{"id":2983,"date":"2026-05-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/?p=2983"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:23:06","slug":"from-research-to-reality-finding-success-in-graduate-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/2026\/05\/25\/from-research-to-reality-finding-success-in-graduate-school\/","title":{"rendered":"From Research to Reality: Finding Success in Graduate School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this episode of the Victors in Grad School podcast, listeners are taken on an honest and insightful journey through the graduate school experience with Steve Wilson<\/strong><\/a>. From the very beginning of the conversation, one theme stands out clearly: graduate school is not simply about earning another degree\u2014it is about growth, discovery, and learning how to navigate uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve shares how a summer undergraduate research opportunity completely changed the direction of his life. What began as a simple invitation from a professor turned into a passion for research and ultimately led him toward a PhD. His story highlights something many students may not realize: graduate education can open doors that once felt impossible, especially when students learn about opportunities like fully funded doctoral programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve encourages students to think deeply about why they want to pursue graduate school and what they hope to gain from the experience. Rather than simply \u201cchecking the box\u201d for another credential, he emphasizes taking ownership of the journey\u2014seeking out projects, building relationships, exploring research opportunities, and connecting classroom learning to long-term career goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve openly reflects on the challenges of adapting from undergraduate coursework to the expectations of doctoral-level research. He speaks honestly about moments of uncertainty, the value of mentorship, and how important it was to build friendships and maintain personal connections outside of academia. His reflections remind listeners that success in graduate school is not just about intelligence or hard work; it is also about community, self-awareness, and resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One especially powerful takeaway from the episode is the reminder that preparation matters. Steve discusses how reading research papers, learning trends within a field, and connecting with others already in graduate programs can help students feel more confident before they even step into their first class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you are just beginning to think about graduate school, currently applying, or already deep into your academic journey, this episode offers practical advice and encouragement that can help you move forward with confidence. Steve\u2019s story is relatable, thoughtful, and filled with wisdom for anyone considering what comes next in their educational and professional path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are looking for inspiration, real-world advice, and an honest look at graduate education, this is an episode you will not want to miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WEBVTT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Welcome back to Victors in Grad School. I’m your host, Dr. Christopher Lewis, Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Michigan, Flint. Really excited to have you back again this week. As always, every week, I love being able to be on this journey with you, and I call it a journey because it truly is a journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Whether you are at the very beginning, and you’re starting to think about, well, maybe I want to do this grad school thing, or maybe you’ve applied, and you’re waiting for that answer, or you’ve already gotten your answer, and you’re accepted, and you’re going to be starting classes soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Or, maybe you’re in a graduate program, and you see that light at the end of the tunnel. No matter where you are, you’re on a journey. There are things that you can do today, right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: That you can work on to help you to be able to find success in this graduate school journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: And that’s why this podcast exists. Every week, I love being able to have the opportunity to be able to work with you, to introduce you to people that have gone before you, gone to graduate school, found success in their own ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: And then you can learn from what they learned along the way as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Today, we’ve got another great guest. Dr. Steve Wilson is with us today, and Dr. Wilson is a faculty member at the University of Michigan, Flint in our College of Innovation and Technology, and I’m really excited to be able to have him here, and for him to talk a little bit more about his own experience, and to introduce him to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Steve, thanks so much for being here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, thanks for having me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: You know, I’m really excited to be able to have you here, and I always love to start these conversations really turning the clock back in time, because I know that you did your undergraduate work at Taylor, at Taylor University, and when you were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: there was a point. There was a point in time where you said to yourself, I’m not done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: I want to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Bring me back to that point, and what was going through your head as you made that decision for yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, great question. So I think it was a series of events that led me there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: which started with research. I mean, that’s, I think, what led me to this whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I had a great opportunity to be involved in a summer research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: while I was working at Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: We were kind of working with a company there on some things, and, you know, it was just, one of my professors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: at some point in the semester, said, hey, Steve, are you working on anything this summer? We’ve got this interesting research project, you might be a good fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And I thought it sounded like something fun to try, so I did that, and throughout that summer, I kind of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Fell in love with research, you could say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I just really loved the idea of\u2026 in contrast to what my coursework felt like, where it was more\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: We know the answer, we know you can get here, let’s figure out how to do that. Research was, we don’t really know what the answer is. We don’t know if there is an answer, but we’re gonna try this because we think this is an important thing to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And I really loved working on those kind of projects, And\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think that went well. And I started asking more about how<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I could get more involved in research, and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: my professor said, why did\u2026 did you think about going to grad school? Maybe you could do a PhD, and I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I don’t have any more money. You know, undergrad is kind of the end of the line for me, I need to go get a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And that’s when I learned the thing I think everyone should know, you know, especially in STEM,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: almost any PhD program that you’ll go to is fully funded, which means maybe you’re not making as much as you would for an industry job, but tuition’s covered, health insurance is covered, and you have a stipend that’s, you know, enough to live off of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And so that knowledge itself kind of flipped everything for me, where I realized it was a\u2026 financially, it was an option in the first place. And I wouldn’t have known, I’d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Always assumed PhD was something\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: kind of out of reach for me, personally, just because of my situation, but learning that, you know, it could be financially possible, learning that it was actually very research-focused, it wasn’t just, I would be going to take 5 more years of courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Which is kind of what I had assumed it was when you did a PhD, you just took really hard courses the whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But it’s not that. It really is almost like an apprenticeship learning how to do research, with a little bit of coursework in there as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And that sounded really appealing to me, so that was\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Kind of my final year of undergrad that this all started happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And I started looking at schools, I started applying,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

