What can I do as an undergraduate to prepare for
graduate studies?
What is involved in
grad school work?
Suggestions for
more information
If you are now an
undergraduate student, you are probably quite aware that from time to time it is
necessary to reevaluate your situation as a student, to drop courses or change
your programme or even to move to another institution. Perhaps you have a
personality conflict with an important instructor in your department, or your
aims and interests change after you get more experience with a topic, or your
family or partner is obliged to move for a better job and you decide to go
along. All of these are taken into consideration by undergraduate institutions.
When you move
schools, or move programmes, there are arrangements for transfer credit, and
although not all the courses already completed may count in the new
circumstance, many will. It is often necessary to repeat a course, or to
“backtrack” to pick up a missed prerequisite, but these are relatively minor
inconveniences, delaying you a term or costing another tuition fee or two.
But the story is usually
dramatically different when it comes to postgraduate study:
§
most schools do not allow transfers (even
changing supervisors within a department may be difficult);
§
most schools do not seriously consider
applicants who were “unsuccessful in previous graduate enrolments” (you
must divulge this information when applying); and
§
if you discontinue studies (unless for
medical reasons), it is a blow to the prestige of your supervisor, who
might then hesitate to give positive reports about you in the future.
Thus it is critical
to be certain, before you even think of applying for postgraduate study,
that you are making the right decision. It is a commitment much more involved
than undergraduate study, and the consequences of failing at it are very
serious indeed. This page outlines some pointers I have acquired over the
years, from my experience and that of others, and is aimed to help you make
your own decision.
Probably you are already thinking semi-seriously about grad school if you are reading this far on the present page… and maybe you are already quite far through your undergraduate education. The first is a motivational advantage, but the second may be a practical disadvantage. Since much of what you can do to prepare yourself involves course selection, you may have missed some of your best opportunities.
However, not to panic! Even if you have
completed a first degree, you may still be able to land short-term biology jobs
which could act as good preparation. [Here
is a page for tips in that area.] If you are a final-year student, or have
a first degree, you might wish to consider taking extra credit during an
“unclassified” year, to pick up courses which could help you. Most significant
among these might be Directed Studies credits, Biology 448 in the UBC system.
[Again, I have a set of documents on this subject which you can consult on my Biology 448 pages.]
In
principle, the best preparation you can have for graduate studies is experience
in research, preferably field- or bench-work (varies according to discipline),
but even library-based research is of some value. Seek out courses which offer
major research projects as a component of the grade (such as my course Biology
310), and jobs as suggested above. It’s also a good idea to speak to your TAs
and to other graduate students of your acquaintance about their backgrounds –
take advice from anyone with the appropriate experiences, and ask lots of
questions!
Apply
only when you are convinced that there is a project, or an area of study, which
you must be in, a topic so compelling that the thought of not
trying it is unbearable to you. If you think you will want to do the work for
the rest of your life, that’s a good sign. If you have a truly burning desire
to change the world by undertaking a project, that’s good too. The more experience you accumulate, the more sure you can
be of making a good decision about going further. Without experience,
making a good decision becomes much harder.
“Deciding”
where to go to undertake a graduate degree programme is perhaps a bit of a
misnomer. Of course you need to determine if there are geographic locales which you prefer (based on
climate, language of instruction, the proximity to family, and so forth), and
you need to decide based on the presence of appropriate
supervisors in the topic that interests you, and not least you have
to know that it’s an acceptable economic
situation for you (cost of living, availability of scholarships or
other funding, differential tuition fees – always inquire about what support
may be available to you when beginning to think of applying to a specific
place)… but added to these variables is one you cannot always control: how will you stack up competitively for a place?
Many programmes at many schools are notoriously selective (some would say
almost capricious), while others may offer much easier entry. You may be able
to evaluate this by word of mouth, and some schools will outline the entry
likelihoods for you on request, but you have to be prepared for a certain
amount of disappointment when submitting applications. After all, if they’d let
any person in without standards, would you value the degree they’d grant? (And
would you expect anyone else to value it either?)
