The Grad School Thread

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CoffeeQuestionMark said:
When I had a poster presentation, I got people to talk to me by yelling "yo sup dawg" as they walked by. It did the job.
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My catch line was “WANNA LEARN ABOUT SKUA POOP??!!!????!”

75% of the time... it worked every time
 
Stroganoff said:
I've never been to an academic conference, but I assume they're like industry conferences where you have a place to stand and set up. Y'all have been to non-academic conferences right? Just use the same attention-getting techniques and creativity that you see at booths (visual aids, projectors, TVs, games where people have to ask questions about your research in order to play, prizes, actual demos and stuff to play with relevant to the research and development).
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Not quite the same as far as the setup. At an academic conference for a poster session you are literally given a rectangle on which to put a poster and some tacks. You aren't given access to a table or any AV equipment or anything. And the likelihood is you're a grad student with no money and you've flown there from far away and can't bring all of your gadgets with you, and probably didn't have time to do all of that sort of planning anyway. That's precisely why the person who designed that video arranged things the way they did - it not only has to be able to be parsed quickly and be attention grabbing, it also has to be feasible for a grad student to do with limited time.

Now all of the academic conferences also have industry type of areas set up too that have all of those bells and whistles like little booths. Those are for industry people who pay for the spots and that's their whole entire job and they have a bunch of space and access to AV equipment.
 
nyanko said:
Not quite the same as far as the setup. At an academic conference for a poster session you are literally given a rectangle on which to put a poster and some tacks. You aren't given access to a table or any AV equipment or anything. And the likelihood is you're a grad student with no money and you've flown there from far away and can't bring all of your gadgets with you, and probably didn't have time to do all of that sort of planning anyway. That's precisely why the person who designed that video arranged things the way they did - it not only has to be able to be parsed quickly and be attention grabbing, it also has to be feasible for a grad student to do with limited time.

Now all of the academic conferences also have industry type of areas set up too that have all of those bells and whistles like little booths. Those are for industry people who pay for the spots and that's their whole entire job and they have a bunch of space and access to AV equipment.
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Interesting, and that makes sense re: the student budget and also not being provided any floor space (even a tiny 4 foot folding table!). I feel like there's a lot of old school mentality and people "stuck in their ways"/"this is how we've always done things" in academia and that really needs to go away/change for the better. It's really super important to engage an audience and have lots of freedom in one's presentation style rather than just go through the motions IMO.

I'm saving up for a short-throw projector (they're getting cheaper!) and a portable projector screen I can take on an airplane for when I'm in grad school.
 
Not sure I can get into vet school, so I am interesting in getting a study masters in between undergrad and vet school. I want to work with zoological medicine/conservation! How do you guys find master's programs?? With vet schools you can just go to the VMCAS website, is there a website like that for masters??
 
justwannabeavet said:
Not sure I can get into vet school, so I am interesting in getting a study masters in between undergrad and vet school. I want to work with zoological medicine/conservation! How do you guys find master's programs?? With vet schools you can just go to the VMCAS website, is there a website like that for masters??
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I’d look at universities that you’d like to go to vet school. That would be the easiest route to start with in my opinion. Go to their main university website and look at the graduate school page and explore grad programs there. They might have degree programs in Animal Science, Poultry Science, Marine Science or even the CVM itself. The grad school of the specific university should list all the graduate programs and whether they offer a masters.
 
kcoughli said:
Guys new concept on poster design for conferences. It's actually genius, I know the video is long but it makes so much sense!
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I found a better poster design.

485D3558-BE6A-42C5-95FC-C706860A9FD9.jpeg
 
Hello fabulous smart people in here, I have a question, and hopefully no one will laugh at me for asking. But several of the masters programs I’m looking into, before an application can be submitted you have to formally find a faculty advisor. And be able to put their name in the app, so when you’re done they can say they’ve approved you to be in their department after the rest of your app is reviewed.

