Understanding Graduate School Admissions, The Graduate Student Experience and Post-PhD Trajectories

Introduction<br>This short STEM advising outreach program was developed for undergraduate students who are contemplating future applications to PhD programs in the life sciences. The audience of over 30 students ranged in stage from Freshman to Senior, and across a range of different science majors. The two hour combination of seminar and discussion was developed after discussions with faculty colleagues at Amherst College to complement the advising that students receive from their primary research mentors on campus. Although undergraduates at many excellent institutions have access to extensive pre-professional advising for careers in medicine, law and some other directions, the structure of advising for scientific research and the many career options that rely on PhD training is less consistent. Independent study or thesis research mentors are often a student’s primary source of advice. Therefore, this pilot outreach program’s content focused on demystifying PhD programs and the benefits that they provide. The topics covered included: (a) determining the key differences between programs, (b) understanding how PhD admissions works, (c) preparing an effective application, (d) proactive planning to strengthen one’s professional portfolio (internships, independent research, cultivating mentors), (e) key transferable skills that most students learn in graduate school, (f) what career streams are open to life science PhDs, and, (g) some national and institutional data on student career aspirations and outcomes.<br><br>Methods<br>The approach of bringing a faculty member and an administrative staff member who both have life science PhD training backgrounds was intentional. This allowed the program to portray different perspectives and experience to guide student career development, while offering credible witnesses to the types of experiences, skills and knowledge gained through PhD training. Central to the method of this outreach program is the willingness of graduate educators to meet the students on their own ground. In addition to recruiting prospective applicants to Harvard summer internships and PhD programs, the speakers made an explicit appeal to students to hone their professional portfolio proactively. This was accomplished by discussing important skills that undergraduates need to be competitive in admissions and the career workplace (from curriculum in statistics and programming, to soliciting diverse mentorship, acquiring authentic research experiences/internships, thesis research, and fellowships). Our host saw the value of having external experts validate guidance that students get through channels at their institutions - both anecdotal and formal advising content that is made available by faculty mentors and career counselors, Finally, we offered networking contacts, and a guest postdoc from HMS to participate in the discussion. The students received a meal, as the session was held in the evening to avoid conflicts with other academic or extracurricular events. Students were not asked to complete a post-session evaluation. <br><br>Results<br>As the principal goal of the session was to encourage and engage students, not to test them, and the students ranged widely in stage and long-term career objectives, there were no assessment surveys of learning gains. Informally, student engagement was excellent as judged by the frequency and thoughtful nature of questions asked during the discussion phase of the session. Ad hoc student feedback directly following the event was very positive, as was the host’s follow-up by email after the event. The success of the program was also evident by an invitation for a repeat of the program in the future. <br><br>Discussion<br>This advising session was intended as a prototype to build a series of similar events across a larger network of colleges. Thus, the program presented at Amherst College was carefully optimized after it’s delivery based on the nature of spontaneous feedback from participating students and host faculty or staff. We realized that increased opportunities for post-program follow-up via email may be helpful to students following future programs. Moreover, we decided that there would be value in having a current research postdoc or senior PhD student attend future programs to help field questions. We decided that the discussion portion might work better if this scientist and the two speakers would form a panel after the slide presentations to answer questions as a group, thus offering personal anecdotes or different perspectives on the same questions.<br><br>