Early bird gets the PhD?
November 8, 2013 11:40 AM Subscribe
Searching for a graduate school advisor in undergraduate studies - does cold calling really work? What can I ask my current undergraduate advisor to do to assist me? How can I make best use of the advantages that I currently hold?
I'm currently conducting some research as a bioinformatics undergraduate in an academic research facility, where I'm doing methodology development on automated image analysis of medical/scientific images. I've been thinking about graduate school lately, and my motivations for pursuing graduate studies seem pretty sound: I feel limited in terms of the programming/computer science toolset I have to apply to the biological work that I do so I want to expand on those tools, and I also have realized how much development there is to be done in the field and would like to take advantage of these opportunities to contribute to the field.
In terms of timeline, I have lots of time: I still need to complete my final year of undergraduate (as I'm taking a year off to conduct fore-mentioned research), so I don't even need to consider an application until a year or two down the line.
I was chatting to one of the doctors in my research group about this, and she recommended that I begin looking for an advisor as a first step, as she said that the odds of me getting acceptance and funding would skyrocket if I had an advisor behind me from the very start. My current advisor in my undergraduate research co-op is fantastic, has a great view of me (and has written incredible references before), and we get along amazingly well in terms of management style - he's been treating me like a graduate student and his generally hands-off approach but willingness to give detailed guidance has been amazing. I would totally ask him to be my advisor for graduate studies, but unfortunately he doesn't have a background in computer science and isn't part of the bioinformatics department.
I have very limited experience with cold-calling in academia. I've worked for several professors and graduate students before in research, but most of my connections were spread by word of mouth and referrals. I've heard it given out frequently as advice, but I'm not quite sure if it's actually effective/standard, or if it's just bog-standard advice. I don't take classes at the university I'm interested in going to, and instead go to another university across the country - so I don't know any of the professors in the department even tangentially through classes.
The programs I'm looking at would either be at the same university that I'm working with now, or with a university nearby geographically with heavy affiliation with my current university. I'm in a Canadian university and will be looking within that system if that helps.
While my grades are certainly good and well above the minimal cut-off for applications, they aren't stellar - in scholarship applications and other applications that draw from top applicants, I tend to rank pretty low in terms of flat grades. My most relevant advantages are that I've done applicable research in bioinformatics including authorship on some publications, can get stellar references from some well-reputed professors that I've personally worked with, and I am the recipient of a NSERC undergraduate award.
So, the questions:
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet? How effective is this really?
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
Given I don't need to formally scramble to get an application started for a full year, what else should I be doing during this time especially given my situation?
I'm currently conducting some research as a bioinformatics undergraduate in an academic research facility, where I'm doing methodology development on automated image analysis of medical/scientific images. I've been thinking about graduate school lately, and my motivations for pursuing graduate studies seem pretty sound: I feel limited in terms of the programming/computer science toolset I have to apply to the biological work that I do so I want to expand on those tools, and I also have realized how much development there is to be done in the field and would like to take advantage of these opportunities to contribute to the field.
In terms of timeline, I have lots of time: I still need to complete my final year of undergraduate (as I'm taking a year off to conduct fore-mentioned research), so I don't even need to consider an application until a year or two down the line.
I was chatting to one of the doctors in my research group about this, and she recommended that I begin looking for an advisor as a first step, as she said that the odds of me getting acceptance and funding would skyrocket if I had an advisor behind me from the very start. My current advisor in my undergraduate research co-op is fantastic, has a great view of me (and has written incredible references before), and we get along amazingly well in terms of management style - he's been treating me like a graduate student and his generally hands-off approach but willingness to give detailed guidance has been amazing. I would totally ask him to be my advisor for graduate studies, but unfortunately he doesn't have a background in computer science and isn't part of the bioinformatics department.
I have very limited experience with cold-calling in academia. I've worked for several professors and graduate students before in research, but most of my connections were spread by word of mouth and referrals. I've heard it given out frequently as advice, but I'm not quite sure if it's actually effective/standard, or if it's just bog-standard advice. I don't take classes at the university I'm interested in going to, and instead go to another university across the country - so I don't know any of the professors in the department even tangentially through classes.
The programs I'm looking at would either be at the same university that I'm working with now, or with a university nearby geographically with heavy affiliation with my current university. I'm in a Canadian university and will be looking within that system if that helps.
