easy and can be quite aggravating sometimes. So seek out talks or interactive programs offered by your department or career center. The effort will be well worth it when you realize you've become quite adept at quickly and clearly explaining your research to others and at outlining scientific papers and grant proposals. Alternatively, ask a more experienced graduate student or your advisor for advice on these topics. In addition, be prepared for a learning curve when learning all the procedures and processes of the group you end up working in. There may be many new protocols to master, whether they involve synthesizing chemicals, growing bacterial cells, or aligning mirrors on an optical table. In addition, the group may use programming languages or data analysis software you are unfamiliar with. Don't get discouraged but plan to spend extra effort getting used to these procedures and systems. After working with them regularly, they will soon become second nature. When I first started my job at Johns Hopkins, I felt overwhelmed by all the intricacies of the experiment and definitely made a few mistakes, including breaking a number of optical elements. But by the end of my year there, I had written an updated protocol manual for the modifications I had made to the experimental procedures and was the "master" passing on my knowledge to the next person taking the job.

9. There are no real breaks.

In a stereotypical "9-to-5" job, when the workday is over or the weekend arrives, you can generally forget about your work. And a vacation provides an even longer respite. But in a PhD program, your schedule becomes "whenever you find time to get your work done." You might be in the lab during regular work hours or you might be working until 10 p.m. or later to finish an experiment. And the only time you might have available to analyze data might be at 1 a.m. Expect to work during part of the weekend, too. Graduate students do go on vacations but might still have to do some data analysis or a literature search while away.

As a PhD student, it might be hard to stop thinking about the next step in an experiment or that data sitting on your computer or that paper you were meaning to start. While I imagine some students can bifurcate their mind between graduate school life and everything else, that's quite hard for many of us to do. No matter what, my research lies somewhere in the back of my head. In short, your schedule is much more flexible as a PhD student, but as a result, you never truly take a break from your work.

While this may seem like a downer, remember that you should have passion for the research you work on (most of the time), so you should be excited to think up new experiments or different ways to consider that data you have collected. Even when I'm lying in bed about to fall asleep, I am sometimes ruminating about aspects of my experiment I could modify or what information I could do a literature search on to gain new insights. A PhD program is quite the commitment and rarely lives up to expectations – but it is well worth the time and effort you will spend for something that truly excites you.

Contributor

Andy greenspon.

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Six lessons for PhD students

I started my PhD without realising what it was and what drove me in the first place. To be honest, there was just a sudden opportunity and I did not have a clear view on other career opportunities . Neither did I proactively develop those. The road towards a PhD is bumpy, especially in the beginning.

Talking to other (former) PhD students, many of them started similarly and face similar challenges. One of them is Marjolein, a good friend and former Ghent University colleague. PS: Marjolein is the UGent nominee for a prestigious New Scientist pize .

Marjolein: “My master’s thesis made me realise I liked research, so I wanted to continue doing it. I knew I would have to pursue a PhD but didn’t have the scores (and was to late) to apply for personal funding. Luckily a friend brought me into contact with my supervisor just at the right time. I thought ‘even if this never turns into a PhD, at least I will gain some useful experience for my further career.”

I nearly quit in the first year

I still remember the first meetings with my supervisors, and I still have the notes. 3 things became clear:

• I didn’t know a f*** about my research domain
• I only understood 10% of what was discussed during the meeting
• My notes were really poor

At the end of the first year I did not feel the progress I made, and I saw my contemporaries starting successful ‘real jobs’. I lost a big deal of the initial motivation and was considering to quit… until that first paper got accepted.

Inexperience and lack of knowledge combined with the lack of tangible results is a major hurdle in the first year of the PhD. Get over it and don’t be afraid to talk to your more experienced colleagues. Everyone has been there!

If you just started out, you might recognise the situation. Simultaneously, you might not realise that this will all change drastically during the coming years. So apparently over 4 years I learned:

• a lot about my research domain, with people starting to ask me questions
• to manage and structurize information flows ( How? Here’s a post on that )
• to put into perspective failures and challenges along the road

So from this I derived the following rule:

If you understand less than 50% of what’s being said in meetings, if you think the people around you are much smarter, and you’re struggling with information, be happy: you’re probably learning.

I printed 50 outdated papers in my first week

At the start of my PhD, I experienced total chaos. Where to start reading? What to do first? Am I actually smart enough? The other researchers seemed smarter and were progressing, waw.

The questions and thoughts are just overwhelming. Do you know how I started my first week? I decided to print some papers to learn about my topic by reading myself to dead. So I thought: let’s go chronologically and print the oldest ones first starting in the 70s or so. While not realising I had to print 1000s of papers, I started with a whole pile of around 50. Bad English combined with a lack of understanding made things worse, making me read papers twice or more, very slowly. After one week I gave up and got rid of a few kilograms of paper. Something was not working.

Marjolein has a similar experience: “I started out on a project but with the intention to apply for a personal scholarship along the way. So I started reading and preparing the best I could. Often however, just getting started and trying and failing in the (virtual) lab will teach you so much more than trying to master theory first. This is one of the most important lessons I try to convey to the students I guide today as well.”

This makes me think of Ray Dalio’s quote (I was reading his book ‘Principles’):

The satisfaction of success doesn’t come from achieving your goals, but from struggling well.

Here’s the point:

Although it might seem there is a plan, most often there is none. At first I did not realise I was in charge of making the plan, and not my supervisors. A plan allows you to struggle well .

Then things started changing

This is how I think my confidence/motivational curve looked like over 4 years of PhD and Marjolein’s curve is very similar:

Everyone has a specific curve, for example I had (former) PhD students telling me they were dying in year 2, and not everyone has 4 years. However, I guess the following phases can be distinguished:

• Phase 1 – Dying : you start rather motivated, but very quickly you realise that knowledge, structure and experience are missing. You are like a chicken without a head seeing only one thing: limited tangible progress.
• Phase 2 – Surviving: You tend to stay in the race and feel some personal improvement. However, you are not yet skilled enough to make a lot of progress. You still face a lot of ups and downs, but the minima and maxima might become less extreme. You might publish a paper.
• Phase 3 – Progressing: You are most likely able to publish a paper that is largely based on own ideas or initiative. This further boosts your confidence. You go to conferences more confidently and can start telling about your research.
• Phase 4: Accelerating:  You might call yourself a researcher with a real job. Others are now asking you questions, and you are able to help them. You also become more able to develop a vision. And most important: likely you start thinking about life and your career…

Marjolein: “Somewhere between phase 3 and phase 4, you are most likely taking up some peripheral tasks as well, such as guiding masterstudents or starting PhD students, organising team activities or conferences, managing part of the lab, … these tasks provide a very important sense of fulfilment outside of your research that can help you handle the ups and downs your research will bring.”

Marjolein and me at a  young professional conference we organised together. Most of the organisers were PhD students.

Six Major recommendations

• Set some goals . Goals force you to develop vision and to prioritize. Making the perfect plan is difficult, but you should do some effort. Also boost your productivity using some simple tricks .
• Write a review paper your first year (tangible output!) and start reading the most recent papers published in good journals (learning). Read review papers (understandable).
• Go to a (specialist) conference in your first year , even if you’re not able to present (if the money is available, I think your supervisor should allow it)
• Reach out and build your network within and outside your university. You might need it later. Also read outside your discipline.
• Talk to industry, if possible and think about the WHY (in terms of impact) of your research. Never -NEVER- alienate from the ‘real world’ . And realise that you have rather unique (valorisable) knowledge.
• Talk to peers and don’t be afraid to ask for their help and experiences in their own PhD. You’ll notice everyone goes through the same things and will find comfort and trust in this.

Why it’s all worth the effort

After my PhD my career evolved a lot. But I’m still driving on science. I’m now running a Ghent University spinoff company in which I’m valorising university IP. I’m thriving on the network I built. You should find out in which environment you’ll thrive .

Marjolein now is a successful scientist solving our water problems. But even more important: she inspires many and connects people while mentoring young scientists.

A PhD will not only bring you research skills, but so much more that you can employ in your further career. On why you should persist, and which opportunities exist, I will tell more in a future blog post. Share if you like and subscribe.

Thanks to our guest blogger Marjolein Vanoppen

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Lessons learnt from my PhD so far

It’s been a while since I started my PhD so I’ve been reflecting a lot on my first two years and wanted to share some of the most important lessons I’ve learnt so far.

Disclaimer: as always, I am sharing my personal experiences and current opinions and thoughts. These are in no way representative of everyone’s PhD, disability, mental health, experience and opinions. They may also change over time as I am always learning and growing.

I’m now two and a half years into my PhD program temporally, and two years in registration wise as I’ve taken 6 months of temporary withdrawal so far. I passed the confirmation process (also called ‘upgrade’ or ‘transfer’ at some other UK universities) in February last year which means I’m a PhD candidate now and I have plenty of things that I’ve learnt that I want to share with you. I’ll be covering the impact of the pandemic on my PhD in a separate post so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested. Of course, everybody’s experience of a PhD is different and they work differently even between universities, let alone different countries and education systems. These points also have a bit of a skew towards the experience of being disabled in academia as that has been one of the main roadblocks for me. But I think the following lessons are fairly universal and hopefully, they might help you navigate your PhD better if you’re thinking of doing one!

Without further ado, here are the most important lessons I learnt in my first two years of doctoral study:

You need to structure your time

I guess this is fairly obvious, but it has been something I’ve really struggled with. Whereas during undergrad, I had my timetable dictated by the university which gave a good structure to my time and allowed me to plan ahead to manage my workload, my time as a PhD student is completely dictated by me. I’m in charge of booking meetings with my supervisor, booking lab equipment, making time to read, write, and analyse data. When I started out this meant I was all over the place as I hadn’t really found a good structure for me (I also didn’t disclose my autism to my supervisor for a few months so I was trying very hard to behave neurotypically as best as I could).

