Category: Nerd Corner

It’s Never Too Late to be What You Might Have Been:  Grad School New Year’s Resolutions

While many have their New Years Resolution to get fit, eat healthy, save money… our list is rather important to staying on task and getting to the end goal. Some of these can be a hit and go kind of thing.So let us begin. 1) Apply for FAFSA! While you may only be approved for student loans, it is important to apply for FAFSA every year. 1) it’s free, 2) Some scholarships/grants like to see the FAFSA report especially if they are need based 3) you never know what may happen and at least you have a back up. FAFSA 2015/2016 applications opened January 1. Get yours done… I know I did. For quick information check out this awesome 1 Page Guide at StudentAid of myths and facts about FAFSA for graduate students. Apply forFAFSA here. 2) Apply for Scholarships/Grants! While some of us may be on awesome Phd Graduate assistantships/scholarships/grants… …

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Fall in Love With Your Research

“Love what you do, and you will never work a day in your life!” I have no idea who said this, but it is especially true in research. In a field where experiments go wrong all the time, you may begin wishing more and more there was a Journal of Negative Results. This is where loving what you do is crucial. So I searched on Google “How do you know when you are in love” and tons of articles came up, 10 Definitive Ways To Tell You’re In Love With The Right Someone 7 research-based indicators that you’ve found the real thing. 9 Signs You’re Really in Love Now while these are all articles focused on one person falling in love with another… ‘Til death do us part kind of shindig… it should be no different as you fall in love with your research. So here are 7 ways to …

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Lost in the PhD World: The Quest for Committee Members!!!

One of the most important things I will do as a PhD student is form my committee!!! Yet, I feel so confused on how the heck I should do this. My committee is the group of people that will guide me my entire PhD career as I complete experiments. They will advise me regularly and in the end… GRILL ME with questions in my Qualifying Exam and Dissertation. So basically they OWN ME!! Can I just put up an ad on Craigslists saying “Nice hardworking graduate student in NEED of available active and helpful committee members!!” That would be nice!!! So.. what do I do? How do I approach people that have no idea who I am? How do I make them want to be on my committee? Maybe I should bring them cookies/donuts…. mmmm…. Maybe!! I have found it to be one of the hardest things to determine who …

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8 Ways to Make Weekends in the Lab Fun

While working on weekends is not a must… research is ongoing and the desire to find out more often gets me to work on the weekends (especially if I don’t have a trip/adventure planned). However, the weekend does not have to be counted like a total loss.  Most people just hear “I’m going to work!” and assumes my day will be sitting inside my lab or analyzing data 9 am – 5 pm. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG! First, a lot of what I do includes LONG incubation period/treatment times… so I do not have to sit there and watch my cells the entire time. While, you could sit in lab staring at the many posters that you really only have up because it looked pretty, or scrolling through Facebook to pass time… Get up and do something. Here are some ways how!! 1) Overdrive: FREE BOOKS! FREE AUDIOBOOKS! FREE MOVIES!! I found …

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What I Actually Do Everyday-Neuroscience

So for the most part, I am not blowing things up in my lab everyday… but the field is very exciting!! Just to give you a quick run down, without overcomplicating it… I work in a niche of neuroscience focusing on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and how it has negative cognitive effects on daily living. Most people, do not know that in addition to the known immunological deficits of HIV, individuals actually develop mild dementia earlier in life, and the prevalence is expected to increase. So my job is to understand…. How? and If something can be done to help? I’m usually in a cell culture hood treating cells (usually neurons, microglia etc) with drugs or proteins etc to measure changes that occurs and indicate the effects on the cells. EXCITING RIGHT? *smiles* I will share a bit more on this later… until then…. World’s AIDS Day just passed December …

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