<p>Am about done w/ the application process. I graduate in December and would appreciate some input on how best to spend my remaining 5-8 months aside from (hopefully) some weekend interviews. Am really looking at this five month block as some programs to which I applied have summer rotations etc that I definitely want to get in on. I would like to spend the time as productively as possible given my chosen field in biomedical research. Some ideas:</p>
<ol>
<li>Learn a programming language (I don’t know very much about computers now, may be a problem)</li>
<li>Take an advanced calculus course at the junior college</li>
<li>Nothing, and enjoy the break before school starts again in earnest </li>
</ol>
<p>I already plan to continue keeping up on journal articles, etc from the field. What does everyone think? Other ideas?</p>
<p>This will depend a lot on what area of the rather broad “Biomedical” you actually plan to go into however:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Programming might be interesting to learn, but will be very unlikely to be of any benefit for your research. There is an off chance knowing a bit of code may help, but it would require more devoted time than would be likely given. If you want to do it then by all means. Just don’t think it is a productive investment of time for your career, it would just simply be a new hobby. </p></li>
<li><p>Statistics would be a better option than calculus. I’ve never had any use for my calc training and I won’t ever need it in my future, and for most biomedical research this will ring just as true. </p></li>
<li><p>Stick with this option, enjoy the break before you start summer rotations. You can try to keep up with reading if you like, though that rarely works out as planned. For the most part you are better off spending the first half of spring properly researching which school you want to go to based on research profiles and email communications with labs. When you do finally get that finished and choose your school, you then need to start looking into what will become your new home city for the next 5 years. Finding a place to rent, local bars and hang outs, places to avoid in town if it’s shady and so on.</p></li>
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<p>Is there a possibility that you could take a short-term technician job at your institution? It would be useful either to learn a new method/approach that you could take with you to your PhD lab, or else get a jump on the kinds of methods you see yourself generally using as a graduate student.</p>
<ol>
<li>Going to disagree with the programming advice…I’m in psychology and I wish I knew a programming language. It turns out it’s very useful if you use statistics in your work. I’m planning on earning an MA in statistics and I do want to learn a programming language as I go along.</li>
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<p>You can learn a programming language while you take a break, too. Spend a few hours a few days a week practicing and reading and learning it, and then the rest of the time, just break. The summer before grad school, I read in my field and did nothing else.</p>
<p>Matlab experience is not difficult to pick up; I did some in undergrad. If there’s a researcher who uses it and you’re willing to learn, you can tag along with their grad student. Or if nothing else, most universities have some computers with it on it - you can get a book and start teaching yourself.</p>
<p>Ok thanks all. My local junior college offers a small matlab class, I may go ahead and take that in lieu of an advanced calc course-they don’t offer anything in stats beyond intro. As far as programming otherwise, I suppose I’m off to google as I do not know where to start.</p>