39
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Steve Wilson: probably still could have prepared better and learned more, but, you know, I put out my best shot and,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

40
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Steve Wilson: started applying for PhD programs, basically, right from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And that was how that decision came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

42
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Christopher Lewis: And I know you made the decision, finally, to attend the University of Michigan for a PhD program, and in that PhD program, you received both a master’s and a PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Talk to me about that decision-making process for yourself, because you said you started looking at programs. So, what did you do in that process for yourself, and what was it about the University of Michigan that made you decide that that was the right program for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Right, okay, so\u2026 During my undergrad, I got\u2026 Pretty interested in\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

45
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Steve Wilson: The combination slash overlap between computer science and psychology or cognitive science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

46
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Steve Wilson: Because I had actually started out a psychology major during my undergrad. Psychology pre-med, actually, and then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

47
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Steve Wilson: for various reasons, ended up switching to computer science. But I had still always been super interested in the aspects of human behavior, how people interact, cognition, things like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So I was super interested in that as a starting point, and I think that led a lot of my search for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Who are the people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: working at that intersection, who would be doing something related to computer science, but also where I’d be able to do something related to psychology or cognitive science. So, I just started looking around online to see where are these researchers who are doing this kind of stuff, and I found some amazing people all around the world doing really cool things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And\u2026 Started looking at\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: the PhD programs where they were taking students, and that kind of gave me a short list of potential programs, to apply for, where I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: This is research I’d be super excited about working on. If I was able to be fortunate to get a position working with any of these people, I would be pretty happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

54
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Steve Wilson: And that would kind of allow me to build off of the background that I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

55
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Steve Wilson: And\u2026 One of those programs was the University of Michigan, I\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

56
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Steve Wilson: applied to the program. I\u2026 I think another criteria, in addition, which Michigan has, which was a funding guarantee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Which is something I talked about before, but, you know, the financials were a big thing for me. And not every school has the same kind of funding guarantee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: University of Michigan had a 5-year guaranteed funding for all PhD students who were admitted into the College of Engineering, which was pretty appealing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: To know that I would be able to make good progress and not have to worry about<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: funding. And a number of other schools had similar programs that I kind of exclusively applied to those kind of programs who also had faculty, were working in this type of intersection area, and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

61
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Steve Wilson: I think I eventually ended up going for in-person interviews at 3 or 4 universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: they all felt great when I was there, and I think U of M was the last one, so sometimes I wonder if there was a recency bias there, but each one, I think, impressed me more than the previous one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But I really felt\u2026 that I could connect and relate to the students when I visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: In a way that felt different from some of the other places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And there were not just one faculty, but a number of different faculty at the University of Michigan who I felt were very strong in the areas I was interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So, I felt that that was also very safe to have as a, you know, what if somebody leaves, or what if it doesn’t work out with a certain faculty member? I felt pretty confident that I would be able to find someone that I was happy working with for\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

67
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Steve Wilson: You know, 5 or 6 years on research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

