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Training Students
for Changing Demands in Biomedical Research
Student Perspectives
on Meeting this Challenge at the
University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston
Directions:
Essays Due: October 1, 2004
Please compose an
essay in which you describe your professional and personal experiences
as a student in the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. You
should address as many of the following questions/topics as possible,
depending upon your unique situation and current standing. Your essay
should not exceed 5 single-spaced pages in length. Please use
12-point, Times New Roman font, and use 1 inch margins on all sides.
Essays should be electronically submitted to Dr. Papaconstantinou by
noon on October 1, 2004. Please include a face page with your name and
any of the optional information you wish to provide. If there are
topics that you would like to address in anonymity, please prepare these
remarks as a separate document under the title “Additional Comments from
a UTMB Graduate Student”. You may send either a hard copy or a diskette
of the anonymous section to Dr. Papaconstantinou, Room 6.617, Route 0643.
Questions to be
addressed in Palmer Saunders essay:
Applying to graduate
school(s):
-
When
did you know you wanted to go to graduate school, what influenced this
decision, and why did you pursue a Ph.D. instead of a Masters Degree?
-
Discuss why you chose to attend UTMB over any other graduate school,
including any pertinent background information that contributed to your
decision.
-
Please
compare your reaction to the interview process here at UTMB with your
experiences at other schools. Did your interview prepare you for the
experiences of your first year of graduate work? Do you feel that
additional information pertinent to your graduate school experience
should have been provided during the interview process?
-
Relate
your feelings when you received your letter of acceptance.
Precandidacy
experiences:
-
How do
you evaluate the integrated first year curriculum (i.e. BBSC),
and was the core curriculum what you expected (i.e. depth,
breadth, difficulty)? Did the integrative BBSC curriculum broaden your
outlook, or change your perspective, as to what you would truly like to
work on?
-
Why
did you choose your department? Was your departmental specific
curriculum what you would expect from graduate training (i.e. depth,
breadth, difficulty)?
-
How
did you choose your rotations and how did they assist you in choosing a
lab? What did you look for in a mentor during your rotations? Do you
feel that you had to make concessions between doing what you liked
versus working with a mentor you were comfortable with?
-
How do
you feel about your relationship with the mentors for the labs you
decided not to join?
-
Discuss your experiences during the process of applying for candidacy
(qualifying examination etc.) in your department and the significance of
being accepted for dissertation research.
Post-candidacy
experiences:
-
Describe your intra-departmental relationship with other students,
faculty, secretaries, program coordinators, program directors, chairman
etc.
-
Discuss your mentor/student relationship, your role in the laboratory,
equipment availability, its affect on your research, and your overall
level of satisfaction with these issues.
-
After
spending some time in your lab, do you ever wish you could go back and
change your decision? Would you be comfortable changing mentors or
committee members?
-
Did
you receive the guidance you needed to maximize your potential to become
a successful and productive graduate student?
-
Do you
feel the number and quality of your publications is an accurate
reflection of your work in the laboratory?
-
Describe your committee meeting experiences (were they effective? Any
problems?)
-
Describe your relationship with the Dean’s office and the other GSBS
administrative personnel.
Plans after
graduation:
-
How
have your experiences here at UTMB influenced our decisions to pursue
further studies in academic or industry, or a career in law or medicine?
-
Are
your present career objectives consistent with your plans before you
entered graduate school? If they changed, what were the major
contributors?
Miscellaneous:
-
Describe your extra-departmental relationship with other students,
faculty, secretaries, program coordinators, program directors, chairmen,
etc.
-
What
activities are/were you involved with outside of class-work and lab-work
(at UTMB and outside of UTMB)?
-
What
makes it satisfying to come to work/classes every day? What doesn’t?
What makes for a good day at UTMB, what contributes to a bad one?
-
Describe some experiences from any conferences you might have attended.
Did you feel prepared to compete and interact with students from other
graduate schools?
-
Did
you encounter any problems with funding?
-
Were
you married and/or did you have children during graduate school? How did
this affect the pursuit of your degree?
-
Describe the diversity at UTMB from your own perspective.
-
Do you
feel your overall educational experience trained you to be well-rounded
(theory, grant writing, bench work, public speaking), and do you feel
this training had the rigor to make you competitive to pursue your
career aspirations?
-
Please
include any additional information that you feel was not specifically
addressed in any of the above questions.
Optional
Information:
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