Whoops!

So I just realized I accidentally deleted all my older posts! Oh well, I'm not going to go back and write them again. Let's chalk it up to one big fail.

So, I'm back

So I sortof fell off the bandwagon of posting these last several weeks (ok, months). I was originally planning on posting at least once a week, but I forgot to account for the fact that I started my blog half-way through the semester and school and research and big decisions caught up to me - big time. So to make up for the fact that I have deserted this effort the last many weeks, I'm planning on finishing up my original goal of 5 things my blog is not, in the next few days.

My blog is not (mostly) about my work/research/school life, at least not the parts that I don't like. Graduate school is hard enough without constantly reminding myself how difficult it can be sometimes. So, I'm making a conscious effort to leave the complaints off the internet. However, I do plan on sharing my small, but exciting successes with all of you (whoever is reading this). And, in return for your attention, I promise to keep it in layman's terms, as much as possible.

So, with that, I would like to share my most recent (and one of the biggest) successes:




Ready?

I have finally chosen a lab!

For those of you who are not familiar with the process, this is one of the biggest decisions (if not the biggest) to be made along the path to a PhD. If you are interested, here are the details:

In graduate school in the biomedical sciences, generally, one spends the first year "rotating" in different labs to find the lab that one will ultimately spend the next 4-5 years doing his/her thesis research. This means that every couple months, you stumble into a new lab with a new layout, new people, new research and attempt to learn everything you can about the lab, the science and the environment. Then just as you feel like you have everything figured out, you switch labs and start all over. After a couple times, you are told that you need to pick one place to stay permanently, so that you can begin your thesis work. People usually say that there are two things that factor into the process (but with the economy these days, there are really three):

1. The research in the lab/the project you would work on.

2. The environment of the lab and the mentor you would work with.

 Lab environments are all very different, and people have different opinions on how much the environment and the mentoring should affect your decision. 

3. Whether or not the lab has funding to take on a student.

This was almost my downfall. It costs $70,000/year to have a graduate student in your lab (tuition + stipend + benefits). This is quite a big pricetag for these days of economic hardship.

Some think that if the #1 is interesting enough, then #2 is not as important, because your "scientific drive/ sense of inquiry and curiosity" will motivate you to keep going despite other obstacles. Others will tell you that #2 is more important than #1, since the mentor will help you get through the difficult parts of the project. The best situation would obviously be one with a good environment and an interesting project, but those don't always seem to correlate, and if they do then there may not be any of #3.

Anyway, with all of these obstacles, I'm just glad that something worked out. I'm working on a really awesome project (which I will bore you with in a later post), and I have funding!