A primary goal of the first year of graduate school is to identify a dissertation laboratory. Lab rotations are a major mechanism to guide students in this process. This interactive workshop will provide students strategies to maximally leverage lab rotation experiences to identify a training environment for their dissertation research that is aligned with students' professional and personal goals and priorities. This workshop will also emphasize that lab rotations themselves are only part of the decision-making process and that the work of identifying a lab that’s going to be a “good...
PART 1: Understanding the Value of Rotations and Setting Your Goals
A primary goal of the first year of graduate school is to identify a dissertation laboratory. Lab rotations are a major mechanism to guide students in this process. Students are currently having to navigate rotations that are partially or wholly virtual due to COVID-19 and restrictions on in-person laboratory activities. This interactive workshop will provide students strategies to maximally leverage both in-person and virtual lab rotation experiences to identify a training environment for...
[2:30 pm - 3:25 pm] Meet the Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Speaker: JIm Gould, Ph.D. (HMS/HSDM Office of Postdoctoral Fellows)
The Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a mentoring tool that links research goals with career development and progress towards independence. It is meant to foster an ongoing and recurring discussion that involves evaluation, goal setting and feedback with input from both postdoc and faculty mentor. The NIH encourages trainees to make Individualized Development Plans to help them prepare for academic and...
The Program in Graduate Education (PGE) is pleased to host an open forum to discuss resilience and overcoming failure, featuring the following speakers:
Dr. Emma Dench
Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History and of the Classics
Applying to PhD Programs: Preparing Competitive Applications for Life Sciences Doctoral Programs and What to Expect from Doctoral Training
WORKSHOP. 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Jason Heustis (Program in Graduate Education)
Davie Van Vactor (Professor of Cell Biology)
Presentation on finding and assessing prospective schools, the components of a typical application (and their relative importance), crafting an effective personal statement and an effective CV, what to expect from doctoral training, career options for PhD holders and...
The Program in Graduate Education (PGE) is pleased to host an open forum to discuss resilience and overcoming failure, where Dean George Daley and other HMS faculty will share their stories as part of an educational forum and social event.
Resilience - the ability to withstand and rebound from adversity - is a positive contributor to maintaining good mental health. Resilience is often discussed as a personal attribute, yet it plays an equally important role in career navigation....
Positive mentor-mentee relationships are a cornerstone of success for any graduate student. Choosing the right principal investigator (PI) and starting off with a proactive strategy to maintain a positive and productive work relationship is an early step toward graduate school success. Are you an early stage graduate student considering a choice of thesis lab/PI or looking for advice on ways to approach starting off on the right path to a positive and productive mentor-mentee relationship?