The Product of the PhD is You

Yes, you, right there.

Hi Trash Talkers!

It’s been a little while. I recently passed my qualifying exam (the first milestone of a PhD, arguably the hardest depending on the program), and it had consumed my entire being for several weeks straight. This was not an exam for a class, but rather a team of faculty members that were evaluating me as a scientist and a student. It was an extremely intense experience for me, and at times I felt I was at a great disadvantage, but I am very proud of the time and effort I spent preparing. During that time I also reached 100 subscribers! Lots of different ways to succeed in this life.

But it got me thinking about quite a few things. So let’s discuss, talk some trash, and more importantly, talk about trash.

Trash Reasons to Pursue a PhD

I have definitely had my fair share of conversations with peers encouraging them to pursue graduate school. It is an amazing experience, challenges me every day, and I know it was the right choice for me.

But there are also quite a few reasons not to pursue a PhD. A few are listed below, from most egregious to most crisis-inducing for any current graduate students.

1. You don’t want to find a job yet.

2. You think it will be easy to complete.

3. You want to be respected.

   1. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be respected, but having PhD after your name doesn’t make you any better of a person.

   2. This is a distinctively different reason from pursuing a PhD because you want a specific type of job that requires advanced credentials.

4. People have told you a PhD would be a great fit for you.

5. You’ve always been academically successful and a PhD is the next logical step in the process.

6. You are smart.

This last point is typically most surprising for my peers. You should not pursue a PhD just because you know you are a smart person. And you might still pursue a PhD even if you think you are not smart—I have known many students to graduate who have doubted their intellect before. Let’s break that down further.

What does it mean to be smart?

I have a friend who once described someone’s GPA as an indicator of their willingness to jump through “academic hoops.” At the time, I took personal offense to this because I took great pride in my grades, and I did not think they were indicative of my tendency to be a sheep, for a lack of a better word. But I do think he was right.

Your grades, to some degree, may represent your willingness to conform to a professor’s expectations and assignments. The student and the professor partake in a mutual agreement, and if expectations are met (whatever that may mean), the student receives a “good” grade as a reward. This dynamic often creates tension in that students do not necessarily have the authority to help determine what those expectations are; the professor decides on their behalf, without their consultation.

We do this because we collectively acknowledge that the academic community is built on the dissemination of knowledge from top to bottom, so to speak. Universities brag about the number of “experts” they have—people who are leaders in their field, have published extensively, or have otherwise demonstrated that they know what they’re doing.

And students flock to university to receive this expert knowledge, in a distilled, more basic form. In most cases, I would hope, this is an excellent model. Willing students are excited to have people who can answer their questions in their corners.

What has unintentionally emerged from this model is the association of being “smart” with meeting or exceeding the expectations of a professor or teacher. But what about instructors with unrealistic expectations? What about instructors who are unsuccessful in teaching their students from piloting a new assignment or extenuating circumstances that prevent them from focusing on their professional responsibilities? There are undoubtedly still students who are “smart” but may not be able to succeed in the structure their professor has created which would incorrectly deem them “not smart.”

All this is to say that we often associate being smart with positive grade outcomes, and people also seem to think that these positive grade outcomes would somehow prepare you for graduate school. I can definitively tell you that good grades do not mean anything in graduate school. (A side note, this doesn’t mean classes are useless. Classes can be instrumental and very fulfilling experiences.). The success of a graduate student is mostly a function of their work ethic, their independence, and their ability to critically think.

What are reasons to pursue a PhD?

This looks different for every student:

1. You definitely want to be a professor and teach in a field that requires PhD-level education.

   1. An example of a professorship not requiring PhD-level education is the field of architecture, where the typical terminal degree is a Master’s.

2. You want to work in the private sector, but see yourself leading a department or team conducting intense research.

3. You see yourself being in charge of a research project in the future.

A secondary reason that ends up fuelling almost every PhD: you long for and appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the existing wealth of knowledge. This is not reason enough alone to pursue a PhD, but most graduate students are motivated by this sentiment.

The distinction between pursuing a Master’s versus a PhD is generally the leadership component. Because a Master’s degree is designed to be completed in 1-2 years, many Master’s theses are shorter, incremental projects that are lower-risk. PhDs have a little more time to pivot or work out the kinks if a project doesn’t pan out. In both cases, your ability to design defensible experimental studies and critically evaluate the wealth of knowledge are fundamental skills.

Wrap-Up

A mentor of mine recently reminded me that the product of your PhD is not publications, presentations, or even a job offer. The product of the PhD is you. All of you. Your knowledge, quirks, habits, opinions, kindness, all of it. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the search for achievements—publishing in Nature, presenting internationally, discovering something new—but after the 5 years, the real achievement is who you have become!

There is a lot left to think about here, which I will undoubtedly revisit as I progress in my program. I’m coming up on the end of my first complete year of grad school, where I’ll do an extensive check-in with what has worked for me and what I wish I knew when I started.

Until then, keeping an eye out for biotech-related post opportunities. Happy trash talking!