To overcome this lack of structure, I now implement what I like to call a ‘skeleton routine’ (which you can read more about in this post I wrote about my planning system). Research is unpredictable and you do need to be flexible in how you work. As somebody who likes predictability and routine as well as struggling with task switching, this was definitely an issue. But the skeleton routine has helped along with a reasonable adjustment to have a work from home day every Friday (which promptly became irrelevant once lockdown started and everyone had to work from home as much as possible!). This means my sensory space is completely in my control and I mitigate social fatigue from interacting with colleagues in person. I usually get the most and the best work is done on my work from home days!

Every student-supervisor relationship is different

I’m sure most PhD students have heard that you have to ‘manage’ your supervisor and there’s definitely some truth to that. It’s a really weird relationship as they are kind of your manager but also a colleague. You’re meant to bring stuff to the table and eventually be fully leading your project so the relationship also changes over time. If like me your supervisor was a lecturer of yours during your undergraduate degree then things get even more mixed up regarding knowing where you sit in the hierarchy.

Throwing into the mix a disability and some mental illnesses for good measure and I think I was a bit of a curveball for my supervisor! Because autism involves communication differences, my non-medical helper and I explained to my supervisor how autism impacts me specifically, emphasising that you need to think about accommodations on an individual basis. It’s really paid off as we now have lots of techniques in place for facilitating communication between us. For example, I find that I will sometimes go into a nonverbal state at work which is not ideal when we have our meetings as his preference is talking face-to-face. So, we’ve experimented with a few things and now we have weekly meetings via teams chat so that even if I can’t speak verbally, he can assess my progress and see my ideas. This has facilitated some great discussions and allowed me to be more confident (I am much better at both conveying my thoughts and processing what is being said to me in writing than through speech). I think we’ve both learnt a lot from each other about communication, accessibility and, of course, physics! I really look up to him both as a person and as a scientist and I know that he always wants the best for me, for me to produce great research and thrive in this environment.

Supervisor relationships are incredibly personal and it truly depends on the unique mix of personalities of the supervisor and the student. They’re not something that you can necessarily get working perfectly immediately and can take time to develop into something beneficial for both parties. Some supervisors are quite hands-on and like to have a lot of contact with you and very regular updates (like mine), but some are very hands-off and only like to meet once a month (quite a few of my peers have supervisors more like this). When applying to PhDs, it can be useful to ask current students who work with your prospective supervisor what their supervision style is so that you can assess whether you’ll be a good fit. I think that this and making sure you’re passionate about their research area are the most important things to consider.

Sometimes experiments don’t work— that’s the nature of research!

This is something I first got a taste of during my R&D internship where I worked on my master’s research project in industry. During undergrad labs, I never had an experiment not work at all. I always found that as long as I followed the lab script I would always obtain the expected results, or at least something similar to what I was expecting. It probably helped that I have a slight flair for experimental work and have discovered that I’m good at setting up and calibrating equipment. But this aside, undergraduate labs don’t really teach you what to do if your experiment doesn’t work at all or if you get some strange results that you don’t understand.

When I first encountered real-life cutting-edge research experiments, it was a bit of a shock to not always get the results that I expected from the theory. But now I love analysing it and investigating the reasons why my results might be doing something new and unexpected. Sometimes ‘failed’ experiments are the ones that give us the biggest insight and the most profound advancements in science!

So, if you can, try to isolate your self-worth from whether your experiments work or not. As scientists, we’re studying nature and finding ways to innovate with what we learn so of course, we will encounter lots of things that we don’t yet understand. If things weren’t failing, we would never make progress and learn exciting new things about our field.

Stepping back occasionally helps you look at the bigger picture

I’m such a detail-oriented person it can sometimes be hard to explain why my research is useful to people. So I’ve got into the habit of forcing myself to step back from the nitty-gritty quantum physics and focus instead on the project as a whole. So far, I’ve found that having reasonably long holidays (I usually try to take annual leave so I have two weeks off at a time) allows my brain to process my research subconsciously and to see the context better. Whenever I return to work after a break, I have so much more clarity on the impact and implications of my work which I don’t think I would get if I stayed buried in the details all the time. It can also help to explain your work to others, like friends and family as this usually forces me to talk about it more generally which inherently situates my work within a broader understanding of it.

Mental wellbeing should always be the priority

Academia is notorious for being a poor environment for mental wellbeing. I’ve written about my mental health experiences in the past here which explores this topic in a bit more detail from the autistic perspective. It goes without saying that your health should always be your top priority, but that often doesn’t seem to be the case in academia. People like to brag about how many hours they work and how they’re always in the lab on weekends. So for those of us who like to keep strict work boundaries, it can feel like we’re not living up to what is expected of a PhD student.

But this just isn’t the case. You shouldn’t be doing so much overtime that it causes you to develop a mental illness. That’s just not sustainable. As someone who already had a diagnosis of anxiety and depression going into my PhD, I already had some coping techniques in place like my medication and therapy. This, along with regular mental health check-ins with myself, helped me manage things better. But still, I fell into the overwork trap early on in my studies which resulted in a few relapses into severe depression and needing to take some withdrawal time from my program.

Since then, I’ve been a lot better at setting clear work boundaries where I don’t work in the evenings and weekends (unless it’s needed due to booking of equipment or I am in a hyperfocus state that I want to make the most of). This has helped me enormously in terms of both my energy levels and my mental health and I encourage everyone to try and set boundaries that fit in with how they work best. Don’t just work all of the time because ‘it’s what PhD students do’. The only way we can change the overwork culture in academia is to push back on it and challenge the status quo instead of falling into the trap that so many others have succumbed to in the past.

Being in limbo between being staff and student takes some getting used to

This was something that I hadn’t really considered until I was in my doctoral program. My university campus card says ‘student’ but in reality, I’m more like a member of staff. I don’t go to taught classes and all of my activities are either research or teaching-focused. I think this is a big misconception that a lot of people have and ‘PhD student’ is a bit of a misnomer, especially in places like the UK where you jump straight into the research project when you start your PhD. But even so, you’re still not a full member of faculty as a PhD student and you do sometimes feel a bit forgotten about. Owning this feeling of being not-quite-student-not-quite-staff took me so long to get accustomed to. It also plays into trying to work out where I sit in the hierarchy that I mentioned before in reference to supervisor relationships. Lecturers who taught me at the undergraduate level suddenly expected me to refer to them by their first name which just felt really odd for a long time!

Self-directed learning is key

Being a researcher is all about self-directed learning. I’ve found that my skills of teaching myself new complex concepts and seeking out information have improved so much since I’ve been a PhD student. During undergraduate degrees, we are usually still ‘spoon fed’ a little bit so transitioning to a PhD can be a bit of a shock. Luckily I had already been reading around subjects I studied during my degree but not having a syllabus to guide me still took some getting used to! As a PhD student, you sit right at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning – create: where you’re producing new or original work.

The only taste of this that I had prior to starting my doctorate was during my research placement and in writing my master’s dissertation. I’ve found that I really have to take my learning into my own hands and this includes identifying suitable people to reach out for help and advice on understanding new concepts. If you’re an undergraduate hoping to do a PhD one day, I definitely recommend reading widely and practising this form of learning whenever you can. Not only will it improve your own understanding of your subject but it will also put you in good stead for a research career.

Writing papers takes way longer than you think it will

I’ll be honest, when I started my PhD I thought I’d have at least one paper published within the first two years. Due to a myriad of factors (mostly thanks to the pandemic), this has not happened. I don’t think that I would have had something published, even if we hadn’t had this strange year to deal with. I don’t know how common this is for other PhD students, but I struggle a lot with my confidence when it comes to academic writing that I know will be seen by other academics so I’ve spent a lot of time in a state of anxiety paralysis towards papers I have on my ‘to do’ list. This seems mostly due to my perfectionism and the fact that everything I’ve been reading is a highly polished final draft that has been through the rigorous peer-review process. Of course, my first draft isn’t going to be of this standard and nobody but me is expecting it to be. I’d quite like to share the various drafts of my published papers online so that others can see the process more as I think it would help me to see more ‘in progress’ academic writing from others in my field!

I also somewhat want to push back on the ‘publish or perish’ mindset that many people have in academia. I’d like to do good and complete studies that I am proud of, even if it takes me a bit longer to expand on the analysis and my interpretation of it- ensuring that I am not falling into selection bias when presenting my findings. This is particularly on my mind as recently, a paper in my field published in nature was retracted which has caused a bit of a stir . Research integrity always needs to come first and I don’t want to get caught out for being sloppy from not spending enough time on things. So I think it’s about finding the balance between my ‘slow science’ philosophy and not being afraid to put my work out there in the academic sphere (I fear I may be using the former as an excuse to hide the latter). I’m now really pushing myself to overcome my perfectionism and have an upcoming deadline for a ‘submittable’ paper draft next month- so watch this space (I’ll try to post an update as to how it goes!).

Don’t compare yourself to other PhD students

I was told this so many times at the beginning of my PhD and I still couldn’t help constantly comparing myself to others. I work in a vibrant research group with fellow PGRs who are brilliant and who I perceive as infinitely more intelligent and better PhD students than me. Part of this is internalised ableism on my part but that is something I’ll write about another day. I think this is something that many PhD students struggle with and it links into the imposter syndrome problem that we always hear so much about. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what other PhD students are doing. Transitioning from undergraduate where you can compare yourself to others fairly easily using grades (something I always did and it damaged my self-esteem a lot), I automatically started doing the same thing. It’s something I’ve been trying to break out of for a long long time but I’m still not there yet. Maybe one day I’ll feel like I am good enough to be a researcher.