While my grades are certainly good and well above the minimal cut-off for applications, they aren't stellar - in scholarship applications and other applications that draw from top applicants, I tend to rank pretty low in terms of flat grades. My most relevant advantages are that I've done applicable research in bioinformatics including authorship on some publications, can get stellar references from some well-reputed professors that I've personally worked with, and I am the recipient of a NSERC undergraduate award.
So, the questions:
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet? How effective is this really?
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
Given I don't need to formally scramble to get an application started for a full year, what else should I be doing during this time especially given my situation?
I'm a grad student (but not in your field).
Are there conferences or seminars you can attend in your field where you can actually meet some of the people you'd want to work with? Like a bunch of them at once?
It sounds like you need a network. You are a super advanced undergraduate student (yay, you!) but that might put you at a bit of a disadvantage in that you just haven't spent the time in and around the schools and departments you need to be familiar with. Maybe this year of research can also be a year of networking? Also are you reading literature in your field? A "cold call" email to a faculty member asking about their cool research may get a conversation started more easily than a "hey, be my advisor" email.
I would definitely ask your undergraduate advisor for introductions as well.
posted by pantarei70 at 11:52 AM on November 8, 2013
Are there conferences or seminars you can attend in your field where you can actually meet some of the people you'd want to work with? Like a bunch of them at once?
It sounds like you need a network. You are a super advanced undergraduate student (yay, you!) but that might put you at a bit of a disadvantage in that you just haven't spent the time in and around the schools and departments you need to be familiar with. Maybe this year of research can also be a year of networking? Also are you reading literature in your field? A "cold call" email to a faculty member asking about their cool research may get a conversation started more easily than a "hey, be my advisor" email.
I would definitely ask your undergraduate advisor for introductions as well.
posted by pantarei70 at 11:52 AM on November 8, 2013
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet?
I feel like maybe you're over-thinking this process. It's utterly standard for applicants to contact faculty in departments they want to be admitted to. I just Googled "making contacts for graduate school" and found tons of advice.
Options for contacting potential advisors - telephone, email, visit the campus, have your current faculty members recommend/introduce you to colleagues, attend national or regional meetings and meet faculty there. As you probably already know, faculty are crazy-busy, so you'll need to work more than one of these options.
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
The purpose of working with undergrads is to launch them on to grad school or jobs, so it shouldn't matter to him as a mentor that you're not applying directly to his department. I wouldn't ask him to "support" you, which seems like a strange way to put it. Just ask him for some time to talk about your grad school plans and for any advice, connections, insights he might have for you. This is part of his job as your mentor.
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
For my graduate program, the answer would be to have other very strong elements in your application package. Good programs look at the student as a whole, not just based on GPA. So aim for having stellar letters, a kickass statement, tons of research experience and so on, as well as having met or corresponded with potential advisors.
posted by Squeak Attack at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2013
I feel like maybe you're over-thinking this process. It's utterly standard for applicants to contact faculty in departments they want to be admitted to. I just Googled "making contacts for graduate school" and found tons of advice.
Options for contacting potential advisors - telephone, email, visit the campus, have your current faculty members recommend/introduce you to colleagues, attend national or regional meetings and meet faculty there. As you probably already know, faculty are crazy-busy, so you'll need to work more than one of these options.
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
The purpose of working with undergrads is to launch them on to grad school or jobs, so it shouldn't matter to him as a mentor that you're not applying directly to his department. I wouldn't ask him to "support" you, which seems like a strange way to put it. Just ask him for some time to talk about your grad school plans and for any advice, connections, insights he might have for you. This is part of his job as your mentor.
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
For my graduate program, the answer would be to have other very strong elements in your application package. Good programs look at the student as a whole, not just based on GPA. So aim for having stellar letters, a kickass statement, tons of research experience and so on, as well as having met or corresponded with potential advisors.
posted by Squeak Attack at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2013
Things you should know:
-You will not get funding (you might but assume that you won't). Self-funding students have an easier time getting in these days because money.
-Potential advisers have limited time/funding slots they can give to students. They don't want to waste them on problem students. You must somehow prove you are not going to be a problem. They also may not have space for taking a student - some researchers limit the size of their labs. Those that don't often don't do much advising. Also some researchers never graduate students. I've known two labs where over an entire career the researchers only graduated a single phd each. Find this stuff out ahead of time and save yourself the grief of a research dungeon.
-Your initial contact email should demonstrate two things - 1. That you have done some legwork and know what the person you are contacting does and that you have similarly focused interests. 2. That you are not an idiot or spamming hundreds of people.
posted by srboisvert at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2013
-You will not get funding (you might but assume that you won't). Self-funding students have an easier time getting in these days because money.
