/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>1343233
>>1343398
continuing, 8y is a long fucking time, you should take the time to appreciate your undergrad and mature, then re-evaluate whether you're interested in a PhD. Maturity is key, soon you'll look back to your freshman self and ponder how retarded and clueless you used to be, no matter how clued in you think you are right now. Related to that, this should be obvious but most researchers will be absolutely delighted if you don't have to be micromanaged as an intern. Knowing what you're doing, thinking critically about what you're doing and your results, having realistic expectations, searching and reading relevant literature on your own, and being able to lay out and adjust a work plan, are all going to make a good impression. A decently respected researcher telling colleagues you don't have to be micromanaged to perform is a top tier scenario for you.

As for skills I'd recommend, whatever you do, being able to program your way out of a fullerene bag is desirable. If it isn't mandatory take at least one algorithm class. C / C++ / Java are for industry and can be assets, but for research these days I'd say pickup Python and get experience with it, challenge yourself with small programs and get used to looking up documentation on your own. R is useful but you can learn it when you eventually need it and even then Python is arguably a good substitute (scikit-learn, TensorFlow...). Matlab can be useful too depending on what you do but usually it'll be covered at your uni... and Python can also do some of that stuff too I guess (SciPy). Python is the swiss knife of research basically. What is vital, cannot be substituted, and will be expected but not covered is LaTeX, start using it now.

More general advice is do sport, eat healthy, don't fuck your sleep, fuck girls (or guys w/e). High performance intellectual work requires discipline. Remember everyone fails at some point but leaders use it to fuel their next achievement.

idk if you have more questions?