I'd like to call out some of the lurkers who read my blog to come forward and make some comments. I'm curious to find out what influences a student's decision for choice of graduate school in chemistry. So, if you have your PhD, are in a PhD program now, or going to join a PhD program soon, please tell me what was important for your choice of school. Was it location? Science? Stipend? What? Did family issues change your decision? Would you only look at schools on the coasts, or did you look across the middle of the country too? How influential were your undergraduate mentors? What about international studies? This would apply to those from the US going abroad as well as those from outside the US coming to America. And finally, what sources did you use to find graduate programs? Do you put any stock in the web sites that list rankings of graduate programs?
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Your Road to a PhD
I'd like to call out some of the lurkers who read my blog to come forward and make some comments. I'm curious to find out what influences a student's decision for choice of graduate school in chemistry. So, if you have your PhD, are in a PhD program now, or going to join a PhD program soon, please tell me what was important for your choice of school. Was it location? Science? Stipend? What? Did family issues change your decision? Would you only look at schools on the coasts, or did you look across the middle of the country too? How influential were your undergraduate mentors? What about international studies? This would apply to those from the US going abroad as well as those from outside the US coming to America. And finally, what sources did you use to find graduate programs? Do you put any stock in the web sites that list rankings of graduate programs?
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13 comments:
Well those are some interesting questions and I am curious to hear what others say.
But what about you? It seems like you are already a PhD student so it would also be interesting to hear about your "history".
the picture is misleading: the landscape should be more dreary and littered with corpses.
Actually, I plodded along my path with naiveté. I went to a very small liberal arts college with no access to research at that time. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school and applied to the one closest to me without any forethought about science. Boy, were my eyes opened up. I got my PhD in 1994.
Yeah, I'm going to grad school next year. My advisors were huge influences, after I told them I watned to do natural product synthesis they listed off a bunch of schools they liked and didn't like (they were very dubious about places like Harvard and Scripps, maybe that was just cause they know me or for other reasons) and I think I ended up looking at all schools I could have enjoyed going to. For me, location didn't matter at all (I looked at schools in Chicago, California, New Jersey and Boston). The stipend seemed reasonable everywhere (between 20 and thirty thousand, depending on the place, and I chose somwhere in the middle). The biggest factor for me was having two people I would be excited about doing research for.
As far as sources, like I said, my undergrad advisor listed off a bunch of places and I basically ended up picking from those (with some modification). I went to an ACS meeting and watched talks of some people I was interested in, which helped a lot, and started reading chemistry blogs, which also got me informed about what is out there. Rankings played a role (I think all my schools were between 8 and 20, depending on which ranking system used, mostly US World and News) but I didn't end up going to the top ranked school that I visited. Mostly the professor I would be able to work for.
Want to know more?
Greg, you state you were a bit naive regarding the whole graduate school process. Irregardless, was the process and results of obtaining your PhD fruitful? One always hopes for an employment situation in which one is happy and satisfied.
Anonymous, thanks for your input.
Yes, my path was very fruitful. I got lucky and went to a good program that provided opportunity for me to get a good chemistry pedigree. As I said, I learned quickly once I discovered graduate research.
I came from the same mold as Greg. Small liberal arts undergrad and very little "research." I wanted to go to grad school because I thought I liked organic research. I was also getting married the summer after undergrad and all our family was in Minnesota, so I applied to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I ended up going to Minnesota because all our family was in Minneapolis. I don't regret my decision working for an assitant prof leading to a post-doc with a "Big Name" and finally landed a job in Pharma. My view of grad school was learn how to think like a chemist. To me it didn't matter where you did it as long as you learned fast and got a good letter of rec for an upper level post doc. Then you have that letter and the name to get you in.
I decided to get my PhD after working as an undergraduate in a lab for 2 years. Actually it didn't take long form me to realize that I 'needed' to be doing research. I would never be happy as a lab tech which is what I've been told an undergraduate can expect. Additionally, I hear a masters can expect a 'senior' lab tech position. In any case, I wanted to know more, in fact I still want to know more. I want to problem solve, tackle challenges, find out why the hell my reaction didn't work, what I actually did make, and find out hot to fix the bastard to get what I wanted! I'm a pretty aggressive chemist and I tend to snarl a lot.... :)
I started to think about Phd when I am still in high school. Back then i don't know what is Phd and all those big tall building in the sky is about. Anyhow, being financially restricted, I have to choose a place nearer to home. Meaning, unless I get myself a scholarship to go oversea, I have to stay here in my country. And for that I will have to get financial assistance too. I am lucky, for there was a few lecturers with interesting project approached me. Since I have been in the department for a long time, I know their character quite well. I will know whether I can work with them 24-7, 365 for the next few years or not.Beside that, I will also check out whether they have secure themself some grant or not... hey... you don't want to work half-way and found out that your boss is all broke and penny-less... right? Last but not least, the lab. How's the facility? Do they have enough? Do you have to beg and borrow for every piece of glass ware?
Oh dear... this is getting too long. Sorry that I have to make you guys read this.
I was married with a kid. My wife didn't want to go anywhere very far away, and the big state university seemed very middling, but it was what I could do. But I got lucky, and got there just as the department had added a big name, gotten some big grants, and had some direction (almost all of which they have since squandered, in my opinion). So I went to said state U, worked with a talented and aggressive unknown, and did well. One of our papers is among the most cited in the field of organic electronics, so you can, if you are lucky, make some noise even at Wattsamatta U. I got a decent post doc, did fun stuff, and got a good job, doing fun stuff for more money. I have no regrets. I was probably under less stress than at a big place, and I've been pleased with how my career has gone, so I'm not sorry I picked a middle tier place.
I have friends from the dept who were there at the same time that are profs at big research U's. I doubt graduating from our alma mater mattered. It was probably talent on their part, and their post doc.
I found it was beneficial to work for someone well known and well funded. It helped to have a bunch of post-docs around too. That way there were always diverse opinions and a broad skill set to learn from. You'll learn from each other. Friends who worked in labs run by foreign profs with a majority of foreign students and post-docs had a harder time in grad school because there was very little English spoken. It is hard to be collegial if you don't share a language.
I am starting a phd program in the fall. For me one of the biggest concerns was location. I spent four years of undergrad in a place I hated so I vowed not to make the same mistake. The second most important issue for me was the "vibe" (for lack of a better phrase) that I got while visiting campus. My original first choice was discarded after the recruitment weekend when I saw how the dept interacted with each other and the prospective students and the general level of malcontent within the dept. A close third was the actual advisors at the school. The bio-organic crowd is well funded at the moment and are heavily recruiting. While some of the research did look interesting, I wanted to do total synth. Several of the bio-org advisors tried to convince me that total synth was old news and bio-org was the way of the future. I was not convinced and ended up accepting the offer of a school with three advisors I could be very happy with (I hope). The stipends were all in the same ballpark so that was not a big factor.
Ermmmm... I did a Ph.D. because I accepted a scholarship from the military. But it meant that I had to work in an area that they chose for me. I was an "Asian Economic Crisis" kid - when I graduated with my bachelor's degree, I couldn't find a job. So when people from the National Lab offered me some serious dosh to study some more - I said yes lah... but I was too lazy to go overseas to do my Ph.D.
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