My Recipe for Getting In
An application assistance program to level the playing field
I had never considered a PhD until late in my undergraduate degree. Most students in my program were either grabbing one-year master’s degrees or becoming entry-level grunts at consumer goods or biomedical device companies. I remember a career fair where I talked to a recent graduate who was working as an entry-level engineer at Proctor […]
The Key to Successful Applications
The qualified match approach to personal statements
If you are applying for graduate school and fellowships – variations of this paragraph will read eerily familiar to you: The Statement of Purpose should briefly detail your reasons for applying to the proposed program at [organization]. Please describe your background and experience (academic and extracurricular), which may aid the admissions committee in evaluating your […]
The MIT School of Witchcraft & Wizardry
How I learned to enjoy getting lost in the maze of MIT
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. No! Thank you but no. I will not be going. Your magic and professors and creatures are wondrous, sure. But your stairs? They move. See, Hogwarts, I was born without a sense of direction. To me you’re […]
Finding Great Escapes
Take advantage of grad school flexibility and book a bargain vacation
As a 78 degree breeze brushed against my shoulders, I took my first sip of the local cocktail of choice, Ti Punch. I must look like such a local, ordering a Ti Punch and not a mojito, I thought to myself. The burning sensation of alcohol shot up my nose. Whoa! Punch was an understatement. […]
Communicating Science
I believe it is not enough to do science. We must also communicate it and defend it.
Survival of the fittest. A succinct, elegant tenant of life—and perhaps the most famous words to be uttered in all biology. Uttered by whom, though? You might be surprised to learn it wasn’t Charles Darwin. It was Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist. Spencer “lifted” survival of the fittest out of Darwin’s Origin […]
