Grad School 101: Advisors, Admissions, and Applications
Are you interested in applying to graduate school for biology? Are you prepared to commit yourself to several long years of hard work and minimal pay? Are you way too excited about a single topic that none of your friends or family will ever understand or ask about because it is way too specific??? Well then buckle up, cause I have the post for you!!!
All jokes aside, graduate school is indeed challenging, but it is also an extremely rewarding experience that most of us wouldn't trade for the world. I have had the pleasure of completing a traditional master's degree program in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at the University of Kansas, so this post serves as a guide for individuals interested in applying to graduate school but unsure how the process works or how to start. For this post, I'm going to strictly focus on admissions and the journey to get to graduate school; in later posts I will talk a bit more about my personal experiences as a grad student, what grad school life is really like, what you can do with a graduate degree in Biology, etc. Below, you'll find a chronological list of steps to follow if you're thinking about applying to graduate school, along with a brief (in some cases) explanation of what to do during each step.
Now that all the disclaimers and such are out of the way, let's get into it....
I knew that I wanted to go to graduate school since before I started my Bachelor's degree. I've discussed this before in earlier posts, so I will be brief here, but my point is that I was preparing for my graduate career the minute I stepped foot on my undergraduate campus. You do not have to be crazy like me to build a successful graduate career in biology. I'll say it louder for the people in the back: you can decide to go to grad school at any point in your life and I'm telling you that you can do it and be successful. You don't have to be 22 years old straight out of undergrad or doing research the second you step on campus as a freshman. You can take a break and go back, have kids, drag it out, decide to out of the blue; whatever your situation is, you can make grad school happen if that is really your goal and you are willing to put in the work to do it. The steps I outline below are for anyone, not just those like me that planned for this years in advance (which is not always a good thing, as I found out, spoiler alert). I will say that a strong research background can help you a lot, but that is not always a requirement for admission. Most places just require an advisor that is willing to bring you on as a student and a decent GPA. So, don't get discouraged if your CV isn't 3 pages long when you submit your application. You have plenty of time to beef it up once you actually get to grad school.
Part 1: Making the Decision and Prepping to Apply
I will tell you now that there is a lot of work that goes into your graduate degree before you even apply! This first part is all about preparing to apply and making the important decisions.
1. Making the Decision to go to Grad School!
This seems obvious, but first you have to decide that you actually want to commit yourself to 2-3 years for a Master's and 4-6 years for a PhD. Obviously this is a huge commitment that will impact your family, income, free time, where you live (sometimes), and so much more. Make sure this is the right thing for you and your family. Read other blogs, articles, and Instagram pages about what life is really like doing a grad program in biology. Ask people you know or random people on the internet (like me!) about their experiences and use that to formulate your own opinions. Don't be scared by all of the negativity on social media surrounding graduate schools and PhDs in particular; it is tough to say the least, but the positives almost always outweigh the negatives, even if people tend to harp on the harder parts.
Making this decision is 100% personal and something only you and your family can do. When I decided to do my Master's, it was 100% on me, but my family and boyfriend were incredibly supportive. I made the decision to have a long distance relationship with my boyfriend while going to grad school. Now that I've decided to do a PhD as well, my boyfriend and I have had hours and hours of conversations to reach that decision together, because he supports me and my goals, but also understands that that would mean uprooting our family, making less money than I do now, and moving around indefinitely after I finish until I find a full-time job. Those are some of the tough decisions you'll have to make when deciding to go to grad school. However, the benefits of a grad degree, especially in the field of biology, are incredible. I'll go into those more in a later post, so stay tuned!
