​Tips+Resources for Undergraduate Students

  • Accept Your College Offer
    • This may seem like a silly tip, but a few friends of mine did not know that they needed to notify their college of choice that they will be attending. Since they did not formally accept the offer, they had to wait and reapply the following year! Learn from their mistakes and make sure to formally accept your college offer. The instructions are usually in the college acceptance email.
    • College Decision Day: How To Notify Colleges: https://blog.prepscholar.com/college-decision-day
  • Apply for FAFSA: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa
    • FAFSA is confusing, especially for high school students who are the first in their families to go to college! I struggled with understanding what documents and tax forms were needed so I made several appointments with my high school counselor. Find out who at your high school can help. If you are already in college, go to the financial aid office. They most likely will know how to guide you.
    • FAFSA Deadlines: https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/fafsa-deadlines
      •  Be mindful of the deadlines! FAFSA is not a one-time application. You will need to submit a FAFSA application every year to get financial aid for college.
  • ​Consider Joining Programs for First-Generation College Students:
    • The summer before college, I worked a part-time job while many of my peers were in Upward Bound, a program for first-generation and low-income students transitioning into college. I do not regret much in life, but missing out on that experience still haunts me. Your college may offer Upward Bound or a similar program. If you are able to give up some portion of your summer, these programs can help a lot with learning the college ropes.
    • Another resource are non-profits serving first-generation college students:
  • Bargain Hunt for Textbooks
    • Textbooks are expensive and the resell value is horrible. My first year in college, I thought I would write all over my textbooks and so I needed a brand new one for each class. I was wrong and my savings account suffered. With my financial aid package and part-time job, I couldn't afford this lifestyle of new textbooks, so I opted for used ones. The used ones sometimes had notes and highlights from the previous owner and that actually helped me study! This might not happen for you but regardless, you do not need a brand spanking new book. For some classes, I was able to scrape by going to the library and renting the book out for a few hours. Nothing motivates you more to box out time to read than having to return a book by 9pm.
    • Textbook Websites to Help Save Money:
  • Use Office Hours and Campus Resources
    • Office hours and campus resources may seem intimidating for first-generation college students because we may feel like we are taking up someone's time. It doesn't help that there is messaging around how you need to take advantage of these resources for your own benefit. Instead of thinking about how you can take advantage of these resources, think about how you are making sure these resources continue to be available to the community at your college by using them. This is not intuitive, but the amount of time/funding given to office hours and campus resources may depend on how much demand there is. So help your fellow students out and attend office hours and/or go to career fair to show that these resources are in high demand and more (not less) of them are necessary!
  • ​Network to Connect and Build Empathy
    • An overlooked skill that is important to develop in college is being able to connect with people from different backgrounds. Developing this skill can help you feel more part of the college community, understand different perspectives, and be able to empathized with people's experiences even if you never experienced it yourself. There is no magical way to make networking comfortable, but reframing its purpose can help. Instead of thinking about networking as an instrumental way to get something from others, think about networking as a way to foster relationships where you can give to others in the same way they can give to you. 

​Tips+Resources for Prospective and Current PhD Students

  • Prep for the GRE
    • To succeed on the GRE, you need to learn a bunch of short cuts and strategies. Practicing to get fast at taking the GRE is the number one way to get a high score. To prepare for the GRE, I signed up for the six-month self-guided/self-study Magoosh GRE Prep and made sure to do a bunch of practice tests. I also took the GRE twice to get above the 80th percentile on all the sections. I personally do not think graduate programs care that you were 99th percentile on all the components, just that you were not lower than 50th-60th percentile. Warning that all of this will get expensive so make sure to have some money saved up beforehand.​
    • GRE Online Prep:
  • Do Practice Graduate Admission Interviews
  • Join the PhD Project: https://phdproject.org/
    • If you are a PhD student in the business school and are Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic American, or Native American, consider joining the PhD Project. 
  • ​Brush Up on Stats and Data Analysis
    • You will get trained on how to do stats again but it does not hurt to remind yourself of when one should use a t-test or analysis of variance. Something that I was not taught in college were regressions, which is integral to know. I would learn the basics and take a bunch of regression courses during grad school. A note on statistical software: I use SPSS and currently discovering R. I will probably always use SPSS but I think R is the future. Take that as you will.
    • You need to understand the differences between moderation and mediation and what they mean. I had a really hard time keeping up when people talked or presented their results because I didn't fully understand what moderation or mediation was until the end of my first semester. Do your future self a favor and get familiar with moderation and mediation as soon as possible. I would have the following bullet points somewhere easily accessible so you can reference them during an academic talk.
      • When you are examining moderation (or an interaction), you are looking at how a variable changes the presence, direction, or size of a relationship between variables. This is useful because you can find the boundary conditions and say things like: When/for whom the effect is there or not, and/or when/for whom the effect is attenuated or exacerbated. 
      • When you are examining mediation (or looking at mechanisms), you are looking at how or why there is a relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. This is useful because you can find out what explains a relationship or effect.
    • Helpful Stats Websites/Videos:
  • Work with 2+ Faculty in Year One
    • Make it a goal to start projects with at least 2 faculty members during your first year in a PhD program. Working with more than one faculty member will give you experience with different working styles, make it that much easier to get the three letters of recommendation when you are on the job market, and help you foster relationships.
  • ​Collaborate with PhD Students
    • ​Collaborating with other PhD students was one of the best decisions I made. I would ask them questions that I would never ask a faculty member. Working with another PhD student also cuts down your time and effort on a project because they are also hungry to push it out and have relatively more time to help you work on it. 
  • ​Present at Conferences and Organize Symposia
    • ​Don't just attend conferences, present at them. Practically, this will add to your CV and build your presentation skills. Even if you do not feel ready for a 15 minute presentation, push yourself to do a poster session or a 5-minute data blitz. To present at a conference, you will typically need to submit an abstract or paper. I recommend teaming up with another graduate student or your advisor to submit a symposium to the conference. You will need to put in a little bit more legwork like determining what the symposium will be about, who to invite as presenters, and putting together a submission tying different research topics together. However, this will help familiarize you with your field and give you a reason to cold email faculty at other institutions.
    • McGill Guide: https://www.mcgill.ca/gradsupervision/timelines/emergence-independent-researchers/presenting