Anyway, the main thing I’ve learnt is that everybody’s project is different so you can’t possibly compare them. For example, my project sits slightly outside of the rest of my research group. It’s just me and my supervisor who are working on my material system (InSb) at my university at the moment. Many of those in my group work with silicon and all of their projects feed into each other more (note: I was given the option in my interview and I chose to work with InSb rather than silicon as I think it’s a more interesting material and it’s a smaller research area so there’s less literature to battle with). Thus, there is more group work and bigger teams working together on things like publications for other PhD students in the group. When I see how they already published by the stage I am at in my PhD, I forget this fact and use it to bully myself. Even if I was working closely with other PGRs or if I had published a paper, I’m sure I would find a way to make it reflect badly on me in my head. Let’s see if I can take my own advice and stop comparing to others!

Doing a PhD is a rollercoaster!

This is another thing that I was warned about but didn’t really believe at the time but it’s so true. There’s no escaping the fact that research ebbs and flows. There are weeks where I feel like I do nothing at all and others where I do more than I thought possible. Of course, there are going to be emotional ups and downs – you’re dedicating 3-4 years of your life to a single research project and it can feel like you almost embody your project. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone who’s said that their PhD was straightforward and easy to manage. From equipment breaking or just not cooperating to unexpected results, you just can’t predict what will happen. That’s research for you! I’ve learnt to embrace the uncertainty and love the challenge that it presents.

If you like my work, I’d love your support!

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PhD Science Product Components

In this article, we'll review the product components of PhD Science:

Teacher Edition

Science logbook.

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Module Overview and Appendices

The Teacher Edition begins with a module overview, which contains an introduction to the anchor phenomenon, an explanation of how the module lessons address the phenomenon, a module map, focus standards, key terms, information about the preparation of materials, safety considerations, a summary of knowledge and skills built across levels, and professional resources for teachers. Each module contains approximately 25 to 30 lessons organized into two to four concepts that help students make sense of an anchor phenomenon. Each concept contains lesson sets that develop key conceptual understandings.

At the end of each module’s Teacher Edition, appendices provide support for teachers before and during instruction.

• Appendix A : Module Resources—a set of lesson-specific resources to aid instruction: full-size photographs, informational texts, investigation procedure sheets, materials preparation, and supplemental information
• Appendix B : Module Storyline—a more detailed version of the Module Map section in the Module Overview that summarizes the progression of concepts in the module
• Appendix C : Module Glossary—level-appropriate definitions for new terms in the module and the lesson in which the definition appears
• Appendix D : Domain-Specific Words, General Academic Words, and Spanish Cognates—a list of key terms in the module and their Spanish cognates to support English language development

Lesson Sets

Lesson sets consist of 35-minute lessons in Kindergarten through Level 2 and 45-minute lessons in Levels 3 through 5. The lessons in each lesson set are grouped by specific phenomena. This structure and the pacing suggestions in each lesson’s Agenda give students flexibility to explore phenomena and analyze their findings to arrive at conceptual understandings.

All lesson sets have a Prepare section, which contains the following information:

• Opening Paragraph : a brief introduction to the lesson set and its three-dimensional learning
• Focus Question : a question that guides learning throughout the concept (remains the same throughout a concept)
• Phenomenon Question : a question that guides learning throughout the lesson set (changes with each lesson set)
• Knowledge Statement : a statement that reflects the scientific understanding students will develop during a lesson set (to guide teachers, not to post for students)
• Objectives : learning outcomes for each lesson (to guide teachers, not to post for students)
• Standards Addressed : a summary of the focus Performance Expectation(s), SEPs, DCIs, and CCs the lesson set addresses
• Materials : a list of materials needed for each lesson, including necessary preparation (includes optional materials and substitutions where applicable) 

Each lesson is organized into these sections:

• Launch : the lesson opening, which engages students as they begin thinking about the lesson phenomenon
• Learn : the heart of the lesson, during which students develop new knowledge and apply prior knowledge to explore phenomena
• Land : the lesson closing, in which students reflect on what they have learned
• Optional Homework : suggestions for applying and extending science learning in students’ homes and communities (does not occur in every lesson).

The Science Logbook is a consumable student resource. It enables students to record evidence and to document their learning. In most lessons, students use their logbooks to develop models or record observations, predictions, data analysis, explanations, claims, and other information as they complete scientific tasks.

Materials Kits

PhD Science provides hands-on experiences that enable students to engage in science activities that align with the SEPs. Materials kits that support these experiences are available for purchase through Great Minds and sourced by an external supplier. These specially designed kits contain the supplies needed to implement the PhD Science investigations and activities in all four modules of each level. Organized by module, the materials kits arrive in bins that can store reusable materials from year to year. Refill kits are available to replace consumable supplies. Optional safety kits containing goggles and latex-free gloves are also recommended and available for purchase. Each lesson set contains a list of necessary materials and a summary of required materials preparation.

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I wasted six years of my life getting a PhD degree. What should I do, and how will I survive?

I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering. After spending two years in Masters and six years in getting a PhD degree, I am lost at what I can do with my life.

Initially, my plan was to be in academia. Though I love doing research, I don't see that as a possibility anymore.

I did not do well in my PhD. I have only two first-author journal publications in ~2.5 impact factor journals. I did not acquire significant skills. I am bad at programming, and I have a 3.7 GPA. I did not learn to drive or learn any foreign language. I did not improve my health or developed a new hobby. I even did not spend time on having a relationship. In short, I have done nothing over the past six years.

My PhD supervisor has given me a postdoc position. And I feel extremely inadequate. I feel that I won't be able to do anything after my postdoc year, and I will just be a burden and disappointment to my parents.

I am an international student living in the US.

I don't know what I should do. What should I do?

• career-path
• academic-life
• early-career
• emotional-responses

• 190 I think your only issue is one of self esteem. I suggest you find a counsellor and discuss where you are and how you feel. Don't let imposter syndrome lead to depression. Your advisor can give you professional advice, but you should also seek personal advice. The future is brighter than you think. –  Buffy Commented Dec 7, 2019 at 16:30
• 7 Is the work fun though? –  smcs Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 9:52
• 1 Is there anything in your past that is unresolved? I suspect your low self confidence stems from something else and not the PhD itself. For example you mention lack of relationship, so I suspect you have a non-existent sex life. Are you exercising and eating right? All of those things need to be in order for you to be happy doing a PhD. Otherwise all you'll have is a PhD which is empty and meaningless. –  sashang Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 23:45
• 3 ‘I have only two publications …’ to me, who has a grand total of zero from both the PhD project that fell short of its desired outcome and my first two years of postdoc in which the ‘basically already finished, just this’ project turned out almost impossible, this is quite a violet slap in the face. –  Jan Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 2:33
• 1 Seek counselling! The problems you describe have very little to do with academia, but very much with you. This website cannot provide adequate counselling in that regard (although some of the answers of course hit very relevant points). –  user2705196 Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 18:21

9 Answers 9

It looks to me like you did not do so badly as you think. Two publications and 3.7 GPA are not so bad. It might depend on the field, it might not be the best ever, but I have seen much worse. If your supervisor offered you a postdoc position after having you for 6 years as a PhD student, it means that they consider your work useful.

You might be suffering from impostor syndrome . Do read the question and the answers in that link and see if you identify.

If you are not sure now, you have plenty of time during your postdoc year to decide whether you want to continue in academia or get a job in industry. The pros and cons of both options have been discussed extensively, as a quick Google search for "industry vs academia" shows. I personally agree with this source .

And, in most cases, the answer to "I have wasted X years of my life because I did not do Y and Z" is "do not look at the past and do Y and Z now". Especially when, as in your case, Y and Z can be done at any stage in your career life, such as learning languages, programming or driving.

• 27 Also, the field is chemistry, where the PhD is basically required for an entry level position in industry, so that is certainly not a waste of time. –  Simon Richter Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 13:29
• 13 @SimonRichter Actually, the field is engineering (chemical engineering) where a BSc is enough for entry level jobs industry. –  Cell Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 16:52
• 2 Get a job in industry. The great part is, that at the end of the project/delivery/month, work is done and completed. At least for me, I never considered the results in science 'done'; also pace is probably faster, so you will get getting quite a few achievements under your belt quickly (since you are smart). –  lalala Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 19:03
• 3 @Cell Where I've worked, a PhD is automatically hired into a position that it would take ~5 years to get promoted to from entry-level with BSc, and the PhD can offer more job opportunities and security in the right industry. If OP goes into industry, the last six years could be well worth it! –  Sam Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 19:45
• 1 @Sam That's nice, but I never said getting a PhD is a bad idea. I was only correcting the previous poster. With that being said, unless you plan on doing novel research, a PhD may make you overqualified for many jobs that can be done by a BASc, or MEng. You also didn't say what your field is. –  Cell Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 20:20

To be honest, I'm tempted to agree with Buffy. It sounds like the biggest issue you have might actually be the one you identified at the start of your post - low self-confidence. Studying for a PhD, and working in academia in general, has a tendency to have that effect on people - you're far from alone.

If I were you, I'd be tempted to take stock of my overall life situation at this point, perhaps with some input from the people around me, and try to get an objective view of how things really are - they may not actually be as bad as you think.

For example, here are some plus points:

You finished a PhD. That's already a huge deal - lots of people don't even start a PhD, and of those who do, a proportion never finish. Of those who finish, lots of people feel like they didn't change the world with their PhD, and that's fine - most people don't, and that's not required. You've got the rest of your life to worry about that, if you want to, and it's not required even then. It's ok to just live and be happy sometimes.

You've got a postdoc position lined up, if you want to stay in academia. Your supervisor wants you to stay, which means you probably did something right during your PhD. Maybe your PhD didn't actually go as badly as you think.