2. What Should I Study?
Again, this is obvious, but also something that requires a lot of thought! If you decide on biology, great! One step down. Well, you have to pick a discipline within biology as well. You are going to pigeonhole yourself like never before the minute you step into a graduate program, so be sure to choose a study system that you're obsessed with and can never stop talking about. My advice is that if you aren't obsessed with that topic, find something you are obsessed with and choose that instead. The amount of time, energy, and resources you are going to sink into a single topic is immeasurable, so make sure you love it and won't lost interest. You can take one of two general paths when picking what topics you're most interested in: taxa or problems. If you're more interested in the actual organism, you fall into the taxa category. You are probably a bit more flexible on what research questions you want to ask, so your options for potential advisors might be more plentiful. If you are driven more by the research questions specifically and can imagine multiple different systems to answer those questions, you fall into the problems category. It might be a bit harder to find potential advisors without networking, but it is possible! Regardless of which camp you are in, make sure you are excited about that thing. As long as you love it, you'll never get bored of what you do, I promise.
During undergrad, I studied herpetology (reptiles and amphibians) and fell in love. For my Master's I wanted to try another discipline, paleontology, because it was something else I have always loved and never would've forgiven myself if I hadn't tried it (because I literally wanted to be a paleontologist since I was 3 years old, don't judge). After my Master's, I realized the paleo world wasn't for me and I've (mostly) decided to go back to my herpetology days. Moral of the story: it is more than okay to change your mind and try new things (in fact, I personally recommend it) so you know for sure that you are doing what you love most. However, at the end of the day, you do have to decide on that discipline at some point and you'll be pretty locked in. So, take the time to explore and really figure out what subject you want to study. You can keep it pretty broad at this point as you begin to hone in on your specific interests, but be sure!
3. Deciding on a School and, More Importantly, an Advisor
So you're sure you want to go to grad school. You've decided what discipline of biology you're interested in and you're ready to start making a shortlist of schools and programs you're interested in. Biological sciences is different from a lot of other disciplines in that you choose your advisor, not necessarily the school. Of course the school itself is extremely important; all of the criteria you chose your undergraduate institution based on are crucial to a graduate institution as well (location, cost, community, athletics, and more). However, your advisor is the single most important person you will encounter and work with during your graduate career. An advisor is typically a professor at a university that is actively contributing to the body of literature in their discipline. They serve as mentors to guide you as a student while you complete your research, writing, exams, and dissertation. Your advisor will help shape your research interests and expertise, decide on projects, co-author papers, travel with you, and so much more. You are a representation of them and their lab and vice versa. As a result, I cannot overexaggerate the importance of finding a good advisor that you click with.
Okay, finding a great advisor is important, but what does that mean? Well, "great" to me might not be the same as "great" to you. Right off the bat, you guys should "click" and have a good back and forth. If you don't gel with your advisor, you won't be comfortable going to them when times are tough, your experiments fail, you don't know what to do, or you need advice. You need to feel comfortable creating a relationship with this person. Obviously relationships are formed over time, but from your first meeting you can usually tell whether you will get along with a person. Trust your instincts on that. If you don't get along well or something about them just rubs you the wrong way, don't totally write them off, but ask more questions and really think about whether that relationship can realistically work. In general, kind and understanding advisors are always the best ones, hands down. The tough guys can be great if you thrive in that kind of environment, but you have to anticipate the hard times and try to see how that person will react in those situations. In addition to their personality, try to pin down their advising style. Some advisors are extremely hands-on and want to be involved and micromanage every single step of your project. These advisors typically want you to do thesis projects closely related to their research interests and ongoing research in their lab. These advisors can be great if you don't go into your grad program with specific project ideas or aren't sure exactly what you want to research. However, they can be a little overbearing at times and don't allow for much freedom to make your own way. On the flip side, you can have an advisor that is much more hands-off. Some advisors let you do your thing and serve more as a support system when issues inevitably crop up. They typically allow you to research anything that interests you (within their area of expertise, of course) and take a lot of personal freedom. This can be great, but you have to be incredibly motivated and driven to thrive in this environment. Don't expect a lot of pushes from your advisor, you need to push yourself!
So, how do you figure out what type of advisor this person may be? Well, you can check out their website. A lot of times they will have a section for prospective students in the lab with details about expectations. Another great way that I always recommend is to reach out to current or former graduate students in their lab. You can almost always find their email addresses on the department website. They will be able to give you insider knowledge on what it is like to work with this person. You can also flat out ask them! They know that this is a give and take relationship on both of your parts and it is important for you to find an advisor that will fit your personality and what you need. If you need more support and guidance, try to find a more hands-on advisor; if you are more of a control freak with lots of ideas and motivation, go for the hands-off advisor. Either way, the advisor-advisee relationship is extremely important in the graduate school world.