A portion of your
disappointment will come in the form of the expense
of applying. Institutions charge fees partly to cover real
administrative expenses, and partly to deter “nuisance” applicants who might
otherwise swamp their systems. One suspects that they also make the charge to
ensure that only applicants with a real desire to attend the particular school
will step up… no institution wants to be just one among dozens of targets aimed
at by an applicant, they have their pride! Application fees are a sensible
investment in your own future, and no one makes futile investments: you
wouldn’t buy a million dollars’ worth of $1 lottery tickets in hopes of winning
a million dollars. Apply to all schools which fulfill your specific
requirements, by all means, but wherever you can it is a good idea to sound out
potential supervisors, and/or make contact with graduate secretaries, to test
the waters first.
If
your record is good – marks acceptably high, a strong range of courses taken
(involving a variety of types of work), and substantial job experience –
schools may actually compete to land you. They may at least be forthcoming with
support, such as partial or even complete tuition waivers, teaching work for
pay, bursaries or grants of various kinds, and so on. If your record is
mediocre, fewer of these perks will be available to you, but you can often
compensate for lower grades with lots of solid practical experience.
One
effective way to seek places with appropriate supervisors is to read the literature. In later-year courses you
will often have journal articles assigned, or you will come across them as you
research a project or paper; no doubt you will also be reading for interest if a
subject motivates you toward graduate work. The same set of names will keep
arising, and it won’t take you long to zero in on the most frequently-cited,
and/or best-quality-of-work, research groups.
When you have
identified one or several potential supervisors based on their work, you might
think of sending an exploratory letter or email,
but please don’t ever “mass-email” all faculty in an
entire department! This is extremely bad manners, and will make you look very
unprofessional. Sending specific messages, written individually (not
a form-letter), to researchers is the appropriate method, but
remember that faculty members may get lots of similar messages every day, so
you may not get a reply quickly (or at all) unless the message has
substance: perhaps refer to a specific publication, or ask if the
researcher has considered a specific sort of experiment to follow up a given
finding… if you demonstrate both sincerity and understanding, you are more
likely to get a sympathetic reading.
[One major problem in
finding a supervisor is that often you are only a name on a page (or a screen).
It’s unlikely that you could afford to travel all over the world making initial
approaches, but there may be an alternative: try
to organize attendance at a major conference in the topic-area of
interest to you. Yes, there is a cost, but for the money spent you would
have the chance to make personal connections with several, perhaps dozens of,
potential supervisors, and you would be meeting with them at a time when they
are doing what they enjoy, talking research with colleagues! If you are
competing with the noise at their offices – ringing phones, administrative
headaches, teaching commitments, deadlines, and the like – your enquiries might
easily be lost.]
The
actual application procedures
obviously vary so much from place to place that this page cannot outline
them usefully. In general, though, remember that you are essentially “selling
yourself” – grad school applications are not the place for shyness or
subtlety, bearing in mind equally that they are also definitely not the
place for perjury or misrepresentation! Always be sure to ask about any forms
of monetary support available, and by preference try to apply for “money of
your own” – a research grant held by you rather than by the supervisor – since this
maximizes your attractiveness as a candidate.
So
you get accepted; what’s next? Leaving aside the issues of relocation, finance,
and so forth, what is day-to-day grad-school life like? In a word, variable:
you may find yourself engaged regularly in reading, note-taking, course-taking,
teaching and marking, committee-meetings, consultations with equipment-makers
or servicepeople, attending talks/seminars/lectures, attending
parties/retreats/get-togethers, data-collection, data-analysis, lab
maintenance, and perhaps a dozen other activities. The work can often fall into
several main categories:
o
Your own work – thinking about your own project,
collecting/analyzing your own data, reading to support your research, preparing
your own presentations/papers/thesis, taking required courses.
o
Work for your research group – helping the supervisor or lab colleagues with
projects, maintaining shared space, discussing other peoples’ projects,
attending lab meetings.
o
Department-level work – teaching/TAing (in-class time, prep time,
marking), attending departmental functions, presenting major seminars (a demonstration
of departmental research output).
Once all of that is out of the way, you may
have time to be sociable, keep up with old friends, and so on – even take the
occasional holiday, perhaps. But perhaps not.
