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the most successful grad students have tons of experience *before* starting their PhDs. Essentially, they don& #39;t need to be trained, and they flourish in a system that explicitly avoids directly training them.
background:
- went from undergrad after 1.5 yrs great training
- trained mostly by grad students during rotations
- switched labs after 4 yrs (to a way better situation!)
- probably would not have been successful as a grad student in my current postdoc lab
- went from undergrad after 1.5 yrs great training
- trained mostly by grad students during rotations
- switched labs after 4 yrs (to a way better situation!)
- probably would not have been successful as a grad student in my current postdoc lab
meaning i did not take the gap years that i would recommend. intellectually i was on par with my peers but my lack of experience was evident once i started my own project.
seems this is being interpreted as "grad students need gap years", and while I think they& #39;re good the intended interpretation is "grad school can be a hard place to learn how to do science, and PIs/programs need to refocus on training to make it the best place to learn science"
if you& #39;re going straight into grad school, i would recommend: team up! find a lab or project with grad students and postdocs that have already laid the foundation. you can work with them at first, get middle-author on their pubs early on, then take the reins when they move on.
