The following were replies to a request on the Plans forum for recent Grinnell grads to give advice to current students who are considering attending graduate school in biologically-related fields.   I have identified submissions by Plans username. 

From [gallas]:

My biggest recommendation (at least regarding PhD programs) would be to be very
thorough in your search so that you can apply to only those programs where
there are SEVERAL researchers with whom you would like to work.
I would definitely NOT recommend applying to a program if you have your heart
set on working with one person in particular (unless of course you've had a
chance to interact with this person a great deal and know that your spot in the
lab is secured). Here at the University of Chicago, I (and some of my
collegues) have had trouble finding a thesis lab. My personal experience is
that the person with whom I really wanted to work turned out to be a real jerk
to work for. Despite his great work, I cannot bring myself to suffer there for
4 years. The next person with whom I rotated decided at the last minute that he
wanted to become a more "postdoc-centered" lab, and thus did not want any new
students this year. So now it turns out that I will be joining a lab that works
on something that really isn't that exciting for me. Friends of mine in the
program have had similar experiences--PIs change their minds about students,
lab politics making working in a lab impossible, funding falling through, etc.
I wish that I had known how finicky lab situations can be so that I would have
been more careful in choosing programs. I think I weighed quality-of-life and
school reputations too heavily and did not pay enough attention to the specific
researchers at each institution.

From [rosenthd]:

[brownj]: You might find this via a quick love search... as someone who went to grad school in Biology, left (with a Master's, but still earlier than I had originally planned) and then gone back to grad school in a different field, I would suggest the following:

Make sure students know that going to grad school is not a contract. Grad school will be a lot different than Grinnell (especially since most grad schools are at schools a lot bigger then Grinnell), and if you decide it is not the right place for you, leaving is not 'quiting' or 'failing'. I stayed in grad school for longer than I probably should have, mostly because I thought that since I started grad school I owed it to everyone to finish it. However, since I left, I am much happier with what I am doing. In fact, I still see my old advisor (John Wenzel, who you may or may not be familiar with) and lab mates, and I have been told by a number of people that Wenzel talks about me often as an example of someone who realized he was in the wrong situation and was smart enough to do something about it. He often tells people that he wishes a lot of other student who he can see are clearly unhappy would be able to do the same.


[brownj]: also, I would recommend that students applying to grad school understand the dynamics of the specific departments they are applying to and structure their applications accordingly. For example, many Molecular Genetics programs are huge and students are mostly accepted based on grades, GPA and GRE scores. However, smaller departments (like the Entomology departments I applied to) accept only a few people a year and seem to be more focused on personality and their potential fit in the department and with their potential advisor. I know for a fact that I was accepted over another student with a higher GPA then me and about the same GRE based on the strength of my letters of recomendation (which means that, although I never saw the letter you wrote, it couldn't have been too mean). More than one member of the committee that reviews applications talked to me about the letter I got from Dr. Christiansen. It seemed to make quite an impression. Basically, my point is that some departments are more concerned with past academic performance and some are more concerned with how they feel you personally will fit into their departments and labs. It is also worth keeping in mind that with small departments, you are applying to specific advisors more than the department as a whole. I know with me, as long as I met a minimum requirement, I would be accepted based on whether or not there was someone willing to take me into his or her lab. If no one had room or wanted me, I wouldn't have gotten in. This makes for a very different experence than those in larger departments who get in, do a lab rotation and then get paired up with an advisor.



From [wolfk]:

i don't know if public health school counts as bio but my advice is for anyone considering grad school and is somewhat along the lines of [rosenthd]'s: most grad programmes are more or less the opposite of a liberal arts education. it is important to be focused and truly interested in the subject matter. it is equally, if not more important, to investigate what those who complete the programme do and decide if this is something that you would want to do with your life (or at least some portion of it). it can also be incredibly valuable to take time off after grinnell to further explore whether grad school (or a specific programme) might be right for you. students could be more encouraged to investigate fullbrights and fellowships at CDC, NIH, EPA(?), etc to get more of a taste for various bio-related fields.


From [rosej]:

[brownj]: I definitely second [wolfk]'s comment about making sure you 1) are committed to focusing intensely on a single topic of research, and 2) that this is a field you wish to pursue.