-Potential advisers have limited time/funding slots they can give to students. They don't want to waste them on problem students. You must somehow prove you are not going to be a problem. They also may not have space for taking a student - some researchers limit the size of their labs. Those that don't often don't do much advising. Also some researchers never graduate students. I've known two labs where over an entire career the researchers only graduated a single phd each. Find this stuff out ahead of time and save yourself the grief of a research dungeon.
-Your initial contact email should demonstrate two things - 1. That you have done some legwork and know what the person you are contacting does and that you have similarly focused interests. 2. That you are not an idiot or spamming hundreds of people.
posted by srboisvert at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2013
Oh and I should mention - research beyond just reading the research interest statement on their webpage. Those can be out of date and generic. Alternatively, they could tell you that the person has pivoted away from their previous research streams.
posted by srboisvert at 12:09 PM on November 8, 2013
posted by srboisvert at 12:09 PM on November 8, 2013
It's standard to cold-email potential advisors. However, the number one pitfall is that you have to be specific and relevant in your email; make it clear why you are emailing _that particular person_. Some departments do have a faculty member (or staff member) who is responsible for handling more general queries about admissions and potential advisors, and if you can identify such a person a more general email may be appropriate. But, if your email says (unfortunately rather common) "Dear Prof. Advil, I am interested in language. Are you accepting any students?", you are sadly much less likely to get any sort of response.
posted by advil at 12:53 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by advil at 12:53 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet? How effective is this really?
I am in the humanities, so the graduate advisor/student relationship works somewhat differently, but I actually had a great deal of luck doing this during my junior year of undergrad. I framed the e-mails by introducing myself, demonstrating some familiarity with the professors' recent work (especially recent dissertations they'd advised), and then saying more or less what you've said above: "I'm aiming to do x kind of work and complete a dissertation that makes y contribution to the field." I then asked, explicitly, if they would be interested in advising/able to advise such a project, in light of the work by them and their students that I'd mentioned earlier.
A few folks simply said, "Yeah, I don't want to supervise that project, but thanks," or let me know that they planned to retire or take significant leaves soon, which saved me the hassle of applications to those programs. (If nothing else, this is a good exercise in weeding out the jerks - if they can't be bothered to respond courteously, or at all, this might not be someone you want to work with for several years.) My current advisor responded very enthusiastically, and we ended up communicating a bit over the course of the following year. He even shared some drafts of his own forthcoming work that helped me with my senior thesis.
So, yeah, a cold-call e-mail tailored to a particular professor could indeed be a good thing for you at this point. And, where it's not successful, you may have gathered a useful data point about a person or program to keep at the back of your mind when you do begin applications.
posted by Austenite at 12:56 PM on November 8, 2013
I am in the humanities, so the graduate advisor/student relationship works somewhat differently, but I actually had a great deal of luck doing this during my junior year of undergrad. I framed the e-mails by introducing myself, demonstrating some familiarity with the professors' recent work (especially recent dissertations they'd advised), and then saying more or less what you've said above: "I'm aiming to do x kind of work and complete a dissertation that makes y contribution to the field." I then asked, explicitly, if they would be interested in advising/able to advise such a project, in light of the work by them and their students that I'd mentioned earlier.
A few folks simply said, "Yeah, I don't want to supervise that project, but thanks," or let me know that they planned to retire or take significant leaves soon, which saved me the hassle of applications to those programs. (If nothing else, this is a good exercise in weeding out the jerks - if they can't be bothered to respond courteously, or at all, this might not be someone you want to work with for several years.) My current advisor responded very enthusiastically, and we ended up communicating a bit over the course of the following year. He even shared some drafts of his own forthcoming work that helped me with my senior thesis.
So, yeah, a cold-call e-mail tailored to a particular professor could indeed be a good thing for you at this point. And, where it's not successful, you may have gathered a useful data point about a person or program to keep at the back of your mind when you do begin applications.
posted by Austenite at 12:56 PM on November 8, 2013
A few folks simply said, "Yeah, I don't want to supervise that project, but thanks," or let me know that they planned to retire or take significant leaves soon, which saved me the hassle of applications to those programs. (If nothing else, this is a good exercise in weeding out the jerks - if they can't be bothered to respond courteously, or at all, this might not be someone you want to work with for several years.)