While I get the logic behind doing this I am fully stumped/intimidated on how to go about it. I realize I’ll have to send an email, but I don’t know really what the best approach to take is. Can I email a bunch of different professors that their research interests me? Do I need to do one at a time and wait for each person to decide if they’d have funding/space for me? I don’t know. It’s at a school in my state but I didn’t attend undergrad there so I don’t know a single professor, which also just seems off-putting on how to make yourself seem appealing while also not shoving your whole resume in word vomit form at them.

Anyways I’ve looked up sample emails and that kind of thing, but I didn’t know if anyone in here had to do that for their program, and if they had any thoughts or advice. :bag: I’m also a huge introvert/shy person if this message hasn’t already screamed that.
 
dolphin106258 said:
Hello fabulous smart people in here, I have a question, and hopefully no one will laugh at me for asking. But several of the masters programs I’m looking into, before an application can be submitted you have to formally find a faculty advisor. And be able to put their name in the app, so when you’re done they can say they’ve approved you to be in their department after the rest of your app is reviewed.

While I get the logic behind doing this I am fully stumped/intimidated on how to go about it. I realize I’ll have to send an email, but I don’t know really what the best approach to take is. Can I email a bunch of different professors that their research interests me? Do I need to do one at a time and wait for each person to decide if they’d have funding/space for me? I don’t know. It’s at a school in my state but I didn’t attend undergrad there so I don’t know a single professor, which also just seems off-putting on how to make yourself seem appealing while also not shoving your whole resume in word vomit form at them.

Anyways I’ve looked up sample emails and that kind of thing, but I didn’t know if anyone in here had to do that for their program, and if they had any thoughts or advice. :bag: I’m also a huge introvert/shy person if this message hasn’t already screamed that.
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I did this!

The first email I sent was very brief. I just introduced myself, said that I was interested in a specific project that I knew about in their lab, and asked if it would be possible to meet (I guess you'd have to do a phone call or Skype if they're not local schools) to discuss further. You can also enquire if they have any openings for grad students.

I met with my current PI once before submitting a letter of intent, and then again before submitting the final application.

We have a MS student who just started here. She was talking to 4 programs/professors at the same time while she was applying and deciding where to go. You don't need to limit yourself to one at a time, no one's feelings will be hurt if you explore what program will be the best fit for you.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
I did this!

The first email I sent was very brief. I just introduced myself, said that I was interested in a specific project that I knew about in their lab, and asked if it would be possible to meet (I guess you'd have to do a phone call or Skype if they're not local schools) to discuss further. You can also enquire if they have any openings for grad students.

I met with my current PI once before submitting a letter of intent, and then again before submitting the final application.

We have a MS student who just started here. She was talking to 4 programs/professors at the same time while she was applying and deciding where to go. You don't need to limit yourself to one at a time, no one's feelings will be hurt if you explore what program will be the best fit for you.
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All of this. I’d send you a copy of what I sent but it’s on my undergrad email which I don’t have on my phone anymore.

Look for professors you like and a good sign would be that they offer up current or former grad students’ emails and tell you to get in touch with them. It’ll give you a chance to see what lab life is like. That (IMO) shows they don’t have anything to hid and it’s a good lab environment. My PI from my master’s did and was able to talk to the student that l eventually worked with in lab.
 
I met with both of the students my PI had and heard what their thoughts were, what PI's expectations are like, what working in her lab is like, etc. Highly recommend doing this, as Bales said. It will help you identify red flags before you sign a contract.
 
This week in the life of postgrad academia bales, I learned how to place femoral arterial and jugular vein catheters, how to draw blood for then read and interpret blood gases, and administer meds.

Am I mad at this career path? No

Am I pretty dang close to vet med without being a vet? Maybe idk
 
Balesofhay said:
This week in the life of postgrad academia bales, I learned how to place femoral arterial and jugular vein catheters, how to draw blood for then read and interpret blood gases, and administer meds.

Am I mad at this career path? No

Am I pretty dang close to vet med without being a vet? Maybe idk
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Yay! I'm glad your job is going well!
 
