Question 1

Are you accepting a graduate student applicant for Fall 2027?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the SABIN Lab is looking to recruit at least one PhD student for the upcoming Fall 2027 application cycle! I personally review all applications regardless of whether applicants contact me prior to applying, so there is no need to contact me directly about your application. However, you are welcome to contact me directly (tce0018@auburn.edu) if you have specific questions about our research/lab that would be helpful for your application process.Due to the increasingly large amounts of applications our lab receives each cycle, I may not be able to individually meet with applicants via zoom prior to applying. However, please do feel free to reach out to me if that would be helpful to you as you navigate the application process. If I am not able to do so this cycle, I will let you know.

Question 2

What would make me a good "fit" for the SABIN Lab?

Accepted Answer

I will start by saying that I think that there are multiple ways in which someone can be a good fit for our lab. In other words, there is no one single graduate student "prototype" for our lab. However, I do think there are a number of factors that would make an applicant a good "fit" for our lab more generally.Overall, I want to work with graduate students who are curious, hard-working, and eager to learn. Additionally, I view our laboratory as an inclusive and welcoming environment in which people genuinely enjoy working with one another. Based on that, we are interested in graduate students who work well with others (i.e., not hyper-competitive) and those who value building a warm/supportive work environment for others in addition to being successful in their own careers.In terms of skillset, I do not expect graduate student applicants to have experience in all, or even necessarily any, of the methods that we use in the lab (e.g., fMRI, TMS,  experimental paradigms, etc.). At a minimum, someone who is a good fit in the lab would be need to be strongly interested in learning how to use these methods.  However, competitive applicants will usually have either 1) some degree of hands-on experience with one of these methods, or 2) direct experience in other domains that are highly relevant in our research  (e.g., programming, conducting clinical interviews, etc.).  All that to say, having experience in one or more of the methods our lab uses is a big plus, but we are also interested in highly motivated students who are eager to learn these methods and/or have training in other areas as well.In terms of research interests more generally, given the mechanistic and clinical science emphasis of our research, I would say that graduate students who are primarily interested in clinical treatment or other applied research would probably not find our lab to be a great fit for their interests.  That being said, graduate students who are interested in developing or implementing mechanistic treatments could certainly find a strong fit with our lab depending on the specific research questions they want to pursue.If you have any questions about fit with our lab, you can also feel free to reach out directly (tce0018@auburn.edu) and we can set up a time to discuss.

Question 3

Do I need to have MRI/TMS/Etc. experience to be a competitive applicant for your lab?

Accepted Answer

Although experience in neuroimaging/neurostimulation or computational modeling is certainly a plus, there is no requirement or expectation that applicants come into graduate school with experience in these domains. Additionally, there are several arms of our research that do not involve neuroscience methods at all. These studies primarily use methods like structured social  interaction tasks, reaction time measures, and/or eye tracking. Therefore, we are also open to recruiting prospective graduate students for whom neuroscience methods are not a central interest. Overall, I want every mentee in my lab to have a positive training experience during graduate school, which means that realistically it would be very helpful to have some hands-on exposure to at least one of the methods/skills we use in our lab including, but not limited to: TMS, fMRI, EEG, clinical interviews, statistical analysis, programming, etc. In other words, I believe that applicants who do not have experience in ANY of these skillsets prior to graduate school may find it extremely challenging and stressful to learn multiple new skillsets from scratch while balancing the other rigors of graduate training.Therefore, competitive applicants do not need to necessarily have experience in neuroscience methods per se, but these applicants would then need to have some experience in other relevant methods such as clinical interviews, statistical analysis, etc. to be a competitive applicant for our lab.

Question 4

What if I am primarily interested in pursuing a clinical career?

Accepted Answer

Overall, I would say that applicants who have already decided to pursue a career primarily focused on providing clinical services may not find the best fit with our lab's goals given the more mechanistic emphasis of our work. However, I think it is important to note that I am fully supportive of students in our lab who ultimately decide to transition towards a clinical career throughout their graduate training. My support for these transitions comes from the basic reality that people and their goals often change over time, so these types of career pivots are expected and should be supported by mentors. That is true now more than ever given the distressed climate of academic research that we find ourselves living in at the moment. As a result, I encourage all of my mentees, even those strongly interested in pursuing academic careers,  to meaningfully engage with their clinical training during graduate school to provide more flexibility in their careers.

