Are you interested in joining the Mims Lab as a graduate student? If so, please read on.
Ask yourself the right questions about graduate school before reaching out to a prospective advisor. "Why do I need a graduate degree? What will I do with it? What goals will it help me achieve?" You're the only person who can answer these questions, and if you don't have good answers yet, you may not be ready to pursue graduate education. There is often a lot of flexibility with graduate projects. Options can be a good thing; they can also be overwhelming. Without a clear vision of your goals you may find yourself struggling to complete projects or even to stay motivated. If you start graduate school with a clear idea of the goals your graduate work will help you achieve, you are setting yourself up for success. If you have a general interest in research but haven't quite dialed in your interests to a specific area, I suggest taking some time to work in a lab, work on field crews, or gain other experience (that may not even be research!) to help answer these questions. Seasonal job openings are regularly posted through professional societies and list-servs, such as the Society for Freshwater Science’s Classified Ads. Working a few jobs can help sharpen your focus and identify your interests through hard work and hands-on experience.
Find an advisor who is a good fit for you. Advisors come in all personality types and utilize a wide range of strategies, communication styles, and tools to advise their students. Finding the right advisor for you is critical to your success as a graduate student and is often considered as important as finding the right project or department. In general, my goal is to tailor my advising style to the goals of my students and to their progress through a graduate degree (e.g., more advising at the start of a project, tapering to less over time). However, I have some expectations of all students, as well as what they can expect from me, outlined below.
Overview of my expectations for graduate students, and what my students can expect from me:
You are expected to be self-motivated and take responsibility for your successes and failures. In research, is critical to be able to push yourself to set specific goals; make progress; evaluate, celebrate, and learn from failures; and ultimately complete projects all the way through to dissemination of results (papers, science communication). I am here to advise you through that process, provide help, and advocate for you. I will help provide accountability to the goals you set for yourself, and I will help you figure out new strategies or approaches if you are not happy with your progress.
You are expected to communicate openly, transparently, and respectfully with me (your major advisor) as well as your peers and community members to set clear goals for your career and success. Communication is the most important factor in my ability to help you achieve your goals. Open, transparent, and respectful communication is also critical to productive collaborations and a functioning laboratory environment. I rely on my team for feedback to help me improve as an advisor and leader, and I work best with teammates willing to provide that feedback. This means that above all, I value trust. I trust that you will come to me with candor in the spirit of improving our teams, projects, and working relationships. I ask for your trust in me and in the intentions of the feedback I provide to you. All lab members are expected to follow the Virginia Tech Principles of Community. You can expect professional support from me in the form of letters of reference, nomination for awards and recognition where applicable, and assistance in making professional connections whenever and however I can help.
You are expected to be organized. This includes familiarizing yourself with the requirements of your degree, establishing a timeline for completion of the degree, organizing regular meetings with me, and adhering to lab policies on data management. Lab policies also require respect for equipment and the laboratory space, and all lab members are responsible for keeping their work spaces clean, organized, and safe. This may mean that as a member of the lab, you are held to stricter standards regarding organization and tidiness than those you might set for yourself independently, and you are expected to be accountable for your data, analysis, decisions, and conduct. This does not work for everyone, it is important to consider whether you will be comfortable with that before joining the lab. As your advisor, I am committed to helping you develop and improve your organizational skills, including providing templates for data and time management.
You are expected to publish your research. Peer-reviewed publications remain the primary pathway for scientific advancement, and they are almost always a required product of funded research. I expect all graduate students on our team to publish research in a timely fashion. As your advisor, I will help you develop your writing skills, including providing timely feedback, hands-on instruction and co-editing (particularly for early students), and support via lab meetings and collaborative group meetings. Upon departing the lab, we will arrange clear plans for the completion of any outstanding manuscripts to ensure their publication. This involves a collaborative plan for authorship should unforseen demands on your time limit your ability to complete outstanding manuscripts as a lead author. Such plans are set in place at the start of each project as an authorship agreement; your commitments and contribution to any project will be respected, particularly if authorship requirements have already been met.
You are expected to be an involved, contributing member of the lab and department. This means attending (and being prepared for) lab meetings, collaborative multi-lab meetings (e.g., StreamTeam), student defenses, and departmental seminars. I am available to help you prioritize the many opportunities available to you, as your top resource (your time!) will be in high demand.
Smart work is as important as hard work, and you are expected to "work smart." This means figuring out how (and where, and when) you work best to meet your goals. The number of hours in the lab or office that you need to invest to achieve your goals is completely up to you, and I will help you gauge your progress. Research is a competitive field, and it is rarely a 9-5 job. Sometimes you'll be required to work long hours in the field, odd hours in the lab, or work a long day (or week, or weekend) to meet a deadline. It is important to be honest with yourself about what it will take to meet the goals you set for yourself. The wonderful corollary to this is that you also have a degree of flexibility that is unrivaled in most professions. I encourage team members to take advantage of the unique cadence of a career in reasearch, particularly during graduate school. This includes scheduling regular breaks as well as true time off, especially following periods of intense work. I have also worked with students and postdocs to arrange short- or long-term remote work agreements or leaves as family and personal situations require. If you’re not yet sure what works for you, that’s OK! I frequently work with students in their first year or two to learn time management skills and explore strategies, and my requirement in those cases is - again - transparency and feedback about what is working and what isn’t.
If you are interested in joining the Mims Lab as a graduate student, reach out. Not sure what to ask? Check out this great advice from the Women & Minorities in Science at Scripps Institute of Oceanography with lots of tips on how to get the most out of your conversations and interviews for gradaute school - and how to make sure a program & lab are the right fit for you. If you feel ready for graduate work and are interested in joining the Mims Lab at VT, please send the following to me (mims@vt.edu): your CV, college transcript(s), and 2-3 paragraphs that describe your research interests and reasons for wanting to pursue a graduate degree. I generally expect incoming Masters students to exhibit a demonstrated interest in research (e.g., some familiarity with the literature) as well as some experience relevant to the proposed project. My expectations of incoming PhD students include demonstrated self-motivation, strong potential for project leadership, and some track record of peer-review publications or other products with demonstrated impact (e.g., outreach, mentoring, teaching, etc.). I will strongly encourage all eligible graduate students to apply for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program.