68
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Steve Wilson: And I’m also\u2026 grew up in Michigan, so, there was that pull to be\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: within driving distance of home and things like that was nice. So all of those things kind of converged to make it feel like it was the right decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: So, in transitioning into a graduate program, there is always a transition, because the way in which you’re educated at an undergraduate level is typically different than what you’re being asked to do at a graduate level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: the rigor is different, the expectations in the classroom are going to be different, and you do have to go through a transition for yourself to be able to find that groove and find that\u2026 that ability to be able to understand, okay, what am I being expected to do, and how can I best do that? So.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: You were able to find success in this journey that you went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: What did you have to do to be able to set yourself up for success as you transitioned into the program?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: And what did you have to do to maintain that success throughout the entire graduate school experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: this isn’t good, repeatable advice, but I think I got very lucky a few times, especially at the beginning, because I think I actually\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: didn’t prepare in the best way possible. I don’t think I fully understood what a PhD program was, to be honest, when I started. I knew it was about research, I knew I was gonna be working on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: interesting stuff, and I was very excited about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But\u2026 I still don’t think I fully understood what it meant to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: do a dissertation, and really get involved in this longer-term, not just a summer research position, but, you know, really trying to make a contribution, sustained contribution in a field, and what went into that, and how do you prepare yourself as a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Developing into a researcher from someone who’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

81
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Steve Wilson: Been used to being handed assignments for things and studying for exams and all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think I could have prepared a lot more, probably by talking to more people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

83
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Steve Wilson: in PhD programs, or who had gone through similar experiences, or finding\u2026 there are actually tons of great resources online, which I\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I’m not sure I knew even what to search for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

85
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Steve Wilson: when I was an undergraduate, but a lot of people who have written about their experiences,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Through blog posts or other things like that, which\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I only found later and thought, this\u2026 wow, this would have been really\u2026 valuable to me early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: so some of it was learning as I was going, and then some of it was,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: you know, as I mentioned, the luck thing, I think, comes into play with my own advisor, who was not actually at the University of Michigan when I applied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So I made that comment about there being several faculty that I thought I might work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: The person I ended up working with wasn’t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And\u2026 She actually started the same semester I did, coming from another institution, and was a new faculty member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And the way I remember it, it was, she sent an email to the new PhD student saying there was a project related to computer science and psychology and language and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: if anyone’s interested in that kind of research, to come talk to her. And that was, you know, as I described before, kind of exactly the thing I was interested in, so I\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Set up a meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: We started kind of tentatively working on something, and then that became my entire dissertation. So, in some ways, I feel like I stumbled into that path, which is what ended up working very well for me, in the long run. But if I\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: if I would give advice to people, it probably wouldn’t be just go somewhere and hope you find the best advisor by chance. It would be do your homework beforehand and figure out what it looks like to be a student in their lab, even looking at some of the trajectories of their own, you know, the other students who work in that research lab and things like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Other things to be successful, I think, was\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I, I really do think,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: My undergrad education at Taylor prepared me fairly well for a lot of the\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: CS coursework. I think there was a good, solid technical background that I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I found grad school, especially at University of Michigan, to have a bigger emphasis on some of the, like, math and theory components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: of the field of computer science, which I\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

