The Importance of Grad Students

March 8th, 2011

While I guess I always feel busy and sometimes overwhelmed, I’m usually getting more done than I think and it’s often worthwhile.  I spent a lot of time running on Sunday (18 miles), and much of my time Friday and Saturday was spent with prospective graduate students.

Most PhD programs make acceptances of graduate students near the start of the calendar year and require a response by April 15th.  Often a part of that process between those two events is an invitation to visit the department.  The department usually pays for the visit and makes some effort to put its best face forward to convince the accepted students to say yes and spend the next several years (6-7 years is not uncommon in astronomy, for better or worse) getting a PhD.

Quality students are important.  They do a lot of the grunt work teaching labs and grading, but more importantly, doing learning to do research.  I’m not saying that research is more important than teaching — both are important to a university department — but it is easier to scrape by with adequate teaching than it is with research.

A poor grad student takes more time than they’re worth, while a good one quickly becomes a valued colleague and future collaborator, bringing in their own telescope time and even grant money.

It’s also really hard to figure this out on paper.  Students with good grades and GRE scores wash out of top programs, while other less prestigious programs polish diamonds in the rough into young scientists who land coveted jobs.

It’s not all about smarts and grades when it comes to research.  A lot of the necessary skills can be taught, but the grad student has to have the fire to want to learn and excel.  There is a formula for success and it’s obvious: publish good work a lot.  Easier said than done, but there are a lot of worthwhile projects waiting to be done and it’s up to students to push themselves when it comes to the research.  Sometimes some things do take a long time, and better a long time than wrong…

I’m talking around some of the things I want to talk about.  Success for me as a professor and for graduate students as young scientists depends on an interrelated web of desires, skills, and work.  A little luck with weather or choice of research topics doesn’t hurt either.

But good students elevate faculty members and their department.  Bad ones drag it down and can make it bad for everyone from the faculty to the undergrads.

So, you want to do a good job recruiting your first picks from the applicant pool.  I also believe it’s essential to be really honest and open with them and even to discourage the ones that are a bad fit.  It can be hard for a prospective grad student without a lot of acceptances to say no to an offer, but I’ve seen people waste a few years of their lives trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole.  It’s usually not fun.

I personally have a lot of grad students working with me now: four.  Two are within 1-2 years of finishing.  Two are just starting PhD projects after finishing classes and qualifying exams.  All four have promise, although have moved at different speeds.  I’m optimistic all four will complete their PhDs and find employment in astronomy in some capacity.

It’s important to be real with them on the first visit and give them time, attention, and honesty.  I trust we did that with the bunch that were just in town.  I hope the ones who will be unhappy with a small department in a small town with small amounts of oxygen and heat will pass, and the ones who will be happy and thrive here will accept.  That’s up to them at this stage.  I’ll do my best to advise them all if they come, and mentor those in research who like quasars as much as I do.

Sometimes people equate the relatively low pay and less enviable tasks the grad students do with their lack of importance.  That is far from the truth.  They’re vital to departments with graduate programs, and we spend a lot of time and effort recruiting.  Sometime all of our visitors accept, sometimes they all decline, but we put in a lot of care every year.  I wish them all success, whether with us or elsewhere.

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