Information for Prospective Students:
Ray Hilborn's Research Program and
Applying for Graduate School
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What I Look for in Students
In my experience with students, I find the key attributes are (1) motivation, (2) skills and (3) ability to work with others. I would much rather have a highly motivated student than a really smart or clever one. I will look for indications of high motivation, particularly in tackling projects and completing them—especially in the form of written reports.
For students I have worked with in population dynamics and modelling, the single best indicator of skills and work productivity has been computer programming. Students who enter with good programming skills are up and running. The second most important skill is writing—but I have had a number of students with rather poor writing skills upon entry, who were quite successful at publishing papers—it just took time and practice.
Ability to work with others is a very important skill—almost all research activity is done jointly with others and working well in teams is essential.
Measuring Student Success
In the world of research the single most important measure of research productivity is publication, particularly in peer-reviewed journals. Successful researchers usually publish 2-3 papers or book chapters a year. The expectations for students are lower, but to be successful you should generally aim for 1 paper per year. Many of these will be joint papers with other students or faculty, but if you are 2-3 years into a graduate program and have not submitted a paper to a journal something is wrong. This is less true for students just entering a masters program, but by the 2nd year of your masters program you should have several potential papers identified, possible journals defined and a timeline for submission of publication.
Other important measures of research productivity are talks at scientific meetings and talks to formal and informal on-campus meetings.
Working Full Time and Graduate Studies
I have found these to be incompatible. Plan on being full time in residence at UW until your thesis is turned in! I have had 4 students who tried to work full time after an initial 2 year period of courses, and only 1 completed the degree. He lived in Seattle and was paid by NMFS to work on his thesis topic full time. I have had students who left for a job "just" before completing all their chapters. They suggest strongly not to do that—stay until you are done. There are lots of jobs out there; finish your thesis and then get a job.
Don´t leave before you have got a complete draft written!
Microsoft word advice—use style sheets—don´t use carriage return as a line space!