Okay, you've done some personal reflection and know what type of advisor you think you would gel best with, now it is time to find some! In the whole wide world of biology and academia, how in the world do you find a single specific person you want to work with? Well, lucky for you, many of us have been there and have some tips to share! I will say that the easiest way to find potential advisors in the topic you're interested in studying is to network. "Friend of an academic friend" is a great way to find someone that shares your interests without having to wade through the internet. However, that isn't always possible or realistic. If you can't network, get yourself a professional Twitter and get to work! Try building up a small following and using the right hashtags to find labs in the topic of interest that are looking for students. Here is a great blog post written by a colleague of mine about how she has used Twitter professionally and all its benefits. Twitter is great for finding scientists that are actively contributing to their field of interest and could use some students on that journey!
Outside of Twitter, I always recommend doing some good Google searches as well to find potential advisors. Trying focusing your keywords to dredge up faculty members that aren't as easy to find. I like to focus my searches with this general formula: study system or taxon + research methods + faculty. For example, I used things like "herpetology behavior evolution faculty" and "lizard behavioral ecology faculty." It is important to tack on that "faculty" at the end so you can find actual professors at a university when you search. Try not to look at just the first 5 results; go back a few pages and change your keywords if you aren't finding what you're looking for.
Finally, you can find potential advisors from reading scientific papers that you are interested in. I highly recommend subscribing to a journal on the topic you want to research; you can typically get subscriptions for the year for less than $50 and you'll have access to new articles monthly or quarterly (depending on how often they publish new issues). Find some papers that particularly interest you and research the authors. This is a great way to stay up to date with current research while also doing some personal digging to find a potential advisor.
As a good rule of thumb, I typically recommend having a list of about 10 different potential advisors that you want to reach out to about opportunities in their lab. After you have identified this list, you should complete some important steps before reaching out to these professors. First, do your research. Thoroughly explore their website, social media presence, university webpage, LinkedIn, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, recent papers, anything you can find about them. Keep notes and refer back to them. Next, be sure to familiar yourself with current research in their lab. Read several papers posted within the last couple years from that individual and their collaborators. This serves 2 purposes: you will get a better understanding of what is currently going on in their lab and you will be able to butter them up a bit when you first reach out.
This is a long section, I know, but I can't tell you how important these steps are to a successful graduate application process. So, almost done! The last thing you need to do is build a relationship with your potential advisors. From that list, send a proofread, professional email to each advisor asking about potential opportunities available in their lab. Be clear about what term you want to start and what your research interests are. This initial email is critical. You should be concise, but also provide enough information for them to decide quickly whether you deserve a response or not. That first email should explain why you are interested in joining their lab and what you can bring to the table as a member of that lab. Highlight your experiences and research interests, but format it in a way that illustrates how you can be of service to them and their research group. Be sure to mention recent papers you have read from them and what you specifically found interesting about them. In general, you should flatter them without kissing too much butt. Find that balance of showing your strengths and explaining why you want to work with them so badly.
Don't be discouraged if you don't get a response from a potential advisor or if they send you a short answer back. These professors are incredibly busy and their emails are always blowing up. In some cases, your emails might be sent straight to spam. As a good rule of thumb, if you don't get a response within 2 weeks, it is professionally acceptable to send a single follow-up email reemphasizing your desire to join the lab. If you don't receive a response after that, let it go. In addition, if they let you know they are not taking students for that semester, don't be too upset. Most student positions in the lab are dependent on funding availability and resource allocation. It might not be that they don't want to work with you, just that they already have a full lab and don't have the resources to take on another. At the end of the day, you will probably only receive positive responses from a couple potential advisors on your list of 10, so always have backups and don't get too discouraged if your number one choice says no.
