Understanding Graduate School Admissions, The Graduate Student Experience and Post-PhD Trajectories: Colby College 2016

Introduction<br> This STEM advising outreach program was developed for undergraduate students who are contemplating future applications to PhD programs in the life sciences. The audience of ~15 students ranged in academic stage, and was composed of life sciences undergraduates enrolled at Colby College. We have previously described similar outreach events (ref. 1-3); this 90-minute combination of seminar and discussion built on those pilot programs. This session at Colby College was intended 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, and often relies on individual mentors whose training backgrounds and career trajectories are quite diverse. Independent study or thesis research mentors are often a student’s primary source of advice. Career advisors have confirmed that reiteration and reinforcement of advising principles by professionals external to the school environment is helpful. Therefore, this outreach program’s content was developed with a goal of 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 (including internships, independent research, and 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 (ref. 4). <br><br>Methods<br>The approach of bringing a faculty member and an administrative staff member who both have life science PhD training backgrounds and with program administrative experience was intentional. This allowed the speakers to portray different perspectives and experience to guide student career development, while offering credible reflections on 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. The speakers guided students through a process of identifying national graduate programs that might best serve their individual interests and preferences. In addition to recruiting prospective applicants to Harvard Medical School (HMS) summer internships and PhD programs, the speakers made an explicit appeal to students to hone their professional portfolio proactively. Students were encouraged to seek out opportunities to develop skills that undergraduates need to be competitive in admissions to graduate programs, that trainees need during graduate school, and that doctoral alumni apply in the careers and workplaces that come after. To that end, students were encouraged to pursue training in statistics and programming, develop a mentoring network, acquire authentic research experiences and pursue internships, conduct thesis research, and apply for fellowships. By reinforcing much of the anecdotal and formal advising content that is made available by faculty mentors and career counselors, our host saw the value of external experts to validate prior guidance offered on campus. This event built off our most recent event (ref. 3); we delivered a presentation covering the relevant topics and transitioned into an open discussion featuring a third visitor on our team. In contrast to the previous events (ref. 2), we did not use a panel format after the presentation. Our third speaker was a HMS Curriculum Fellow (ref. 5) whose career goals included teaching at a comparable institution (primarily undergraduate institution, PUI). This event was held at the end of the day, and prior to dinner, to avoid conflicts with other academic or extracurricular events.<br><br>Results<br>As the principal goal of the session was to encourage and engage students, not to evaluate 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 extremely positive. Our host’s participation and feedback was also encouraging; in particular, we learned that the portion of our presentation devoted to transferable skills gained from a PhD was well-received. The success of the program was also evident by an invitation for a repeat of the program or other forms of collaboration in the future, including the possibility of reciprocal visits to HMS.<br><br>Discussion<br>This advising session was a continued refinement of our prototype, which we continued to develop for an expanding network of colleges. Our decision to incorporate a HMS Curriculum Fellow served three purposes: (1) to engage another speaker so our team represented professionals who pursued doctoral training at three different institutions (UCLA, Tufts University, Harvard University), (2) to broaden the range of career trajectories presented as outcomes from doctoral programs, and (3) to provide networking and career development opportunities for the Curriculum Fellow. <br><br>