Yeah, this was exactly my experience as well. I wrote an inquiry to one professor whose assistant wrote back, rather snippily, that Professor So and So only takes students with prior field experience in X region, and thus I would be wasting my time applying. POINT TAKEN!
posted by The Michael The at 1:09 PM on November 8, 2013
Yeah, this was exactly my experience as well. I wrote an inquiry to one professor whose assistant wrote back, rather snippily, that Professor So and So only takes students with prior field experience in X region, and thus I would be wasting my time applying. POINT TAKEN!
posted by The Michael The at 1:09 PM on November 8, 2013
I've heard it given out frequently as advice, but I'm not quite sure if it's actually effective/standard, or if it's just bog-standard advice.
When I was looking at grad programs I set up a half dozen interviews with potential supervisors at universities on the other side of the country based on cold-emailing. Introduce yourself, a brief outline of your accomplishments, a brief outline of your goals, and ask if they have time to meet to talk about opportunities. Good luck!
posted by no regrets, coyote at 1:14 PM on November 8, 2013
When I was looking at grad programs I set up a half dozen interviews with potential supervisors at universities on the other side of the country based on cold-emailing. Introduce yourself, a brief outline of your accomplishments, a brief outline of your goals, and ask if they have time to meet to talk about opportunities. Good luck!
posted by no regrets, coyote at 1:14 PM on November 8, 2013
Also, please keep in mind that while you may have been encouraged, as an undergrad, to develop a customer mentality, this no longer applies. You are now basically a job applicant. You don't hold any power cards and can't make any demands. Professor doesn't get back to you or his assistant sends a "snippy" email? Nobody cares. Really.
You need to engage the interest of these people in the smartest, most respectful way you can, because they likely have upwards of 100 other kids who also want to work with them. It's going to be more effort than placing a few phone calls.
posted by Squeak Attack at 1:51 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
You need to engage the interest of these people in the smartest, most respectful way you can, because they likely have upwards of 100 other kids who also want to work with them. It's going to be more effort than placing a few phone calls.
posted by Squeak Attack at 1:51 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hi, I recently finished my PhD in biomedical engineering doing image analysis of medical images.
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet? How effective is this really?
There are a few schools of thought on whether or not to try to lock down an advisor in advance.
Typically, a PhD in science and engineering is a funded position (meaning your tuition is free and you receive a stipend to keep you just above the poverty line) whereas a master's degree usually is not. Departments handle where that money comes from in different ways. Some students are paid directly off of a PI's research grants. Others come from departmental training grants (where a government institution gives the department a pot of money to fund a handful of students for a certain number of years). Others come directly from the departmental budget.
Contacting potential advisors now can help raise your profile in their eyes as someone who might be able to fill a spot, if they have one available from their own grants. If they are paying their students out of a departmental kitty, they may not have a say in whether they can take you until you are already accepted to their program, in which case contacting them may not do you any good. Honestly, I can't see any downsides to trying, in any case. Having an advocate on the inside is rarely a bad thing.
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
If your advisor or another mentor in your research group is willing to email an introduction for you to some of their colleagues, that would be optimal. If they don't know the people you're interested in contacting, then go ahead and cold call yourself. The worst thing that will happen is you will be ignored and no worse off than you started. Also, let your advisor know that you want to apply to grad schools and will eventually be requesting their letter of recommendation. This is a conversation best had in person rather than over email, if possible.
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
Having previous research experience is going to be a big advantage for you, so sell yourself from this perspective. Will you get a publication from your research? Will it be written up as an abstract for a conference? If so, bring attention to that. In your cover letters and/or CV, mention specific research skills you obtained and emphasize any independent contributions you made. Plenty of undergraduates' biomedical research experience involves precisely following a protocol handed down to them from a supervisor, so any contributions that you made to the project independently should be emphasized.
When I applied to graduate schools, I decided (possibly in a misguided attempt to stand out) to send paper letters to people whose research interested me, based upon their websites. I think I sent out something like 50 or 60 paper letters (again, possibly misguided) that were each personalized stating that I was an undergraduate student looking to apply to their graduate program and that I found their research interesting for reason X. Then I told them a few sentences about myself and asked if they thought they might have any research openings in their lab. I signed off with my contact info, including email address.
Of the 50ish letters I sent, I think I heard back from something like 3 people (all by email). This was partly expected because professors get a lot of email, but it was probably also because sending paper letters wasn't a very good idea. It's 2013. Everyone uses email now.
I ended up being co-advised for my PhD (meaning I had two advisors). I sent a handful of those paper letters to people at my department before I applied, but the two I ended up picking as my formal advisors? Not people I had contacted in advance. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you certainly don't need to lock down a PI in advance to be successful (since I didn't and everything worked out great for me), but there's no reason not to try.
posted by wondercow at 2:45 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Given my current situation, would sending cold-call emails to advisors in the bioinformatics department at my university be my best bet? How effective is this really?