After that initial email, you will hopefully get a positive response from at least a couple professors you reached out to. After that, they will most likely want to schedule a phone or virtual "interview" to discuss more specifics about your experience and research interests. This is more of a conversation about how your research interests gel together than anything, so don't be too nervous! Be yourself and be honest; good relationships cannot be forced just because you are desperate to start a graduate program. Finally, don't be discouraged if you have to put off your applications a year. It might seem hard and never ending, but it is better to wait for the right advisor and funding opportunities than to jump into something you're not sold on so you can start sooner.
So, now that you've established relationships with a few different professors and you're ready to apply, it is time to gather everything you need to send in those apps!
Part 2: The Application
Most graduate school applications are due in December or January for the following Fall. However, some schools are on a rolling application system where they will accept applications later if a student is interested in attending. Most important thing is to double check the graduate school admissions AND department admissions information for ALL the schools you're interested in. This is a general list of materials that almost every application I've encountered has asked for, but be sure to check for specific requirements.
1. The GRE
The dreaded standardized test... *shudder* Oh yes, graduate school has one too, and it is a doozy. The GRE (or Graduate Record Examinations) is a baseline test required by many schools for admission. Think of it like the SAT for graduate school; the format is relatively similar and it is just as nerve wracking. The GRE is typically a computer-based test and you can take the general test and/or a subject test. Most universities just require the general; subject tests are available, but I've never seen anyone require it except for things like business school or something super specific. You might gain a leg up with admissions if you do particularly well on your subject test and choose to report it, but I did not choose to do that.
The GRE is a pretty pricey test and you have to sit for at least a couple hours. The general test (which is the one I took and most schools require) is split into 3 separate sections: verbal reasoning (which is like English class, lots of grammar and drawing conclusions from text), quantitative reasoning (math), and analytical writing (write a passage on a given prompt). You can find more information on the GRE general test here. Overall, it is pretty painful and difficult to study for because you don't really know what kinds of questions to expect. I found prep books like this one particularly helpful, and opted to take lots of practice tests to prepare. Many people take it multiple times to get a "passing" grade, but each school has their own standard for what they considered was "passing." For me, I took it once, achieved scores that were (in my mind) just good enough to consider "passing," and called it a day. Fortunately for us, a lot of schools are moving away from the GRE and don't require it anymore. A lot of schools agree that the standardized testing requirement is quite antiquated, and is not actually a good indicator of an individual's ability to succeed in graduate school. Things like research experience, passion and drive, and creativity are much more important factors. However, not all schools have jumped on this bandwagon yet, so I would take it just to be safe and have it under your belt. Your GRE score is valid for 5 years after you take it, so you can recycle those scores if you're applying for a PhD after your Master's (like me).
Overall, the GRE is one of those annoying tests you have to take, but after you check that box, you can focus on much more important and exciting things on your admissions to-do list.
2. Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Arguably one of the most important pieces of your admissions package, the CV is your chance to show off how many incredible things you've done in preparation for graduate school. The CV is like a resume, but is a little different in that the objective is to share as much information as possible. On a resume, you're trying to prove you're the right candidate for the job in as few words as possible and rarely with more than a single page; the CV, however, is supposed to be as long as you can make it.
If you're not sure how to get started on a CV or how to convert your resume to a CV, start by checking out the CV of some of your potential advisors and students in their lab. Ask to look over the CV of another graduate student or person at approximately the same level as you in their career. I have found that looking at examples of CVs really helped me to write mine. When developing mine, I always had a hard time remembering everything I've ever done that is worthy of CV space. I typically start by brain dumping everything academic-related I've done that I can remember. Then I can start organizing it into categories and format it at the end. While the longer the CV the better, it will be obvious if you try to "fluff" it with stuff that doesn't really belong. Stick to the most important things, but don't sell yourself short either. Also, you can typically tell if a department you're interested in joining puts a particularly strong emphasis on something by perusing their website and looking at current happenings in the department. For example, a department I'm interested in for my PhD specifically stated on their website that they look upon teaching experience particularly favorably. As a result, I did my best to beef up my teaching experience section on my CV to reflect that. It can be the same with other things, such as conference attendance, presentations, project experience, etc. At the end of the day, all of these are important to showcase, but you can format your CV to highlight something if it seems like that department really values those skills. This will make you stand out from the other applicants if it is a competitive program, and it will make your advisor confident in their decision to bring you into their lab.
