Advice for potential graduate students

"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls." -- Matt Cartmill

Science is fun, but it is neither easy nor a sure path to fame and factual certainty. If you are interested in becoming a graduate student in our lab, or any other lab, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, be realistic about graduate school. Graduate school in anthropology is by no means a sure path to success. As Sonke Johnsen points out, many students assume that they will eventually get a job just like their advisors. However, the average professor at a research university has three students at a time for about 5 years each. So, over a career of 30 years, this professor has about 18 students. Since the total number of positions has been pretty constant, these 18 people are competing for one spot. So go to grad school assuming that you might not end up at a research university, but instead a teaching college, or a government or industry job. All of these are great jobs, but it's important to think of all this before you go to school.

Second, choose your advisor wisely. This person has considerable control over your graduate career for five or more years, and he or she will be writing recommendation letters for you for another 5-10 years after that. Also, your advisor will shadow you for the rest of your life. People will always think of you as so-and-so's student and assume that you two are somewhat alike. Finally, in many ways you will turn into your advisor. Advisors are role models. Consciously and unconsciously, you will imitate your advisor. If someone had told me this before (or even while) I was in graduate school, I would have dismissed the idea. But now I find that I emulate my Ph.D. advisor in many ways, from the way he explains concepts to some of his mannerisms of speech! You may find this hard to believe now, but ten years from now, when you find yourself lining up the tools in your lab cabinets just like your advisor did, you'll see.

Finally, as Sonke Johnsen emphasizes, have your fun now. Five years is a long time when you are 23 years old. By the end of graduate school, you will be older, slower, and possibly married and/or a parent. So if you always wanted to walk across Nepal, do it now. Also, do not go to a high-powered lab that you hate assuming that this will promise you long-term happiness. Deferred gratification has its limits. Do something that you have passion for, work in a lab you like, in a place you like, before life starts throwing its many curve balls. Your career will mostly take care of itself, but you can't get your youth back.

If, after reading this, you want to apply to this lab, we would love to hear from you.