Not necessarily in that order.
Sohini Mazumdar joins the Nature blogs with her thoughts on – We’ll let her speak for herself:
Now what is this blog about… you ask? I believe a healthy dose of introspection does most graduate students a world of good. Step back, look at the bigger picture, see what you’re doing, and ask some questions, even the hard ones. Remind yourself that this is only ONE part of your life. But often, we fail at this because we are so steeped in the details… because this is what we are trained to do, know a lot of about every little thing.
Moreover, I have seen many friends go through some really tough times with their degrees, their qualifying exams (or comps as many people know them) and their mentors (graduate and post doctoral). At the end of it, all they want to do is be done with it and move on very quickly. They don’t realize that there is another way out. They just go through the entire experience miserable, and hating graduate school and their scientific careers. While “talking” sounds like terrible relationship advice, it’s quite useful in graduate school. Having a mentor outside of lab helps too! And I cannot stress enough on this one: Ask for what you need. No one’s inside your head. If you don’t ask you’ll never get. You need to pick out for yourself people who will serve you well. That’s just as important as doing the right experiments.
We like this comment too:
As the name of the blog suggests, I am a graduate student based out of Boston. No, I don’t go to Harvard or MIT, I go to Tufts. And yes, Tufts is just as amazing! Thank you very much!