If you've just finished your PhD, it's quite likely (in the absence of other evidence to the contrary, which I don't have) that you're still relatively young. That means you've got time on your side - there's still a whole lot of life ahead of you in which to do all the things you want to do (learning to drive, learning a foreign language, improving your health, developing your hobbies, having a relationship, ...). It sounds like you're unhappy that you haven't been doing those things, which means you'd probably be happier if you started doing them. Pick one and go start on it right now - hopefully you'll feel better (it's generally worked for me, when I've been feeling down). Starting on one of them sounds like much more fun than carrying on feeling fed up about not doing them, at any rate.

Best of luck!

p.s. For what it's worth, the fact that you've got a list of things you wish you'd been doing, and are unhappy that you haven't been doing them, is a good sign - there's an easy fix for that, which is go do some of them. That's much better than not having a list of things, and sitting there having existential angst and wondering whether life is pointless :)

• The postdoc is with my PhD advisor. I don't think that's an achievement. Probably my advisor felt pity on me and gave me the position. –  Abhik Tandon Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 0:57
• 45 @AbhikTandon: Bear in mind that your advisor has something to lose from keeping you if you're truly not delivering (there's an opportunity cost - they could look for someone better). If they're keeping you, it's safe to assume you're at least above bar. Some advisors are kind, but few are so kind that they'll use their scarce funding to renew someone who has no possibility of being useful to them in any way. Advisors who pity you buy you a beer, gently tell you the truth, and help you find a job elsewhere; they don't generally commit £30k or more just to cheer you up. –  Stuart Golodetz Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 1:45
• 4 @AbhikTandon Do consider that a PostDoc position often involves mentoring or teaching junior students, grading work, running tutorials, et cetera. Given that your PhD advisor is judged and graded not just on their research, but also on their teaching methods/standards, it's a role they quite literally cannot afford to give out of pity. You not being "up to standard" would put their job on the line! (That said, finding a hobby - preferably something more physically active than mentally, such as a martial art, to contrast with work - for a couple of evenings a week is a good idea.) –  Chronocidal Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 8:41
• the highest possible academic degree that one can achieve
• a job in the field
• a life in a developed country

You're faring really well.

This is not to say that what you're feeling isn't real. It is real, and there is a problem. It's just that the problem is not what you have, but who you are. What you have is a highly successful life, at the same time, you are depressed and miserable.

You don't need more things, you have it all. No Nature publication will take you out of your dark place. You need to learn to enjoy life and accept yourself.

I know the last sentence is useless in itself, because it only tells you what you need, but not how to do it. Unfortunately, that's about as far as a stranger on the internet can get you. Speak to friends, speak to a psychologist, speak to anyone willing to listen, speak to yourself and try to figure out where does this need for accomplishments comes from, so you can move on.

• Technically I believe a DSc is a higher academic degree - but that usually comes at the end of a distinguished academic degree. –  Martin Bonner supports Monica Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 16:06
• 1 @MartinBonnersupportsMonica DSc is not universally higher than PhD. In some countries DSc is just what a PhD in biology/physics is called, while in other countries DSc is just honorary, while other countries don't use PhD at all and have only DSc, which are seen as the equivalent of PhD, in countries that have PhD. –  Andrei Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 17:51

You need to talk to someone – be that a counsellor (as @Buffy has suggested in the comments), a family member, a friend, or even (depending on your relationship) your supervisor. It does sound like a good part (if not most!) of the problem you describe may stem from impostor syndrome, and if that's the case, then it will be crucial to have others as a sounding board, to help put things into perspective. I have never known anyone in academia who didn't struggle at some point, somehow. Academia is tough, research is hard and failures are inevitable.

You mention you love doing research. Considering that you have also successfully turned that research into publications, it rather sounds like you do have what it takes to succeed. (Again, to put things into perspective, in my field it is normal for PhD students to graduate with 0–1 publications, and the impact factor of what's considered the leading journal is about 2.3. Different fields are different, yes. But you have definitely not failed.)

The other things you mention seem more minor to me. You say you are bad at programming. But you can always improve – programming, if anything, is one of those things where practice makes perfect. You mention you have neglected your health, hobbies and interpersonal relationships. But this is not uncommon: these things happen to many people who pursue a PhD, in various ways, and it is not too late to do something about them now. You say you have done nothing over the past 6 years. This cannot be literally true (you have earned a PhD, an enormous undertaking), but even if it were, the thing to do now would be to start doing those things you have neglected in the past.

But please do consider talking to someone. Having to verbalize your own thoughts and feelings is an excellent way of beginning to understand your thoughts and feelings, and of starting to see a solution.

Get your frame of reference right.

Achieving a PhD puts you in the 5% highest educated part of the population. That's quite significant. But you're comparing yourself to the smartest people in your direct environment - an environment set up try to get together all the smartest people.

If you don't manage to be in the top 1%, surely being in the top 5% is still something to feel pretty happy with?

They are marathon runners on arrival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSZlSaPJAdQ

Do they look well? Can you imagine, how bad feeling could it be, being there, after 42km of running?

But believe me: it is uncomparably better to be there, than for us, watching them on the youtube .

Don't do any irrecoverable mistake now! Wait, at least some months, more ideally some years! Take some longer leave, if you can (probably you can), and do nothing! Only think.

For example, now you can learn to drive. Ask anybody having a driving license, but no Phd, would they switch to the other.

I know what it's like to feel like you "haven't been living" for years. Six years of my life disappeared by my being extremely sick.

I have 5 years of unemployment in my résumé, an unfinished PhD, a tiny professional network, and ongoing health problems which make many things impossible. But I'm living again.

Some people have been in prison for 10 years. Some have escaped war-torn countries. Some have recovered from drugs or alcoholism. It's very hard when you suddenly awaken from a world of constraints into a world of choices, seemingly at a huge disadvantage from others within it. (I am not saying you've got it easier than they do. I'm saying you have this in common.)

Some of them go on to do amazing things. They have a moment that will define their life, and they work and work and work and work to a level that others can't imagine, and do something great for the benefit of their fellow man.

Others are just happy to be alive, happy to have gotten away from a bad place. Nothing wrong with that.

The most important thing in life is not success or respect or glory. It is to make choices that keep you out of misery. Anything more is a bonus.

But asking the question you're asking proves you are ready to change your life.

Maybe you could go to your home country or a country in poverty, where your skills and knowledge could make a bigger difference. Remember you don't need to use your degree at all; you could enter a completely different field. It's better to do it by choice than by necessity. Doing a variety of menial jobs of different sorts can be really enriching, since you see life from so many angles.

Doing a PhD doesn't just teach you about your topic; it teaches you about being thorough, exploring the state of the art, problem-solving, organisational skills, and so on. These make you very valuable if you use them well.

I know what I want to create. And I know what's stopping me is not my 6 missing years; it's my unwillingness to confront my weaknesses (like networking and time management.) Now I'm confronting these things, and I'm surprised at my success.

Go get 'em.

Two first-authored papers is not bad, I seen a lot of people getting phd for way less and still being full of themselves. You are doing good.

You don't think you did well during your PhD, but you stuck with it anyways. That sounds like a lot of PhD students. But, it also sounds like students that stuck with something, b/c their parents were back-seat driving their futures.

As others have said, your self-esteem issues stem from something. Something makes you feel inadequate all the time, and makes you compare yourself to others all the time.

Usually, that starts from overbearing parents constantly comparing you to other kids, chastising you for not being as good as some top-tier, stellar performer in your same grade or field, etc.

My dad did that to me my whole life. I was expected to get good grades. When I got them, I didn't get a "good job!" or anything. But, if I got bad grades, I got punished. As I got older, my dad would constantly compare me and my siblings against each other and to other kids his coworkers had. "So-n-so's kid is doing XYZ." (to insinuate it's better then what I was planning on doing, or was doing).

Even when I was an adult, my dad was trying to back-seat drive my career with "advice" that wasn't so much him trying to do what was best for me, but what was best for my career. He never took me, as a person, into consideration when giving advice.

What I realized over time (chatting with my dad extensively) was that he made decisions in his career... he gave up moving up the ladder or managerial positions, because he decided to start a family. He took a back-seat position at his job where he kept his head down and kept his mouth shut so he could keep earning an income and not rock the boat while supporting his family. He made one major career shift up the ladder to get more money, and in retrospect it was an awful decision that uprooted the family and set in motion events that pretty much tore the family apart.

What I realized as I got older was that he was trying to coach me to have the career he wished he could have; he was trying to guide his dream job vicariously through me.

He would push it in ways by either telling me exactly things he thought I should do, or package it as "I was chatting with kids at the gym and giving them advice, and this one kids doing XYZ" (again, to insinuate this "one kid" was doing something better then I was).

I got sick of it.

So, I stopped chatting with him about work, school, etc. When he'd ask or press, I simply told him that I was only going to speak with him like a member of the family, not someone I was seeking career counseling from.

I eventually had a blow-up with him, because I was tired of him trying to back-seat drive my life while I was watching his life implode around him with issues he wasn't staying on top of during a situation that basically forced me to take control of his responsibilities when he ended up in the hospital.

What I learned was ... just ignore him.

In 20 years time, my dad won't be around any more. But, god-willing.. I will.

In 20 years time, will I be happy if I had followed my dad's advice and done this and that? No. I'd be miserable, because he was pushing me to go in directions that were making me miserable.

So, why bother listening to him? Why bother trying to please him?

In 20 years time I can follow his advice and be miserable while he's dead, or I can ignore it and be happy while he's also dead.

Ultimately, I have to figure out what makes me happy, though.

But, when you have someone constantly telling you that you're not doing good enough, you need to do better, you're not doing as well as so-n-so over there, you should be heading in a certain direction, you need to do it all before a certain BS time limit... you know what, you eventually turn into a hot mess that thinks very little of yourself b/c you constantly have a devil on your shoulder that never thinks what you're doing is good enough.

Tell that person (or those people) to go screw off.

Since you're international.. and you're in a STEM field.. and you went through a PhD even though it sounds like you didn't really want to .. I'm going to assume you're Indian.

