Receiving a PhD offer is exciting! But before you accept, you want to determine if the program, the lab, and your advisor are actually the right fit for you. This post gives you some tips on how to carefully evaluate whether this offer is one you should accept. We'll talk about questions you should ask, who you should talk to, and things to watch out for. If you haven't read the previous post in this series on how to research a PhD program before you apply, it's worth startin

In the previous post in this series, I made the case that research fit matters more than simply getting accepted to a PhD program. If you haven’t read that post yet, I’d encourage you to start there. This post assumes you’re convinced and ready to start evaluating fit. So let’s get talk about what to do before you ever submit an application. Before you dive into evaluating a lab’s research, however, you should understand how graduate school admissions in the US work. I’ve wri

One of the most common mistakes PhD applicants make is prioritizing acceptance over fit. Getting into a program feels like the goal, but it's really just the beginning, and what you're getting into matters as much as getting in. I once knew someone who started their PhD because they didn't get into medical school. In a panic because the new school year was about to start, this person decided to do a PhD in the first lab they could find. On the surface, a PhD in a biomedical f

I recently reconnected with one of my former PhD students. We reminisced about his time at the university as well as how his time away provided some perspective into the whole graduate school process, student-advisor interactions, and factors that help students be successful. This conversation and conversations with my current PhD students underline the concept that the skills that make someone successful as an undergraduate do not necessarily translate into PhD success. Basi