I Have No Graduate School Regrets… Except This One.

Mark Twain once stated, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  Sage advice.  While spending time agonizing over missed opportunities in the past may not be the best use of our time in the present, a quick post mortem on our graduate school experience may help current students avoid some of the same mistakes we made.

For most of us, the longer we were in graduate school, the tighter the focus of our tunnel vision.  In the beginning, we were taking classes, meeting new people, rotating through various labs and attending diverse seminars.  As the years went by, we became more entrenched in our project, more narrow in our scientific focus and more driven to graduate.  At some point, many of the best opportunities surrounding us seemed more like distractions keeping us from reaching the finish line.

However, with time comes perspective and the value of things that seemed like a burden at the time becomes evident.  So if Marty McFly pulled up in his Delorian and gave you the opportunity to return to grad school to right your wrongs, what would you do differently?

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Any other opportunities you’d advise current graduate students not to miss?

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