You need to have a moment of clarity where you decide to be your own person and stop having your family tell you what you need to do and where you need to go in life.

That can be hard if your family is paying the bills.

But, I may be making assumptions, but your story sounds almost identical to a ton of other folks I rubbed elbows with in college... all of them Indian. They were taking STEM when really they wanted to do liberal arts or whatever they were passionate about. Their family pushed them into an "lucrative career", b/c it's all about the money and status with them.

I had a couple of Indian folks tell me they had a massive weight lifted off their shoulders when they told their family to stuff themselves. They were dating people locally, and one was wanting to marry the girl he was dating. One guy dropped his STEM and went into art which is what he really wanted to do (and he was an AMAZING artist).

Ultimately, you have to figure out what makes you happy, and stop listening to folks constantly running you down and telling you you're not good enough.

I rented a room from a gay couple, and one of the guys had a degree in aeronautic engineering. You know what he did for a living? He was the director of a high school band. His parents pushed him to do engineering, b/c he was in the closet and just kept his nose down and did what they said. When he finally got older, he got tired of them, and came out of the closet and pursued what really made him happy: music.

People have to have that moment.

So, you're asking how you'll survive over here? I think you really need to ask yourself what will make you happy. And, you need to start ignoring folks that are running you down.

With a PhD in Chemistry, you don't have to be a great programmer. There are companies that will hire you to figure out some chemistry, and team you up with Comp Sci or Info Sys folks that will do all the coding and stuff for reports, data science, etc.

If you don't like what you have a PhD in, then go figure out what you do like. Maybe you like working on motorcycles or scuba diving or whatever.. find a way to make a career out of it.

It's better to live a modest life that makes you happy, even at the expense of others, then to be rich and f'ing miserable b/c you decided to make everyone else happy.. usually folks that won't be alive in 20 years time.. which just leaves you miserable while they're dead.

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The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is.

It's hard to describe it in words.

So, I use pictures.

Read below for the illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

Update : Print version , slides and translations , CC licensing terms .

Update : People tell me this post is the "sequel" to this one, and I'm looking for a postdoc in (glyco)biology interested in saving lives. Let's talk if interested.

Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge:

By the time you finish elementary school, you know a little:

By the time you finish high school, you know a bit more:

With a bachelor's degree, you gain a specialty:

A master's degree deepens that specialty:

Reading research papers takes you to the edge of human knowledge:

Once you're at the boundary, you focus:

You push at the boundary for a few years:

Until one day, the boundary gives way:

And, that dent you've made is called a Ph.D.:

Of course, the world looks different to you now:

So, don't forget the bigger picture:

Keep pushing.

There's a bit more below, but I also wrote a follow-up 5 years after the illustrated guide which may be of interest -- HOWTO: Get tenure .

Related posts

• HOWTO: Get tenure .
• Recommended reading for grad students .
• What every CS major should know .
• How to get into grad school .
• Advice for thesis proposals .
• Productivity tips for academics .
• Academic job hunt advice .
• Successful Ph.D. students: Perseverance, tenacity and cogency .
• The CRAPL: An open source license for academics .
• The shape of your problem .

Get it in print; fund students; save lives

By request, a print version of The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. is on sale.

Any and all proceeds will fund graduate students whose work may impact the discovery, diagnosis or treatment of genetic disorders.

Any and all proceeds will fund graduate students (and postdocs) doing work in biology that may impact treatment of diseases of cellular metabolism.

Update : If you're interested in being that postdoc , get in touch with me!

It is available at $6.50 thanks to Hewlett-Packard's high-quality on-demand publishing service, MagCloud.

It's sixteen pages, saddle-stitch bound and in full color.

It's a good gift for new students, the recently defended and relatives thereof.

Why biology?

If you zoom in on the boundary of human knowledge in the direction of genetics, there's something just outside humanity's reach:

My wife and I chose to start funding these graduate students after we learned that our son has a rare, fatal genetic disorder.

It may be too late for my son, but it's not too late for other children.

Even one child suffering is one child too many.

The only way to end this kind of suffering is science.

And, the best way to do science is through graduate students.

Update : When I first wrote this post, my son's specific disorder was unknown. Thanks to a scientific advance made in genetic diagnostics--specifically exome sequencing--we were able to isolate the mutations in my son's genome and determine that he is the very first documented case of a new disease: N-glycanase deficiency. One small dent in the circle of knowledge; one giant leap for my son. You can read the full story in a new post: Hunting down my son's killer .

License: Creative Commons

I receive numerous requests to reproduce this work, and I'm happy to grant them all, subject to three small conditions:

• Please attribute the original work to me (Matt Might) and link back to this page in your reproduction: http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ as The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D.
• When you attribute, please also link my name, Matt Might , to: http://matt.might.net/
• And, don't forget the "Keep pushing," at the bottom!

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License .

That means you can share, copy, modify and reproduce this work as long as you attribute the original work to me and link back to it as outlined above.

However, you may not sell this work, or use it for commercial purposes. You may only distribute it free of charge. If you're not sure whether your use is a "commercial purpose," please send me an email.

If possible, please host the images on your own server instead of linking back to mine.

If you use it in a presentation, I'd love to hear feedback.

Here's an example attribution that satisfies the legal requirements:

Matt Might , a professor in Computer Science at the University of Utah , created The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. to explain what a Ph.D. is to new and aspiring graduate students. [Matt has licensed the guide for sharing with special terms under the Creative Commons license .]

If it helps, here's the corresponding HTML, which you can modify to suit your site's needs:

And, of course, thank you for sharing!

Please let me know if you translate this post into another language.

• A slideshow version in PDF .
• French translation (by Sara Mathieu-C. )
• Urdu translation (by Adnan Masood )
• Japanese translation (by Kimikazu Kato )
• Brazilian Portuguese translation (by Kleber Jacinto )
• Spanish translation (by Ismael Peña-López )
• Italian translation (by Alessandro Ferrari )
• Indonesian translation (by Robin Malau )
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• Simplified Chinese translation by (Sijia Zhao)
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Great Minds Announces “Knowledge on the Go” Free Video Lesson Series, Additional Free Eureka Math Resources to Promote Learning During School Closures

For Immediate Release

Chad Colby: [email protected] (202) 297-9437

Monday, March 16, 2020 —Great Minds PBC today announced a new, free series of videos with math, English language arts, and science lessons from our curricula and free access to additional Eureka Math resources, responding to teachers, students, and parents at home during the coronavirus outbreak. The lessons and resources will allow teachers and students to continue their progress through our coherent, comprehensive curricula delivered in schools.

The Knowledge on the Go video series will launch Wednesday, March 18 , at greatminds.org . The additional math resources are available now at greatminds.org/math .

“As educators and as parents, Great Minds will work hand-in-hand with teachers to maintain coherent, knowledge-rich daily instruction in mathematics, English, and science. We cannot allow a health crisis to impact student achievement or leave any child behind,” said Lynne Munson, Great Minds founder and CEO.  “The thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop when our schools close. Our new video lessons and Eureka Math resources allow knowledge to be delivered and acquired wherever teachers and students are.”

 The Knowledge on the Go video series will consist of free recorded daily lessons in Grades K–12 of Eureka Math ; Grades K–8 of Wit & Wisdom , our English language arts curriculum; and Grades 3–5 of PhD Science. Great Minds’ own teachers will deliver the lessons, which will be available to anyone and viewable on any device, even a smart phone. Great Minds will release approximately 25 video lessons across the three curricula per day.

Eureka Math resources available without registration and for free include:

Student materials such as Problem Sets, Application Problems, and Exit Tickets

Homework Helpers

Parent Tip Sheets

Math card games

the Eureka Math Digital Suite

The easy access to Eureka Math resources builds on the open nature of the core Eureka Math files, always free for downloading.

Great Minds encourages teachers to use any or all of these Eureka Math materials and Knowledge on the Go videos as they see fit. For schools already using Great Minds curricula, if possible, before school closes, Great Minds encourages sending students home with their Eureka Math student books, PhD Science Module 4 logbooks, and Wit & Wisdom workbooks and core texts, if available. 

Great Minds notes additional resources for teachers, students, and parents:

For schools using Wit & Wisdom and PhD Science , students and parents with library cards and e-readers can download titles with Libby or other book-borrowing apps. 

Browse the Library of Congress , National Gallery of Art digital collections , and the National Archives to learn about historical documents and art works cited in Wit & Wisdom .

For teachers seeking professional development, Great Minds has an on-demand webinar library for Eureka Math and Wit & Wisdom teaching best practices.

The expansion of services by internet service providers and video calling companies such as Zoom during the coronavirus will help expand the reach of the extra Great Minds resources.

Three-quarters of the more than 800 employees at Great Minds are or have been teachers. They write the curricula, train teachers to use it, and support successful implementation. Closing the knowledge gap is important to everyone at Great Minds, with every curriculum building knowledge across subjects and disciplines for a rich learning experience.

About Great Minds : Great Minds PBC is a public benefit corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Minds, a nonprofit corporation. Great Minds provides the highest quality curricula to schools and districts nationwide, inspiring joy in teaching and learning. Great Minds is the only curriculum creator to have earned three Tier 1 ratings, the highest possible, from the Louisiana Department of Education , highly respected for its curricular leadership. Curricula earning the Tier 1 ratings were Wit & Wisdom , Eureka Math , and PhD Science . Eureka Math and Wit & Wisdom both earned top scores from independent nonprofit reviewer EdReports.org . Geodes , a library of beautifully illustrated, content-rich books with phonics practice for emerging readers, developed in collaboration with Wilson Language Training, is the latest offering to delight teachers and students. Learn more at greatminds.org .

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Through intellectual rigor and experiential learning, this full-time, two-year MBA program develops leaders who make a difference in the world.

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Earn your MBA and SM in engineering with this transformative two-year program.

Combine an international MBA with a deep dive into management science. A special opportunity for partner and affiliate schools only.

