Congratulations and welcome to Penn! As you begin a new and exciting chapter in your scientific journey, we understand the uncertainty that may come with it. In the midst of a global pandemic, all of you will face the unique challenge of adjusting to a semi-virtual first year. But, have no fear! We are here to help ease your doubts and guide you through this transition. Below, you’ll find a compilation of expert advice brought to you by current BGS students who want to support you and help you succeed. Thank you to all of those students who contributed their thoughts and perspectives. Welcome, Class of 2020!
General Advice
Take the time to learn what kind of work-life balance is effective for you. Use this first year as a time to form friendships that will get you through your PhD. As one student notes, “when times are hard (experiments not working, issues with your lab or mentor, etc...), community is EVERYTHING.” The BGS orientation will be an opportunity to meet your cohort and upperclassmen during student panels, virtual happy hours, and other events. Engage early in external hobbies to avoid burnout and build a community. BGSA and GAPSA are great resources to find both science and non-science-related events and graduate student organizations to join(think local music groups and intramural sports). Also, Don’t neglect your mental health as you navigate this process - take advantage of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Penn (caps.wellness.upenn.edu).
There will be times when you’ll need to advocate for yourself. Importantly, everyone here wants you to succeed. tThere are many support networks available to address your concerns: your program chair, CAPS, teaching assistants (TA’s), and eventually, your thesis committee members. Communicate openly and honestly about your needs, especially if they aren’t being met. Remember, people “cannot help you if they do not know what you need.” And of course, “talk to grad students in the years above you. They’ve done a lot of this before and are always happy to help.”
As Penn moves forward with a hybrid model for the fall, take this time to set up your home workstation. You’ll need this space for virtual classes and remote research. Designate an area where you can easily focus, that is comfortable, and that is free of distractions. Invest in an ergonomic chair - it will be better for your back and help you avoid working on your nap-trap sofa and bed. Make use of your @pennmedicine.upenn.edu email to get a free 6-month trial to Amazon Prime. Buy all your essentials and have them delivered to your home for free. Then use that email to switch to the Spotify Premium Student subscription for $5 per month!
The Virtual Toolbox
Stay on top of the literature conveniently from home. Check out the free Researcher App and PubCrawler to track the latest publications or get PubMed notifications sent straight to your inbox whenever a paper with a chosen keyword is published. Even better, get ahead of the publication backlog by frequenting the pre-print server, BioRxiv (see our May 2020 issue). Reviews are a great starting point for broad topic overviews, and they provide extensive references for more in-depth research. Take an active approach to reading; some students create an Excel spreadsheet or OneNote file to concisely summarize and catalog papers (e.g. title, author, year, key methodologies and findings, open questions, etc.), and it’s a great habit to start early!
Want to go paperless? Consider investing in a tablet and stylus to read, highlight, and markup articles to take with you on the go. Helpful apps include Adobe Reader Touch for Windows tablets or PDF Expert for iPads. For PC, Foxit Reader is great for reading papers (the typewriter tool is nice for making margin notes). If you’re able to, invest in a laptop that can accomodate your data storage needs, and always keep a backup hard drive.PRO-TIP: to avoid a cluttered computer, keep an individual hard drive for storing literature and your citation manager library. Pending safety on campus, you may be able to obtain hard copies of your favorite papers: hike up the stairs to the CAMB office (Anatomy/Chemistry Building, RM 404), and print your paper for free. Don’t forget to say hi to Meagan, Anna, Kathy, and Christina! They will distribute the office schedule as soon as it’s available.
Grad students love the Mendeley citation manager. Set up the Citation Plugin for Word and Chrome extension to quickly add citations from the web to your library and insert them directly into your document as you write. EndNote also has a great online user interface; their Word plugin plus the CiteWhileYouWrite tool makes writing papers much easier. Zotero is free, reliable, and syncs everywhere (the “Zotfile” extension automatically standardizes PDF file names and allows you to extract annotations as an attached note). You can also combine Paperpile and Google Docs for an excellent citation manager.
Virtual Classes
Many classes this fall will continue to be online, in some capacity. Professors are prepared and have adjusted to the new format, and they will do their best to bring you an in-person classroom feel.
For live online sessions, remember to ALWAYS mute the mic. As one student advises: “The worst, most noisy stuff always happens when your mic is on. That's just facts.” Also, don’t let your questions go unanswered during class. Many professors will insist that you unmute yourself and interrupt. If you’re mic-shy, you can write questions into the chat box and return to them before class ends. In discussion-based classes, your professor may encourage everyone to keep their cameras on to provide facial cues and give the class a more “natural” feel. Don’t worry about your background, especially if you own a pet - everyone loves a cat or dog cameo!
