Resources

We have done our best to simplify and streamline our presention of the information you need to succeed. Some of the most pertinent informtion for getting started in the FSU graduate program can be found below. A full list of information can be found at this link, but some resources or links may be out of date.

We're always looking to increase the usefulness of this page. If you have content you'd like to see or resources you'd like to contribute, please email EERDG's acting secretary (contact information on the About EERDG page).

Graduate School Advice

Grad school, am I right? It's changed a lot since our professors were students. And the committees that advised our professors probably wouldn't recognize today's academic landscape. As you know, science as discipline has been growning increasingly politicized, journals are contending with AI-generated content, and we as researchers must be aware of misinformation and products of research paper mills.

I know that sounds bad, but this is also an exciting time to be a scientist. Compared to our advisors, we have access to more technology (at a fraction of the cost), STEM is steadily growing more inclusive and diverse, and stigmas around mental health are changing for the better, if slowly. We still have a lot of work to do, but with scientists like you leading the way, we can make STEM a more inclusive and supportive space for the next generation of scientists.

Those just starting graduate school should consider reading the two complementary writings by Stephen Stearns and Raymond Huey, often collectively referenced as "Cynical and Acynical Advice for Graduate Students". These well-known, tongue-in-cheek guides offer two perspectives: Stearns', highlighting the harsh realities of academic life, and Huey’s optimistic and encouraging reply. Their advice covers various topics like advisors, courses, mentorship, publishing, and career paths.

    Department Logistics

    > Keys and Card Access

    During your time at FSU, you will gradually accumulate card access and keys. By the time you graduate, you may not know what half your keys do or where you do and don't have card access. To get started on this exciting process, use the Property Request Form at this link or simply Google, "FSU property request form". Your word count is limited so submit a new ticket for each key or card access.

    General requests suggested for new graudate students: card access to both wings of 4th floor of King, King building access on weekends/ after hours, Bio unit 1 access, key for your office cluster, key for the classroom you TA, key for the graduate student computer lab (see below), and key for you lab.

    > General Printing

    Public printer are available for all students in the computer labs on the first floor (KIN 1057 & KIN 1058) and on the second floor (north wing). The graduate student computer lab (KIN 4056) requires a key and is for graduate students only. Register these printers to you laptop so you can print from anywhere! (You may need to supply your own paper.)

    > Printing Posters

    Printing Posters The Biology Department has a poster printer available in the King Building (KIN 1057) and Bio Unit 1. See instructions here! If you need any further assistance printing a poster, Biology IT is located in KIN 2054.

    Grants and Scholarships

    > Pivot

    Pivot is a service maintained by FSU that helps students find and apply for grants and scholarships. It also has a notification system that allows you to specify parameters for funding sources and then recieve emails when they become available. More emails, hooray!

      > Internal Database

      EERDG members have dicussed creating an internal database of funding opportunities that our members are aware of or have previously applied for. Ideally, this would allow us to calculate success rates based on member input and create a more focused list of funding sources compared to Pivot or simple internet searches. Please contact the acting secretary of EERDG if you have that much time on your hands.

        Tech Recommendations

        > Artificial Intelligence

        The future has arrived! Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini are here to stay so it's important that we educate ourselves on the utility and shortcomings of this new technology. For Florida State University's official stance on the role of Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPTs) and Large Language Models (LLMs) in academia, see this article by Dean Richard Pastley from the FSU Office of Digital Ethics.

          > Citation Management Programs

          Organizing, navigating, and managing personal libraries of articles and research can be just as important as reading them. Although folders of labeled PDFs on your computer are certainly more efficient then rolodexes and stuffed filing cabinents, technology has made research more efficient than ever. Programs like Zotero can take articles directly from websites, build citations, and then be embedded in programs like Microsoft word for seamless citing while writing. Zotero is open source and free (up to 300 MB) but there are many programs to choose from like Paperpile and Mendeley. Explore their documentation and see which is best for you!

            > Coding

            Computation with coding languages is a powerful way to complete tasks faster and more accurately than humans can do by hand. However, it is important to know that in the end everything that a computer can do with data can be done by a human, and therefore coding is not magic. When you start out learning your first coding language, remember a few things:

            • You will only learn by doing! Use AI to ask conceptual questions and help you understand new topics, but do not use it to complete coding tasks that you don't know how to do yourself. Additionally, physically type in code you find on the internet! Do not just copy and paste code you don't understand.
            • Don't shy away from learning topics that scare you. Most importantly, make it a high priority to learn (1) data types, (2) data structures, (3) conditional statements, (4) for and while loops, and (5) user-defined functions.
            • Be explicit and precise when coding. Pick clear, descriptive variable names, even if they are long, and do not abbreviate words or use acronyms. Make your code neat and consistent in formatting. Avoid putting too much on one line even if it can be done.

            R is commonplace in biological research, and has numerous packages that give access to tools created by other biologists. Unfortunately, it has very inconsistant syntax and little official documentation, which makes learning it difficult, and is very slow compared to other languages. Regardless of its shortcomings, being familiar with R is almost required for biological academia. To get started learning R, look at this tutorial.

            If you have the willpower to learn a language on your own, a great language to start learning coding is python. It runs much faster and has much more consistent syntax than R, it is used as the beginner language for computer science programs at most universities, and it has a package for nearly anything imaginable. If you need more speed for computation, you might check out Julia or Rust.

            > Note-Taking Program

            There are hundreds of apps to take notes, but one great free option is Obsidian. It uses markdown (extension .md), which uses simple rules to let users type headers, bold/italic text, and links between notes. Additionally, when you link notes together, a network is generated that visualizes which notes are connected in this way. It works on both desktop and mobile.

            > Type-Setting Program

            You are certainly familiar with the frustrations of Microsoft Word, where you move an image just a little bit and everything in the document shifts simultaneously, or you can't quite figure out how to get rid of a blank line. Academics, particularly mathematicians, have utilized LaTeX as a more controllable alternative to programs like Word, which takes a text document (extension .tex) and converts it to a .pdf. However, LaTeX has bulky and inconsistent syntax, and many have lamented about all the packages you need to import to do the most basic tasks. Out of this frustration was born Typst, with the same functionality as LaTeX but much simpler syntax and much fewer packages to worry about. If you get tired of Word, give Typst a try.