Grad School 101

Start with Onboarding

Once you schedule that first meeting with your supervisor, they and/or your department’s administrative team will help you get set up with your university email, payroll, and benefits etc. That first meeting is also when your PI should outline all required trainings you need to complete in order to work in the lab (e.g., health & safety training). Finally, use this first meeting to set up a regular meeting schedule with your supervisor such as weekly or bi-weekly. I recommend bi-weekly, with the option to book on demand meetings as needed.

Get Organized

Before you even begin in the lab, take time to figure out your strategies and plans to stay organized. The lab will equip you with lab notebooks – you can use these to track your methods and daily experiments. Lab notebooks are essential for tracking when and what you did – they do not need to be ‘pretty’ but they do need to be accurate. I would also recommend having a daily planner to map out what you want to accomplish each day/week and a mini tracker of what you did. This can be useful for weeks when you are just writing/reading and there are ‘gaps’ in your lab notebook when you reflect after months. Another thing to consider is online storage, i.e., one drive or google drive to save all files, drafts, reports etc. Do you best not to save anything on your desktop!

Find a Lab Buddy

This is usually a senior graduate student or postdoc, (preferably, but could also be the lab tech or research associate) who will be your “go-to” source as you navigate your new research environment. This person will be your first stop for questions, basic experiment training and everything else as you get started in the lab.

Read EVERYTHING

Okay, not everything, but I can’t stress enough the importance of dedicating at least your first few months to a dense literature review while you slowly begin learning different methods. Even without a qualifying exam, you need a strong foundation to identify knowledge gaps, formulate hypotheses and design new experiments. Being well read will also enable you to write a comprehensive and convincing proposal for scholarships and progress reports. Reading recommendation: start off with well-cited review articles, and move from general to more specific, integrating primary literature as you approach the latter. Aim for 1 paper a day to start. As you spend more of the workday conducting experiments, reading tends to wane off, but try for 2-3 papers a week. Tip: Keep a word bank of persuasive vocabulary you come across to use in your own manuscripts and reports. The more you read, the better the writer you will be.

Download a Reference Manager

To keep all your reading in order, a reference manager is an essential tool to get, and get early! Examples include Mendeley, Endnote etc. Most labs should have a multi-user license to one of these programs, which you can download onto your lab. Check with your lab buddy. I would recommend getting the same reference manager as your supervisor – this will make editing reports and manuscripts 100% easier.

Get a Statistical Analysis Software

Like the reference manager, another useful tool to get within the first few months is a statistical software program. Again, most labs will have a multi-user license that you can then add onto your laptop. If you end up having to purchase a student version (i.e., a term-based version), your lab should reimburse you for this fee. This software is necessary for all data analysis and data presentation (any graphical representation). Any Additional programs will be lab specific, but basic things like Microsoft Office Suite programs are essential.  

Review the Project Grant

As a new graduate student, one of the first things you will probably read is your supervisor’s successful research grant. It can be easy for students to get trapped into following everything the research grant has outlined. However, as you become more familiar with the literature you may have conflicting ideas and hypotheses than what the grant outlined. THIS IS NORMAL. Not all hypotheses become validated and there can be cycles of revision. If you find yourself in this situation, I suggest beginning by speaking with your supervisor and proposing your new ideas/experiments. You can then both identify a plan of action. You are going to be the person who will become the expert of that project, and trusting yourself from the beginning will go a long way. My experience: As a new MSc student, I believed everything the grant said and disregarded my own thoughts about what my hypothesis should be. As a gathered data and consulted the literature, I stopped trusting the grant hypothesis but still tried to defend it through my conference presentations and committee meetings, often times disputing my own data. This made my first two years really challenging until a co-investigator on the grant said that the grant was probably wrong and that I seemed to be on the right track.

Start Your Course Requirements

Begin taking any required courses as soon as you begin your program to reduce time spent away from lab in the later stages of your degree. This may seem like an obvious statement, but sometimes students might hold out for a course offered later. Also, be mindful of your specific department’s requirements and if you can take courses offered by other departments. Other departments might offer something which overlaps better with your niche research area, so spend a bit of time researching and speaking to your fellow students about what to take (and what to avoid). Contrary to undergraduate courses, most graduate courses are more assignment based and emphasize class discussion and presentations – professional skills that are essential for success.

Get Involved

As a new graduate student, it can be intimating to be in a new space (i.e. lab, university, or city). Getting involved with social activities that your department or university hosts can be a fun way to make friends and help you navigate the nuisances of graduate school. The bonding and sense of community that comes from hanging out with peers and unwinding is such an invaluable part of what makes graduate school worthwhile.

Moreover, the practical side of this is that these peers will become your network once you all finish graduate school and could lead to opportunities in a variety of sectors. Often, it’s not what you know but rather who you know. Another way to get involved could be part of different student-led organizations, to demonstrate your leadership skills. These types of roles and extra-curricular activities can also help strengthen any scholarship applications.

Review your Stipend & Apply for Scholarships

Research based graduate programs provide students with a yearly stipend (and this amount will vary across institutions, however, there have been consistent efforts to ensure that these amounts represent a livable wage. In some cases, working a teaching assistant while in the program may be required, with that income counting towards your stipend. Graduate students are also required to pay tuition, but this is often less than professional-based programs. When a PI accepts you into their lab for a MSc or PhD, they need to be able to cover your stipend for the minimum years of your program (e.g. 2 years for MSc). Please note that you should not required to secure external funding, but are often encouraged to apply. Scholarships can be extremely competitive and limited and/or discipline specific. In general, having a strong proposal, some leadership experience, publications, and previously received awards are all contributing factors. Once you win your first award/scholarship, there is usually a positive cycle of more success. Conversely, it can be discouraging when you aren’t successful, but again, these are extremely competitive and should not be your defining trait.

BONUS: Graduate school is a marathon, not a spirit. The best thing you can do for yourself is to be patient and give yourself grace. Take breaks when needed, and rest and recharge often. Find community where you can, and lean into your support system. Good luck!