Hello PhD

A few generations ago, you could probably graduate from a PhD program and immediately land yourself a junior faculty position at a nearby university. But as grad school enrollment grew, a new quasi-professional job-description emerged in the nebulous middle ground between student and professor. Lacking a better name, we just called them ‘postdocs’. It was an academ

Josh and Dan traveled to Washington DC for the Society for Neuroscience Conference 2023. We chatted with students, postdocs, and faculty about everything from grad school applications to industry jobs to work-life-balance. And we recorded this special update from the hall of posters and vendors. Here are a few photos from our vantage point at the Promega booth. There re

Karla already has a successful career. After completing her training, she’s worked as a pelvic-floor physical therapist for over ten years! Her patients love her, and she loves serving them. But no matter how skilled she becomes at her craft, there’s still a limit to how many people she can help. A PT, working in a clinic, can see only so many patients per day if sh

Graduate training has many milestones, but a few stand stronger in memory due to their importance. You may remember the day you passed your comprehensive exams, officially becoming a ‘PhD Candidate.’ Or maybe you’ll remember the day you saw a paper you co-authored published in your favorite journal.  And of course, every PhD remembers their defense 

This week, we answer a listener’s question about whether he should pursue schooling beyond a Master’s degree. Plus – once your formal education is complete, how can you continue to focus on learning? What steps should we take to become life-long learners? Adam writes: I have been given an exciting opportunity to continue my education and pursue a Ph

Just The Abstract is a new series where we explore a topic in a short, focused episode that’s easy to share. This week, we find out why most science PhD programs stopped requiring the GRE, and whether they’ll demote your application if you fail to provide a score. We take our inspiration this week from a thread in the r/gradschool subredit. knightshade017 wr

Here’s a controversial idea: what if graduate school finished on a predictable schedule the way (checks notes) every other academic training program does! Since kindergarten, your education has had fixed milestones. You knew it would take 12 years to graduate from high school, 4 for college, and 2 for a Master’s or an Associate’s Degree. Even medical schoo

This week, we’re opening the mailbag once again to answer YOUR burning questions! Change of Plans We start with Allen, who was awarded a grant based on a research proposal he submitted BEFORE joining the lab. When he finished the summer rotation, it didn’t turn out the way he expected. I have now been asked to write a report about how I used the grant for

Wherever scientists gather, there is sure to be a poster session. You may see them at major scientific symposia, as well as your university’s departmental retreat. To keep things interesting, a lot of conference organizers will host a poster competition. Entrants will have a chance to present their poster to a judge, who will score each one on the scientific content, clar

The scientific poster is an academic oddity. Where else do thousands of people gather around hundreds of large-format printouts to talk about esoteric subjects!? Posters might be the most common form of scientific communication on the planet. In your career, you will probably present more posters than talks or journal articles. And nearly anyone can create a poster – from