Grad School Advice -- Year One

When I finally joined my lab, I asked my advisor what I thought was the best question in the world: what do you expect of me as a grad student?

He gave me a puzzled look, stroked his beard a few times, stared at the floor, smiled, and then said, "Think about science when you're not in the lab."

This wasn't at all what I expected. I was expecting him to say something more along the lines of, "Work 60 hours a week. Come in on the weekends. Don't take holidays. Read at least one article a day. Always be mentoring at least 2 undergrads at a time."

In a way, my advisor's response should have told me a lot about him and how he runs his lab. He's not an accountant. He's not my mom. He isn't a taskmaster. Instead, he's a man who loves science and loves to think about science. To him, there isn't a better thing for a grad student to do than think about science, and he thought that by getting me to think about science even when not in the lab I would be that much more successful.

So, that was the pearl of wisdom I held on to for the first year of grad school (and really ever since then). Each subsequent year, I would ask him for advice for that particular year (after reminding him what he told me last year so that he'd know I valued his advice enough to remember it).

So, for the next few posts, I'll relate the advice given to me during these annual chats about how to be a successful grad student.