Ask Slashdot: Advice For Summer Before Ph.D. Program?

First time accepted submitter tookul03 writes "I'm a graduating senior from a small New England liberal arts college, and have secured a spot in a Biological Science Ph.D. program for the next five years. I realize this coming summer will be my last out of the lab for a long time and am not sure If I am interested in doing something related to my research interests or use it as an opportunity to find some new hobbies/interests. I figured the Slashdot community had a number of individuals who were/are in a similar position (albeit different fields) and could shed some light on things they (or others) had done. Thanks."

Comments

Do something...

[globaljustin]

screw the Appalachian Trail...well, not really. Don't let other people's idea of 'adventure' bias your decision.

The idea is, do something that requires alot of time and commitment that you truly enjoy. Something that the future you're going for may not allow the flexibility for. It can be something challenging like a long backpacking trip. That's a popular thing to do in this situation.

Let's say you're going to be an oceanographer. You're going to have all kinds of adventures in your program. You probably already have had some interesting research trips. You might want to try to see a baseball game in every stadium in the National League or something like that.

Don't be the kind of person who does things 'for the story' so you can look cool.