on Ph.D. (1)

I obtained my BSc. in May 2006. Following a short break, I started my Ph.D. program in September 2006. Four years later, in September 2010, I completed my Ph.D. in Entomology. I was also four months shy of my 28^th birthday when I got my Ph.D.

Many people have expressed surprise, mixed with a hint of amazement, at the speed at which I went through my Ph.D. program. I wrote almost nothing about this new adventure of mine when I started my Ph.D., and perhaps now I should write something about it, if only to serve as a reference for others who are working on their Ph.D., or plan to do so.

What’s a Ph.D.?

Nobody ever told me what defines it, or what truly distinguishes a Ph.D. from other diplomas. I can however, tell you what makes a good Ph.D., and from that perhaps you can get an idea of what it entails.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of many professors (who may one day evaluate you, since the academia is very much peer-evaluation focused), the quality of a Ph.D. is measured by the research done. Specifically, it’s not really just the research done but the publications generated by the research done. Good research amounts to nothing if it’s not published, and you won’t be able to publish research of inadequate quality (at least not in any respectable journal).

In the first month of my Ph.D. program, I was reminded by a professor that “Forget the courses, forget the homework, forget the GPAs. Papers. Papers is what you will be judged by first and foremost.” He has remained a member of my committees since the beginning and I am thankful for his pivotal tip.

If I can put it more bluntly, in a Ph.D. program, one should never be concerned with scoring ‘A’ in any classes. Just make sure you don’t fail, learn what you need to learn and move on with your research ASAP. Some programs subject the Ph.D. students to heavy class load, and though I find that foolish, there’s little a student can do to change his fate (Depending on the policies of your department however, students may be able to voice their opinions about program curriculum and make a change. My department is one such awesome department.) What you can do to improve your fate is to cast away the ‘undergraduate mentality’ of ‘being the best student in the class’. When you are looking for a job later, NOBODY cares about your CGPA of your Ph.D. program. Remember that Stats class that you studied day and night for and finally got an A+ in? Well, nobody cares. If a recruiter from a research institute or university wants to know if you have the adequate stats skills for the position, they read your papers and see what statistical methods you have employed in your research.

(And truth be told, it’s much easier to score As in graduate-level classes than in undergraduate-level classes. Cheap scores = no value, savvy?)

Most Ph.D. students understand the important of research and publication very well, and thus most of us labour away to get more data. And then more data. Data, data, data. In some programs, data are easier to get than in others, and both are cursed. Too much data and you will easily lose sight of the big picture once you are buried in numbers; too little data and you will be shaking your fists at empty datasheets. I have encountered both situations in my Ph.D. career, so let me tell you how I dealt with them.

Never lose sight of the big picture, or the questions you started to ask. If you forget where you wanted to go or what you wanted to seek, then no number of maps would help you get to the right place. If you forget the general objectives of your studies, you will most likely miss signs of interesting data (think, alternative hypotheses) even if they are laid out right before your eyes. To help me with my bearings, I draw models. If you can think it, you can write it, and you can put it into a model. Draw circles, connect them, use colours, whatever. A professor once told his lab that “experiments and stuff are all good, but once you draw everything into a model, it’s like ascending heaven”. That professor has one of the clearest minds I have had the good fortune to witness, so his words should be heeded. A model does more than summarize your thoughts, it also helps you see gaps, formulate ideas, and facilitate discussion with others. I have drawn countless models during my Ph.D. career, and most of them on scrap paper or the back of paper napkins. Pick up the modeling habit, but ditch the napkin part =).

Once I lacked data for a question that I really wanted to answer. Time was running out for me to repeat the investigation. I was very disappointed, needless to say. Yet there’s nothing to be gained from disappointment (and that’s a good lesson too!), so I moved on to other easier projects. I made notes on what went wrong with this round of examination, and sought to improve on investigation the question next time (summer’s my only research season). Sometimes you would have nothing to do while waiting for materials to arrive or your collaborators to get their part of the projects done. During then, I did two things: i) have fun playing Warhammer Online, and ii) work on other projects, like writing a review paper or conjuring up other projects. Furthermore, there are stats method that deal with small sample size. Whatever I did, I never sat down, did nothing and hoped for things to get better.

Hmm…sounds like a Ph.D. student needs to be slaving away 24/7. Nope, definitely not. I have many colleagues who party much more than I do and still accomplish more. I have also colleagues who work much more than I do and progressed much less than would be expected. I say, work hard when you should be working, and make the work counts. Make it efficient, and make it effective. I don’t work/study when I know that I won’t be efficient in doing it, e.g., when my mood is bad, when I am tired, when I am distracted, when I want to play. Looking back, I realise that my habits are to work efficiently to save time, but play to waste time.

Somebody once said that I had it easy because I was smart. Well, she was correct—I was smart in using and managing my time, but not smart in terms of IQ or brain power. I was also smart in making sure that I work when I want to and when I need to. Being really smart can be a dangerous curse in disguise, as smart people often rely too much on their intelligence and refuse to work more to achieve more. If I need 30 minutes to understand a paragraph, whereas you only need 10 minutes to do so, that’s okay. I will read when I am most efficient such that I don’t spend more time than necessary, and in that way I have achieved my ‘maximum’. That makes me feel good about myself, and my performance will not be impaired.

Feeling good about myself was very critical for the health of my Ph.D. career. I have never once thought badly about my capabilities as a scientist or as a teacher, even when my experiments failed again and again. I don’t compare myself to others (though I do observe how others do things and what they achieve), only to myself. As such, I have no place to go but forward, nothing to do but progress. If you feel sorry for yourself, begin to doubt your abilities, then your next step will be harder, you will be less inclined to do something new, you will procrastinate and run away. Naturally, your speed will be slower, your results less elegant, your data of less quality. People will criticize, and you will feel worse. The vicious cycle starts again and you will soon find yourself spiraling down, down, down. I hope you never get there, and if you do, QUICKLY do the following: do something easy, make it work, and start to feel good about yourself again.

Oh my…I have written too much already. Let’s stop here, for now.