WildZoo said:
Me: Can I take the lead on this super important paper? I know I'll be in clinics but I should have time for it

PI: yes, and we want to submit for publication by August

Me: oh ****
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Just an unfriendly reminder that it's now August.

I'm starting to look more into this pathway. I'm a bit nervous about dropping some cold call emails to people throughout the USDA, but hopefully it'll get me more informed and prepared for what I could be facing ahead.

School is going to go on forever
 
Teepster87 said:
Just an unfriendly reminder that it's now August.

I'm starting to look more into this pathway. I'm a bit nervous about dropping some cold call emails to people throughout the USDA, but hopefully it'll get me more informed and prepared for what I could be facing ahead.

School is going to go on forever
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It's not August for another 19 minutes Teep
 
PrincessButterCup said:
It's not August for another 19 minutes Teep
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My freshly submitted NAVLE registration (due August 1st) likes this post


Teepster87 said:
Just an unfriendly reminder that it's now August.
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It got pushed to mid-August (phew). But I'm presenting on it next week. Presentation not yet fully put together. Weeeee.

Teepster87 said:
I'm starting to look more into this pathway. I'm a bit nervous about dropping some cold call emails to people throughout the USDA, but hopefully it'll get me more informed and prepared for what I could be facing ahead.

School is going to go on forever
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Yes, join us. Welcome to the Hotel Academia, you can graduate but you can never leave...
 
Did I ever update my degree plans here? I don't think so, but I'm too lazy to double check.

So I am going to finish out my MS degree. Originally I'd planned to roll into the PhD program after my first year, but that's no longer ideal for a couple of reasons. The biggest is that I want to go onto a different department, so I'd end up losing most/all of my credits if I tried to transfer into a PhD from where I am now. The current plan is to present my MS thesis next summer and then start a PhD with the same lab, but in bioinformatics instead of animal science. I didn't even know what bioinformatics was when I started, so I'm actually a little relieved that I didn't jump head-first into a PhD before feeling out the field a little better.

I haven't applied for the bioinformatics program yet, and there's a chance I'll have to do the GRE again. So that will be fun. 😛
 
Hey folks,

when applying to phd programs...is it usually that people already have things lined up to undertake a phd and the application is more of a formality? Or is it common to apply to a few different schools/programs like vet school? I'm a bit lost when some of these applications I'm looking at have spaces to list your potential advisor.
 
Teepster87 said:
Hey folks,

when applying to phd programs...is it usually that people already have things lined up to undertake a phd and the application is more of a formality? Or is it common to apply to a few different schools/programs like vet school? I'm a bit lost when some of these applications I'm looking at have spaces to list your potential advisor.
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Both! I know some schools expect you to have things arranged with a PI before you apply (like my school) and others pay more attention to the application pool. When I applied it was a formality and I was already "accepted" through my boss. It's hard to know until you talk to people there.
 
I had an epiphany today regarding this one really frustrating project. I stumbled upon a paper from over 50 years ago in a completely different species than what we're working with and thought "Hey, this might work for us!". It was a wonderful 30 minutes of brainstorming and having daydreams of success and victory.

I talked to my boss and said "So what if we tried . . ."

🤣

I'll let you guys guess how brilliant my idea actually was. (Hint: it was very flawed. Very, very flawed.)

Now back to the real world.
 
I like my latest fun game where I submit an abstract to a conference and don't expect it to be accepted, but then it is accepted and I didn't save whatever abstract I submitted and now have to make a poster while not being able to remember which project I wrote about in the first place. Fun game. Almost as fun as the one where I write the grocery list and then leave it on the counter and try to remember it at the store.
 