Question 5

What is your approach to mentorship/mentoring style?

Accepted Answer

Mentorship is one of the aspects of my career that I find most personally rewarding, which I try to reflect in my mentorship approach. Most broadly, I view graduate students as junior colleagues who offer exciting and diverse insights both in and beyond the laboratory.  I would describe my mentorship style as personalized and relationship-focused, which I will describe below in more detail below. In terms of a personalized mentorship style, I recognize that every graduate student is a unique person, which means that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to mentorship will not work for the majority of graduate students. Some graduate students thrive with more hands-on mentorship, whereas other graduate students thrive with more autonomy.  Additionally, every graduate student has a unique profile of relative strengths/weaknesses, which means graduate students also dramatically vary in what specific area they need the greatest amount of mentorship (e.g., academic writing, career development,  study design, etc.). Even the same graduate student will change and evolve throughout graduate school, so what type of mentorship works best for you in your first year will almost certainly look different than what type of mentorship works best for you in your fifth year. As a result, I do my best to tailor my mentorship to meet each graduate student where they are at currently and where they are looking to go in the future.In terms of a relationship-focused mentorship style,  I believe that the mentor-mentee relationship is just that, a relationship that has basic needs, dynamics to navigate, and fundamentally succeeds based on shared trust. I do not believe that people can effectively grow as clinical researchers (or as people more generally) in a mentor-mentee relationship that is negligent, fraught, or toxic. As a result, I  prioritize establishing and developing healthy relationships with my mentees that are fundamentally built on a shared belief that we each genuinely value one another's success and personal well-being. To this end, I have regular check-ins with mentees, not only about the work we do together, but about how we are doing in our mentor-mentee relationship. At the end of the day, my hope is that we build a strong, positive working relationship that we both want to maintain throughout our respective careers and lives.

Question 6

Can I reach out to you with questions about applying to your lab?

Accepted Answer

Please feel free to do so! You can reach me at tce0018@auburn.edu. Please send along a copy of your CV with your email.Given the increasingly large number of applications our lab receives each cycle, I may not be able to meet with interested applicants prior to application deadlines. If I am not able to do so this cycle, I will do my best to respond to any questions via email instead.

Question 7

What is it like to live in Auburn?

Accepted Answer

That is a good question! Based on my limited experience living in Auburn so far, I think that April Smith's lab website does a great job in providing an overview of what it is like to live in Auburn (https://www.redslab.org/living-in-auburn). To give you a sense of my personal perspective, I have lived in both metropolitan (Dallas, Miami, and Boston) as well as more rural (East Texas) settings. As a college town, I find that Auburn falls somewhere between those extremes of the continuum. One of the things I have enjoyed about Auburn is the strong sense of community that you can "feel" in your day-to-day life, which has been a very positive experience compared to what I am used to during my time living in larger cities.  Also worth noting is that Auburn offers a very large amount of scenic nature and beautiful outdoor activities. Additionally, the cost of living is much lower compared to places like Boston or Miami, which means you can enjoy a higher standard of living during graduate school. You can also get between almost any two locations in Auburn/Opelika with a 10-minute drive, which spares you the mind-numbing misery of gridlock traffic on your daily commute. Despite the relatively small size of Auburn, you can also still find things like craft breweries and cool coffeeshops that you might find in a larger city. I will also add that Atlanta is a ~90-minute drive from Auburn, so it is still relatively easy to experience all of the amenities of city life (e.g., music festivals, a diverse food and art scene, etc.).Of course, every location has its upsides and its downsides. To be transparent with you, Auburn does not have the vibrant night life of a city like Miami, the deep historical culture of city like Boston, or a large wealth of things to do that you can find in a bigger city. That being said, you can easily take a day trip/weekend trip to a larger city like Atlanta for the city experience, which is a 90-minute drive from Auburn. Also worth noting is that Auburn has a distinct "college town" culture, which may or may not be your personal cup of tea.Of course, your mileage will vary in terms of how important each of these factors are to your decision making process, so ultimately there is no "one size fits all" answer as to how much you would enjoy (or not enjoy) living in Auburn during graduate school. Of course, this is something I would be more than happy to discuss further with you if it is a point of concern/curiosity and I certainly appreciate that it is an important factor when deciding where to attend graduate school.

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