Transcript Resources for Success as a Graduate Student at Carnegie Mellon

Resources for Success
as a Graduate Student at
Carnegie Mellon
Chad Ellis
Chemistry Department
September 18, 2009
Outline
I.
What good is my advice?
II.
Success—The 10 Year Plan
III. Resources
IV. Ex: Structure and Timing of my “career”
I. What good is my advice?
• 6th year in Chemistry…graduating this Spring
• Academic career goal
• Post-doc applications
• Writing papers, thesis
• TA for 8 semesters
• Generalizations of my experience…
– How many 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 5th +??
II. Success
• Unique experience
– Less than 1% of U.S. has a Ph.D.
– Academic structure
• You make it what you want—set goals
– Thrills and depressions
– Support and destruction
• NOT for everyone—opportunity cost is BIG
– Love the pursuit of truth
– Mentoring
– Determined Intellectual Exploration!
Why get a M.S. or Ph.D.?
II. Success—you define it
• Make a 10 Year Plan…
– Incorporate and anticipate changes
• Example: In 10 years, I want to…
• Don’t know??? Set goals to maintain options.
III. Resources
A. Your Structure and Timing
– Your 10 Year Plan
B. Your Network
C. Carnegie Mellon
D. Your Determination and Resilience
Structure and Timing
• Work back from your 10 Year Plan
• Year 5 needs…(Ph.D. graduation)
– Papers, teaching, research skills, funding,
conferences, leadership, thesis…
– Work back from each requirement to Sept 18, 2009
– What does my CV need to look like??
• Use models (and do better than they did)
– Older grad students
– Seek out a mentor…
– Models become nodes in your network
Network
• In making your 10 Year Plan, develop good
relations with…
– Mentors, faculty, staff, administrators
– Collaborators
– Peers and friends
– Friends of friends
– and…
• Your advisor is probably the most important
node in your network
Advisors
• Choose wisely…(you can switch)
– R. Tannenbaum, W. Schmidt. How to Choose a Leadership Pattern,
Harvard Business Review, May-June 1973.
• Ask questions to the advisor, his students,
students in other groups, alumni
– Different answers could indicate trouble…
– Would you work for this advisor again?
• How does he/she manage resources/money?
Projects, Conflict, Authorship, Funding,
Group dynamic, Communication?
• Work in a number of groups prior to selection.
Advisors
Project Management
Supportive / Altruistic
Destructive / Parasitic
Personality
Total Freedom / Oblivious
Very Specific / Intrusive
TIME
University Resources
• Your 10 Year Plan, Network, and Advisor are
taking shape…GREAT!
• Sort out the departmental requirements in Plan
• Do them in 0-3 years
– Grad student handbook
– Coursework, entry exams, comprehensive exams,
seminars, proposals, leadership roles, teaching…
• In 2-6 years…conferences, papers, thesis…
• What can the University or departments offer in
terms of support toward your Ph.D.?
University Resources
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Financial
Technical
Logistical
Professional Development
Legal
Organizational
Emotional, Social, Health
Financial Resources
• Travel Funding
– Graduate Programs Office
– Departmental
– Conference organizers
• Bigger grants
– NSF, NIH
– Private funders (Dreyfus, generous alumni…)
• GPO
• HUB—student billing questions
• 46% say important
Technical Resources
• Computing
– Help Desk 268-HELP
– Departmental directories, shared servers
– Back-ups
• Software
– Learn relevant software early!!
– Endnote, Mathematica, Sigmaplot
Logistical Resources
• Library
– Illiad, Cameo
• Stockroom
– Shipping and receiving facilities
• Maintenance personnel
– Add these important folks to your network!!!
Professional Development
• Teaching
– Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence
– Teaching Club
• Graduate Programs Office
– Lecture Series
– http://grad.msu.edu/prep/ Michigan State: PREP
• Presentations, publications, and writing
– G. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 2004, 16, 15, 1375.
• Writing Consultant
• Mentors
• > 60% say important!
Legal Resources
• Allegheny County Bar Association
– Legal Referral Service online: $30 for 30 minutes
• Neighborhood Legal Services Association
• Carnegie Mellon’s Office of the General
Counsel
• Carnegie Mellon’s Tech Transfer Office—IP
Organizational / Interdisciplinary
• Graduate Student Assembly
– your student government
• University Clubs
– Sporting, Outdoors, Cultural, Project Oriented
– Skiing
– Solar Splash
– Buggy
– Entrepreneurial and investing
Social, Emotional, Health
• Great athletic facilities, events, and IM sports
• GSA events
– Happy hours
– Rafting trips
– Sports
– Wine tasting
• Carnegie Mellon Student Health and
Counseling Services—Health Insurance
• Departmental events and resources
Resources…revisited
A. Your Structure and Timing
– Your 10 Year Plan
B. Your Network
C. Carnegie Mellon
D. Your Determination and Resilience
--decide to persevere, overcome all obstacles
IV. Halfway through my 10 Year Plan
• Goal:
– Chemistry professor at a top liberal arts university
• What I’ve done
• Current state of affairs
– Post Doc application process
Getting a Post Doc
• Identify post doc advisor one year before graduation
• Send a perfect cover letter, CV, and research
summary (see Mentor) by email and hard copy
• Use your network
• Follow up if no response
• Send letters of recommendation if asked
– Supportive faculty who know you and your work
– Best case: one-two writers know post-doc advisor
• Phone interview, site visit, presentation, dinner
• The offer…
• papers, thesis, external post-doc funding…
Acknowledgements
• Nancy Klancher
• Suzie Laurich-McIntyre
• Questions??