A doctoral program that produces outstanding scholars who are leading in their fields of research.

Bring a business perspective to your technical and quantitative expertise with a bachelor’s degree in management, business analytics, or finance.

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This 20-month MBA program equips experienced executives to enhance their impact on their organizations and the world.

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A non-degree, customizable program for mid-career professionals.

PhD Program

Program overview.

Now Reading 1 of 4

Rigorous, discipline-based research is the hallmark of the MIT Sloan PhD Program. The program is committed to educating scholars who will lead in their fields of research—those with outstanding intellectual skills who will carry forward productive research on the complex organizational, financial, and technological issues that characterize an increasingly competitive and challenging business world.

Start here.

Learn more about the program, how to apply, and find answers to common questions.

Admissions Events

Check out our event schedule, and learn when you can chat with us in person or online.

Start Your Application

Visit this section to find important admissions deadlines, along with a link to our application.

Click here for answers to many of the most frequently asked questions.

PhD studies at MIT Sloan are intense and individual in nature, demanding a great deal of time, initiative, and discipline from every candidate. But the rewards of such rigor are tremendous:  MIT Sloan PhD graduates go on to teach and conduct research at the world's most prestigious universities.

PhD Program curriculum at MIT Sloan is organized under the following three academic areas: Behavior & Policy Sciences; Economics, Finance & Accounting; and Management Science. Our nine research groups correspond with one of the academic areas, as noted below.

MIT Sloan PhD Research Groups

Behavioral & policy sciences.

Economic Sociology

Institute for Work & Employment Research

Organization Studies

Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management

Economics, Finance & Accounting

Accounting  

Management Science

Information Technology

System Dynamics  

Those interested in a PhD in Operations Research should visit the Operations Research Center .  

PhD Program Structure

Additional information including coursework and thesis requirements.

MIT Sloan Predoctoral Opportunities

MIT Sloan is eager to provide a diverse group of talented students with early-career exposure to research techniques as well as support in considering research career paths.

Rising Scholars Conference

The fourth annual Rising Scholars Conference on October 25 and 26 gathers diverse PhD students from across the country to present their research.

Now Reading 2 of 4

The goal of the MIT Sloan PhD Program's admissions process is to select a small number of people who are most likely to successfully complete our rigorous and demanding program and then thrive in academic research careers. The admission selection process is highly competitive; we aim for a class size of nineteen students, admitted from a pool of hundreds of applicants.

What We Seek

• Outstanding intellectual ability
• Excellent academic records
• Previous work in disciplines related to the intended area of concentration
• Strong commitment to a career in research

MIT Sloan PhD Program Admissions Requirements Common Questions

Dates and Deadlines

Admissions for 2024 is closed. The next opportunity to apply will be for 2025 admission. The 2025 application will open in September 2024. 

More information on program requirements and application components

Students in good academic standing in our program receive a funding package that includes tuition, medical insurance, and a fellowship stipend and/or TA/RA salary. We also provide a new laptop computer and a conference travel/research budget.

Funding Information

Throughout the year, we organize events that give you a chance to learn more about the program and determine if a PhD in Management is right for you.

PhD Program Events

August phd program overview.

During this webinar, you will hear from the PhD Program team and have the chance to ask questions about the application and admissions process.

Discover Your Doctoral Path

An in-person event for prospective students with Boston-area management programs

September 12 PhD Program Overview

September 25 phd program overview.

Complete PhD Admissions Event Calendar

Unlike formulaic approaches to training scholars, the PhD Program at MIT Sloan allows students to choose their own adventure and develop a unique scholarly identity. This can be daunting, but students are given a wide range of support along the way - most notably having access to world class faculty and coursework both at MIT and in the broader academic community around Boston.

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Profiles of our current students

MIT Sloan produces top-notch PhDs in management. Immersed in MIT Sloan's distinctive culture, upcoming graduates are poised to innovate in management research and education.

Academic Job Market

Doctoral candidates on the current academic market

Academic Placements

Graduates of the MIT Sloan PhD Program are researching and teaching at top schools around the world.

view recent placements 

MIT Sloan Experience

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The PhD Program is integral to the research of MIT Sloan's world-class faculty. With a reputation as risk-takers who are unafraid to embrace the unconventional, they are engaged in exciting disciplinary and interdisciplinary research that often includes PhD students as key team members.

Research centers across MIT Sloan and MIT provide a rich setting for collaboration and exploration. In addition to exposure to the faculty, PhD students also learn from one another in a creative, supportive research community.

Throughout MIT Sloan's history, our professors have devised theories and fields of study that have had a profound impact on management theory and practice.

From Douglas McGregor's Theory X/Theory Y distinction to Nobel-recognized breakthroughs in finance by Franco Modigliani and in option pricing by Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, MIT Sloan's faculty have been unmatched innovators.

This legacy of innovative thinking and dedication to research impacts every faculty member and filters down to the students who work beside them.

Faculty Links

• Accounting Faculty
• Economic Sociology Faculty
• Finance Faculty
• Information Technology Faculty
• Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) Faculty
• Marketing Faculty
• Organization Studies Faculty
• System Dynamics Faculty
• Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management (TIES) Faculty

Student Research

“MIT Sloan PhD training is a transformative experience. The heart of the process is the student’s transition from being a consumer of knowledge to being a producer of knowledge. This involves learning to ask precise, tractable questions and addressing them with creativity and rigor. Hard work is required, but the reward is the incomparable exhilaration one feels from having solved a puzzle that had bedeviled the sharpest minds in the world!” -Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship

Sample Dissertation Abstracts - These sample Dissertation Abstracts provide examples of the work that our students have chosen to study while in the MIT Sloan PhD Program.

We believe that our doctoral program is the heart of MIT Sloan's research community and that it develops some of the best management researchers in the world. At our annual Doctoral Research Forum, we celebrate the great research that our doctoral students do, and the research community that supports that development process.

The videos of their presentations below showcase the work of our students and will give you insight into the topics they choose to research in the program.

Attention To Retention: The Informativeness of Insiders’ Decision to Retain Shares

2024 PhD Doctoral Research Forum Winner - Gabriel Voelcker

Watch more MIT Sloan PhD Program  Doctoral Forum Videos

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10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Here we've got everything you need to know about getting started.

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Are you sure about that? It’s not going to be an easy decision, so I’ve put together a list of 10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree. Oh, and don’t panic!

I have recently graduated from the University of Manchester with a PhD in Plant Sciences after four difficult, but enjoyable, years. During those four years, I often felt slightly lost – and there was more than one occasion on which I didn’t even want to imagine writing up my thesis in fear of delving into fits of panic.

On reflection, I realise that – to quote a colleague – commencing my PhD was like “jumping in the deep end with your eyes closed.” If only I’d known to take a deep breath.

1. Are you sure you want to do a PhD degree?

Let’s be under no false impressions, completing a PhD isn’t easy. There will be times when you feel like Wile E Coyote chasing after the Roadrunner – a little bit out of your depth a lot of the time. It’s four years of your life, so make sure it is what you really want to do.

If you want to pursue a career in science, a PhD isn’t always necessary.

It is possible to make great inroads into industry without a doctoral degree. That said, a PhD can also be a very useful qualification with many transferable skills to add to your CV.

By the time you’ll have finished, you can include essentials such as time management, organisational skills, prioritising workloads, attention to detail, writing skills, presenting to an audience – and most importantly – resilience, to name but a few.

2. Choose your project, and supervisor, wisely.

This is  very  important.

Time after time, our experienced scientists at EI, including Erik Van-Den-Bergh (and I agree) say, “ make sure you’re extremely passionate about exactly that subject. ” When I saw the PhD opening that I eventually was offered, I remember being demonstrably ecstatic about the project before I’d even started it.

I was always interested in calcium signalling and organised a meeting with my potential supervisor immediately, which (to quote Billy Connolly) I leapt into in a mood of gay abandon.

Not only does this help you to keep engaged with your project even through the painstakingly slow times, it also greatly enhances your ability to sell yourself in an interview. If you can show passion and enthusiasm about the project and the science then you’ll be that one step ahead of other candidates – which is all the more important now that many studentships are competitive.

You have to  be the best  out of many, often exceptional candidates.

However, as important as it is to be passionate about your project, make sure that the person who will be supervising you is worthy.

Does your potential supervisor have a prolific track record of publishing work? What is the community of scientists like in the lab you may be working in? Are there experienced post-doctoral scientists working in the lab? Who will your advisor be? Is your supervisor an expert in the field you are interested in? Is the work you will be doing ground-breaking and novel, or is it quite niche?

There is nothing more frustrating – and I know many PhD degree students with this problem – than having a supervisor who is rarely there to talk to, shows little interest in your work, and cannot help when you are struggling in the third year of your project and some guidance would be much appreciated.

Personally, and I was very lucky to have this, I think it’s incredibly useful to have two supervisors. My PhD degree was split between the University of Manchester and the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. Between my supervisors, I had two people with expertise in different fields, who could give me some fantastic advice from different perspectives. This also meant that I had two people to check through my thesis chapters and provide useful comments on my drafts.

Make sure you are passionate about your subject before taking it to PhD level. And by passionate I mean  really  passionate.

For a start, you will most likely have to write a literature review in your first three months, which if done well will form the main bulk of your thesis introduction and will save you a lot of stress and strain when it comes to writing up.

At the end of your first year, you will have to write a continuation report, which is your proof that you deserve to carry on to the end of your three or four years. This doesn’t leave much time for lab work, which means time management is incredibly important. If you think you’ll be able to swan in at 11 and leave at 3, think again.

Fundamentally, never, ever rest on your laurels! As tempting as it may be to slack-off slightly in the second year of your four year PhD, don’t.

