An Entomological Carol

I was cleaning my office last night, and found a newsletter from my graduate department in 1987!   I had to share. Lyrics by Jim Richmond; hopefully he doesn’t mind me sharing them here.

Sung to the tune of the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire)

Professors resting wherever they are,
Grad students nipping at their knows
Post-docs with their eyes on jobs aglow
And secretaries dressed up like who knows;

Everybody knows some plants and some insects too,
Goes to make the work just right,
Tiny technicians with their eyes half aglow
will find it hard celebrating tonight.

We know the Chairman is on his way,
He has lots of authority in his say,
And every PI is sure to try
To see if the Dean can make their proposal fly.

And so to you I am offering this simple phrase,
For you, whatever age you are,
Though it’s been said many times many days,
Merry Christmas to you.

Choosing a Graduate Program and Advisor

While data are incomplete, estimates put the number of people who enter graduate school, but don’t complete a degree, around 44%. Let’s ponder that for a moment.

Nearly half of students admitted to PhD programs, some of the smartest and most motivated folks on the planet, will leave their program without a PhD.

Not a lot of research exists on why students leave graduate school, but what data there are suggest that about 30% of students “drop out” in the first two years of grad school.  They generally seem to leave for one of three reasons:

• Their graduate program wasn’t right for them
• Their advisor wasn’t right for them
• The life of a graduate student wasn’t right for them

I wrote earlier about having the right motivation for deciding to go to graduate school, and how that will improve your experience.

In this post I’ll give you some advice on how to try to identify programs and advisors that are good matches for your interests so you can get what you came for.  If you can make an informed choice about the three factors listed above, your odds of completing your degree in a timely fashion should go up.  More importantly, you will enjoy getting your degree a lot more, and will get more out of it!

Choosing a program: Dollar Bill, Ya’ll

Ok, maybe Coolio isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind when you think about graduate school. But he’s right that money makes a difference; and the good news is that as a graduate student in the sciences, you should be offered a graduate assistantship of some sort, which comes with a stipend.  In exchange for that money, you’re supposed to work for 20 hours/week as either a teaching or research assistant.

You also usually receive a tuition waiver so that you don’t have to pay out of state tuition.  Let me repeat that, since it is something that a lot of students let limit their choices.  Most graduate students are offered an in-state tuition waiver, or total tuition waiver, as part of their graduate stipend.

There is a lot of variation in how much additional support graduate students receive; some get full employee health care benefits, some don’t.  If possible, get information about the financial support you’ll receive in writing.  A lot of students struggle with financial issues in graduate school; 80% of students surveyed in a doctoral completion project said that financial support was key to their success. When evaluating graduate programs, ask questions about money!

Choosing a program: Go Forth and Network

Many graduate programs will pay you to fly out and visit if you are a student they are interested in–or at the very least, they will find you a free place to stay when you visit.   The single most important thing you can do on a visit to a prospective graduate program is to talk to current graduate students. They will tell you the truth about what the climate in the department is like for graduate students, how well grad students are integrated into the life of the department, and what it’s like to live in that area.

It is especially important for students of color and women to check out the departmental climate. Multiple studies have found that these groups have a tougher time in predominantly male, white departments.  This is why in-person visits to departments are critical. Your mentor doesn’t need to look exactly like you for you to be successful; but you do need to feel like you’ll be treated equitably and that you are welcome.  You can best assess the departmental climate for yourself with a visit.

A new trend in many lab science departments is to have “rotations.”  Students are admitted to the department, but don’t have to pick a thesis advisor right away.  They go on a round-robin visitation cycle where they spend 10 weeks or so in different labs they are interested in joining.  This is a great way to learn more and really see the management style of someone before you commit yourself to 6 years with them.  Make sure to ask if this is an option.

Choosing a research advisor (and thesis topic)

The relationship you have with your PhD advisor will be one of the single most important relationships you will have in your life, both professional and personal. It will last longer than most marriages.  Just like getting married, don’t commit to a PhD advising relationship without putting some time and thought into it!

A recent paper surveyed graduate students to find out what they thought was an ideal graduate advisor. Here’s the (condensed) list:

• Creates structure for labs, meetings, and communication
• Offers support regardless of student’s career choices
• Makes time for students
• Sets high standards
• Increases challenges as students develop
• Doesn’t let students flounder
• Encourages independent thinking and work
• Encourages attending conferences, writing papers and grants
• Reflective of one’s own advising style.

