A “Free” Graduate Education and More

This is going to sound a bit geeky but after starting my undergraduate degree I knew I wanted to pursue a graduate education. I also knew from the beginning that I wanted to get a PhD degree. I have to confess: I was always some sort of a nerd! I am sure my childhood friends will agree with me. The main motivation/inspiration arrived after meeting an incredible group of people that had already gone through the “graduate school experience” People like Drs. Maria Antonieta Lorente, Jairo Lugo, Rodulfo Prieto, Felipe Audemard, Frank Audemard and many others that were role models for an entire generation of young Venezuelan geoscientists. I am sure I am making some of them blush but I am unapologetic! Anyways, back then I had no clue how I was going to be able to afford a graduate education overseas but then I was lucky enough to meet my future supervisor Dr. Lesli Wood. Through her I had access to the most important thing an aspiring graduate student needs: Information!

The first thing you need to know is that if you are interested in acquiring a graduate degree in the geosciences, you do not need to sell your soul to finance your studies. There are many programs around the world that provide financing for graduate students. The ideal situation, in my opinion, is to find a good program that will allow you to pursue good research (in something you are interested on) and that at the same time can provide with a decent stipend and benefits. Graduate student salaries won’t make you rich but it should be enough so that you won’t have to eat canned tuna every day and when I talk about benefits…I am talking about health insurance! There are also some golden rules about graduate school and your pursue of academic ‘holiness’:

    

1Do not enroll in a program without knowing if you really like the line of research. We are talking about a commitment that will most likely involve more than 2 years of your LIFE! Many people succumb to the temptation of enrolling in a program just for the sake of joining the ‘graduate school club’ to then find out that they are absolutely miserable. A complete waste of time and a very effective prescription for misery!

2 Get familiar with the program before applying, talk to potential supervisors and their current graduate students. Your supervisor will be the ‘god’ of your world for a while and there are good and bad ‘gods’ out there. Don’t forget that…

3 Ideally (in my opinion), it would be good to have some previous work experience (~2 yrs) before starting graduate school. The risk is that after you start working things might get complicated, marriage, kids, house, dog and car payments can get in the way BUT if all these things happened and you were not thinking about graduate school when they happened THEN maybe you really did not want to get into graduate school after all! Getting a graduate degree while also having a family (significant others, kids and pets!) is not impossible but it is more challenging because it is not only your sacrifice but also the sacrifice of an entire family.

4 Graduate school should not be a ‘continuation’ of your undergraduate degree, a graduate student needs to be self-driven and an independent thinker. This is why I think having some work experience might be useful since it can help you shape those attributes and minimize the shock of hearing from your supervisor: ‘Go figure it out on your own kid!’

5 Graduate school IS NOT a profession! A master’s degree that takes more than 2 years is a waste of time and a PhD program that takes more than 5 years is an abomination. There are differing opinions on this topic but I firmly believe in the previous statement. A PhD in ten years? What is that? Shame on the student and specially…shame on the supervisor (slaver)!

6 Really think about the master’s versus PhD deal. If you want to join the work force on the private and/or pubic sector, chances are that a master’s degree will serve you well. If you want to write papers, do research for the rest of your life, teach, mentor younger people, have a lot of headaches and live in a salary that will be way inferior than the salary of your own former students and you are sure that life style will make you happy THEN you should go for a PhD. It's not that bad after all and I can wear jeans every day!

   

7 Remember, PhDs are not smarter than anyone else and embarking on a PhD program so that your mom can proudly say to her neighbors: ‘My son, the doctor, is coming back home to live with us because he could not get tenure’ is not something that you will feel proud of!

From the brilliant site www.phdcomics.com

Sorry you had to endure my preaching before the good stuff: The Jackson School of Geosciences offers a great graduate program in a variety of geoscience disciplines. The first hurtle to prove that you can be part of the graduate school experience is to complete a good application. You can find all the information you need to start the process HERE.

The program is VERY competitive and success depends more on your capacity to pay attention to details and comply with deadlines than anything else. Follow the instructions carefully, get good (to excellent) scores on your GRE and TOEFL, spend time on your statement of purpose since that letter needs to make an impression on the admission’s committee, and get good letters of recommendation. I am just mentioning opportunities at the Jackson School of Geosciences because that is my institution BUT you can find plenty of other opportunities across the globe. A good source of information is EOS the AGU newsletter, they always have postings advertising graduate student opportunities. GSA Today also advertises such positions with the advantage that this periodical from the Geological Society of America is free. Earthworks under the ‘Postgraduate Courses’ tabs is also excellent and most importantly free! 

If you think obtaining a PhD degree is the top of the stair…you are wrong! You can also get a post-doc! I have to confess that after obtaining my PhD degree thinking about embarking on something call ‘post-doc’ would make me sick! However, these are real research positions and in places like Europe it would be very difficult to obtain a permanent academic job without having a post-doc (or two! Better if you have three!). PhDs interested in settling on academic jobs have a challenging ride ahead of them (us!) since these positions are very competitive so a good post-doc can really give you a competitive advantage. Talking about post-doc opportunities, this one at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies looks like a good one [Link]

Now, if you are seriously thinking about embarking into the graduate school experience and you really want to know what awaits you then you need to read PhD Comics…It is all true! Seriously!