Welcome to Aspiring PhD! My name is Ulia, and I am a second-year Biological Sciences PhD student at the University of California, Irvine. When I first wanted to get into research as a freshman at Arizona State University, I felt super intimidated by the process. There wasn’t a lot of information available on how to go about it, so at the time, I relied heavily on asking older students about their experiences. Now, here on Aspiring PhD, my goal is to help demystify the what, why, and how of research, following in their footsteps, with the goal of making research more accessible.
I will be covering topics such as getting your foot in the door, writing cold emails, navigating your first research experience, securing letters of recommendation for research opportunities, applying for graduate studies, and more. As a disclaimer, my background is in biology and neuroscience, so I may not be able to provide insight into any other fields, but I hope you might still find some of the general information provided here useful!
Aspiring PhD 