That last bullet is the kicker; you need to know something about yourself and how you like to work to be able to make a good choice of an advisor.  How do you like to be managed? Hands-off or hands-on?  Do you need to have deadlines set for you, or can you work without them?  What environments have been successful for you in the past? Getting a sense of the work style of your potential advisor is critical.

Once again, visit and talk to potential advisors in person. Then, talk to their graduate students and post-docs.  Use the characteristics I listed above to frame your questions for the students to get a read on the faculty member’s management style (or lack thereof).

Academics talk about “pedigrees” of graduate students as though they were prize show dogs.  Who your “academic sire” is carries a lot of weight.  There are a lot of good reasons to choose a big name; there are a lot of equally good reasons to not choose someone who is famous.   Usually it’s a tradeoff.  The big dogs have big labs with lots of students, post-docs, and money.  You may not get a lot of face time with Dr. Big, but you will be in an environment that has a lot of activity and opportunities.  The shiny aura of Dr. Big may help open doors for you later….but it’s also possible that people think Dr. Big is a tool. Not everyone who is famous is also well-loved.

On the other hand, if you want a slower, more personal experience, choosing a less well known faculty member might be a better choice for you.  Funding may not be as abundant, but if you know that you want  a more supportive, structured experience, smaller can be better.  The importance again is on gathering as much information as you can so you can make a good decision.

Making the decision to become a Grad Student

Once you’ve done all the things I’ve told you to do above:  Listen To Your Gut.
(Sorry that I don’t have a quantifiable formula for this decision, but guts seem to do a very good job of helping you sort things out.)

If you talked to an advisor, and they seem nice, but for some reason you’re hesitating….Listen to that.
Is this someone you can work with for 6 years? (average time to a PhD)
Is this someone who will help you transition out of being a student and into a working professional?
Is this someone who will take your phone call 5 years after you’ve graduated and need advice about a job offer?

You also want to be excited about your proposed dissertation topic or area.  If your response to a proposed research topic is “Meh”….listen to that too.

I like PhD Comics (Piled Higher and Deeper), but I think his take on graduate school is awfully pessimistic.  There is a lot of truth there, though.   You’ll have ups and downs.  Make sure that you distinguish between the funny feeling in the pit of your stomach that says “OMG I’m about to start something huge” and the kind that says “OMG working with this faculty member will be a disaster.”

It’s normal to feel a little pants-staining terror at the prospect of 6 years of hard work.  But it should also inspire you and excite you, because you will uncover new knowledge that no one in the world but you knows.

Other posts in Bug Girl’s Graduate School Series:

• Should I do a PhD?
• How undergraduate and graduate school are different
• PhD -VS- Masters

External Resources:

• Questions to ask when thinking about a PhD
• 20 Questions to ask a graduate program you’re considering
• The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research
• No, You’re Not an Impostor
• Why your mentor sucks (and how to fix it)

Citations:

Welde, K., & Laursen, S. (2008). The “Ideal Type” Advisor: How Advisors Help STEM Graduate Students Find Their ‘Scientific Feet’ The Open Education Journal, 1 (1), 49-61 DOI: 10.2174/1874920800801010049
Ülkü-Steiner, B., Kurtz-Costes, B., & Kinlaw, C. (2000). Doctoral student experiences in gender-balanced and male-dominated graduate programs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 (2), 296-307 DOI: 10.1037//0022-0663.92.2.296

How Undergraduate and Graduate School are different

Since I got so many questions, I thought I would pontificate a bit longer on the graduate school question, and turn it into a series of posts.  Let’s start with the decision to go to graduate school, and how graduate study is very different from being an undergraduate.

Several jobs ago, I wrote up a chart that laid out how undergraduate study and graduate school are different.  It’s surprising to me how many undergraduates I talk to think that grad school is just a bunch more classes at a higher level.

Here’s my original comparison chart:

Undergraduate	Graduate
Many courses outside the field are required as general education requirements. Classes are the sole means of evaluation for graduation.	Students complete an in-depth study of one field and enter into an extended research apprenticeship with a faculty member.  The primary means of evaluation for graduation is a research project or thesis, judged by a faculty committee.
Students may remain enrolled and continue progress on their degree even if GPA falls below a 3.0.	Minimum GPA for continuing enrollment is a 3.0.
Most courses are very large. Four years of coursework are completed.  Involvement with faculty is largely at the initiation of the student.	All courses are small, and involvement with faculty is direct and extensive.  Usually only one year of coursework is completed.
Students finance their own education.	Students receive tuition support and stipends that pay most of the cost of their education.
Students are expected to work independently and produce high quality results, as measured by a GPA.	Students are expected to work independently and produce high quality results, as measured by research, publication, and presentations judged by senior peers.
You learn what is already known.	You learn to create new knowledge.