supershorty said:
I like my latest fun game where I submit an abstract to a conference and don't expect it to be accepted, but then it is accepted and I didn't save whatever abstract I submitted and now have to make a poster while not being able to remember which project I wrote about in the first place. Fun game. Almost as fun as the one where I write the grocery list and then leave it on the counter and try to remember it at the store.
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Is it possible to ask for a copy of your abstract? “My cat ate my abstract can you send it back” 🤣
 
supershorty said:
I like my latest fun game where I submit an abstract to a conference and don't expect it to be accepted, but then it is accepted and I didn't save whatever abstract I submitted and now have to make a poster while not being able to remember which project I wrote about in the first place. Fun game. Almost as fun as the one where I write the grocery list and then leave it on the counter and try to remember it at the store.
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They don't tell you which abstract was accepted??
 
supershorty said:
I like my latest fun game where I submit an abstract to a conference and don't expect it to be accepted, but then it is accepted and I didn't save whatever abstract I submitted and now have to make a poster while not being able to remember which project I wrote about in the first place. Fun game. Almost as fun as the one where I write the grocery list and then leave it on the counter and try to remember it at the store.
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Research is all about organization for sure. Save yourself and keep a folder for every little thing you do. Seems time consuming in the moment, but saves you in the long run! 🙂
 
Lupin21 said:
Research is all about organization for sure. Save yourself and keep a folder for every little thing you do. Seems time consuming in the moment, but saves you in the long run! 🙂
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Related but not, keep a list of references in a google doc or excel file. And if you find a cool factoid you definitely want to include in your future publication, record where you got it from so you aren't rereading all of your references trying to find it again so you can properly cite it. Because that is my life right now and I've been cursing my past-self for days...
 
Everyone keeps asking me when I’m starting my PhD and I’m like... give me a minute I’d like to see how life is without school for a bit. Ask me in a year
 
kcoughli said:
Related but not, keep a list of references in a google doc or excel file. And if you find a cool factoid you definitely want to include in your future publication, record where you got it from so you aren't rereading all of your references trying to find it again so you can properly cite it. Because that is my life right now and I've been cursing my past-self for days...
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I actually have something like this put together that I'm going to use eventually for prelim preparation. Normally I'm super organized, it's why I'm so confused about not being able to find the abstract I submitted. Past Me must have been in a big time rush.
 
I do have a couple docs I will save random cited nonsense in for possible later use. For everything else, there's Mendeley.

Balesofhay said:
Everyone keeps asking me when I’m starting my PhD and I’m like... give me a minute I’d like to see how life is without school for a bit. Ask me in a year
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It's a trap.
 
supershorty said:
I actually have something like this put together that I'm going to use eventually for prelim preparation. Normally I'm super organized, it's why I'm so confused about not being able to find the abstract I submitted. Past Me must have been in a big time rush.
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I went old school with a notebook. I wrote pages and pages of brief summaries and highlights from the papers I was reading when prepping for mine.
 
Guys help I don't know what I want to do with my life.

My boss mentioned 'immunogenetics' kind of in passing and I had a 'HOLD UP MY TWO LOVES HAD A BABY AND ARE THEIR OWN FIELD OF RESEARCH' moment and now I've been looking at other grad school programs and holy ****. This field is literally my thesis on steroids and I want it.

Apparently a lot of schools did away with GRE requirements this cycle which knocks out one of the big reasons I didn't want to apply to other programs. And tuition waivers/better stipends are looking REALLY nice right now, after paying for summer credits and surgery, and currently having no grocery budget left until mid September . . . I thought I had a PhD plan and now I don't even know.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Guys help I don't know what I want to do with my life.

My boss mentioned 'immunogenetics' kind of in passing and I had a 'HOLD UP MY TWO LOVES HAD A BABY AND ARE THEIR OWN FIELD OF RESEARCH' moment and now I've been looking at other grad school programs and holy ****. This field is literally my thesis on steroids and I want it.

Apparently a lot of schools did away with GRE requirements this cycle which knocks out one of the big reasons I didn't want to apply to other programs. And tuition waivers/better stipends are looking REALLY nice right now, after paying for summer credits and surgery, and currently having no grocery budget left until mid September . . . I thought I had a PhD plan and now I don't even know.
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Sounds exciting!!!
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Guys help I don't know what I want to do with my life.

