Blog

Writing Strategies from NSE PHinisheD

April 21, 2021 “Just write, sleep, write, sleep, etc.” Such is the life of one thesis writer hoping to defend soon. He is also one of the dozen members of NSE PHinisheD, a community of graduate students who are months away from receiving their doctoral degrees. Together and under my lead, they’ve discussed deadlines, examples of thesis outlines,… View Article

Here to Help

April 8, 2021 People often joke that MIT made a “mistake” letting them in—a small sign of the widespread imposter syndrome among students. I first arrived in 2015 as an undergrad and I’m now a Master’s student, so I’ve had two opportunities to make this joke! Many of us feel the need to prove that MIT didn’t make… View Article

Questions to Bring to Your Faculty Interview

January 8, 2021 Despite the pandemic, many institutions are moving forward with their faculty hiring, and selected candidates are now preparing for their interviews in earnest. If you’re one of those candidates, congratulations on making it to the next round! As you polish your seminar presentation and anticipate questions that may get thrown at you, make sure you… View Article

Three Tips for Your Grad School Personal Statement

December 2, 2020 Getting into graduate school requires more than an outstanding GPA and rock-solid letters of recommendation. Whenever I meet with clients to work on their grad school personal statements, I make sure that we cover these three best practices: Robbie Stewart is a PhD graduate student working with Prof. Koroush Shirvan. He is also a Communication… View Article

Giving a Normal (Well, Gaussian) Conference Presentation

November 30, 2020 While I’d love for every conference presentation I give to be the highlight of the conference, I should be honest with myself: most attendees won’t remember any details from my talk. They won’t recall how the animation on Slide 6 subtly (but effectively) showed the precision of my experimental method. Nor will they remember how… View Article

“Tell Us About a Time When”: The Key to Strong Letters of Recommendation

October 21, 2020 “Tell us about a time when” is a common type of interview question. “Tell us about a time when you overcame an obstacle,” “a time when you failed,” “a time when you worked with a team to meet a deadline.” The point of these questions is to gather information that’s important to the role but… View Article

How to Ask for Letters of Recommendation

October 2, 2020 Throughout the year, but especially in the fall thanks to fellowship and graduate program deadlines, mentors get inundated with requests for letters of recommendation. Whether you’re applying to a PhD program or a non-academic job, these letters are an invaluable part of the application package. As one NSE professor puts it, “it’s one of the… View Article