Graduate school admission is actually admission into a community of scholars.  If research is what you do, scholarship is how you think about it.  Sure, graduate school is focused on independent research.  But the work of a scholar also means stepping back from your data, building connections between theory and practice, and communicating your new knowledge effectively.

Part of why graduate school is so stressful relates to the differences listed above between undergraduate and graduate study.  As an undergraduate, the emphasis is on knowing the answers, and getting stuff right on tests.   As a graduate student, you don’t know the answers. No one knows the answers.  That’s why it’s a research problem!  But to a student that’s been trained for 4 years as an undergraduate to regurgitate the “right answer” on exams, this transition to not knowing can be really difficult.

To make it even harder, the story of research is a story of failure.  You will fail a LOT in grad school.  You’ll discover that your apparatus should have been built a different way, that a lightning storm knocked out power and your DNA samples thawed, that you should have laid out your plots differently, and that you just plain screwed up on something. Again and again and again.

Because undergrads that go to graduate school are typically high-achieving successful types, this constant failure can be shocking.  You are doing something for the first time. No one really knows how it should be done, so it’s OK if you fail, as long as you learn from it.   And, frankly, the story of LIFE is the story of failure.  Being able to persist when things don’t go your way, and figure out a Plan B (C, D, E…..) is an important life skill.

The last difference I’ll point out is about stress. As an undergraduate, there are short periods of high stress when there are exams, and stress mostly comes from sources external to you. In graduate school, the test is every day, 24/7.  The main source of your stress is…you.

Your thesis can begin to feel like a bastard love child that you can’t stand to have anyone else criticize and that takes over your life.  You can go from doing a happy data dance around the lab to feeling like you’ve made a colossal mistake by going to graduate school.  You’ll suspect the Academia Police are going to come and toss you out for your stupidity at any minute. This cycle from high to low can happen within a period of a couple hours on any given day.

Feeling like an imposter is a classic graduate school malady.  It wasn’t a mistake they let you in. You’ll be fine, especially if you know what to expect.

Expect graduate school to be radically different than your undergraduate experience.  You’ll love it.

Bug Girl’s Graduate School Series:

• Should I do a PhD?
• PhD -VS- Masters
• What to look for in a mentor and a graduate department

External Resources:

• Questions to ask when thinking about a PhD
• 20 Questions to ask a graduate program you’re considering
• The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research
• No, You’re Not an Imposter

The PhD Question

I get this question a lot.  “Should I do a PhD? I want to work in _____.”  I get it so much, in fact, that I thought I’d turn this into a post, and let others chime in.

My answer is usually “No”, and here’s why:  A PhD is NOT a vocational degree.

NEVER get a PhD because you think it will improve your job prospects.   PhDs are trained to do research in an academic setting, for the most part. And that is….not, frankly, where the majority of jobs are.  You will be disappointed and frustrated if you think getting a PhD will make getting a job “easier.”

Pursue a PhD because you love science, or because you have a burning question about a topic that you want to investigate further.    Do it because you want to push your limits, and create new knowledge.  In the sciences, you should expect that you will receive financial support in the form of a graduate assistantship, so a PhD is something that you do for yourself.  Do a PhD if you like having your mind stretched, exploded, occasionally stomped, and then re-assembled into something wonderful and new.

Yes, it would be nice if the Academy would get with the program and make PhDs more aligned with the current job market.   Tiny bits of management training are being added here and there.  But for the most part, there is a reason everyone dresses up in funny robes with capes and poofy hats when you graduate—it’s because academia is firmly rooted in the past.

It may seem like all the jobs advertised require PhDs, but that is an optical illusion.   Advertising costs money.  Organizations only pay money to advertise jobs that are difficult to fill, or that are at a level where you are required to advertise them to attract a certain candidate pool.  PhD level jobs are advertised, not Bachelor’s level jobs.

The Return-on-Investment of advertising for a Bachelor’s level job just isn’t there like it is with a PhD, so organizations just post BS positions on their websites or locally.  You end up with the appearance of more jobs at the PhD level when you look at journals or major job-posting sites–but it isn’t reality.

If you look at 2006 NSF data for people involved in Research and Development–where you would expect a lot of PhDs to end up–you see that they are just  a small slice of this pie.