My boss mentioned 'immunogenetics' kind of in passing and I had a 'HOLD UP MY TWO LOVES HAD A BABY AND ARE THEIR OWN FIELD OF RESEARCH' moment and now I've been looking at other grad school programs and holy ****. This field is literally my thesis on steroids and I want it.

Apparently a lot of schools did away with GRE requirements this cycle which knocks out one of the big reasons I didn't want to apply to other programs. And tuition waivers/better stipends are looking REALLY nice right now, after paying for summer credits and surgery, and currently having no grocery budget left until mid September . . . I thought I had a PhD plan and now I don't even know.
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That sounds really exciting 🙂 I’m hoping it’s not a “grass is greener” approach though? My other question (as someone who has never been in grad school) is how much bridge burning would there be if you were to switch programs at this point?
 
that redhead said:
That sounds really exciting 🙂 I’m hoping it’s not a “grass is greener” approach though? My other question (as someone who has never been in grad school) is how much bridge burning would there be if you were to switch programs at this point?
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Honestly it might be a grass is greener thing. I was originally planning to roll over into an animal science PhD here without finishing an MS, so I clearly haven't decided what I'm doing with my education yet.

I came into this lab specifically for the parasite resistance project I'm on, and my PI doesn't have any other disease/immunology related grants in the works. I don't know what my dissertation would look like if I stay or if it would really match my end goal. What I'm doing now is heavy genetics / light immunology and I'd really love something with the opposite weight, or at least more equal. I'm taking over a bioinformatics project now and I would like to keep working with these types of tools, which it looks like a lot of immunogenetics work does.

I'm graduating this summer with my MS (unless something goes very wrong in the next ten months). My PI knows I don't want to do my PhD in animal science, and she's not a huge fan of our bioinformatics program (she's faculty in both programs), which is what I'd want to go into if I stay at this university. My PI has made comments to the effect of 'you might need a different lab if you want to do this', but we still need to sit down and have a 'so what does my future look like?' talk. I'm not signed on for anything past this summer at this point, though I think I can stay in this lab if I want. I know people do their BS/MS/PhD in the same university/department and it's fine (my labmate is doing this) but it makes me a little nervous. I don't think any bridges will be burned if I decide to leave, as long as I make my intentions clear and keep my PI in the loop. I'd definitely need a LOR from her so I'm going to be really open about discussing all this with her.

This university has a somewhat limited course offering and after six years here I'm nearing the limit of the relevant courses. It would be nice to be somewhere with more faculty in my area of interest and more specialized courses. The bioinformatics faculty are microbiology and evolution centered, so there's not a lot of immunology related courses or opportunities. The reason I'm interested in bioinformatics is because I'd like to take more programming/statistics courses and build those skills, though I realize that would mean putting less focus on the biology and bench work. I don't want to be a straight up programmer, but I want to be able to run pipelines for genomic data and do relevant coding.

I've talked about money here before. We get about 20k a year in our stipends, but we pay all tuition and fees, and I'm really skeptical about being in this position much longer. It's really enticing to see stipends offered at 30k or more and tuition/fees/health insurance provided. My university has just announced huge budget cuts and this year we aren't being paid for our TA work. My stipend would maybe increase by 2k if I became a PhD student, but still - it would be nice to have a more liveable earning.

So it's a combination of the project I love ending this year and no related projects opening in this lab, better money possible elsewhere, and maybe improving career options by going into a program that combines immunology and genetics more intentionally.

I am pretty skeptical of my chances though. I wasn't a strong student in undergrad and I was rejected twice from vet school and then from the other school I applied to for grad school last year. I think finishing my MS and having that experience will help my application, and also not having to submit GRE scores. I applied directly to this lab but all the programs I'm looking at do 3-4 lab rotations with all incoming students, so I'd be in the total application pool and not just competing against students who are interested in the same lab as me. That's hella intimidating.

So . . . I don't know. I really don't know what will happen or what I want to do.
 
