Do You Have Any Tips for a Novice Researcher?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:02.760 | All right, I think we have time for one more

00:00:07.560 | question about deep work.

00:00:08.960 | And this one comes from Rachel.

00:00:11.760 | Rachel asks, hi, Cal.

00:00:13.760 | I'm an undergraduate student.

00:00:16.240 | And I realized recently that I want

00:00:18.120 | to follow an academic career.

00:00:20.680 | Do you have any tips for a novice researcher?

00:00:23.560 | Which skills are the most important

00:00:25.440 | in the academic field?

00:00:27.000 | Thanks.

00:00:28.640 | Well, Rachel, as an undergraduate,

00:00:31.400 | if you want an academic career-- and I'm

00:00:33.280 | assuming you're thinking about a traditional academic career,

00:00:35.800 | a tenure-track job at a university,

00:00:38.760 | maybe a research-focused university,

00:00:40.760 | the classical idea of what it's like to be a professor--

00:00:44.880 | by far, the most important thing you should think about right

00:00:47.280 | now is being the best student in your major, in your grade.

00:00:52.880 | Being a star in your field is going

00:00:55.640 | to be your first step of many steps towards becoming

00:00:59.360 | a professor, a classical tenure-track professor.

00:01:03.440 | If you are one of the best students in your program,

00:01:06.160 | in your grade, that is what's going to get you

00:01:08.520 | the type of recommendation letters that will put you

00:01:11.240 | into a top graduate program, because that's

00:01:13.800 | going to be step two.

00:01:15.800 | You want to get into the absolute best graduate program

00:01:18.560 | possible.

00:01:19.120 | The academic market is incredibly competitive.

00:01:21.640 | If you want a tenure-track job, you essentially

00:01:23.600 | need to be a star on the market, which

00:01:25.000 | means if you're not coming from a top school,

00:01:26.960 | you're basically already out of luck.

00:01:29.480 | So you have to be a star at your department as an undergrad

00:01:33.960 | to get the letters that get you into a school that gives you

00:01:36.680 | the chance of being a really strong grad student

00:01:39.400 | at a very strong program.

00:01:41.600 | Once you're in grad school, that's

00:01:42.980 | where really the research is going to very much matter,

00:01:45.240 | and you're going to have to pick up what is my specialty

00:01:47.560 | and pick up the skills, et cetera.

00:01:48.800 | But let's put that aside for now.

00:01:50.200 | So that's your goal number one, become a star in your field.

00:01:52.960 | How do you do it?

00:01:53.680 | I used to write about this on my blog.

00:01:56.080 | Under schedule.

00:01:58.080 | Now, it's very important for what you're trying to do

00:02:00.720 | to make sure that you have more than enough time

00:02:04.160 | for your major classes.

00:02:05.760 | Don't double major.

00:02:06.560 | Don't triple major.

00:02:07.360 | Don't do seven minors.

00:02:08.400 | Don't join 19 clubs.

00:02:10.540 | If you want to be an academic, there is no admissions officer

00:02:13.560 | in your future that's going to say,

00:02:15.400 | I love the diverse amount of activities that this person did

00:02:18.040 | and they seem like a really hard worker.

00:02:19.700 | They don't care.

00:02:20.720 | If you're going to apply to grad school,

00:02:22.400 | the officer is looking at your application.

00:02:24.240 | Is this person a star?

00:02:26.320 | So get rid of all the other stuff.

00:02:27.760 | Focus on your main major.

00:02:29.520 | Make your schedule easy.

00:02:30.760 | So the courses outside of your majors,

00:02:32.520 | make sure that they're of a completely different character

00:02:34.920 | so you don't overload or burn out.

00:02:36.720 | If you have credits that you can deploy here,

00:02:39.480 | maybe AP credits, for example, that

00:02:41.680 | would allow you to essentially buy out of some classes,

00:02:45.320 | take a lighter than normal load some semesters, do that.

00:02:48.080 | Maybe do an independent study.

00:02:49.800 | Give yourself excess amounts of time for your classes

00:02:53.920 | so that you can get it done, then go back and look

00:02:56.360 | at your work, and then read some stuff on your own,

00:02:58.480 | and just really be someone who stands out.

00:03:00.760 | That is the most important thing you can do.

00:03:02.720 | Two, depending on the field you want

00:03:04.560 | to go to graduate school for, some demonstration

00:03:08.280 | that you are capable of self-directed research

00:03:10.440 | is important.

00:03:11.440 | So get involved with undergraduate research

00:03:14.120 | with the best person you can in your department.

00:03:18.200 | And this is not so much about the specific work

00:03:21.240 | I'm going to do is going to convince the grad school,

00:03:24.360 | like, oh, we want, in this case, Rachel

00:03:26.560 | to come do this same work.

00:03:27.720 | It's showing them I was able to work with a professor.

00:03:30.800 | They could give me things to do, and I did it.

00:03:33.200 | You want one of your letters when you apply to grad school

00:03:35.580 | to say, Rachel worked with me on this project.

00:03:37.280 | This is an advanced project.

00:03:38.400 | She was doing graduate-level work.

00:03:39.660 | I could count on her.

00:03:40.540 | She did high-quality work.

00:03:41.720 | That's what they want to see.

00:03:43.760 | And they want to see that you are a star.

00:03:46.480 | So those are my two main points of advice.

00:03:48.240 | The third thing I would say is care about, of course,

00:03:50.040 | your GREs if you're applying to a program where that matters.

00:03:53.680 | When I was applying for computer science grad schools

00:03:56.000 | for the top schools that cared about GREs,

00:03:58.160 | basically what we were told is you

00:04:01.360 | need very close to a perfect score on the math GRE.

00:04:03.880 | Don't forget-- don't worry about the writing.

00:04:05.720 | Don't worry about the verbal.

00:04:06.920 | But you need 7.7, 7.80, 7.90, preferably an 800 on the math.

00:04:14.240 | That's just a cost of doing business.

00:04:16.520 | So there's just a step of just doing that studying,

00:04:20.480 | that familiarity with the GREs so you can hit those scores.

00:04:22.900 | So become a star.

00:04:24.240 | Do research, not to change the world,

00:04:26.280 | but to prove that you can take directions and are responsible.

00:04:29.160 | And figure out what GRE score you

00:04:30.920 | need to get to the schools you want to get to.

00:04:33.340 | Do those things, Rachel, and you're

00:04:35.160 | giving yourself the best possible chance of kicking off

00:04:37.600 | an academic career.

00:04:38.440 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:41.800 | (upbeat music)

00:04:44.380 | (upbeat music)

Do You Have Any Tips for a Novice Researcher?

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