whitecoatjourney

[whitecoatjourney]

here is a compilation of some of my favorite resources, workbooks & apps for people who cannot afford going to therapy, but would like to improve themselves in any way:

therapistaid has many, many worksheets for skills from dbt and even a self care assesment!

cbt worksheets from psychologytools.

coping skills for anger, managing difficult thoughts, getting better sleeping habits, etc.

mental health resources for kids & teens.

DBT skills training (pdf)

DBT skills workbook (pdf)

wysa app offers a wide range of skills, from a personalized AI chat where you can vent to a compilation of your emergency contacts. (only available on google play as of feb 2021)

sanvello app (google play + app store) allows you to track your progress, identify which self care habits you need to improve and guives you monthly reports of your overall state.

feel free to add more!

[whitecoatjourney]

GradblrChallenge 2k19

As usually I am running behind — but to be fair, I just moved across the country this weekend!

Intro:

Name: Amanda

Location: NC, USA

Area of study: Analytical Chemistry

Level of study: I start my PhD program this Wednesday!

Do you have any orher blogs: nope! But I’m fairly active on Twitter: AmandaLSmythers

A word on your thesis: I obviously haven’t started but finished my MS this past May, where my thesis was using Chlorella vulgaris, a unicellular alga, to look at the effect of environmental stressors on photosynthetic processes and lipid production.

My experience in grad school thus far: I had an absolutely wonderful masters experience and am looking forward to getting my doctorate started.

Is this your first gradblrchallenge: no!

What you hope to get from this challenge: I’m hoping to start my program with some positive habits! Also, I would like to finish submitting the publications from my MS work.

Where you see yourself in 5 years: hopefully in a nice shiny post doc, beginning to apply for tenure track positions!

Random fact: I have the best 4 year old daughter in the world!

Looking forward to talking to you all in the next few weeks!

[whitecoatjourney]

Just popping on to report....

I have officially accepted an offer! Finishing my M.S. thesis now and then starting a PhD in analytical chemistry @ UNC in the fall!

The lab I’m joining is amazing and will allow me to continue to collaborate with my current lab. I love the people, the PI.... and the fact that it’s ranked #2 in the discipline, haha. My family is super excited for the move and I am just still in disbelief.

[whitecoatjourney]

So it is definitely 100% okay- if not expected- to email scientists you are interested in! I have done this routinely and am always glad I did. I even have a somewhat formulaic strategy for this! My emails look something like:

Dear Dr. Biochemist,

My name is —————- and I am a undergraduate researcher/masters student at —————— where I am researching ——————. I have applied/am in the process of applying to —————- and am very interested in your work on ————————. Will you be taking students next year and, if so, if I am extended an invitation to interview/visit/whatever is normal for the program, would you be available to meet with me?

Then: 3-4 sentences on what is specifically interesting about their work (showing off the fact that I’ve at least read an additional paper besides the website, if not 2-3 papers) followed by 3-4 sentence on how my research experience makes me a great fit for their work. Sometimes that means relating the subject material - ie if they do photosynthesis work like I do - other times that means discussing how I can apply my analytical expertise to their model/subject.

Then I wrap up with something like: I would love to speak to you further about any opportunities in your lab whether by phone or email. I have also attached a CV for your convenience and am happy to answer any questions about my research to this point.

Thank you for your time,

Amanda WhiteCoatJourney

I hope this helps!! And @astudyinphd , I hope all is well up north! 😊

Hello K.T.! First, your tumblr is so helpful, so many good links and tips and etc.! Thank you very much for that. Second, do you have any advice on finding a supervisor for PhD? Or how to write to potential supervisors from other institutions? I have a solid agreement with one person but the uni wanted at least two, and last time I got rejected because of this. Is it really okay for students to write to cool scientists from other institutions, and ask them to supervise you? Thank you in advance!

Hi! Thank you for your comment! I’m glad my posts are helpful!

As for finding a supervisor for PhD, I personally did not do that, nor did a lot of my friends from my biomedical sciences cohort, but I have heard of other people contact PI’s prior to coming to the school in other departments (and other schools as well.) Because of this, I’m not the best person to answer this question, so I’ll tag other bio grad students who maybe to answer your question: @cancerbiophd @whitecoatjourney @queenofthebench @adorable-amygdala @lavendermedusa @madscientista (and others that I’m definitely missing here 😭)

[whitecoatjourney]

...yes.

[whitecoatjourney]

I take your big boi, and raise you to

Bigger Boi ™️

look at this big boi my lab has

it’s a pipette for 1 - 5 ml

here it is next to its son, the p1000

big boi’s got some cuuuurves!

[whitecoatjourney]

And just like that, paper #3 was written.

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2019 is my year, apparently.

Out of 5 PhD programs I applied to, I’ve received 1 acceptance and 2 interviews! Man, this is my year.

(Just kidding. My year was actually the last three years which consisted of me hauling ass to ‘get this bread,’ as it were... working long nights, most weekends, and just expending vast amounts of intellectual energy. But I have 1 published first author, 1 in revisions, and 2 first authors in progress on my computer. Plus a first author review article that I’m making major progress on. So I think it was worth it... and I’m going to do a little happy dance in my chair before I get back to the grind and bust this paper out.)

[whitecoatjourney]

Ignoring reviewer 3’s comments because they do not spark joy

[whitecoatjourney]

Back to work for 20189 and...