104
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Steve Wilson: Had to do some catching up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I would say, but I think you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think the undergraduate degree is\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: maybe this is kind of cliche, but it’s learning how to learn about things on your own, and I feel like I was kind of able to get that to the point that if there were things that were thrown at me in my master’s, that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: May have been a gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I kind of had the ability to identify that and do a little bit of self-study to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: or rely on other classmates, you know, make some friends, study together, that kind of thing, and get through some of that coursework, which was definitely challenging at times for the\u2026 you know, this was for the master’s component of my program, where you\u2026 you did the coursework that would be involved in a master’s during the first two years of your PhD, while you’re also getting started with your research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So, yeah, there were some\u2026 Challenges there, just getting used to,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Maybe a different level of courses and having some of those different areas covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But yeah, I think those are some of the things. I don’t know, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Maybe that\u2026 I’ll leave it there for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: I guess as you look back, you’ve gotten through the master’s and the doctorate, you went to do a postdoc as well, and you continue to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: If you could go back in time prior to starting in the master’s degree, how would you prepare academically or professionally before starting graduate school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: for my PhD, I think, like, before, yeah, PhD or Master’s,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: maybe getting a bit more immersed in the research, the field that I was getting into from a\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: What’s happening now perspective, not the historic, fundamental stuff, which is covered in your courses, but\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I don’t know if I would have been able to convince myself to do this, but if I could have spent the summer before reading a lot of research papers, for example, that were kind of the core<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: pieces, or very recent trends. Because there was a lot to learn about<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Not what has this field been like for\u2026 in 50\u2026 the past 50 years, but especially in the past 2 or 3 years, what are the trends, what’s going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: getting used to being able to read a research paper, I think, is one of those things that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: takes practice. It’s almost like an exercise, mental muscle type of thing, more so than a thing you can just teach, here’s how to read a research paper. Obviously, there are some tips, but really, you have to do it. You just have to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: looking at, talks from people, which are often posted online, like, on YouTube, from leaders in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Hearing what they have to say, what people are writing about, to get\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: very involved in some of that, and then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, if there are topics that would be background, if you were pivoting toward a different field for your graduate degree, I know that’s fairly common, where I would see people from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: a range of other fields who want to do a master’s in computer science, for example. I had classmates who had backgrounds all the way through music. I knew someone who’s a music undergrad and then did CS masters, or sometimes people do a bit of a shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: a little bit of self-study, I think, on some of those concepts that are used across a lot of courses. For me, I actually did do a little bit of\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: study of some math concepts in the summer before, that I felt like I needed to catch up on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So those kind of things, but I think if you can hit the ground running, kind of having a good sense of where is this field<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: at right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Even if you don’t understand all of it, but knowing the trends, not in just a buzzword way, but what are people who are working on this actually talking about it can be\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: extremely helpful for, like, getting kickstart as a researcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: And as you just go into a doctorate program, and you are moving into that next phase of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: how\u2026 there takes a\u2026 there’s a lot of things that you have to balance, and a lot of hats that you have to wear. You’re not only a student, but you are a\u2026 you’re still\u2026 you are\u2026 you’re still a son, you’re a\u2026 you could be\u2026 you have a significant other, there’s lots of different things that you have to juggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Talk to me about balance for yourself, and how did you balance school with work and family and personal responsibilities while you were going through that graduate school process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, definitely a big challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: because it is a\u2026 it’s a thing, you can kind of give as much time as\u2026 as you want to it, right? Like, there’s always more you can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: When you’re in one of these graduate programs, I think, or more that you feel that you could be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So, yeah, I think part of it was balancing schedules with, my partner, so I was married the entire time through<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: graduate school. My wife worked\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: For the first while, night shifts at the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: There in Ann Arbor as well, so there was some convenience to that, because we were both able to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: live without really needing a car. I mean, I could pick up the bus to where I worked, and we lived near the hospital where she worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: We did our thing there. And that led me to\u2026 Doing a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Late at night, because that was when she was working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And that was when I felt like I could kind of lock in, and I wasn’t getting a lot of emails or other kind of distractions, and having those, like, set aside solid times of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: productivity, where I’m sitting down. You know, a lot of my work was being at the keyboard in front of the computer, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Whether it’s writing code, running experiments, writing papers, reading papers, that kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And finding the time when I could regularly do that was useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: but then also making sure to have time that’s not for that, that works with other people’s schedules. So there were certain periods of time where<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I would\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Be home, and be around, and not working on stuff, which is the time that we’re both awake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And able to spend time together and do things with other friends in the area. We had a good number of mutual friends, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: around Ann Arbor that, you know, would pull me away from the lab, which was a nice thing, I think, to make those connections, and not just be a\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I’m gonna go put my head down and not talk to anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I actually found it really valuable to have a lot of friends who are not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: PhD students in computer science also. I definitely had friends in the program, but having friends doing other things kind of gives you the opportunity to step outside of that a little bit, when you’re doing things with them, hearing about what’s going on in their lives and things like that, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: That’s also useful. And then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Like I said, the University of Michigan was located near where I grew up, so I did have family nearby, which I’m definitely very fortunate. I know not everyone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Has the opportunity to go to grad school near where they lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But it was possible for me to, like, take a weekend trip and drive home and see<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: My parents and things like that, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: That also happened fairly regularly, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But, yeah, I would say it’s\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: it’s challenging. I have kids now, I didn’t have kids as a grad student. I think life would have been very different, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: also balancing being a dad with grad school, and really, I’m not sure how I would have done it other than<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I don’t know, being just very regimented and strict with my time, even more so than I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But\u2026 yeah, I think I\u2026 it was already kind of\u2026 I felt maxed out, you know, already with\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: The situation that it was in at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: I appreciate you sharing that. Now, I