Essential tips before starting your PhD

With many schools having sent out admission offers for their upcoming PhD cohorts, lots of students are now transitioning into the process of summer preparation for their PhD journeys. This includes myself! As such, I thought I would write a quick blog post and share some of the ways that I've started prepping in hopes that it may help some others as well. This will be applicable to most PhD fields, although will be primarily centered around STEM PhD's.

Detailed school & department research.
Once you've been accepted to your school of choice and have committed to attending it in the Fall, the first biggest step is to do lots of research into the institution and department, specifically. Now, this part will have more-so been tackled during your applications or already happen to be attending that school for your bachelor's or master's degree, but more insight never hurt. Start looking into important events, connect with the department's academic counselor and start setting up 1 on 1 meetings (if possible), and try to connect with your classmates early on through social networking. This will all help you become familiar with your future environment in preparation for the Fall semester.

Read, Read & READ.
I would honestly say that this step is something you should be doing every day in the months before starting your PhD. Most experienced academics will always emphasize this and say that there is no better way to prep for a PhD than to continuously read about your field and be as updated as possible on current research. Specifically in STEM, you should have all relevant journals in your field saved; you can even subscribe to journal newsletters to receive new developments periodically. It's even a good idea to save and annotate your important papers, which drives me to my next point.

Create a database using a reference manager.
Not only is using a reference manager good for organizing and storing papers in a much more organized way, but it will also help make referencing much simpler in the coming years when you start writing papers to be submitted for publishing. This is because reference managers have built-in tools that help making citing much smoother that connect to applications like Microsoft Word. I recommend using something like Mendeley or Zotero which are the two most commonly used reference managers. You can download the apps to your desktop where files will be saved locally or store your files using their online interface in a cloud format. Managers like Zotero also have integrated tablet applications so that you can annotate/write on papers through your iPad which will be saved to your library wherever you access it through the power of the cloud.

Pick up some good books.
There's a few books out there that are pretty famous essentials for students starting their PhD's. These books provide very general guidance about what to expect, how to communicate with your PI and peers, tips on development of your research goals/dissertation, how to independently research, writing, and more. Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre is a famous book to pick up, as is How to get a PhD by Estelle Phillips. These will be good resources to glance at from time to time.

Get involved in Science Twitter!
Getting involved in the world of science twitter has been one of the biggest sources in helping me stay updated with the science world, specifically in the fields I'm interested in. To get involved, create a dedicated, professional twitter account and start following tons of people. I started by following my lab's twitter account, all of the lab students, school related accounts, professors, other school colleagues, and relevant societies/groups. From here on out, I've been following relevant accounts and academics/scientists that pop up on my feed through other's likes & retweets every day. I probably follow 3-4 new accounts each day. This has helped me become connected in way not only to my school, but also to the community that I aspire to really become a part of one day. This concept will help you network and start recognizing important names in your research field. I really enjoy logging onto twitter every day and seeing people's publications, news, seminar opportunities, and learning a few things each time I scroll. It's very inspiring and a must-do for anyone getting involved in research!

Workspace & Organizational Skills.
I personally believe that more work gets done when your workspace is organized, comfortable and easily accessible. Aside from a lack of clutter anFor me, this means having a monitor connected to my laptop for extra screen space, an iPad at my disposal for reading, writing (and even as a third screen), and going paperless. Going paperless has allowed for much better safekeeping and arrangement of documents, files and notes. Having a good platform for keeping your calendar and to-do is crucial; I like using Google calendars to plan out my weeks with class/meetings/seminars/events the best, and I keep a digital to-do list through an called Trello. There are many other digital platforms along with the option of keeping a tangible agenda/calendar, so it all ultimately comes down to a personal preference!

Be more excited than nervous.
You're here, you've made it this far. Everyone knows that undertaking a PhD is a big challenge, but we all know that it will be rewarding and a huge accomplishment. We all have the ability to succeed even if there are hurdles and obstacles along the way. One thing that I think is important to remember is that nobody expects you to come in and know what you're doing 100%. There will be steeper learning curves along the way but these will all be expected; the goal of a PhD is to come out with a deep understanding of a field that we are passionate about. This will take time, dedication and patience, but it's worth it!

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