There are a few schools of thought on whether or not to try to lock down an advisor in advance.
Typically, a PhD in science and engineering is a funded position (meaning your tuition is free and you receive a stipend to keep you just above the poverty line) whereas a master's degree usually is not. Departments handle where that money comes from in different ways. Some students are paid directly off of a PI's research grants. Others come from departmental training grants (where a government institution gives the department a pot of money to fund a handful of students for a certain number of years). Others come directly from the departmental budget.
Contacting potential advisors now can help raise your profile in their eyes as someone who might be able to fill a spot, if they have one available from their own grants. If they are paying their students out of a departmental kitty, they may not have a say in whether they can take you until you are already accepted to their program, in which case contacting them may not do you any good. Honestly, I can't see any downsides to trying, in any case. Having an advocate on the inside is rarely a bad thing.
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
If your advisor or another mentor in your research group is willing to email an introduction for you to some of their colleagues, that would be optimal. If they don't know the people you're interested in contacting, then go ahead and cold call yourself. The worst thing that will happen is you will be ignored and no worse off than you started. Also, let your advisor know that you want to apply to grad schools and will eventually be requesting their letter of recommendation. This is a conversation best had in person rather than over email, if possible.
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
Having previous research experience is going to be a big advantage for you, so sell yourself from this perspective. Will you get a publication from your research? Will it be written up as an abstract for a conference? If so, bring attention to that. In your cover letters and/or CV, mention specific research skills you obtained and emphasize any independent contributions you made. Plenty of undergraduates' biomedical research experience involves precisely following a protocol handed down to them from a supervisor, so any contributions that you made to the project independently should be emphasized.
When I applied to graduate schools, I decided (possibly in a misguided attempt to stand out) to send paper letters to people whose research interested me, based upon their websites. I think I sent out something like 50 or 60 paper letters (again, possibly misguided) that were each personalized stating that I was an undergraduate student looking to apply to their graduate program and that I found their research interesting for reason X. Then I told them a few sentences about myself and asked if they thought they might have any research openings in their lab. I signed off with my contact info, including email address.
Of the 50ish letters I sent, I think I heard back from something like 3 people (all by email). This was partly expected because professors get a lot of email, but it was probably also because sending paper letters wasn't a very good idea. It's 2013. Everyone uses email now.
I ended up being co-advised for my PhD (meaning I had two advisors). I sent a handful of those paper letters to people at my department before I applied, but the two I ended up picking as my formal advisors? Not people I had contacted in advance. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you certainly don't need to lock down a PI in advance to be successful (since I didn't and everything worked out great for me), but there's no reason not to try.
posted by wondercow at 2:45 PM on November 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
(I'm not in your field; I do work with undergrads and grad students in the physical sciences.)
Yeah please don't send paper letters. Do send email if you must, but you don't need to.
If you send email, please be specific. It is frustrating to read a generic email addressed to "Dear Professor" which was sent to everyone in the departmental directory. It would be so much nicer if the inquiry was actually motivated by a research interest.
If you have an undergrad advisor who is going to write you a solid letter of recommendation, that's pretty much the best case. Do ask them about specific places you should apply to, in case they know people and can put in a good word for you ("hey, take a close look at so and so in your applicant pool").
Sending out emails on your own is basically the same process ("hey, take a close look at me in your applicant pool") but not as effective as coming from a third party.
posted by RedOrGreen at 3:14 PM on November 8, 2013
Yeah please don't send paper letters. Do send email if you must, but you don't need to.
If you send email, please be specific. It is frustrating to read a generic email addressed to "Dear Professor" which was sent to everyone in the departmental directory. It would be so much nicer if the inquiry was actually motivated by a research interest.
If you have an undergrad advisor who is going to write you a solid letter of recommendation, that's pretty much the best case. Do ask them about specific places you should apply to, in case they know people and can put in a good word for you ("hey, take a close look at so and so in your applicant pool").
Sending out emails on your own is basically the same process ("hey, take a close look at me in your applicant pool") but not as effective as coming from a third party.
posted by RedOrGreen at 3:14 PM on November 8, 2013
I'm in bioinformatics and have a PhD, but did my grad work in the USA. In my (somewhat limited, but more than just me) experience, research experience, especially publications, and ability to get fellowships would definitely trump a so-so grade point average. I don't think you're going to have a lot of trouble on that front. I also definitely do not think you have to lock down an advisor in advance unless you are only interested in doing work in an extremely specific niche; I certainly didn't. I did cold-e-mail one or two people at each institution I was interested in joining, but didn't hear back from most of them and didn't pursue it further. My advisors were not people I was in contact with before grad school.
