I wanted to write about laboratory rotations sooner rather than later, since many first year graduate students are either about to start their first rotation (or may already be in it). To give you my credentials (lol) I do think I’m pretty qualified to give good advice on this: I really enjoyed all three of my rotations and would have been happy joining any of the labs that I rotated with (though the choice was still easy for me 🤭). I do want to emphasize that feeling that way is rare, and not something people should expect. In a lot of ways I was really lucky to have that experience, but I also took a lot of time selecting my rotations, so I don’t want to downplay the work that I put into it either 😉. I’m also a pretty flexible person and don’t really have strong opinions about many things…so I tend to find myself comfortable in a lot of different situations. I also had the benefit of doing full-time research for two years before starting graduate school, and I had a really amazing mentor and even more amazing labmates, so I knew what I was looking for in a lab mentor and lab culture.

My first piece of advice is that finding a good mentor is *THE* most important part of your graduate school experience…I know, no pressure or anything.

Mentor >>>>> Cool Research Project (everyone will tell you this). As a sixth year graduate student recently told a first year student, “Grad school is going to be hard no matter what. You want to make sure you pick a good mentor so that you don’t hate every second of it.” 

…I feel bad that this person has had this experience (and I’m grateful I have not…) BUT it is good advice and something to keep in mind 😂 Obviously it would be amazing if you could have both a really awesome mentor AND a really cool research project, but that doesn’t always work out. Also, if you like science/research enough, the research will become cool/exciting/interesting to you over time!! Heck, for my postbac experience, I knew I didn’t want to do drug development/cancer research for my PhD, but I LOVED working in that lab (I even once told my parents, “I can’t wait for the weekend to be over so I can go back to work”…I know, crazy).

My next advice is to talk to older graduate students in your program and in the labs you are interested in!! Older students are your absolute, #1, best resource for graduate school. Students will be honest with you about professors and can give you more insight into their mentoring style. It was thanks to conversations with older graduate students that I was able to avoid rotations with people who I definitely would not have been able to work with (feel free to send me a message to learn more). And because I was able to get this information before rotating, I didn’t end up wasting 10 weeks in a lab I would have been miserable in.

Other, really, really important things to consider when selecting your lab rotations is asking the PI/mentor if they have funding and space for a new graduate student. It feels awkward asking a PI about their funding status, but it is an extremely valid thing to ask a PI (and they should be used to being asked this…it will not seem weird to them, even if it feels weird for you). If you do a rotation with someone and they don’t have funding or space for a new graduate student, congratulations, you just wasted 10 weeks (or however long the rotations are at your school). Also, that’s a ~little~ dramatic…that person could serve on your thesis committee or just be a cool bonus mentor to have…so it might not be a complete waste.

Ok, that’s advice you’ll hear from any other graduate student, so now I’ll tell you my own personal advice that I think really helped me succeed in all of my rotations 🙂 

During each of my rotations, I kept a running Google Doc where at the end of each week I would write a “reflection” on how I felt about the rotation, things I learned, etc. I thought it would be helpful when it came time to choose which lab to join. I ended up not needing it, so now it’s just something cute to look back on and read about all the things I was nervous about and all the things I learned. 

Another piece of advice is to think about some skills you want to learn from your rotations, and communicate that with the people you are rotating with! One of my (kind of silly) goals for my rotations was to get experience working with various model organisms, especially since all my prior research was using very easy to grow cancer cells. So, I did rotations in labs that used fruit flies, mice, and placenta cells! This was a kind of silly goal, so I’m not saying every person should have this goal…it’s just one that I had.

A (maybe) more relatable goal that I had was to learn how to do PCR. In my prior research, I had only done Western Blots and ELISAs, but never PCR (which if you aren’t familiar with, PCR is one of the most basic, albeit very useful, molecular techniques, that I somehow had zero experience in). I communicated this with my first rotation mentor, and he worked with me so that we could incorporate this into my rotation project!! I really appreciated that a lot. And my second rotation mentor (whose lab I am now in) always told me to tell her if I felt bored, and if so, we could add some molecular work to my rotation project 🙂 Rotations are hard because you don’t really know what you are doing, but if you can pick out a few small things that you want to learn, and you communicate those things with your mentors, you might feel a little bit more like you know something (and, trust me, you know a lot more than you might let yourself believe…you’re doing great).

On that note of communication, don’t be afraid to have tough conversations with your PI/mentor during your rotation. You are more than likely going to struggle at some point during your graduate school experience, and seeing how your mentor supports you while you are struggling can be really helpful!! During one of my meetings with Martha (my mentor/PI) during my rotation, I told her how I felt really stupid, and that it made me really upset because I came into graduate school feeling really confident in myself since I spent two full years working at *THE* National Institutes of Health…like, that’s not nothing!!! And yet, in the 4-ish months I had been in graduate school, I had not done a single thing I was familiar with from my time at the NIH. Everything I did was new. And I felt so stupid because here I am, with this cool research experience under my belt and a really prestigious award (Sproull Fellowship), and yet I don’t know how to do anything and have to keep asking for help.

I’ll never forget Martha’s response. She said, “You’re going to feel stupid at every step of your career. I felt stupid in my postdoc because I was learning IHC [immunohistochemistry] for the very first time and didn’t know how to do it. You’re going to feel stupid, but you’re not stupid.” (please note that that is not a direct quote, but I think it’s pretty close to what she said). It was a kind of funny response, but it’s what I needed to hear! Martha has continued to be supportive of me through all my struggles that I’ve had in my very short time in graduate school thus far: like when I’ve struggled to balance coursework and lab work, whenever I’ve felt stupid (which is often), when I had my concussion (she still makes sure that I’m not pushing myself too hard because of this) – I often say that if I didn’t have Martha as my mentor, I’m not sure I could do this. And that’s not an exaggeration. I hope everyone can find a mentor like her.

But, yeah, rotations are hard. But I also miss them sometimes. Because even though you feel lost, confused, and maybe a little stupid (you’re not stupid)…at the end of the day, you don’t have to know that much…because it is just a lab rotation. So, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. But also make sure you put in an honest effort (faculty talk about students just as much as students talk about faculty). And have fun!!!!! Rotations should be fun!!!! Ask all the questions, vibe out the lab, learn some new skills, and try to envision yourself there for the next 4-5ish years.

Thanks for reading this whole thing, especially if you are not a first year graduate student doing laboratory rotations 😂 You might really be my favorite if that’s the case for you. If you ARE a first year graduate student, PLEASE feel free to reach out to me (hit the LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or Email buttons at the bottom of the page to connect) with any questions you might have and GOOD LUCK!!!!!

BeReal.