One of the biggest misconceptions about grad school is that you need to know going in exactly what you want to study. In reality, at least for biomedical-type programs, you get to try out a few labs before choosing a lab (we call these rotations). And even once you choose a lab, the research you work on will largely be dictated by the lab and the labs’ interests. You typically determine an overarching project through conversation with the head of the lab (the PI), based on what they want to research (and what they have funding to research).
link to video in case embed isn’t working: https://youtu.be/pqXfba56f6I & https://youtu.be/IP72JR2zcSI
You’ll often be given a couple of options, and you can learn about them during your rotations (when you might be researching something completely different). Once you choose, it’s largely up to you to flesh out the details of your project (hopefully with encouraging and supportive mentorship).
Speaking of supportive mentorship, the rotations are a key opportunity to determine if the lab is a good fit environment and mentorship-style wise. The people and environment can be even more important than the research topic – especially since the research you do in grad school can be way different than what you ultimately end up studying.
Grad school is more about learning how to be a scientist than learning about a specific topic. Later you’ll be able to branch out. But having a positive, supportive environment that nurtures you as you become a scientist will help provide you with the skills you need to tackle any topic (and make grad school much more pleasant!)
When you apply to grad schools, make sure that you only apply to programs with at least 4 or so labs you might be interested in rotating in and mention these labs (and why they appeal to you) in your app.
More advice for writing grad school apps: blog form: https://bit.ly/bb_grad_app_advice ; YouTube: https://youtu.be/pa3m1v-yqE8 ; printout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mcbL8kTQNw3qChLj9JQ_jAw0mF2ZWAhU/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=110501489579733284162&rtpof=true&sd=true
lots more grad-school related content here: https://bit.ly/gradschoolposts