I think I could have done a more thorough job of investigating the graduate schools to which I applied. As it stands, I don't think I would have gone into a program with an average retention time of 6-6.5 yrs.

 I think you shouldn't be afraid to wait to enter grad school. I think with some of the maturation I still needed, combined with the above, I would have been better served by working for a year or two, either in a lab or some other science job, before I tried to find a program. That would have let me evaluate my goals as a scientist & non-scientist.

 Also, I felt like the best information I got was first-hand, usually from professors who had spent time at particular institutions. That resource was a little bit limited at Grinnell, but even advice about schools' reputations was very helpful to me.

From [peterso3]:

[brownj]: I agree with [wolfk], that grad school is something like the opposite of liberal arts. If someone isn't really passionate about doing biology research, staying in grad school for 5+ years would be really tough. Along these same lines, I think it is a bad idea to go to grad school if you mainly see it as a means toward an end, such as getting a good job. The process is so long, especially if you are going for a PhD, that you have to really want to do it, not just to get through it. I also think having a substantial amount of research experience before going is a really good idea, even if that means taking some time off to work as a technician somewhere, because it is a lot easier to think biology is great when taking biology classes at Grinnell than when dealing with the day to day frustrations of trying to get research to work. Also, I didn't realize before coming to grad school that one of the main functions of graduate students, at least in microbiology, is to further the careers of their PI's by getting papers, helping to get grants, etc. So coming from undergraduate research, where the emphasis was on me and my learning, to a situation where the results I produced were at least as important as how much I learned was a big adjustment.

 When applying to grad school, I would encourage people to apply for as many fellowships as they think they might be eligible for. I didn't realize until I got here how many doors can be opened if you have your own independent funding. Also, when trying to decide which school or lab to go to, make sure to talk to the current grad students! I have seen a lot of people who have been interested in our lab make the mistake of only talking to the PI, and I don't think they realized how much of their experience would be shaped by the people they would see on a daily basis- that being the other members of the lab.

From [westerga]:

[brownj], my advice: even if you're not planning on attending the fall after your senior year, take the GRE's. although I definately want to attend grad school in ecology, it has been infinately more difficult to motivate myself to take the GRE's now that I'm out of school and have been working for a few years.

From [heineman]:

]: I agree with people who suggest making sure you have a lot of research experience before going to grad school, and with those suggesting that taking a year as a research assisstant isn't a bad idea.

 On a more specific note, be sure that you really enjoy all three of the major aspects of being a working scientist. The first is interest in learning all kinds of (degree-related) stuff and thinking about science. This is something students get well introduced to at Grinnell. The second is writing. The third, which it is possible to escape Grinnell without realizing one lacks, is enjoyment of lab work. I cannot emphasize this enough...the minutia of lab work (or programming work, or modelling...whatever) form an enormous proportion of what one actually does, so it's important to be able to like them. Choose a field where the work is interesting (or at least tolerable) to you in its own right, rather than just as a means to an end. You'll need research experience to do so. And if you've _always_ been sort of bored with the lab portion of science courses, put up with them for the sake of the classes, and sort of assumed that once you were able to get deep into your own interesting project it would all become interesting...you may not be right. Figure it out, before you waste your time.

Another thing which I wish I'd known about at Grinnell is a little thing known around here as the "Ph.D. clock." Here's the idea, and though I don't know if it translates exactly to other fields, I'm guessing it does. It doesn't matter how old you are when you start your Ph.D. If you've spent ten years windsurfing after college, nobody's going to care once you've gotten in a program. It doesn't really matter how old you are when you finish your Ph.D. But as soon as you finish, you're in a race. At serious research institutions, the people deciding whether or not to hire you will look at how many papers you've written per year as a measure of your ability to research. And taking a year off to, for example, try teaching high school, might make you seem less dedicated. What does this mean? It means you're better off exploring your alternative options _before_ starting a Ph.D., even putting aside the benefit of not spending years doing something you don't really enjoy.

