Profile
Tanya Koropatnick is from Airdrie, AB, Canada. She holds a B.Sc. in Biology with a major in Zoology from the University of Calgary and has just earned her Ph.D. from the
University of
Hawaii. Tanya recently co-authored an article that was featured on the cover of the prestigious journal Science.
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As an undergraduate biology student, I considered myself to be pre-med until I spent a summer at a field school just before my final year at the University of Calgary. After that fantastic summer playing around in boats, poking in tidepools, and doing real research with real scientists, I changed directions and started thinking about graduate school. Unlike my friend, Mike Nishizaki, I am impulsive, and do not generally plan very far ahead. This trend prevailed when it was time to choose a graduate school. I was presenting a poster on my undergraduate research at a biology conference at U of C the summer after I graduated, and I used that venue to shop for possible graduate positions. I chose the talks to attend by the subject matter, and the home address of the speakers. By my 24-year-old logic, if I was going to go to graduate school, it might as well be an adventure. Sure enough, I found myself watching a fascinating talk about a squid and its symbiotic bacterium, given by a woman from beautiful and exotic Hawai`i. I marched up to her after her talk, and exclaimed that her 'squid stuff was cool' and invited her to come see my poster. She must have been impressed by my boldness, because she immediately asked me to consider a graduate position in her lab. Later that year, she flew me out to Hawai`i for an interview, and met me at the airport with a lei of flowers. I was charmed. I half-heartedly applied to only one other (Canadian) university, but I was set on going to Hawai`i since that day at the conference.
I am not suggesting that my method is the way to choose a graduate school. A more careful consideration of various options would be prudent. The University of Hawai`i is certainly no Harvard, and there are obviously difficulties with being foreign (especially at tax time! BEWARE, as a student you are still considered a resident of Canada, and thus owe Canadian taxes on your worldly income! Fortunately if you claim a certain tax treaty you will not also owe federal taxes to the U.S.). However, I did a few things right, and have learned a few more things along the way, and these I will happily pass on to the next generation, as follows:
Undergraduate preparation:
1) Get some research experience. You won't know if you like research until you try it, and admissions committees like to see relevant research experience listed on your application. Start volunteering or working in a lab, or take on an undergraduate research project, as I did. Try to convince your research advisor to let you present your work at a conference. In my mind, there is really no better place to shop for a grad position.
2) Take the GREs seriously (if you want to go to the USA). They really are considered very important down here. I did particularly well on the subject-specific test (Biology GRE). My score on this test allowed me to be exempt from the grueling entrance exams that the other new UH Zoology graduate students had to take, which was a nice treat, and also meant that I had no coursework deficiencies to make up in my first year. For the Biology GRE, read through everybody's favorite general biology text: "Biology" by Campbell. It is surprisingly thorough, and a nice general review of all that stuff you used to know. Also do a few of the practice tests in the GRE preparation books.
Choosing a graduate position:
1) At the graduate level, the advisor is more important than the school, but the school is important too. Look carefully at the graduate program to which you are applying. Programs may require a lot of coursework, teaching experience, conference attendance, or seminar presentations. Make sure you agree with the requirements, as these will be out of your advisor's control. Hey, it wouldn't be school if there weren't hoops to jump through!
2) Look into tuition waivers and funding opportunities (especially for American schools!). American universities are infamous for their pricey tuition fees. Check to see if the school (or the advisor) provides tuition waivers for graduate students. The UH Zoology Department gives tuition waivers to grad students as long as they work as graduate research assistants (GA) or teaching assistants (TA). Some schools also offer scholarships for exceptional grad students.
3) Consider your choice of advisor VERY carefully. He/she will be your guide, and hopefully will have a positive influence on the person you will become. Be sure that you get along, and know his/her philosophies on work ethic, coursework, time off, students attending conferences, authorship on publications, and freedom to explore interesting questions. My advisor happily paid for travel to conferences, and encouraged free thinking and adventurous experimentation in lab. She was less reasonable in her expectation that students should work rather long hours, including evenings and weekends, and grumbled when students spent time away from lab for required coursework. These were foibles that I decided I could live with.
4) Consider the prospective advisor's publication record and academic standing. Contrary to what you might believe, success in graduate school (at least in biology) is not about simply completing your thesis or dissertation, but much more about publishing good research. Good jobs are not awaiting everyone with a Master's or Ph.D. these days, and those with publications in good journals will have a leg up over their peers. You would be well advised to join a lab whose members regularly publish decent papers.
5) If possible, find an advisor who is well-funded. This generally means they are successful, and thus might pass along some pearls of wisdom about the key to success. As well, their lab will be well-equipped for the experiments you might dream up. Even better, he/she may support his/her students in the form of GA-ships, funding the students so they can work full-time on their own projects. Be forewarned that not all well-funded advisors provide financial support for their students, believing instead that students should learn to support themselves. It is safe to assume that the more you teach or do research unrelated to your own project, the longer you will be in grad school. Don�t forget that there are always opportunities to apply for scholarships (even for foreigners), but it is nice to have funding to fall back on.
6) Consider the lab dynamic. DO NOT join a lab without meeting your prospective lab mates. Go for coffee with them, away from the advisor, and encourage them to speak candidly about the lab. From my experience, they won't need much prompting to start complaining about how things are run. Listen, and weed out serious problems from minor irritations. At the end, ask them the question, "Given all you know now, would you join the lab again?"
To answer my own question, yes, although sometimes it was rough, I would certainly choose to join the same lab again. It has been 6 years since I met the squid-symbiosis lady from Hawai`i, and I still think this 'squid stuff is cool', which leads me to the most important piece of advice that I can offer prospective grad students:
7) You need to LOVE your research project. You need to be excited, interested, and motivated to ask the questions, and yearn to discover the answers. If you settle for a project that does not interest you, you will not do your best, and why put in all that time if it won't be your best effort?
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