The
major difference between graduate and undergraduate work is probably the structuring of your time. In an
undergraduate degree, all timing is set for you (due dates for assignments,
scheduled examinations), but in a postgraduate environment the structure is
largely taken away… or at least it is not provided to you by others, for the
most part. A supervisor may or may not ask you to commit to deadlines, a
department may or may not have a definite policy for the length of
degree programmes, a source of funding may or may not set strict limits
on the duration of payouts. Thus it may be easy at times to “drift”, even if
your intentions are honestly to complete as quickly as you can. A machine
breaks down, a bad field season requires you to do another, your teaching-load
delays a chapter of the thesis… and there are many distractions not directly
connected to your studies, also. “Being a graduate-student” can be a
comfortable regime, but you must not mistake
it for a career – you are always looking ahead to the end, or
should be. It is possible to be efficient and to enjoy the
experience at the same time! You are bound to find that the amount of time you
spent on your education as an undergrad is simply insufficient for success as a
graduate student… but don’t automatically assume this is so! “Burning
out” can be a significant consequence of assuming the worst, and you will need
to discover for yourself how much work time is “enough”.
At
many graduate schools there are course requirements in addition to thesis
research, so don’t imagine that having completed an undergrad degree will free
you entirely from taking courses. And in most Ph.D. programmes, candidates are
required at a pre-planned time to undergo the rigorous Comprehensive
Examinations (“comps”) to demonstrate their fitness to become professional
scientists. Grad school is thus much more than your own research project!
The
major problems you might
encounter in graduate studies fall into a few categories:
·
The project “doesn’t work” – but a well-supervised project isn’t likely to
get that far. Either the supervisor ensures that the plan of the project is
sound (based on prior experience), or the project is modified to work after
preliminary data suggests a problem. In either case, the student will be
“saved”, so usually an unworkable outcome for a project can occur only if the
student keeps the supervisor in the dark about the results.
·
Supervisor/student
incompatability – always a possibility, given that in many instances the parties have had
little personal contact before the degree begins. It’s best if the student and
the supervisor are clear at the start about their expectations. Most
institutions provide guidebooks or other
documentation outlining the respective roles, and procedures for
any grievances which may arise. Remember that there is typically a research
“steering committee” involving faculty members other than the supervisor; the
student may profitably turn to those people, or administrators, for advice on
dealing with problems.
·
Other collegial incompatability – not every person in a lab unit will get along
with every other person. Hardly a surprise! Mere professional courtesy is
really all that’s needed, since the chances are that there will be only a brief
time-overlap between the incompatible people, others are around to diffuse the
animosity, and common ground may arise unexpectedly among the parties. Feuds
are destructive even for the “winner”, and by the time students reach the
graduate level one hopes they can find adult ways to minimize the friction.
Again, departments usually have policies in place to help deal with these
issues – inquire!
·
Loss of focus – partway through a lengthy programme, even if
results are coming in favourably, there is a tendency to let down somewhat.
Fatigue sets in and one begins to doubt the successful outcome; probably you
have experienced this even in preparing a major paper or studying for a
high-value exam in courses. Everyone has different ways of dealing with this
letdown-effect, but one method is to keep the
project fresh for yourself: seek opportunities to tell others
about your work, perhaps community-outreach
(which universities always like to encourage) talks
at grade-schools or to service-clubs are best – if you can convince a lay
audience of the value of your work, it will be easy to believe that you are on
the right track!
There
is a world of general information available to you; if you doubt this, try
entering “college admissions” or similar search-phrases in any web-search
system! Such information may prove useful, but there is so much of it that you
could never profit from it all.
§
The most obvious sources of practical
information may already be at hand: all you may need to do is speak with people who have “gone through the hoops” themselves.
You will already have established contacts with professionals at many levels
(your family doctor or dentist, schoolteachers
or administrators who have completed higher degrees, possibly a lawyer); if you are finished or have
nearly finished an undergraduate degree, you will have connections with university faculty members and current graduate students;
if you are in the early stages of a degree, you need to begin cultivating such
acquaintances anyway, as part of more effective learning in courses. Ask people
in any of these categories about their experiences, about what went wrong,
about their responses to the challenges they faced, about what they might do
differently if starting again. Most of them will be only too happy to speak
with you on these subjects, since we all like to talk about our own lives! And
it doesn’t really matter if the area you are interested in is different from
the one they followed – their experiences will still have some resonance for
you. They might even be able to suggest colleagues or friends to you as further
sources of information. I have cumulated some grad-student stories below.
§
In most cases departmental Graduate Admissions
Committees are not in the business of answering queries from
prospective applicants, only in evaluating actual applications, so it is not
usually worthwhile to pursue such a committee for information. A better source
is the departmental Graduate Secretary
(if no listing is given as such when you look at departmental web pages, send a
query to a Departmental Secretary or a “General Enquiries” address to determine
how the position is set up locally). This person normally has information about
teaching positions and scholarships, as well as the procedures for application,
and a host of other details you are bound to need.