There's also the 'stay in a livestock program or switch to human science' quandary. I found one lab doing canine cancer, but the vast majority is human focused. I'm not sure I have a strong preference either way and that concerns me. Both of my labmates are strongly 'animal science is where it's at', as is my boss, and I'm more 'there's cool science everywhere'. I'm worried it's a bad sign I'm not sold on one versus the other. :shrug:
 
PrincessButterCup said:
There's also the 'stay in a livestock program or switch to human science' quandary. I found one lab doing canine cancer, but the vast majority is human focused. I'm not sure I have a strong preference either way and that concerns me. Both of my labmates are strongly 'animal science is where it's at', as is my boss, and I'm more 'there's cool science everywhere'. I'm worried it's a bad sign I'm not sold on one versus the other. :shrug:
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It sounds like despite not know “the answer”’yet, you’ve really thought this through! Honestly, from what you’ve said, switching places is probably the best thing for you.

And while I imagine it’s tough to go from a strong animal focus to humans, I think you shouldn’t be afraid to make the switch if the majority of the work that interests you is in the human sector of things 🙂

Good luck with the decision making!
 
that redhead said:
It sounds like despite not know “the answer”’yet, you’ve really thought this through! Honestly, from what you’ve said, switching places is probably the best thing for you.

And while I imagine it’s tough to go from a strong animal focus to humans, I think you shouldn’t be afraid to make the switch if the majority of the work that interests you is in the human sector of things 🙂

Good luck with the decision making!
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Thanks! I think I'm really leaning towards applying elsewhere but I'm not going to write anything off yet.

I think PI is gently nudging me out. She's putting our new student on my cell project as a second pair of hands and to train her 'just in case' (which is 100% okay with me, it takes two people sometimes and the tech that's been helping me isn't available all the time) and with other comments I think she can tell what's coming. That's a little comforting at least. Hopefully I can have a conversation with her soon about all this. 🙂
 
PrincessButterCup said:
The reason I'm interested in bioinformatics is because I'd like to take more programming/statistics courses and build those skills, though I realize that would mean putting less focus on the biology and bench work. I don't want to be a straight up programmer, but I want to be able to run pipelines for genomic data and do relevant coding.
Click to expand...

I think I've said this before but you definitely don't need to do straight bioinformatics to be able to attain that goal. As far as I can tell bioinformatics is legit for straight up programming types who want to actually design algorithms. To learn the programs to use for genomics work and some perl code is like, a handful of classes, not an entire Ph.D.
 
nyanko said:
I think I've said this before but you definitely don't need to do straight bioinformatics to be able to attain that goal. As far as I can tell bioinformatics is legit for straight up programming types who want to actually design algorithms. To learn the programs to use for genomics work and some perl code is like, a handful of classes, not an entire Ph.D.
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Yup! I remember that conversation. 🙂 The program here calls itself bioinformatics but it's really a dual focus, so for the degree I'd take 3 core courses (evolution, comp biology, and genetics based), 2 specifically for programming/stats, and 3 specifically biology, and possibly some additional elective courses. My boss doesn't love it because she doesn't think there's really time to master either subject, so you come away with less biology than other programs and less programming than 'real' bioinformatics programs. Which yes, is definitely something to consider. I've spoken with some current students and a graduate from the program, and it sounds like their experiences match up with what I'd hope to get out of it. The graduate also has a job similar to what I could see myself doing, albeit she's in microbiome research, and it's n=1 as far as seeing what graduates have gone on to do.

I was really excited when I first learned about that program, but I definitely feel like it's not a perfect fit for my career goals and unless there's a really amazing project to stay for in my current lab, it wouldn't be worth it. I've found some reputable online bioinformatics certificate programs that would be relatively inexpensive and would be a way to put python, etc certifications on my CV, so there are things I can do to train without having to join a bioinformatics PhD program. I guess what it comes down to is that I don't want an animal science PhD from this school and bioinformatics is my other option if I choose to work with my current PI for my doctorate. There's also a deep seated fear that I won't get in anywhere else playing into this, if I'm completely honest.
 
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