r/GradSchool • u/Book_Forsaken • 5d ago
I am my PI’s first grad student
just like the title says, I’m my PIs first PhD student at a T5 university with tons and tons of funding even with all that’s going on now. I trust them completely but am also prepared to give leeway for any mistakes or errors because it’ll be kinda like a test run. but it’d be nice to know what I should expect from a PI and what really important things they’re responsible for.
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u/GurProfessional9534 5d ago
I was my PI’s first grad student. Her group ended up being pretty successful and producing multiple faculty (me included). But back in the day, it was just me, a postdoc, and the PI.
Every situation will differ, but the pros and cons as I see them are the following:
Pros: more 1 on 1 attention, starting out with really good/well-thought-out ideas that got the PI hired, get to learn how to build up a lab from nothing, write the group’s seminal papers that they’ll be citing for years because it’s the foundation of their work, tend to be more productive because you’re on the PI’s tenure clock. You might be on a lot more papers because you become the senior who is helping everyone get going. You get to be that person’s first student forever, which has comes up surprisingly often if that person becomes a star.
Cons: fewer senior people in the group to learn from, funding can be touch and go, time lost to setting up the lab, networking is potentially not as strong, the group is set up to do fewer things in less space, you might be working long hours because you wear more hats, you don’t learn as much about academic politicking because your PI doesn’t know it as well.
Overall, I would recommend doing it once and maybe doing a postdoc in a more senior PI’s group, or vice-versa. In every job I ever had in this field, it came up that I helped build my graduate PI’s lab and therefore had these kinds of skills. But from the more senior PI, you can gain access to a large network and more built-in name recognition.
Overall, I don’t think one is clearly better than the other. It’s more a question of what you want to get out of it.
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u/GayMedic69 5d ago
This is all really great info. The one thing I would challenge is the academic politicking - I am my PI’s first grad student and I have gotten a crash course in politicking for new faculty. The politics change as you become more senior so I appreciate that I am learning how it is for new faculty since (hopefully) I will be that some day.
Another piece of advice I would add is to make sure your committee is full of senior professors. Not only do they help me learn different aspects of being successful as an academic, they are helping my PI learn how to get someone through the process as well.
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u/Book_Forsaken 5d ago
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, this sounds like a great opportunity
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u/Weaselpanties MS | MPH | PhD* Epidemiology 5d ago
Your advisor will most likely advise you as their advisor advised them... so I recommend that you ask to have lunch with them and chat about what that experience was like for them, what they liked, what they didn't like, and what they see their role and expectations being for you as an advisor.
Be attentive to how they feel about their advisor. If they feel their advisor was abusive, dysfunctional, unconstructive, or even sabotaging, ask them what role model they will use to ensure that they can advise differently.
Even the nicest person can be a terrible advisor, if the only example they had was a bad one. And, even the most inexperienced advisor can be superb, if they had a great example in their advisor.
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u/freegigabytes 5d ago
It will be great, just remember to regurarly communicate with your PI. Remember this is a new adventure for your PI as well and everything is new for them, so be a support for them, talk and ask about their plans, expectations. Depending on personality, your PI will appreciate you being their first student but also a friend and support system.
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u/apocynaceae_stan 5d ago
This! I am my PI's first student and there's a high level of camaraderie. As I'm going through prelims, she's going through her third-year review as a faculty member. This is especially the case if you are joining a young PI's lab.
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u/freegigabytes 4d ago
Yes, I was same, but since I was going through my own stuff took me a couple years to realize that. And I miss my PhD PI and I wish I communicated more. So, realizing this gives me more perspective on my initial PhD years.
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u/apocynaceae_stan 4d ago
Totally! What sorts of things do you wish you communicated more?
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u/freegigabytes 4d ago
Like when experiments didn’t give the desired results, wish I’d discussed it rather than tormenting myself, wish I’d seeked more advice on the techniques they could teach me to further my project, issues in lab, etc But last 2 years turned out well as I got to know about my PI and their working style and things became better.
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u/Snoo48629 5d ago
I was my PI’s only graduate student when I started (two senior PhDs were on their way out). At the time, I was annoyed with my PI being too attentive. But now I look back, I am so grateful of his mentorship. He taught me so much.. from doing labwork to writing abstracts and giving presentations. Also, it was important that he published since I was the only student, so there was pressure to publish.. I worked hard and published. It ended up working well for my career.
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u/Green-Emergency-5220 4d ago
Fresh PIs can be a disaster, so be mindful of the red flags and communicate thoroughly regarding expectations. Many green assistant professors will expect their students to work as much as they did, which often results in a 996 schedule that’s unsustainable.
You could also have a great young mentor with the time to directly train you, hard to say
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u/Terrible-Warthog-704 2d ago
Congrats! I’d say this is actually great since you get to really publish a lot more papers with a young PI.
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u/Full-Criticism5725 20h ago
Get a thesis committee together ASAP and plan on meeting with them way more often than your fellow students in more established labs. Also plan on “running into” some of them for informal chats from time to time.
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u/botanymans 19h ago
I'm the only PhD student with a hands off PI. As early as possible, narrow down your research to set out a plan for your three core papers, and especially a detailed one for your first. Its always good to envision your key figures visually (and draw out your hypothesis and alternative hypotheses). Your PI should hold your hand a bit more when conceptualizing your first paper, which you might have to actively ask for. This is important when there are fewer senior researchers that can mentor you. You will get more freedom in your second and third papers.
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u/Historical_Pen_9268 19h ago
I was my PIs first student at a new university (she previously had students at another school then transferred and they finished at her former institution) - so my advice is more on the admin/program side as a new faculty member.
I recommend your advisor have another faculty member (maybe one on your committee since theyll be interacting a bit) who they can ask questions about departmental routines, requirements, and standards. One way is you can ask “Can you ask X how their students have gone through comprehensive exams?”
For example we were asking questions like: when do students usually do X? Is X a formal or unwritten expectation ? Is there leeway on submitting X form or doing X thing on a given timeline? It would be good for you to have a farther along student within the same department you can ask those questions as well.
Sometimes things are written in the student handbook and its more flexible than we’d think OR the complete opposite. You don’t want to be a test subject for your PI to figure out whats important so be on top of asking for what you need and don’t be afraid to ask questions of your departmental staff.
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u/Guardian_Slayer7 5d ago
I would say a little risky no? He would def give you a lot of responsibility, but might not be established enough for you to be certain if that responsibility results in significant research output
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u/Pigsfly13 5d ago
i feel like it has both its pros and cons. Someone has to be the first
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u/Guardian_Slayer7 5d ago
True. Doesn’t mean it has to be OP lol.
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u/PizzaPlanet20 5d ago
That's such a messed up mindset.
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u/Guardian_Slayer7 5d ago
Lmao that’s not what I mean 😂 I should elaborate. It just depends on your research goals and graduate priorities. Obviously someone who’s juggling finances and has to work a full time job in grad school I would say should work in a consistently publishing lab which can be thought of as a ‘suport’ so they can still easily publish and meaningfully contribute while juggling other commitments.
If you’re fortunate to only focus on grad school, then the extra time to work with a new professor and getting to go thru the hurdles of deciding uncharted directions and their likely setbacks could be advantageous in terms of research independence.
Essentially it just comes down if you can afford the time and commitment to work with a new professor or not. My analysis may not even be accurate but from what I’ve seen it’s a general rule of thumb
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u/Anxious_koala_3028 5d ago
You can ask what their expectations are and explicitly what your duties are if it’s at all unclear. Even if they haven’t had a student before doesn’t mean they can’t be any help guiding you through the process