The other thing to remember is that if you are looking at want-ads, or online advertisements, you are using the least efficient method of job searching.  Surveys of new hires by the Department of Labor consistently find that around 50% of people got their jobs because they knew someone.  People hire people they already know, or that their colleagues know.

If I have a postdoc, or a summer research position, I’m going to talk to grad students and friends I know already, because they are a known quantity.  I’m going to hire someone who is the best personality fit for the job.  I can train them to do anything technical that they might not know.  It really is who you know, not what you know.

It’s most important to me, as an employer, to have someone who can work well in a group and that is reliable.  You might be brilliant and have degrees from the Ivy League, but if you piss everyone off around you and can’t communicate for shit, you are worthless to me.

This is why graduate students (and undergraduates too!) should be focusing on making connections and building a professional network rather than searching for job ads. Blogging is a great way to do that, as long as you don’t focus exclusively on flaming people.  (What?? Do as Bug Girl says, not as she does.)

Going to professional meetings and interacting with others in your field is crucial; volunteering is also an important way to make connections in some fields.

Here’s a good way to see if you are on the right track:  Think about how much time and energy you invest into getting laid.  The mental imagining of what it will be like with person X; time spent building relationships on the possibility of some future putting-out;  the trying-on of clothes and shoes; the mental debates about whether a pint of Ben and Jerry’s now is better than maybe a boyfriend later when you’re thin.
How much total time and energy is that?

Is that comparable to the amount of time you are spending on planning your career and job hunting?  If not, you may need to re-examine your priorities.  (Or, I suppose, fuck really well-connected people.)

I loved my graduate work, and graduate school was one of the best times of my life. I spent 4 years literally crawling around on my hands and knees in North Carolina, focused on solving really interesting research questions and exploring insect behavior. I had wonderful friends, and I drank a lot of beer.  Please don’t think I’m saying don’t go to grad school!

Just go for the right reasons, and don’t expect a PhD to solve all your job hunting problems.   You will get paid slightly more, On Average, with a PhD; and your chances of being unemployed with an advanced degree are lower, On Average, than for someone with no degree or a BS.  But it’s not a path to easy fame and riches.

Bug Girl’s Graduate School Series:

• How are Undergraduate and Graduate School Different
• PhD -VS- Masters
• What to look for in a mentor and a graduate department

External Resources:

• Questions to ask when thinking about a PhD
• 20 Questions to ask a graduate program you’re considering
• The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research
• No, You’re Not an Imposter
• The PhD Factory

An Entomological Carol

I was cleaning my office last night, and found a newsletter from my graduate department in 1987!   It’s a little late, but this one was so amusing I had to share. Lyrics by Jim Richmond; hopefully he doesn’t mind me sharing them here.

Sung to the tune of the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire)

Professors resting wherever they are,
Grad students nipping at their knows
Post-docs with their eyes on jobs aglow
And secretaries dressed up like who knows;

Everybody knows some plants and some insects too,
Goes to make the work just right,
Tiny technicians with their eyes half aglow
will find it hard celebrating tonight.

We know the Chairman is on his way,
He has lots of authority in his say,
And every PI is sure to try
To see if the Dean can make their proposal fly.

And so to you I am offering this simple phrase,
For you, whatever age you are,
Though it’s been said many times many days,
Merry Christmas to you.

Tragedy at UAH

Once again, I find myself writing about Academia, and things gone horribly wrong.  Almost half of the biology department was killed or injured yesterday in what seems to have been a tenure meeting.  One faculty member has been charged with the murders.

How in the world will they finish the semester? What happened? Is this more evidence of the toxicity of Academia?

I do not have answers to these questions.  Re-reading this post, where the process of tenure selection is discussed, brought back my memories of the tenure process.   It is painful and stressful.  Even when it ends well, it leaves scars.

My thoughts are with the students, staff, and faculty as they try to put their lives back together.

Predictably, someone asks “What if the faculty had had a gun?“  Why this is a stupid ass idea has already been addressed elsewhere.  And how despicable do you have to be to try to score political points in this situation?  One of the faculty did have a gun. That’s why this happened.

Classes are canceled for the next week at UAH.

Do scientists work too hard?

A recent article in Academe Online had some startling numbers that I had long suspected, but wasn’t able to back up with data until now.

Over half of scientists surveyed–regardless of gender–reported they work 50 hours a week or more.  This work-intensive lifestyle is one of the most frequent topics students (grad and undergrad) ask about when they see how haggard all their professors look.