If the class is recorded, adjust the playback speed while you study to speed up or slow down the material to match your pace. While pre-recorded classes offer a lot of flexibility, be wary of falling behind. Partner up with another classmate to watch the lectures virtually together and hold each other accountable. Remember to be kind to yourself, respect your time, and establish an end to your work hours.
Also, get with the times of time management and let your calendar do the work! Sync your class BlueJeans links, either manually or from PennInTouch, directly into your Outlook calendar and set reminders. To break down class work, one student suggests: “To-do lists and short-term goals (think weekly) are extremely helpful to keep you on track and make sure you don't fall behind.”
Don’t hesitate to reach out for help as you would in any in-person class when you are struggling with a topic. The majority of students agreed that their most helpful resource was forming study groups and scheduling virtual hangouts to work through problems. As one student attests: “Just talking with someone else about the topics can really put into perspective how you are doing and where your strengths/weaknesses are with the material.” The TAs are also a great first-line resource and are often more available than professors.
A unique challenge of virtual classes is undoubtedly the difficulty to stay engaged and awake. Have your coffee or energizing snack at your disposal, and keep your camera on to hold yourself accountable. Write notes as you go and avoid distractions at all costs. Silence your phone and put it in another room, and don’t try to multitask when you’re in class to avoid the dreaded re-watch. Work smarter, not harder!
Remember that going virtual does not have to be isolating! Stay connected through popular message platforms: “Lots of graduate group students have GroupMe chats for students in your year or program.” You can also join the BGS-wide slack channel @upennbgs.slack.com. Attend virtual Happy Hours to keep yourself sane. Virtual hangouts will be awkward at times, but it’s important to touch-base, as one student notes: “It was harder to keep track of assignments because the students didn't talk to each other at the beginning of class like they would in person. We started a weekly virtual happy hour which really helped to talk about when things are due.”
Feel free to reach out and connect beyond just academics! Read more about maintaining a healthy social life in the following article “Tips for a 2020 Research Life.”
Virtual Rotations
You may start your fall semester with a virtual lab rotation as the University continues its phased research resumption plan (https://research.upenn.edu/resources/resumption/). As you identify and meet with faculty, ask about work that can be done remotely, or suggest a project that matches both of your interests. Take a deep dive into the literature with your PI and labmates and ask about any writing opportunities to practice your skills (e.g. contribute to a review article, write a T32 training grant proposal). You could undertake a more computationally-oriented project to learn R or Python and learn how to analyze data that has been collected but yet to be processed. BONUS: CAMB offers free, annual subscriptions to MATLAB and GraphPad for analyzing data and creating professional figures (be on the look-out for an email from BGS admin with details to sign up for an annual subscription).
While virtual research may not be comparable to in-person bench work, it is nonetheless an opportunity for students to sharpen their communication and time-management skills, which are indispensable in your ongoing career. One student shared, “[Virtual research] requires more communication… a lot of time management and discipline, but there are also less distractions and interruptions so you can get a lot of reading done and think about things deeply. It's a good chance to practice skills like reading, writing, and presenting that are usually put second when doing in-person science.” Another stated, “The virtual meetings with my PI were actually more effective in my opinion because you just want to get things done and can't digress from the main conversation as easily.”
As mentioned before, manage your time well and enforce boundaries between coursework and research. Everyone’s situation is different, so find a communication strategy that works best for you and your PI. Schedule meetings frequently and make the time to get to know other lab members as well! One student notes, “Set up 1-on-1 meetings with more than just the PI of the lab. This sounds like a drag but is necessary because if it’s just you and the PI, then you could feel isolated and [learn little about the actual] lab environment.” This engagement may also include lab meetings, journal clubs, and happy hours. Your virtual lab might become your thesis lab, so take the time to establish connections with lab members. Depending on the safety of the lab, readiness of the PI, and your ability and/or willingness to volunteer, you may also have the opportunity to shadow in-person to gain a feel for the lab environment.
The pace and nature of the work may change as your virtual project moves forward, so tell your PI if you need more assistance to resolve any bumps in the road. Remember that it’s completely understandable to feel overwhelmed or uncertain at times: PI’s are here to help and guide you. However, remember that they, too, are learning to adapt to these unprecedented circumstances; you might even meet their partners or children during your meetings. Be mindful and patient as you go forward.
Finally, if you know there is a lab that you absolutely want to work with that doesn’t have any options for remote work, it’s okay to bookmark the rotation for when benchwork does become a possibility and plan accordingly with the PI.
And remember, “Your job is STUDENT and your goal is [your] education and training. You have nothing to prove to anyone; your seat in this program is yours. No one makes it anywhere alone, a lot of invisible hands helped pave the way for the people we admire today.”
Best of luck and welcome to Penn!