I’m a fourth year undergraduate from the University of Southampton, UK, studying for my masters at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. With my summer reading completed, and a new exoplanet waiting to be discovered, I stepped off the plane into Boston Logan Int. this September and eagerly exchanged a drizzly English summer for a beautiful New English Autumn.
We again have the pleasure of having John Johnson write today on astrobites. We were curious to get his opinion on several topics; in this first post, he’ll answer our questions about life in graduate school. We asked what he wished he’d known going into graduate school, how he balanced work and life, and what he did in grad school that he thinks were beneficial later on.
At the same time that many in the astronomy community are scrambling to save the James Webb Space Telescope, young astronomers may be just as antsy about their own futures. Some students choose a terminal Master’s degree as a means to better compete in the Ph.D. applicant pool, to qualify for teaching credentials that require a master’s degree, to find positions at research facilities, museums, planetariums, and science publications … or just ‘test the water’ in a graduate school environment.
For some people, the decision to go to graduate school is straightforward. They know that they are cut out for a life in academia, often aiming for a faculty position at an R1 institution.* I am not and never was one of those people, and the decision to go to grad school was far from straightforward. I know I am just one of many who struggled with what seemed a formidable choice. I want to share my story of realization that grad school was still right for me.
Gradhacker is a new website with tips for graduate student life.