§
Many
institutions now have their guides for the roles
of supervisors and graduate students generally available on line,
rather than distributed only within the department, on paper, as used to be the
case. Of course you wouldn’t have grievances or difficulties at that time, but you
may be able to form a good idea of the structure and thoughtfulness of a
department from reading such a document. Does it give the impression that the
people care about their students?
§
Certainly the most direct and useful
information you can get – and this may be gained by email correspondence with
people at your preferred destination school – is what
you can glean from talking to current and former graduate students actually
supervised by your target supervisor. What is she/he like to work
with? Was there enough support, in terms of equipment, space, and time? Were
questions and problems dealt with effectively? Was the guidance given
appropriate, and tailored for each student? And if speaking to them in person, try
to get the answers somewhere other than in the lab or office! If graduate
students gather at a pub, for instance, the real dirt will be dished… and it’s
much better to hear it before than after.
Best of luck with your
career planning.
I am collecting stories of grad-school
entry-success from former undergraduate students of mine, removing their names
for privacy first. Perhaps something in what they say will help you in your
decision-making.
“M.T.”’s
story (received March 2004)
I just
wanted to give some advice on getting into graduate school (I got into the
Forensic Psychology Masters Program at UNSW [University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia]!), but
did not see a place to put comments on your web site. The big piece of advice I
have to give is to get to know the program coordinator, so when applications go
through, he/she can put a face to the name. The other thing which is extremely
important is volunteering in the department or in your field. It can be
difficult, as many students who have graduated need to make money and juggling
work and volunteering can be exhausting, but it is the people who go the extra
mile who show they really want to be in that graduate program that will get in.
Almost everyone who applies to graduate school has good grades. The website of
the graduate program one wishes to enter usually is very clear of what GPA one
needs to have, so grades and GRE results will just get one through the
administrative round. It is the extra sacrifice and persistence that will make
the difference.
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Testimonials section
“J.P.”’s
story (received March 2004)
I think
most grad students would agree that one of the most important things you can do
to prepare for grad school is to research your potential supervisor ahead of
time. Talk to her/his
current students and get their honest opinions. Is she/he usually available and willing to help? Is she/he easy to get along with, or will
you need thick skin? If she/he’s
demanding (who isn’t?), how would she/he react if you were to tell her/him
you’re behind schedule, overwhelmed with the workload, and on the verge of a
nervous breakdown? As a grad student,
you are in charge of your own research – your supervisor is not your
babysitter. However, she/he is supposed
to give you direction when you’re stuck – but many don’t, usually because
they’re too busy (although some of them are just jerks). If you’re aware of where you stand as a
student in her/his lab, you’ll probably be better prepared when things go
wrong.
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“K.V.”’s story (received
April 2004)
As an undergraduate I switched
majors (within the general area of biology) many times, as I identified the
classes I really enjoyed, and those I definitely did not. Although I had always
intended to go to grad school, this plan was solidified by taking more
‘hands-on’ 3rd- and 4th-year courses which required
designing, carrying out, analyzing, and writing up experiments. I liked what
these courses suggested about a career in research; then, as a final test of
whether grad studies were for me, I applied for and received an ‘undergraduate
NSERC’. These grants are available to any 2nd- , 3rd-, or
4th-year Canadian student in the sciences, and allow you to conduct
independent summer research under faculty supervision – while getting paid!
If you are interested, go to the website www.nserc.ca
to find out more. Experiences such as these will probably tell you if research
is for you.
Application to grad school (in
Canada) usually requires you to contact a prospective supervisor, and if
the person seems open to accepting you, you then submit a formal application to
the university. First, check that you meet the minimum entrance
requirements (based on how that school calculates them), and if you don’t,
don’t bother applying (unless you have taken an extended break from school to
gain work experience, see below). Second, consider the money. If you
meet the entrance requirements, admittance will rest primarily on how
willing/able the potential supervisor is to take you. Do you have funding? Are
you likely to receive funding? Can the supervisor fund you? Your potential
supervisor may be committing to paying many thousands of dollars to take you
on, so you must try your best to convince the person of your ability as a
promising, productive grad student. You might volunteer some time in the
supervisor’s lab, or undertake related work which demonstrates your abilities.
