Two Ps in a pod: Programs & PIs
A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. - Plato
August is just around the corner and, for many, August marks the start of the new academic year. If applying to grad school, August is when many prospective PhD students begin identifying programs and faculty members (PIs; primary investigators) to consider further. So, this week, I’m focusing on building out a long list of programs and PIs to research further before settling on your final list.
What constitutes “long” will be up to you and depend on your discipline, interests, location preferences, etc. The key here is to be open-minded and as flexible as possible. As someone who received their training in developmental psychology and applied to developmental psychology programs, I would aim to generate a long list of about 25 programs if I were to do this again (note, however, that I personally would not apply to 25 programs given the cost).
To begin, let’s return to my “Run your own race” post where I posed several questions to help you identify your interests.
What academic (and non-academic) papers do you read?
What podcasts do you listen to? What books do you read?
What skills do you have and what skills do you want to develop?
What research (and other work) experiences do you have and what research (and other work) experiences do you want to have?
What problems do you like to solve?
What is keeping you up at night? (A question famously asked by the late, great Dr. Frank Yates)
I hope you took some time to do this! Your notes will be super helpful right now as you wade through the seemingly infinite number of programs and PIs.
Next, create a spreadsheet or download one I’ve created to track relevant information to help you in your decision making. If using the Google Sheet I’ve created, be sure to click on the “Program List - Long” tab (and add/remove columns as necessary!).
You may already have some programs and PIs in mind, so enter this information first! And if you don’t, that’s totally fine. This exercise is designed to help you generate a long list of possibilities (and note that later on you may even wonder why you included some programs on your list—it’s all a part of the learning process!).
After you’ve entered the information already in your mind, it’s time to do some research! Who else is doing work that interests you? How to determine this isn’t immediately obvious, so here are some tips:
Google Scholar is your friend. You can use keywords to search for research on your topics of interest. You can also get a sense of someone’s overall research program(s) from their Google Scholar profile. (Side note: If you haven’t set up Google Alerts yet, consider doing so. See how to do that here.)
Visit department websites. Go directly to the source (although, note that some departments have more updated sites than others and some faculty have more updated sites than others—lots of variability here)! Let’s say you want to apply to developmental psychology programs. So, of course, start by reviewing a department’s developmental psychology faculty BUT be sure to check out the other faculty, too! A lot of times, boundaries between different areas within a discipline are blurred, so someone you may be interested in working with is actually in a different area of a department (e.g., social psychology).
Review conference programs. The publication process is long, so someone’s current research may not be reflected on their CV (or even their site depending on how often they update it). For this reason, scanning conference programs can be super helpful. Consider my developmental psychology example, if not sure which conferences to check out, I could 1) review the CVs of current graduate students to get a sense of which conferences they attend (check under Presentations/Talks and Posters; see my CV for an example) and 2) review this list shared by PsychinOut. So, let’s say I’ve learned that a lot of developmental psychologists attend the Society for Research in Child Development conference. I could go to their site and search for the most recent conference and search that year’s program for keywords.
Now, while you’re doing your research, be sure to track programs and PIs and enter them into your spreadsheet. Note that as we transition to fall, some PIs may update their sites (or even announce on Twitter) that they are or are not accepting students during the upcoming cycle. It is very important to track this information! You do not want to reach out to a PI and ask them a question that could be answered by information available on their site (we’ll talk more about how to reach out to faculty later)!
Some homework: It’s time to get to work! The homework is “simple” this week. Start generating your list of programs. While working through this exercise, you may be surprised by where you find people doing the work that interests you most. Again, keep an open mind at this stage if you can. I never thought I’d return to my home state, a mere one hour away from my family to complete my PhD, but I did and it was awesome!
SCHOLAR PROFILE #3: DR. MELISSA MICHAUD BAESE-BERK
The purpose of these profiles is to highlight and connect you to scholars at different career stages doing interesting and important research and service work.
This week, we get to learn about Dr. Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk, who is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and the David M. and Nancy L. Petrone Faculty Scholar at the University of Oregon.
Now, let’s learn about Dr. Baese-Berk’s academic journey.
What are your research interests?
In my research, I work on how people understand, produce, and learn language. In terms of service, I focus most of my efforts on developing and supporting mentoring programs and work on issues of gender equity in linguistics and cognitive science.
Where did you earn your PhD and with whom did you work?
I earned my PhD in Linguistics from Northwestern University, working with Dr. Matt Goldrick and Dr. Ann Bradlow.
Why did you choose your PhD institution and advisor(s)?
I was originally waitlisted at Northwestern, so I wasn’t admitted until right before the “decision date”. I really wanted to attend Northwestern because they had a few people I thought I could work with and a comprehensive coursework program in their first year. This was appealing to me because I still wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to work on. I ended up working with two advisors because both Dr. Goldrick and Dr. Bradlow were really great, in totally different ways.