I just received my first doctoral program acceptance. 😮🤗🤓😅

Apparently I’m gonna get that PhD after all. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[whitecoatjourney]

2K19 Goals 💫

I’m the worst at keeping up with tumblr, but I want to change that! I was inspired by @astudyinphd to make a list of changes for the new year. Here are some goals of mine I’m going to work to keep up with:

Get organized (and stay that way)

Use my planner on a daily basis

Keep my office organized

Determine an efficient use of my office whiteboard door

Declutter the house one room at a time

Complete the January Cure

Prioritize classes

Rewrite notes the same day as class

Pre-read for all class sessions

Get writing

Spend at least 30 min writing every day

Submit 4 papers

Finish and submit my thesis

Post progress to tumblr at least once a week

Get reading

Read 3 papers each week and keep up with my organization system

Read one book for enjoyment/book club each month

Find a note taking system that works for academic reading

Teach my daughter to begin sounding out words

Family/home life

Meal prep weekday lunches

Cook at least 5 nights per week

Light Shabbat candles every week

One date night per month

Work on 1,000 books before kindergarten with my daughter

Teach my daughter to swim

Find and stick to a simple fitness routine

[whitecoatjourney]

Last sample collection of 2018!! 💃🏻

[whitecoatjourney]

I love this so much! Reblogging so I can use some of these methods... particularly the digital organization! :-)

My primary method of organization is to print the front page of each article I read and then I take notes on the back of it while I read the pdf on my computer. I file all the front pages by category in a binder.

How I organize papers

Quite a few people have asked me how I organize my literature reading, so here’s a walkthrough of how I do it. This is a method that works for me right now, and I’ve been consistent with doing it this way since I started reading more seriously for my oral qualifying exam.

Paper reading set up:

Printed copy at 85% (for space to write in the margin)

Black pen (for summaries, writing things in my own words, writing things to keep in mind, etc.)

Blue pen (for notes on experiment ideas, how these experiments/findings are relevant to what we study, things to take notes of, things to look up, etc.)

Yellow highlighter for general highlighting

No phone/computer/tablet

Cup of tea/coffee

I used to read on my iPad using Notability. I liked that option because it gives me more colors to work with, but I was also getting too distracted with what colors to use, all the apps on my iPad, and such. These are dry academic papers with a lot to process, and it’s really hard to compete with apps like FB and Reddit with their endless scrolls and easy to understand posts. I find that with my current set up of having just the bare necessity and no distraction means I’m more likely to read my paper and stay reading. Photo above was taken when I was summarizing, so I had both my phone and my laptop and took 2x as long to summarize…

Digital organization set up:

There is a “Paper” section within my OneNote lab notebook

Under this section, each tab has its own topic

Sometimes there are overlaps (interneuron deficit leading Tourette) would have a main section in Tourette, and that just gets copy/pasted to the Interneuron with a note saying, “duplicate from Tourette”

In each tab has a “Table of Content,” which is a summary table of all the papers I’ve read on that topic

ToC is subdivided into several categories: paper, summary & conclusions, *something specific to this section, and notes & additional questions

Paper: contains title, *first author’s last name* et al., ### (*PI’s last name*)

Summary & Conclusions: things I’ve written in black or highlighted from the paper

*Specific to this section*: I don’t really know how to describe this section besides giving examples. For my Tourette tab, this section is Area Implicated since we’re interested in the regions of the brain associated with Tourette. For my protein of interest (PoI) tab, this section is PoI’s Condition since I want to distinguish the effect seen with heterozygous KO, homozygous KO, conditional KO, and point mutations, to piece out the function of the various domains. 

Notes & Additional Questions: everything I wrote in blue will go here. This section makes notes of the experiments I came up with while I read, lists questions I have during reading that can guide

This serves as a summary of all the papers I’ve read with enough information to know the paper without having to reread it. In my experience, it’s immensely helpful as I write my qualifying proposal. Having everything about one topic in one place allows me to quickly compare and contrast the different papers and see what has or hasn’t been done before and how to possibly fill the knowledge gap.

Physical organization set up:

My implementation of @cancerbiophd​‘s method:

I currently have 1-1.5 inch binders containing 2-3 topics per binder

Each topic is distinguished from the other in the same binder via color coding tags

Each tag is labeled with *first author’s last name* et al., ### (*PI’s last name*)

Papers are stored in plastic sheet protectors to protect all parts of notes from hole punching, and this plastic sheet protector is flagged with the label above

The order of the paper is not really organized. Right now I have it by the order I read it in, but if I come up with a better way of sorting papers, I will adopt that instead

These photos are a bit outdated. I’ve switched my CELSR3/Tourette/Interneuron papers into the 1.5 binder since my research focuses on this particular area, and there’s a lot of papers that I’m reading that pertains to these topics.

Usage

When writing, I have the “table of content” side by side and read through that for a quick summary. If further info is needed, I can go through physical copy for more information, and since it’s organized in a way that makes sense to me, I can find it easily instead of leafing through all of my papers, some with very similar titles and authors.

Hopefully this is helpful to you! If you have any suggestions on how to make this process more efficient or comments on how you personally keep track of your literature reading, please let me know! 

[whitecoatjourney]

My first paper (which is a first author) is in press!

It was my first solo project proposed in the lab and was started in 2016. 😅 Feels surreal to see my name in a real journal!!

[whitecoatjourney]

I have a grad school interview.

Current thoughts:

- wow, maybe this masters degree is paying off!

- holy crap, I received an interview somewhere that neither me nor my PI have any connections !

- maybe this was sent in error...

- they only received my application 3 days ago, perhaps they’re desperate?!

- WHAT IF THIS IS A PRANK?!

- woah, maybe I really will be able to get a doctorate...

Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

[whitecoatjourney]

I think we need to add “can’t work the computer and/or projector” since this has happened in literally EVERY conference I’ve ever been to. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[whitecoatjourney]

Saaaaaaame.

me, performing any experiment: will science work today, or will the world be composed on incomprehensible chaos?