Most graduate students who began studies at my school at the same time I did
had taken some period of ‘time off’ (generally working in the field of biology
for 1-5 years) after finishing their undergraduate degrees. Such work
experience both shows your worth and dedication as a biologist, and gives you
some time to determine if grad studies, or even this field, are for you.
I decided to stay at my
undergrad-degree university for my grad studies in Zoology (community ecology).
This probably helped my chances of acceptance, because I was at least familiar
to most people reviewing my application, but completing all your undergraduate
and graduate studies at a single university is generally discouraged. Attending
different universities exposes you to different ideas and ways of doing things,
and introduces you to more people in your field. I plan on doing a PhD, but elsewhere
– I have decided not ‘roll over’ my MSc into a PhD by expanding the scope of
the project. Thus I hope to take full advantage of the opportunity grad studies
affords to live in different places, within Canada or abroad.
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Testimonials section
“N.L.”’s story (received
October 2004)
I think grad school is great.
Generally, it is the first time in my life that I feel I am actually learning,
not simply regurgitating memorized material.
It can be fun and laid-back, and
it can also be very stressful/busy at times.
I think one really needs to want
to go to grad school, not simply do it by default – I’ve seen those latter
people burn badly. It is NOT for just anyone.
Make sure you do stuff you enjoy,
and try to find something that will not be too repetitive. You’ll have to do
some homework ahead of time – make sure your supervisor is good and has a good
name in the world of academia (or at least not a bad one).
Other Grad students will be your
best resource for almost everything. The Faculty will be too busy doing their
own thing.
Plan for alternatives – always !
Try to create for yourself as many possibilities as you can.
Be in charge of your own degree –
don’t let others tell you what you think – stand your ground, but at the same
time keep your mind open – they might know a lot more…
Lastly, choose a nice supervisor,
someone you’ll enjoy working with, coming to with questions. You can have the
most famous, best scientist in the world as a supervisor – but if they are
mean, or hard to deal with – then what’s the point?
Make sure you enjoy your Grad
school – otherwise, why would you want to do it?
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Testimonials section
“H.B.”’s story (received July
2005)
I’m in a
PhD program in neuroscience in the U.S.
As an undergrad I majored in general biology at UBC, and didn’t even
consider graduate school until the end of my fourth year. My Biology 310 project was my only research
experience, but I enjoyed designing, carrying out, and thinking about that
experiment so much, I wanted to keep going in science. I just didn’t know in what, exactly. I was able to determine all my interests lay
in the area of neuroscience, but those interests were far too broad to pick a
specific supervisor I’d want to work with.
I applied to American PhD programs
because (a) you don’t need a masters degree before you start a PhD there (but
you do have to take classes in the first two years of the PhD), and (b) because
of “lab rotations”. Rather than
starting grad school with a supervisor and a project already determined, you
spend your first year working in 2-4 different laboratories, so you can make a
really informed choice when you decide which one to join for your thesis
work. If you already know exactly what
you want to study and who you want to study with, this is not necessary, but it
was a great system for me, and something I couldn’t find in Canada.
In my particular situation,
funding is guaranteed by my department for the duration. This is generally what you would find at any
of the good (and/or wealthy) private research universities. Not only do you not pay tuition, but you get
a stipend for living expenses (US$ 24,000 a year was standard in 2004-05). In public schools you may not get money
handed to you like that, but there are usually fellowships or TAships you can
apply for. It may be more difficult for
non-U.S. citizens to get funding and/or accepted into U.S. programs, but this
varies a lot from program to program.
Find out what the funding situation is for international students before
you apply to any program in the U.S.
I wound up
applying to 12 PhD programs. I chose the
schools for application by going through as many departmental websites as I
could. I applied only to schools where
there were 5 or more faculty members that I might want to work with. I didn’t contact faculty at any school
beforehand. If you make it to the
interview stage (at least for wealthy private universities), they fly you out
for a few days and set up interviews with the professors you’re interested
in. You also get to talk to current
grad students and see the city. Aside
from the general fun of going on a trip for free, the interview weekends were a
great experience and a great way to learn if the program was for me or
not. I found a program that I felt
immediately at home in, and after two lab rotations I found a lab with a
supervisor who is very knowledgeable and supportive of what I (eventually!)
figured out I want to do. I’m enjoying
grad school like crazy, and I highly recommend it to anyone else who loves
learning and research.
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Last modified 25 December
2005