I don't want to go on for too long about CVs, because I am no expert, but I do want to mention the main sections I have on mine: Education, Publications, Research Experience (highlighting specific projects I've done that may not have been published), Presentations (oral and poster), Teaching Experience, Community Outreach and Science Communication, Grants and Funding, Professional Memberships, links to my online presences (ResearchGate, Google Scholar, my blog, etc.), and my general research interests. Okay, that seems like a lot, right? You don't have to have all of these! And don't feel bad if you don't! I chose to highlight teaching and outreach, because those are things that are extremely important to me, and I want to showcase that my interests lie beyond research and my goal is to be a well-rounded scientist qualified for other career paths besides just academia. So, I chose to add those sections to my CV in addition to the others. I would say the most important sections on your CV are your contact information, education, research experience, and presentations. However, like I said before, don't feel bad if your CV looks a little empty!!! I promise you can still get into graduate school with little to no experience in research or academia. As long as you show that you are a quick learner and are motivated by your subject matter, you will be just fine.
If you have never had a professional resume writer look over your CV, I would also recommend that. It is usually under $100 and totally worth it. Check your local area for resume helpers. Here are also a few helpful links to get you started on writing a CV: Purdue OWL, Cornell Graduate School, and Prep Scholar.
3. Transcripts
This is relatively straightforward; schools need to see your grades from all previous institutions. GPAs have started to fall into the same categories as the GRE in that they are not always a great indication of whether a student will be successful in graduate school or not, but this is pretty much unavoidable for now. Make sure to follow the specific instructions for each school on how to send your transcripts.
4. Your Personal Statement
Also called the statement of purpose, this letter is probably the most important piece of your admissions packet, yes even more than the CV. I'm planning on making a whole post about personal statements in the future, but for now, I do want to emphasize how important they are. The personal statement is like a cover letter for a regular job, but more specific. It is your chance to really tell your story and why a graduate degree is exactly what you need and where you want to be. Make it personal and talk yourself up, but be real and emphasize everything you're bringing to the table. They need to know you are a real person with goals and ambition and skills to match. If you're going into graduate school as a career switcher or "later in life," this is the place for you to explain why you should be accepted without much experience. Don't underestimate the power of a good narrative and really draw them in.
Part 3: What's Next?
You've chosen your discipline, made relationships with potential advisors, narrowed down a short list of schools, and sent in your applications. YAY! Now what?! Well, you wait.....
Most schools will inform you of their decisions by early Spring for the following Fall. Many departments will also invite accepted students to visit campus on their dime to meet other potential students, tour the campus, and see your lab. I highly recommend you take advantage of this opportunity if it is available to you! After you have received all the decisions from your outstanding applications, take some time to reflect on which program would be the best fit for you. Advisors and departments know you most likely have multiple applications in the works, so they understand if you choose to decline your admissions offer. At the end of the day, you have to choose the program that is best for you and your family. One rule of grad school: be a strong team player, but always look out for number 1.
Phew, that was a long one this time, folks. Thank you if you have read this far! I hope you have found this article useful in some way on your journey to a professional career in academia. Graduate school in the biological sciences is a very unique road and I love sharing the knowledge I have about it, so be sure to check back later as I add more posts to this Grad School 101 series. I will leave you all with my favorite graphic about graduate school below. Please remember that no matter how stressful, difficult, and terrifying applying to grad school and being a grad student can be, it is 1000% worth if that is the path that will take you to your goals. While a lot of people see grad school as a means to an end, I like to embrace the journey. You spend so much time as a graduate student, meet so many incredible people (and some not so incredible), learn so much, grow more than you thought you would, and so much more. Embrace that journey and remember: "there is no 'right time;' there is just time and what you choose to do with it."
Thank you all for reading my longest post yet! If you have your own tips to contribute to this series or questions about my experiences in academia and the grad school process, leave a comment or send me a message! Until next time, science nerds.
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