One potentially important result of e-mailing profs, though, is that if someone isn't taking students (they're about to take a sabbatical, or their lab is full, or they only take independently funded students - which is a red flag imo), you might want to know that before you apply to that program. So if you're going to cold e-mail a professor, I would recommend that you send a short e-mail (5-6 sentences; don't send a wall-of-text) where you:
Your undergrad advisor can help you most by writing good letters and potentially by putting you in touch with anyone s/he knows in your future field (ask if s/he has any contacts there). But writing good letters is the most important thing. You're not expected to stay in the same exact field from undergrad to grad to postdoc, so don't sweat it if they're not a bioinformatician themselves.
As far as funding goes, I'm a little surprised that you were told you needed to secure funding ahead of time or extramurally. Maybe this is different in Canada, but PhD programs in the US are generally fully funded for everyone that is accepted. I know the funding situation on the medical side is totally different, so I'm wondering if that's the difference - I would double check that info with a PhD as opposed to an MD.
posted by en forme de poire at 6:37 PM on November 8, 2013
One potentially important result of e-mailing profs, though, is that if someone isn't taking students (they're about to take a sabbatical, or their lab is full, or they only take independently funded students - which is a red flag imo), you might want to know that before you apply to that program. So if you're going to cold e-mail a professor, I would recommend that you send a short e-mail (5-6 sentences; don't send a wall-of-text) where you:
- briefly introduce yourself,
- say you're interested in the type of work they're doing,
- (here I would be more specific than "bioinformatics" but less specific than, e.g., "learning dynamic Bayesian networks from time-series gene-expression data"; in this case, "machine learning and high throughput data" would be a reasonable middle ground)
- say you are going to be applying to program $X around $DATE,
- ask if they are taking students and if they would be interested in someone with your background,
- thank them, sign off, and attach your CV.
Your undergrad advisor can help you most by writing good letters and potentially by putting you in touch with anyone s/he knows in your future field (ask if s/he has any contacts there). But writing good letters is the most important thing. You're not expected to stay in the same exact field from undergrad to grad to postdoc, so don't sweat it if they're not a bioinformatician themselves.
As far as funding goes, I'm a little surprised that you were told you needed to secure funding ahead of time or extramurally. Maybe this is different in Canada, but PhD programs in the US are generally fully funded for everyone that is accepted. I know the funding situation on the medical side is totally different, so I'm wondering if that's the difference - I would double check that info with a PhD as opposed to an MD.
posted by en forme de poire at 6:37 PM on November 8, 2013
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It really depends. If they're something like "hi, I'm an undergrad looking for an advisor, will you be mine?", then probably not effective at all. But, if you narrow your search to a few professors whose work is well-aligned with your academic research goals, and then send each of them a personal message along the lines of "Hi, I'm a prospective graduate student. I'm very interested in your research on X, and my intent is to focus on X, Y, and Z areas of bioinformatics. Based on how well our interests align, I'd like to discuss the possibility of doing graduate study at your university." They really want advisees whose research aligns with theirs, and who they can use to further their own research aims. You find a few who a) like you and encourage you to apply, b) you also like and could work under for several years, and c) match well focus-wise, and then you apply to their departments.
I plan to mention to my undergraduate advisor that I'm intending to apply for graduate studies. How should I be asking him to support me, given that he's outside my intended department?
Ask him who he knows whose research aligns with yours and then ask him for introductions to those folks. Those people may fit well with you, or they may refer you further. Build the network. There's no shame in it.
How can I take the focus off my grades and onto my other experience/qualifications? Is this going to disadvantage me majorly in seeking an advisor, gaining acceptance and/or finding scholarships/funding?
I don't know about Canada, but in the US, as long as your grades are above the "dear god no" cutoff, it's really in large part about your future advisor wanting you as a student. In your introductory emails to your prospective advisors, you can certainly talk about the experience you have, the research you've done, and (to a limited extent) why you want to do the research that you want to do (this part should be very matter of fact and focused on the work, not on "oh, I love x, y, z so very much!"). In fact, those things will be really important: it shows you can do the work, not just read books.
posted by The Michael The at 11:50 AM on November 8, 2013 [3 favorites]