mentioned earlier in passing that after you received your doctorate, you did go and do a post-bac, or a postdoc\u2026 go on\u2026 you went and did a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: We haven’t really talked a lot about that on the show, so I want to have you talk a little bit more about that experience, and what made you decide, after you were done with your doctorate, to take that next step and continue working in a higher education setting, but in a little bit of a different way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, so that was a great experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: To start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I started thinking about postdocs toward the end of my PhD,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think as a way to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: A couple things I wanted to achieve with that, I guess. One was to broaden my research experience a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I feel\u2026 I think the purpose of a PhD is that you’re very focused, and you’re working on one very specific line of work, sustained over a period of time, so that you can make a contribution to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But I had this feeling, like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I just had worked on this one thing for so long. I wanted to get a little bit more breadth. I was\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Definitely, in the back of my mind, thinking about faculty jobs down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But thought that it would be valuable to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Have a little bit more breadth in my research experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: the international experience was appealing to me. I had always lived in the same country my whole life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And it was kind of a\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: goal of mine to spend some time outside of the United States at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Just to experience living somewhere else. And I do think that was really valuable for me. And I thought a postdoc was a great opportunity to do that because of the fact that they’re usually fixed-term contract type of positions, so it wasn’t\u2026 it didn’t feel like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: a commitment to move to this place indefinitely or something. It was, you know, I knew going in this was a two-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And it was a way to kind of see what it’s like in a new place, get some more experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: continue doing research. I mean, the position I found, I think, was a really natural progression for my PhD work to expand it a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And it also gave a little bit more breathing room,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Where I didn’t feel like I had to be writing my dissertation, defending my dissertation, and applying for faculty jobs, which is also an exhausting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Process, I think, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: to apply for faculty positions, and doing all of that at the same time. So, a postdoc also helped to space that out a little bit, where I was finishing my dissertation, and then postdoc applications, pretty\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: light, I would say, definitely compared to applying for tenure-track faculty jobs. A lot of those<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: just come from word of mouth, or networking, or, you know, so-and-so just got a grant, and they have a postdoc written in, and they need someone to start in 4 months. That kind of stuff is pretty common, I think. So\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Yeah, looking at those positions was also a nice step to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: you know, build onto my career, I think, and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Personally, I just found it a really valuable and enjoyable experience, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: Now, as you think about individuals that are thinking about graduate school, whether it’s in a technological field, business, health, whatever it may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher Lewis: What are some tips that you might offer others considering graduate education that would help them find success sooner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think you want to come in with a clear idea of\u2026 Why you’re doing it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: What you want to get out of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And take ownership of your experience as a graduate student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: So, what I mean is not coming in and saying, I’m not sure, I might do this, I’ll go and see\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Maybe I’ll do the minimum of what they ask me, get the piece of paper at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And that will open doors for me, or something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I kind of feel like that’s\u2026 it’s an approach to graduate school, but I don’t think it’s going to really maximize what you get out of it. I think, what’s really helpful is knowing I want to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: achieve a certain kind of goal longer term, and I know this program’s going to help me get there, and I want to make the most out of it to help build my profile, my skills development, those kind of things during that program, which means<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: really thinking about what you want to learn, which\u2026 there are things you can learn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: beyond just the classroom. Even in the classroom, I think you can go beyond what’s just given to you directly by professors by looking for ways to\u2026 I mean, I think we have a lot of, project-based kind of courses here at U of M Flint, for example, but those kind of things, I think, lend themselves nicely to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: students exploring things that match their interests. If you have the chance to do things like projects or, research components within courses, where you’re able to explore those things that are going to help<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Act as a perfect stepping stone, or give you the skills that you want to talk about when you’re applying for jobs later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: That you can kind of control, you should really do that, but even outside of the classroom, I think the relationships during grad school are extremely valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think I was always\u2026 had this impression of networking as this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: you know, people in suits shaking hands with each other kind of thing, but really, I think a lot of the most valuable networking I’ve done is\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: making friends in grad school, for example, which sounds maybe too easy, but these are the people who are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: they’re the future leaders in your field, right? Like, you’re going to school with other people who are passionate about whatever you’re studying, that want to get a graduate degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: it’s a really unique opportunity to be in the same place consistently with that kind of cohort of people for several years, and they are probably going to be doing really impressive, amazing things in 5, 10 years. And those people that you know now, I mean, I don’t think\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: you should think of relationships as this, oh, I’m only being friends so that you’ll help me later, but\u2026 I mean, when I think of what my friends from grad school are doing now, it’s, you know, they’re all doing amazing things, and I have this network of people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Around the world, in industry, in academia, doing cool things that I didn’t\u2026 go to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: you know, show up at knocking on doors at Google or something to know people at Google, it’s just you knew people from grad school who ended up there, or those kinds of things. So I think that’s a really valuable thing, is going\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Again, beyond just what’s asked of you as a grad student, but finding people around other opportunities if there are, like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: clubs or resources that help you with, developing in your area of specialization. If you can get involved in research projects, even as a master’s student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I think research can be valuable if you find the right project. I mean, not everyone wants to do a PhD, or wants to go into a research field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: But you can also think of research as, like, a very open-ended way to work with someone who’s kind of an expert on this topic that you wanted to study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: And\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: I mean, make it a negotiation if you’re trying to figure out a project to work on. Maybe they don’t exactly do this thing that you want to get the skill, but they do something pretty close, and you can say, hey, I really want to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: Get some experience with\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: whatever it is. For AI right now, you know a hot thing is dealing with agents, so I really want to learn how to do something with, you know, agentic AI. Is there something we can work on in your lab that would\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: fit with your research goals, but also would give me some hands-on, direct experience with Agentic AI, or whatever the thing is that you really want that skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: That’s gonna be super valuable, not just for research positions later, but\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Wilson: for an industry position where you can say, hey, I spent the semester, or a year, or whatever it was, building these kind of tools that’s exactly the thing your company’s LinkedIn post is looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