Please share more about your academic journey.
After high school, I attended Boston University as a music major (violin performance) and eventually added a linguistics major. Before I attended college, I had no idea what linguistics was, but once I realized a career in music wasn’t a good fit for me, I needed another plan. One of my linguistics professors suggested I should apply to grad school in linguistics, so I got a GRE prep book and applied to PhD programs in linguistics.
I really had no idea what I was getting myself into - I didn’t know that schools would pay for me to come interview with them, or even that they would pay me a stipend and pay my tuition during a PhD program. I didn’t know anyone who had gone into a PhD program, so I didn’t really know what to expect. This was true even through my first year of the program, where I was pretty constantly surprised by how different it was from undergrad and how little I knew!
After I finished my PhD, I moved to Spain for two years to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, and then worked for a year as a postdoc at Michigan State University. That year, I got my position at UO!
How did you navigate the PhD application process?
If I were to go back, I would do so many things differently! I really was not prepared for how to apply, and I didn’t do a good job of asking for help when I needed it. I did have a strong paper to submit as a writing sample (I knew this because the professor I wrote it for said in his comments on the paper that I should submit it as my writing sample if I ever applied to graduate school).
I also think I did a good job of cultivating letter writers - I went to office hours a ton, so even though I didn’t have research experience when I applied, there were faculty members who knew me really well. I had strong, but not perfect, grades. I also was a person who did really well on standardized tests, so my GRE scores were strong, which I think probably helped me. I’m embarrassed to even think about my personal statement, which I wrote without feedback from anyone. I would definitely NOT recommend that for people prepping applications these days. Get feedback from all sorts of readers!
What is one bit of advice you'd like to give new (first-year) PhD students?
I have two little pieces of advice. First, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Faculty can’t help address problems that we don’t know exist. Second, stay in your own lane - I think Margaret’s given this advice before, but it bears repeating. Don’t compare yourself to other people in your program, on Twitter, etc. Their path is not your path, and there are so many ways to be successful!
Is there anything else about you or your journey that you’d like to share?
My parents both had college degrees by the time I went to college, neither had a traditional path to their degree. So there was a lot in college, and especially in grad school and academia in general that I just didn’t know. If you feel like there’s stuff you don’t know, you’re not alone!
Many thanks to Dr. Baese-Berk for sharing more about her academic journey!
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
In this section, I highlight resources you may find helpful as you navigate the PhD application process as well as the PhD itself. This week, I focus on three geared toward early career scientists (and a sale on Dr. Jessica Calaco’s book A Field Guide to Grad School).
If you’d like to see a specific resource appear here, please share the relevant information via this survey. And remember, I maintain a running list of resources here.
A Field Guide to Grad School is on sale for $9 through Princeton University Press now through July 21! Use the code PUP21 when checking out! I’ve purchased 10 copies to give away over the next few months to current and prospective PhD students who subscribe to this newsletter.
The Hidden Curriculum: The Hidden Curriculum is a podcast on all the topics you wanted to learn in (econ) graduate school. There are lots of things about the profession that you only hear if you have a great mentor or during networking opportunities. This podcast aims to help decrease that knowledge gap by bringing that information into your headphones!
This podcast is hosted by Drs. Alex Hollingsworth and Sebastian Trello-Trillo and includes interviews with both econ faculty and students. This episode on managing workflow may be a good place to start (it’s coincidentally also the first episode)!
Letters to Young Scientists: We are five social science professors with diverse backgrounds and experiences, both scientific and personal, which will help us deliver useful, candid advice to scientists at all career stages, from research assistants dipping their toes into the lab for the very first time to senior scientists looking to stay abreast of trends in mentoring, and point to debates where they exist [introductory article].
This series of articles is written by a wonderful lineup of scholars (Drs. William Cunningham, June Gruber, Neil Lewis, Jr., Leah Somerville, Jay Van Bavel). One article highly relevant to both current and prospective PhD students is this one on email etiquette!
PhD Balance: PhD Balance is a collaborative community empowering graduate students to build their personal and professional resilience.
In addition to the resources and information shared out on this initiative’s website, there is also an associated podcast, Grad Chat. Unsurprisingly (if you know I study financial decision making), I was immediately drawn to this post with a few money management tips!
How to reach me: You are always welcome to email me (letstalkgradschool@gmail.com) or find me on Twitter @tweetsbymidge.
1-on-1 and 1-on-few sessions: In one week, I will start offering 1-on-1 and 1-on-few sessions for prospective and current PhD students. Sign-ups will be done via Calendly. I will try to offer both weekday and weekend sessions.
Until next time!
Margaret