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From the 2006 poll:

from [peterso3]:

I said this as part of my advice last time, but I think it should be re-emphasized: grad school applicants should do everything they can to secure their own independent funding. Here at Wisconsin, not only is the funding situation for research grim, but the state is cutting the budget for the university as well. Which means that one cost-cutting measure that was implemented was to increase the amount of tuition remission that PI's have to pay out of their research budgets for the grad students in their labs. This might not sound like a big deal, but what it means pratically is that it is now just about the same price to the PI to hire a grad student or a post-doc, if the grad student doesn't have their own funding. Of course you can imagine which one the PI is likely to choose. This year in my lab, we have just hired two new post-docs and are considering taking a third, and the only grad students that are being allowed to rotate all have their own funding. Given the national attitude toward paying taxes to support higher education these days, I don't think that Wisconsin is unique in this situation.

from [schmidts]:

take some time off... even if it's a couple of months. i think the mentality is changing in that, taking time off and working/traveling/doing other stuff before grad school is okay... and actually, becoming the norm. i would say 85% of the students in our program took time off (even if it was the summer) before coming to graduate school. i highly recommend doing something different because that first semester of grad school is the toughest and most demanding. you have to readjust to a new town, new people, new academic environment, new studying/work policies (you don't have homework assignments every night and the papers you write now, for the most part, will actually count towards your career!), etc.

i went from grinnell immediately to penn state and quickly burned myself out with all that i mention above. then i took 5 months off and just worked for the DNR... it was exactly the recharge i needed to start up in a new program here at wisconsin.

the rest of my advice mostly has to do with applying to grad school... but will hopefully still be useful.

start compiling your CV now. i just had a conversation about applying to grad school with a fellow grad student and she was surprised 1) that i already have a CV and 2) that i had a CV when i was a senior in college. granted, my CV as a senior in college was very different than that of a post-doc or young professor... but it served the same purpose. i included things like summer/semester research, oral/poster presentations (including my biology dept. seminar), relevant classwork, techniques learned in my lab courses, extra-curricular activities, scholarships, references, GRE scores, GPA, etc.

my friend debated that EC activities didn't matter (for example, she argued that my ability to play volleyball had nothing to do with me getting into graduate school)... but i disagree. after talking with our director here and another reference that has written me recommendations, they were both impressed that i was a collegiate athlete and invovled in campus activities at such an academically rigorous school. they said it showed i was a well-rounded individual outside of my academic learning.

anyway. whenever i contacted a professor whose research interested me, i always included my CV as an attachment. when contacting professors, your email has to stand out. in my email to them, i would reference their research interests specifically and link that to my own interests or past research experience. i would be very specific in my past research experiences - included the general area of research, my specific research questions, and techniques learned/used. jake (my advisor) tells me he gets so many emails each day during grad application season that he ends up deleting a lot if it's clear the student hasn't done their detective work.

finally, i would advise prospective grad applicants not to get discouraged. applying to graduate school is a long and, sometimes, frustrating process. i think a lot of people get into the application process without realizing how much time it's going to take (and on top of your classes, jobs, etc.) set aside a saturday or sunday to work on nothing but your application. i remember locking myself in my dorm room one fall saturday and punching out all my application materials and essays for one grad school. also, once you have applied to one school... applying to the rest is much easier because you already have the template.

from [walter00]:

Advice for potential graduate students: your adviser is extremely important, make sure that you like your adviser, are able to learn new, interesting things from him/her, and are interested in a similar subject area to your adviser. However, an additional important item is the existence of support throughout the department/college/unviersity for your discipline. Despite having a great adviser in grad school, I found myself somewhat of a stepchild within my department because few other professors in the department were interested in organismal biology or ecology. That in itself might have been ok, but beyond that, some of the department was downright hostile to the small group of us interested in that subject area. As you may have heard, this reached the point where the department shipped its entire herbarium off to Iowa State, despite the interest of a small but significant minority of the department and financial support.
Another piece of advice for current or future grad students: don't wait until you've moved, graduated and gotten a job before you try to work on publishing your thesis. You won't have time, and it will seem much less relevant than when you're still in grad school.

from [cutchins]:

On your request for grad school advice -- I would echo [wolfk]'s advice from several years ago, and encourage students to look at an MPH. Anne was a Bio major here and was not interested in either a research degree or a medical degree -- but discovered through Peace Corps that an MPH was right up her alley.