P.C. Shannon

The usual trajectory for graduate school in science is that you spend the first year or so taking classes. Then in the second year, you take a preliminary or qualifying exam in order to become a doctoral candidate. After candidacy, you do some research, write a dissertation, defend it, and thus earn your PhD. There’s no Master’s degree involved; it sort of a consolation prize if you muster out after some point (I’m not sure exactly when one becomes eligible for the Master’s and when quitting is just quitting).

Presently, I find myself in the early stages of the preliminary exam — prelims. In my program (and I think this is pretty common in the life sciences), the exam basically consists of preparing an NIH-style grant on an original research topic. This is the proposal. Then you have to give a presentation on the proposal to a committee of three faculty members whose identities you don’t know until you walk into the room. You have to defend your proposed research, and the committee gets to quiz you over any general science knowledge they like — basically, they will back you into a corner in order to figure out what you don’t know. This is the oral exam.

At this early stage, I don’t even have a research topic yet. Instead, we have to prepare a pair of abstracts on proposed research topics. Then the committee will choose one of the two topics for the proposal. This is no small feat as the topics can’t be related to the research we’re already doing in the lab, but they have to related to our tracks within the program. In my case, this is “Biosensors, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics.” Plus there are all sorts of other recommendations and guidelines about the experiments that frequently lead towards good, basic science. Unfortunately, basic science is not one of the three B’s in the BBB track, so it’s difficult to make it all come together.

On the other hand, I really appreciate what the grant-writing style of the exam is trying to accomplish. Obviously it’s practical experience for writing grants, especially since NIH fund so much of the life science research in this country. Prelims have also gotten me into the library, pouring through journals, exploring other topics outside of my little microcosm of bioinformatics. It’s broadened my horizons and opened my eyes to what practicing scientists actually do. It may be hell, but like so many hellish things in life, it’s also a good experience.