Advice for starting your PhD
I’m both excited to start my PhD and really nervous, because I want to get it right. So, I’ve been obsessively trawling the Internet looking for advice. Here’s what I’ve got:
Take charge
Decide what you want out of your degree and go get it. “You had better decide early on that you are in charge of your program. The degree you get is yours to create.”1
“Think of yourself as a professional, someone who will be a biologist for the rest of your life. Start to accumulate a library and reprint collection, develop a computerized list of references and addresses, attend meetings, meet with visiting seminar speakers, correspond with people working on related problems, send out copies of your articles as they are published, etc.”2
Read widely and learn to think for yourself
“When you first arrive, read and think widely and exhaustively for a year. Assume that everything you read is bullshit until the author manages to convince you that it isn’t.”1
Attend seminars
Stanford math professor Ravi Vakil suggests that you write down three things you got out of each seminar. Keep it to only three things– if you find a fourth, you must cut one. This will help you focus on what you can get out of the talk, not necessarily what the speaker’s main points are.
Some reasons why you should attend seminars3:
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“Don’t be narrow and concentrate only on your particular problem. Learn things from all over the field, and beyond.”
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“Your thesis problem may well come out of an idea you have while sitting in a seminar. Go to seminar dinners when at all possible, even though it is scary, and no one else is going.”
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“Try to ask one question at as many seminars as possible, either during the talk, or privately afterwards. The act of trying to formulating an interesting question (for you, not the speaker!) is a worthwhile exercise, and can focus the mind.”
Be ready to change course if needed
Things will go wrong– that’s a part of doing research. Don’t get upset when that happens; instead, include alternatives as part of the plan:
“Write down a list of the major problems that could arise and ruin the whole project. Then write down a list of alternatives that you will do if things actually do go wrong. It is not a bad idea to design two or three projects and start them in parallel to see which one has the best practical chance of succeeding.”1
Write everything down
“‘I don’t need to write that down, I’ll remember it’ is the biggest lie you can tell yourself! Write down everything you do — even if it doesn’t work. This includes meeting notes, method details, code annotations, among other things.”4
Write papers as you go
“Treat each project (even a literature review) as if it is potentially publishable.”2
“Start a Word document called ‘Thesis’”.5
“You do a lot of reading during your first year— write it up. One of the best research groups I collaborated with during my PhD had an initiative where all first year PhD students should try to publish a review article.”6
Finished is better than perfect
“The best thesis is a finished thesis. No matter how much time you spend perfecting your first draft, your work will come back covered in corrections, and you will go through more drafts before you submit your final version. Send your drafts to your supervisor sooner rather than later.”4
Enjoy it!
“Enjoy your PhD! It can be tough, and there will be days when you wish you had a ‘normal’ job, but PhDs are full of wonderful experiences and give you the opportunity to work on something that fascinates you. Celebrate your successes and enjoy yourself.”4