This past fall (2014) I began work on my PhD in Microbial Biology at Rutgers and have since successfully completed my first year and passed my comprehensive exam. During my first year in graduate school I did coursework as well as rotations through different laboratories. At the end of this past spring semester I joined a geomicrobiology lab here and have been studying the physiology of metalloid-respiring microorganisms isolated from hydrothermal vents.
My time at Georgia Tech prepared me very well for graduate school. The transition from the undergraduate to graduate level was surprisingly smooth. The graduate courses I have taken are on par with the difficulty of many of the upper level biology courses that I took at Tech. I love that biology students are allowed to take so many elective courses and have such diverse courses to choose from. Even though my bachelor's degree was in biology, I was able to take many microbiology and biochemistry courses which gave me a very solid basis to build upon as I began my graduate studies.
I was incredibly fortunate in that I also got to work as both an undergraduate researcher and an undergraduate TA while at Tech. I began working as an undergraduate researcher from the beginning of my sophomore year and continued until I graduated. I had the opportunity to work in three different labs and be exposed to three different subs-fields within the broader field of microbiology. This helped me to discover the type of research I was interested in doing (and helped me to eliminate the types that I definitely was not interested in doing) which helped to shape my decision of where to go to graduate school and who to choose as my graduate adviser. Once I arrived here at Rutgers and began my rotations, I was able to jump into research right away as I was already very experienced with the type of work I was doing.
As I mentioned earlier, I worked as an undergraduate TA for the School of Biology and also as a tutor for the Center for Academic Success. During that time I found that I really loved teaching at the undergraduate level and have made it my goal to integrate teaching as much as possible into my graduate school experience.
Don't be afraid to change your mind about what you want to do. Even if that means changing your major or having to take an extra semester in school. If you find something that makes you happier don't be afraid to pursue it. You aren't married to the major and career path that you chose for yourself as a freshman. Tons of people change their long-term academic and career plans while they are undergraduates and are happier for it. When I started out I was pre-pharmacy but halfway through my sophomore year I realized that I had fallen in love with microbiology and so I changed course and now I'm here pursuing my PhD in Microbial Biology.
For students considering research-based graduate programs after completing their bachelor's degrees, my biggest piece of advice would be to seek out quality undergraduate research experiences. Unfortunately, a lot of undergraduate researchers get stuck being dishwashers or working as an extra pair of hands for a graduate student and never get the chance to work as an independent researcher which is such an important experience to have if you want to go to graduate school (especially a PhD program). Look for an undergraduate research adviser who is willing to eventually let you work independently on your own project and who sees you as a young scientist in-training rather than an extra set of hands for the lab.
