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MY FINE STORY
It was a long, hot sunny day. Mentally, I was drifting in and out of consciousness, examining an excruciatingly large quantity of rank anoxic mud for subtidal invertebrates aboard a marine research vessel aptly nick-named the "Sickland". I realised that for the last three years of my undergrad I dreamt I would pass my working life in a sterile hospital, likely tending to gangrenous wounds that smelled much like the vile mire that slipped between my fingers. Some people say it was the booze still coursing through my veins from the previous evening, but at that moment my future became suddenly clear. I could help others live healthier, happier lives, or I spend my life oblivious to human suffering, surrounded by nature and pursuing questions that only children seem to ask. Perhaps the decision was somewhat selfish...
I finished my bachelors degree in ecology at the University of Alberta. However, I learned the most interesting and useful information in my last two years during six field courses and two directed studies projects. I’m a firm believer in learning by doing and can’t emphasize enough how important courses that involve field and research work are when a student is considering grad studies. This brings me to my first two pieces of advice:
1) Take a field course and get to know graduate students. Field courses are exceptional for immersing students in a single subject and that type of focus and exertion are a prelude to what graduate work encompasses. Another plus of field courses is the close interaction with graduate students and faculty. Nothing makes you feel more confident that you can do graduate work than hanging out with those who do.
2) Do a directed studies or undergraduate thesis project. After all, it's hard to know if you like research, writing and public presentations until you've actually performed all of them yourself. Directed studies or honors projects are the closest you can get without full commitment.
Like a few others, my undergraduate project intrigued me enough to ask my supervisor if I could begin my Master’s degree in his lab. I guess you could say my decision to start grad school was somewhat indirect, since my undergraduate project was begging to be continued. Fortunately I lucked into a Master’s project with a good natured supervisor who cares about his students. Which leads me to my third piece of advice:
3) Talk to the other grad students in your prospective lab, or you may be in for a supervisory nightmare. Often people join labs without meeting the potential supervisors other graduate students, THIS IS CRAZY!!! Find out if your potential supervisor is a chronic alcoholic, womanizing cannibal before he tries to get you drunk, take off your clothes and eat… Hmm, that’s perhaps too outlandish. Basically try and find out if you’re compatible with your supervisor before joining the lab. Are you comfortable around him/her, do you share a similar sense of humour, do they respect their other graduate students.
Here’s where the story gets complicated. Near the completion of my Master’s I had the opportunity to continue the project as a PhD. But the homily “never do your undergrad and grad degrees at the same university” echoed through the hollows in my head. So, I finished my Master’s and left an awesome project, good labmates and a great supervisor for the unknown. Luckily I was already equipped with the knowledge I have passed on to you in the preceding passages and the road to PhD was paved with pearls.
Deciding where to do my PhD was certainly a more direct choice (although limited in geographic space as my wife had started a Master’s at the University of Victoria). My choice of a new supervisor was based on two things: First, who’s the most successful in my field and working at a university in British Columbia and second, who’s willing to accept me? Luckily the answer was the same for both and I’m part of a great lab at the University of British Columbia. However, I wished I would remembered one piece of advice that, although not a deal breaker, can make your graduate experience even more exhilarating:
4) Interact with graduate students outside of your prospective lab or sit in on a graduate seminar or discussion group. I think you can get a hint of the quality of the department by the range of interactions among students. If everyone you meet is a sullen, downtrodden alcoholic it could be the result of limited opportunity or oppressive faculty and administration. Be careful though, some people are just lame...
I realize that some of this advice may be of lesser importance than those well known tidbits relayed in previous essays on deciding where to attend graduate school, but my last and MOST IMPORTANT bit of advice is this:
5) If you want to go to grad school, DON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. Even if your marks are less than exceptional, your determination and interest can make a big difference on a supervisor's willingness to accept you. Of course, determination alone won't get you into the best of the best, but a short master's and a couple of publications will ensure finding a PhD position in a school of your choosing just as easily as good undergraduate grades will.
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