引言
本STEM咨询外展项目（STEM advising outreach program）专为有意申请生命科学博士项目的本科生开发。本次活动参与者共约15名，均为科尔比学院（Colby College）在读生命科学专业本科生，学术阶段跨度不一。此前我们已对类似外展活动进行过报道（参考文献1-3）；本次活动时长90分钟，结合了研讨会与讨论环节，基于此前的试点项目开发而成。
本次科尔比学院的活动旨在补充学生在校期间从其主要研究导师处获得的咨询指导。尽管诸多顶尖院校的本科生可获得针对医学、法学及其他部分职业方向的全面职业前咨询，但面向科研职业以及诸多依赖博士阶段训练的职业方向的咨询体系则相对缺乏统一性，且通常依赖于个体导师——这类导师的训练背景与职业轨迹往往差异显著。独立研究或学位论文研究导师往往是学生获取咨询建议的主要渠道。职业咨询顾问已证实，由校外专业人士重申并强化咨询原则，对学生颇具助益。因此，本外展项目的内容开发旨在揭开博士项目及其优势的神秘面纱。本次活动涵盖以下议题：(a) 明晰不同博士项目间的核心差异；(b) 理解博士招生的运作逻辑；(c) 筹备高效的申请材料；(d) 主动规划以强化个人职业资质（包括实习、独立研究及导师人脉搭建）；(e) 多数研究生阶段学生所掌握的关键可迁移技能；(f) 生命科学博士毕业生可选择的职业方向；(g) 有关学生职业抱负与发展成果的全国性及机构级数据（参考文献4）。

方法
本次活动刻意邀请了均具备生命科学博士训练背景且拥有项目管理经验的一名教职人员与一名行政人员作为主讲嘉宾。此举可让两位主讲者从不同视角与经验出发，指导学生的职业发展，同时针对博士阶段所获得的各类经历、技能与知识分享可信的反思见解。本外展项目的核心方法在于，研究生教育工作者愿意以学生的视角出发开展交流。主讲嘉宾引导学生逐步筛选出最契合其个人兴趣与偏好的全国范围内的研究生项目。
除了向学生推介哈佛医学院（Harvard Medical School, HMS）的暑期实习与博士项目招募信息外，主讲嘉宾还明确呼吁学生主动打磨个人职业资质。活动鼓励学生把握各类机会，培养本科生申请研究生项目所需、研究生阶段受训者所需，以及博士校友在后续职业与职场中所需的技能。为此，活动倡议学生参与统计与编程训练、搭建导师人脉网络、获取真实的研究经历与实习机会、开展学位论文研究，并申请奖学金。
通过强化教职导师与职业顾问所提供的大量非正式及正式咨询内容，主办方认识到校外专家可对校内已提供的指导进行有效佐证。本次活动延续了我们最新一期活动（参考文献3）的框架：先就相关议题进行主题演讲，随后转入开放讨论环节，由团队第三位嘉宾参与。与此前活动（参考文献2）不同的是，本次活动在演讲结束后未采用小组座谈形式。第三位主讲嘉宾为哈佛医学院课程研究员（HMS Curriculum Fellow, 参考文献5），其职业目标为在同类院校（主要为本科生院校，Primarily Undergraduate Institution, PUI）任教。本次活动于当日傍晚、晚餐前举办，以避免与其他学术或课外活动产生冲突。

结果
鉴于本次活动的核心目标为鼓励并吸引学生参与，而非对其进行评估，且参与学生的学术阶段与长期职业目标跨度较大，因此未设置学习成果评估问卷。非正式观察显示，讨论环节中学生提问的频次与思考深度均表现优异，参与度极佳。活动结束后当场收集的临时学生反馈也极为积极。主办方的参与与反馈同样令人鼓舞；尤其值得一提的是，我们了解到演讲中关于博士阶段可迁移技能的部分获得了学生的高度认可。本次项目的成功还体现在，我们收到了未来复刻本活动或开展其他形式合作的邀请，其中包括互访哈佛医学院的可能性。

讨论
本次咨询活动是对我们初始原型的持续优化，我们正针对不断扩大的院校合作网络进一步完善该项目。我们邀请哈佛医学院课程研究员加入团队的决定包含三重目的：(1) 新增一位主讲嘉宾，使团队代表了在三所不同院校（加州大学洛杉矶分校（University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA）、塔夫茨大学（Tufts University）、哈佛大学（Harvard University））接受博士训练的专业人士；(2) 拓宽博士项目毕业生职业轨迹的展示范围；(3) 为该课程研究员提供人脉搭建与职业发展的机会。