239
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Steve Wilson: For\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

240
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Steve Wilson: their purposes, and I learned from this person who has expertise in the field of how to make sure that it’s done correctly, and for an impact, and all of those kind of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

241
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Steve Wilson: I think that can be useful. But yeah, just being very on the,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

242
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Steve Wilson: On the lookout for opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

243
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Steve Wilson: While you’re there, during graduate school, to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

244
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Steve Wilson: To do things that, are gonna set you up for success in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

245
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Steve Wilson: And talking to other people who are in similar situations, and seeing what they’re doing, and those kind of things, I just think is super valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

246
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Steve Wilson: In addition to the coursework, which is gonna\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

247
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Steve Wilson: You know, maybe get you another level of,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

248
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Steve Wilson: Beyond your undergraduate courses in a bit more advanced level of a lot of different\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

249
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Steve Wilson: Areas, and maybe allow you to specialize a little bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

250
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Christopher Lewis: Well, Steve, I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your journey today. I really appreciate you taking the time to be able to share these words of wisdom and to kind of think back and relive some of the experiences, but also share some great tips, some great ideas for individuals to think about as they’re starting their journey for themselves. And I wish you all the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

251
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Steve Wilson: Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this episode of the Victors in Grad School podcast, listeners are taken on an honest and insightful journey through the graduate school experience with Steve Wilson. From the very beginning of the conversation, one theme stands out clearly: graduate school is not simply about earning another degree\u2014it is about growth, discovery, and learning how to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":2986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13,47,45],"tags":[1608,1277,522,2984,113,228,975,27,1758,32,846,150,2370,1250,814,420,2982,1237,168,2431],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-science","category-graduate-school-general","category-phd","category-podcast","tag-academic-career","tag-academic-research","tag-career-development","tag-cognitive-science","tag-computer-science","tag-doctoral-programs","tag-graduate-education","tag-graduate-school","tag-graduate-student-life","tag-higher-education","tag-mentorship","tag-networking","tag-phd-journey","tag-professional-growth","tag-research-opportunities","tag-research-skills","tag-stem-education","tag-student-success","tag-university-of-michigan","tag-work-life-balance-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}