Yesterday I received an email from the person who is the reason I am studying computational biology. Her students have requested that I come give a talk. An invited talk.
I have invited speakers and one said that being invited by PhD students is much better than when faculty invite you. So undergraduates? Even better?
They want to know about graduate school and research and life outside of their bubble of a college. I could tell them a million truths. A million half-truths. The instances of anxiety and depression in graduate students are much higher than the general population. “Check how good the health care is.” The stipend you are paid assumes a healthy 20-something able to have roommates with no debt and family financial support. “Check the MIT cost of living calculator.” Your advisor has broad power over your happiness, career, graduation timeline, and in some cases pay. “Check if the graduate students are unionized.” Ensure you can avoid the professor with a reputation of abuse. “There should be at least three faculty you want to work with.”
Why? Im not trying to sell them the world.
I will tell them that science is hard. It’s hard because you are trying to learn something that no one knows. It’s hard because you will be underpaid. Because each person’s experience is unique. Because grad school is long and short. Because your friends will get promotions, go on vacations, get married, have kids, and you will still be in school. Because rarely do people talk about how hard it is.
But what you are doing will be engaging and exciting. You will meet talented and intelligent people who will support you, commiserate with you, and hopefully try and change the world. You are learning how to learn, and you can do anything with that. For every person who tries to make it harder there are many more trying to make it more equitable, accessible, and fair.
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