4. Be organised.

This is a no-brainer but still, it’s worth a mention. Take an hour on a Monday morning to come up with a list of short-term and long-term goals. You’ll probably have to present your work at regular lab meetings, so it’s always worth knowing what has to be done (lest you look a pillock in front of the lab when there’s nothing to show for your last two weeks.)

It’s always good to have a timeline of what will be done when. If you have a PCR, maybe you can squeeze in another experiment, read a few papers, start writing the introduction to your thesis, or even start collecting the data you already have into figures.

The more good use you make of your time, the easier it’ll be to finish your PhD in the long run. Plus, it’s lovely to sit back and look at actual graphs, rather than worry about having enough to put into a paper. Once you’ve typed up your data, you’ll realise you’ve done far more than you had anticipated and the next step forward will be entirely more apparent.

5. Embrace change – don’t get bogged down in the details.

Felix Shaw – one of our bioinformatics researchers at EI – put it best when he said, “ it felt like I was running into brick walls all the way through [my PhD]… you’d run into a brick wall, surmount it, only to run straight into another. ”

You’ll find that, often, experiments don’t work. What might seem like a great idea could turn out to be as bad as choosing to bat first on a fresh wicket on the first day of the third Ashes test at Edgbaston. (Yeah, we don't know what that means either - Ed).

Resilience is key while completing your PhD. Be open to change and embrace the chance to experiment in different ways. You might even end up with a thesis chapter including all of your failures, which at the very least is something interesting to discuss during your  viva voce .

6. Learn how to build, and use, your network.

As a PhD student, you are a complete novice in the world of science and most things in the lab will be – if not new to you – not exquisitely familiar. This matters not, if you take advantage of the people around you.

Firstly, there are lab technicians and research assistants, who have probably been using the technique you are learning for years and years. They are incredibly experienced at a number of techniques and are often very happy to help show you how things are done.

There are postdocs and other PhD students, too. Not only can they help you with day-to-day experiments, they can offer a unique perspective on how something is done and will probably have a handy back-catalogue of fancy new techniques to try.

There are also a bunch of PIs, not limited to your own, who are great to talk to. These people run labs of their own, have different ideas, and might even give you a job once you’ve completed your PhD.

Don’t limit yourself to the labs directly around you, however. There are a massive number of science conferences going on all around the world. Some of them, such as the Society of Biology Conference, take place every year at a similar time in different locations, attracting many of the leaders in their respective fields.

If you are terrified by the prospect of speaking at a full-blown science conference and having your work questioned by genuine skeptics, there are also many student-led conferences which will help you dangle your fresh toes in the murky waters of presenting your work.

One such conference, the Second Student Bioinformatics Symposium, which took place at Earlham Institute in October 2016, was a great place for candidates to share their projects with peers, who are often much more friendly than veteran researchers with 30 year careers to their name when it comes to the questions at the end of your talk.

Another great reason to attend conferences, of course, is the social-side too – make the most of this. You never know who you might meet and connect with over a few drinks once the talks are over and the party commences.

7. Keep your options open.

You should be aware that for every 200 PhD students,  only 7  will get a permanent academic post , so it’s  incredibly unlikely that you’ll become a Professor  – and even if you make PI, it probably won’t be until your mid-forties.

You may also, despite having commenced along the academic path, decide that actually, working in a lab environment isn’t for you. Most PhD graduates, eventually, will not pursue an academic career, but move on to a wide range of other vocations.

It might be that Science Communication is more up your street. This was certainly the case for me – and I made sure that I took part in as many public engagement events as possible while completing my PhD. Most Universities have an active public engagement profile, while organisations such as STEM can provide you with ample opportunities to interact with schools and the general public.

You might also consider entrepreneurship as a route away from academia, which might still allow you to use your expert scientific knowledge. There are a variety of competitions and workshops available to those with a business mind, a strong example being Biotechnology YES.

I, for example, took part in the Thought for Food Challenge, through which I have been able to attend events around the world and meet a vast array of like-minded individuals. Many of the participants from the challenge have gone on to set up successful businesses and have even found jobs as a result of the competition.

8. Balance.

Remember that you still have a life outside of your PhD degree – and that this can be one of the greatest opportunities to make amazing friends from around the world.

A science institute is usually home to the brightest students from a variety of countries and can provide a chance to experience a delightful range of different people and cultures. Don’t just stick to the people in your lab, go to events for postgraduate students and meet people from all over campus.

There are usually academic happy hours happening on Fridays after work where you can buy cheap beer, or some lucky institutions even have their own bar. At Norwich Research Park, we not only have the Rec Centre, along with bar, swimming pool, calcetto, samba classes, archery, and a range of other activities, but there are also biweekly “Postdoc pub clubs” which are very fun to join on a Tuesday evening.

Maintain your hobbies and keep up with friends outside of your PhD and you’ll probably find it’s not that gruelling a process after all.

Plus, the people you meet and become friends with might be able to help you out – or at least be able to offer a sympathetic shoulder.

9. Practical advice.

If, after reading all of this, you’re still going to march forth and claim your doctorhood, then this section should be rather useful.

Firstly, make sure your data is backed up. It’s amazing how many people don’t do this and you’d be bonkers not to. Keep your work saved on a shared drive, so that if your computer decides to spontaneously combust upon pressing the return key, you won’t have lost all of your precious work – or have to go through every one of your lab books and type it all up again.

Secondly, don’t leave your bag in the pub with your half-written thesis in it. I did this, the bag was fine, I was in a state of terror for at least half an hour before the kind person at Weatherspoons located said bag.

Thirdly, read. Read broadly, read anything and everything that’s closely related to your project – or completely unrelated. It’s sometimes amazing where you might find a stroke of inspiration, a new technique you hadn’t thought of … or even in idea of where you might like to go next.

Finally, ask questions – all of the time. No matter how stupid it might sound in your head, everyone’s probably been asked it before, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

You’ll probably look far less stupid if you just ask the person standing next to you how the gradient PCR function works on your thermal cycler rather than standing there randomly prodding buttons and looking flustered, anyway.

10. Savour the positives.

At the end of all of this, it has to be said that doing a PhD is absolutely brilliant. There’s no other time in your life that you’ll be this free to pursue your very own project and work almost completely independently. By the time you come to the end of your PhD, you will be the leading expert in the world on something. A real expert! Until the next PhD student comes along …

Related reading.

A PhD, is it worth it? Just ask our students

The realities of doing a PhD

My advice for PhD students? See what bites

COVID and my PhD: to lockdown and back

How does a PhD work and how to find the right one

Building the confidence to take on a PhD

PhD life, 10 things we learned in our first six months

What’s the third year of a PhD like? Tips for navigating your PhD

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Your roadmap to PhD success: freshman year advice for aspiring researchers

By JOHN CINTRON | August 19, 2024

COURTESY OF JOHN CINTRON

Cintron sitting at his workspace on the 9th floor lab, part of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute.

First off, welcome to the Nest! As a freshman, you’re probably not even sure what you want to pursue yet or you might simply be feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities you can take with your life and career path. As someone who’s tried it all — Pre-Med, Economics, Consulting, Marketing, Filmmaking, Engineering and much more — I can safely say that acquiring a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is the end goal that I intend to achieve.

To apply for a doctorate program, you need to maintain excellent grades and demonstrate your ability to manage a rigorous course load with other extracurricular and leadership activities. However, joining a lab (wet: manipulating liquids, biological matter and chemicals or dry: computational, physics and engineering) and beginning to work on actual research at university is arguably the most important thing you can do as a pre-PhD, pre-MD-PhD or even pre-med freshman. This will not be your average Chemistry lab experience as it will allow you opportunities to partake in independent research.

Independent research has been my greatest academic passion for as long as I can remember, from winning high school science fairs to participating in various forms of undergraduate research. As an undergraduate, I am motivated to pursue independent research in order to gain as much exposure and training as possible before beginning a Ph.D. program. I am interested in working in a research lab at Hopkins, not only because of how renowned the institution is for research, but also to make the most of my college education. 

Here’s what you need to do to get into a research lab as a freshman. Be ready to scour the internet; look around at all of the research labs Hopkins offers. Find what you think suits your current interests. Look into ForagerOne , an online platform designed specifically to connect undergraduate students with Faculty conducting research. You can look into department websites as well for faculty research profiles.You already made it here, which was the hardest part! Hopkins, being the nation’s oldest and best-funded research university, allows you access to labs that conduct cutting-edge research in their respective fields, so there is no shortage of opportunities.

​​Once you find a lab that resonates with you, reach out to the principal investigator (PI) of that lab by using your Hopkins email. Cold emails truly work best, as long as you keep it concise and make it known that you’re willing to commit to the research. You’ll end up meeting the PI or a post-doctoral researcher in the lab, which is where you can each lay out your expectations to one another (in terms of research, time commitment, recommendations, etc.) and see if the lab is a good fit for you. You’re going to want to start this process sooner rather than later!

Even if you end up realizing you don’t have a passion for or enjoy the lab you’re in as a freshman, that’s perfectly normal; you simply need experience. Many students switch labs for sophomore year and beyond!

Additionally, a research experience at Hopkins can be helpful to secure your dream summer research experience. My research experiences at Hopkins allowed me to realize my passion for working in the lab, even in the midst of my busy class schedule. I realized being a part of a summer research experience would allow me to put a 100% focus on my research and cultivate my interests further. 

You will not only be able to gain practical skills from your lab, but you can also ask for a letter of recommendation from your supervisor. Most REU programs value your letter of recommendation the most, so you need to make good impressions as a student researcher in your lab as early as possible, since applications have due dates around January/February.

This past summer, I was given the amazing opportunity to conduct research in the field of Neuroimmunology at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard as a participant in the Broad Summer Research Program. I gained so many useful skills from this REU, including improving my scientific writing, quickly learning extensive information about my specific field of research, creating an engaging research poster and delivering effective scientific presentations. 

