Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the Biograduate website! My name is Tracy, and I am currently a Ph.D. student studying cell biology at the University of California, San Francisco. I’m starting this site as a repository of answers to questions that I’ve had over the years about the different aspects of grad school. We’ll cover everything from how to give presentations to how to get the most out of meetings with your advisor to how to handle imposter syndrome and more! While a lot of this will be aimed at STEM Ph.D. students, I’d like to make as many posts as possible applicable to anyone in academia. Sometimes it seems like a trial by fire is the only way to learn these things in grad school, but if we will all need to know them eventually, why not share that knowledge now?

In addition to addressing common questions about grad school, I also plan to cover topics related to personal finance, budgeting, and investing. These are definitely things you won’t be taught in your graduate training but can be critical for your personal success down the road (check out my most recent post on how to start saving for retirement!). I am by no means an expert, but I’m passionate about increasing financial literacy and I hope I can share what I’ve been learning with you!

I’m super excited to kick things off here! I hope I can make this a valuable resource for you all over this next year. I’ll be sure to put as many links and references at the bottom of each page as I can if you feel like doing any additional reading. If there is a particular topic you’d like me to cover or that you feel strongly about, leave a reply and let me know!

Photo by Aaron Burden via Unsplash, CC0