I think this statement from the article is quite true:

Universities have developed over the past two hundred years to fit men’s lives, both as faculty members and as students. From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, university professors were predominantly men—with stay-at-home wives who organized and cared for the household.

One of the reasons I jumped off the tenure track was that it was not a healthy choice for me, a person with a disability. I don’t, frankly, think it’s a healthy choice for very many people, aside from a few superstars who thrive on stress. An academic life can be wonderful…but too often it’s a toxic environment.

Too much work/too little time is a problem with academia, and also a problem for Americans in general, since Americans have little or no vacation time, compared to other developed countries.  The Academe Online article caught my eye because it  actually was about the role of housework in adding to the burdens of female scientists:

“female scientists do nearly twice as much housework as their male counterparts. Partnered women scientists at places like Stanford University do 54 percent of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in their households; partnered men scientists do just 28 percent. This translates to more than ten hours a week for women— in addition to the nearly sixty hours a week they are already working as scientists—and to just five hours for men.”

This pretty much validates what I’ve been hearing from friends for many years. While some women have wonderful husbands that help with parenting and housework, most of them still do the heavy lifting around the house.

When you combine this information with the recent National Academies publication “Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty“, you realize just how important home/house work can be.

In every science field they measured, the proportion of female applicants for tenure-track jobs was significantly less than the number of women completing PhDs in that field. Women received 45 percent of the Ph.D.s in biology awarded from 1999 to 2003, but they accounted for only 26 percent of applicants to tenure-track positions.  Same story in Chemistry –36% of PhDs earned,  18% of applicants for tenure-track positions.

In every field, women were underrepresented among candidates for tenure relative to the number of female assistant professors.  In chemistry, for example, women made up 22% of assistant professors, but only 15% of the faculty being considered for tenure.

I hear–often–from grad students “I don’t want to work in academia because I want to have a life/family/kids.”  I hear it from both men and women.

What does it mean for Academia that some of our best and brightest see it as a machine that grinds up lives and spits out bitter, tenured dead wood?

Universities in Trouble

One thing that has made my new job even harder is dealing with the financial fallout in Michigan as it affects state and university budgets. A review of several books that deal with University funding appeared in the New York Review of Books last week, and it pretty well describes some of the pressures I’m seeing.

It’s a longish essay, and well worth reading if you want to understand the Hobson’s Choice we face in higher education right now.  Some highlights:

“at public institutions, where tuition historically has been kept relatively low by means of a subsidy derived from tax revenue, the financial model is also at risk. These institutions—long before the current crisis—were seeing … “massive disinvestment” by the states.

…On the expense side, one finds the usual strategies: salary and hiring freezes, reduction of staff by layoffs or attrition, cancellation or postponement of construction projects….On the revenue side, some institutions…are increasing the number of undergraduate students they admit, in order to collect additional tuition to help close the budget gap….

such a strategy stretches the capacity of existing dormitories, classrooms, and advisers at just the time when more and more students, facing a contracting job market and longer odds against getting into and paying for graduate school, are turning to the career and counseling services for help

In short, the financial crisis not only is threatening the livelihood of faculty and staff but is also degrading the experience of students.

Yup. That’s about right.

Pretty Picture Monday (and an argument)

I have a super busy schedule today, so how about you cruise over to Scienceray and look at their pretty photos of…insects eating each other.  This lovely robber fly is a great example.

You can also just surf around in stboed’s photostream–lots of neat photos like this one there.

Also, since there are lots of academics here–how do you feel about Ms. Biden wanting her title to be used?

As someone who is always called Miss Bug Girl by students, while my male colleagues get to be called Dr. Whosit, I understand where she’s coming from.  (And I bet none of the male faculty I work with have ever been mistaken for a secretary.)

Would anyone have bothered to write about this if Dr. Biden was a dude?  (Aside from the wonderful happenstance of a gay couple as VPs during Freedom to Marry Week.)
You might also be interested in Orac’s take on this, as an MD.

Talk amongst yourselves. Back Tuesday!

More career advice

If you are applying for an internship, you should probably apply for the internship FIRST, before you have a reference letter sent.

Especially if we didn’t request reference letters, but names of references.

And you should also give your references enough information that they can say what you are applying for in their letter.

That way, I don’t have to send your reference letter to everyone, asking “Do you know who this kid is? Are you hiring them?

It’s not a good first impression.

Related posts:

• Spellcheck is not your fiend friend
• How not to write a cover letter
• Hints for Academic Job Seekers