REUs allow you to use your summer to conduct meaningful research and expand your network. The wide array of skills I gained from participating in an REU will allow me to more thoroughly engage and contribute ideas in my research lab back at Hopkins!

Again, good luck as you begin your academic journey, and welcome to the Nest!

John Cintron is a sophomore from Fort Myers, Fla. majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He is a News Writer for The News-Letter.

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: beneath the surface of consistency: exploring cross-lingual knowledge representation sharing in llms.

Abstract: The veracity of a factoid is largely independent of the language it is written in. However, language models are inconsistent in their ability to answer the same factual question across languages. This raises questions about how LLMs represent a given fact across languages. We explore multilingual factual knowledge through two aspects: the model's ability to answer a query consistently across languages, and the ability to ''store'' answers in a shared representation for several languages. We propose a methodology to measure the extent of representation sharing across languages by repurposing knowledge editing methods. We examine LLMs with various multilingual configurations using a new multilingual dataset. We reveal that high consistency does not necessarily imply shared representation, particularly for languages with different scripts. Moreover, we find that script similarity is a dominant factor in representation sharing. Finally, we observe that if LLMs could fully share knowledge across languages, their accuracy in their best-performing language could benefit an increase of up to 150\% on average. These findings highlight the need for improved multilingual knowledge representation in LLMs and suggest a path for the development of more robust and consistent multilingual LLMs.

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At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), we equip you to use chemical engineering science to solve real-world problems. Learn to use advanced numerical methods, computational fluid mechanics, and process simulation and optimization techniques to develop energy-efficient and sustainable manufacturing processes for new and existing products.

Our master's degree programs prepare you to make meaningful contributions to various industries or pursue a Ph.D. Complete a Master of Science (MS) in Chemical Engineering in four semesters with an independent research project or earn a Master of Chemical Engineering (MChE) in two semesters.

CMU’s College of Engineering ranks seventh in the U.S. News & World Report list of best graduate engineering programs,  with our chemical engineering program ranked thirteenth. Find success with CMU’s MS in Chemical Engineering or Master of Chemical Engineering degree programs, where our industry-relevant curriculum and unparalleled emphasis on computational expertise converge to shape your future.

Why earn a master's degree in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon?

Practical and industry-relevant curriculum.

Our Master of Science and Master of Chemical Engineering degree programs provide a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of chemical engineering. Our core curriculum builds on your bachelor's-level engineering education, enhancing your problem-solving and mathematical modeling skills. You will have the flexibility to personalize your program with curated electives that match your interests and career goals.

Our programs empower you to model and solve complex scenarios in theoretical contexts and practical applications. View degree requirements for both programs .

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Our distinguished faculty lead research projects that prepare you for the challenges of the professional world. MChE students can gain insights from their innovative work by completing engaging coursework, and MS students can join their team and contribute to their findings.

Current research explorations by the chemical engineering department's faculty include:

• Air quality and climate
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• Soft materials and complex fluids

A one-of-a-kind computational focus

The MS and MChE programs have a unique computational emphasis that equips you with cutting-edge skills crucial for tackling complex challenges in chemical engineering. The Department of Chemical Engineering integrates computing throughout the curriculum, readying you for core areas of chemical engineering, such as reactor engineering, process systems, and transport phenomena.

As a CMU chemical engineering graduate student, you can access advanced mathematical modeling and simulation software you can use for coursework and research projects.

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Nestled within Doherty Hall, the department's cutting-edge labs and advanced computing facilities stand as hubs of innovation. Conduct research using state-of-the-art instruments and leverage high-performance computing capabilities.

We designed our research labs to encourage collaboration and cross-disciplinary thinking. Unlike traditional closed-room setups, the majority of our labs have open spaces that accommodate multiple research groups. This unique configuration enables interdisciplinary interactions and the seamless exchange of ideas between researchers.

Supportive environment for chemical engineering students

CMU takes pride in fostering a supportive community for graduate students. With half of our student population composed of master's degree and Ph.D. candidates, we understand the unique needs and aspirations that drive advanced academic pursuits.

The Department of Chemical Engineering has a close-knit and collaborative graduate student community. Many students join the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association (ChEGSA) and the Chemical Engineering Master's Student Association (ChEMSA), which organize social, academic, and networking events.

"Studying ChemE at Carnegie Mellon gives you the opportunity to learn about a multitude of scientific specializations through research and classes. You may choose to focus on experimental or computational work in disciplines ranging from nanoscience to process engineering. Through cutting-edge research and a supportive culture, you'll engage with people whose ideas and expertise can change the world."

Tim Schwartzkopff, MS, fall 2023

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Master of science in chemical engineering.

The MS in Chemical Engineering allows you to explore a specialized topic that interests you through an independent project. Consider this option if you want to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering or engage in advanced research roles.

Completing the degree program requires the equivalent of four full-time semesters, in which the summer semester is focused on your independent project.

• Core courses (4) - Take core courses that focus on technical depth and software aptitude.
• Electives - Personalize your master's experience with curated electives from different areas of the College of Engineering.
• Independent project - Work with a research mentor on a three-semester independent project that specializes in one of the subdisciplines of chemical engineering.

Master of Chemical Engineering

The Master of Chemical Engineering program offers a more structured curriculum with an emphasis on gaining advanced knowledge and practical skills for immediate application in industry.

Full-time students typically finish the coursework-based degree program in two semesters.

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• Electives (4+) - Select courses from all areas of the College of Engineering that fit your interests and career goals.

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Students in the MS and MChE programs learn from and research with world-class faculty at CMU. Learn more about our professors and their areas of expertise .

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The Department of Chemical Engineering's unrivaled computational focus allows you to learn pioneering techniques already revolutionizing the fields of materials and chemical discovery, among others. This unique feature is one of the reasons our graduates are some of the most sought-after candidates in both industry and academia. In fact, 90% of CMU graduate students who graduated in 2021 and 2022 have found jobs or are continuing their education.

Chemical engineering master's degree graduates go on to pursue doctoral degrees at universities such as:

• Georgia Institute of Technology
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• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

CMU chemical engineering graduates go on to work at companies such as:

Recent job titles for our graduates include:

• Advanced process control and machine learning engineer
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Mean salary*: $88,199

*Based on survey results from program graduates

See post-graduation salaries and destination information for recent CMU Chemical Engineering graduates.

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Graduate Student Interns Aboard a Research Vessel 130 Miles Out at Sea

August 19, 2024

Southern Connecticut State University graduate student Abby Lucas recounts her path to collecting environmental DNA samples in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

I am a Master’s student in Southern Connecticut State University’s Integrative Biological Diversity Program. I have worked at the university’s Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies throughout undergraduate and graduate school. I participated in many studies there, including field work onshore and on the water in coastal New England. Through the center, I met my Master’s thesis advisor Emma Cross, a professor and the center’s co-director. I first learned about environmental DNA while assisting in her lab’s field project, monitoring biodiversity near aquaculture sites using eDNA metabarcoding.

Through networking I connected with Fish Biologist Yuan Liu of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, who leads their eDNA program. I reached out to learn more about how Yuan’s career path and experience helped her reach the position she has now. During this meeting, Yuan mentioned that she needed help carrying out her eDNA sampling on an upcoming research cruise and asked if I would be willing to assist her. The answer was a no-brainer—YES!

This internship experience is directly contributing to my success as a graduate student and beyond. I am also receiving internship course credit which counts toward my Master’s degree.

Where did we go and why?

We set out aboard the R/V Connecticut toward the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is the only Marine National Monument in the Atlantic. Scientists from NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Connecticut, and Mystic Aquarium partnered to study this area over time. They use multiple methods to measure biodiversity, how animals interact with living and nonliving members of the ecosystem, and community changes over time. The chief scientist of this expedition, Peter Auster from the University of Connecticut, describes the monument as an ocean wilderness, and it is teeming with marine life.

eDNA Sampling

We collected Yuan’s water samples for environmental DNA analysis using a Conductivity Temperature and Depth rosette. These tools have multiple Niskin bottles rigged onto a frame (the Rosette) and are lowered into the ocean as deep as its cable could reach. At the desired conductivity, temperature or depth, Niskin bottles were triggered to close and capture a water sample. I participated in the filtering process on this cruise, in which we used a Smith-Root eDNA Sampler to pump water collected in Niskin bottles through filters. These filters have very small holes, or pores, which allow water to pass. Any particulates bigger than the pore size get stuck on the filter. This portable eDNA sampler is the first of its kind. Other methods to filter eDNA seawater samples include vacuum pumps or peristaltic pumps. All three filtration methods produce trustworthy results, but the applications of each are different. For maximizing efficiency of time and space aboard research vessels, the Smith-Root eDNA Sampler works very well.

Life Aboard an R/V

This was my first research cruise spanning more than a day and I was curious how I would like it. I have done plenty of work on boats without getting seasick but that worry was on my mind. I was given great advice from the veteran scientists I sailed with: look at the horizon while on the boat, have motion sickness medication at the ready, and usually the first day is the worst for motion sickness. It goes away as the body adjusts.

It was a privilege to sail with so many incredible scientists and educators. The experience of seeing scientists of varying career stages share the same sustained level of passion and excitement for the ocean has inspired me in countless ways. There were a slew of moments when everyone paused to admire gelatinous organisms that were freshly collected, or video footage from scuba diving. This was a once in a lifetime experience which I am grateful to have under my belt. I look forward to the next time I get to go on a research expedition.

Meet the Blogger

Abigail Lucas

Abby is a graduate student at SCSU. She is studying biodiversity changes over time in marine environments using environmental DNA metabarcoding. She is always eager to get out on the water and in the field to conduct research, as she loves taking on the challenges which come with unpredictable fieldwork. When not at school or work Abby can be found enjoying the sunset at the beach.

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• Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis in the Northeasta

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Last updated by Northeast Fisheries Science Center on August 19, 2024