Be patient with yourself. As a student your job is to learn, and by necessity, fail. Solving the problem and having the right answer isn't always the same thing.
First of all, I would recommend all prospective students to select their advisors based on their academic background. Searching through the internet and find their publications and trying to make a connection between their research and their potential advisor's research. Also, I would recommend reaching out to previous graduate students of the potential advisor and ask them about the personality of the potential advisor.
When an airline asks you to sign a waiver for your guitar just scribble quickly in hard to read handwriting "no thank you" and hand it back. Later if they damage your equipment you can claim you did not understand why they handed that waiver to you.
I loved being a PhD student here. My advisors and labmates were all very supportive of my research endeavors. I enjoyed being in charge of my own research project.
If any student wants to get research experience, he/she should get into this graduate school. The University of Guelph has unique and fully equipped laboratory facilities. Any grad student can take a long step on their desired research path. Meanwhile, coursework will also help students for learning the different disciplines.
My advisor was more like my mentor. He is very open, honest and helpful, which made me very comfortable to express my ideas and also to discuss different issues concerning my academic life.
To future graduate students, it is important to keep a clean, legible, and logical lab notebook! Also remember that your brain is your best weapon to succeed in graduate school and it functions best when it is well-rested; only pull all-nighters if necessary. Learn to manage your time and try not to do multiple things at once; multi-tasking in the lab can lead to errors in experiments. Finally, enjoy your time and get all the food and freebies from conferences and other events!
Make your research project/thesis something you're passionate about. If you have a great idea, take it to a professor and see if you can make it into a project.
