Happy Thanksgiving
সবাইকে শুভেচ্ছা, আমাদের বাংলাদেশীদের মধ্যে কৃতজ্ঞ থাকার প্রবনতা কম, শুরুতেই একটা নেগেটিভ বাক্য দিয়ে শুরু করলাম। এই platform টা আমাকে অনেক কিছু দিয়েছে। বিনা টাকায় বিনা স্বার্থে এমন সহযোগিতা পাওয়া দুরহ। আমি একটা টপ ranked মেডিকেল স্কুল Ph.D
শুরু করেছি। সত্যি বলতে কি আমি GRE শব্দটা শুনেছি অনেক পরে। আমার কোন ধারনাই ছিল না। আমার মনে হয়েছে অনেকেই এখন আসার প্রস্তুতি নিচ্ছে। রাত জেগে জেগে ভাইভা দিতে হবে। ভাইভা তে ৪/৫ টা প্রশ্ন ঘুরে ফিরে ধরে। তোমার পরিচয় দাও, কেন তুমি আমাদের স্কুল চুজ করলে, তোমার শর্ট ও লং ক্যারিয়ার গোল বলো, আমাদের কে তোমার কোন প্রশ্ন আছে কিনা।
যা করতে হবেঃ
১। টাইম জোন ভালভাবে শিখে নিন, বাংলাদেশ ও আমেরিকার, মধ্য রাতে ভাইভা হয়,
২। ঘরের আলো এমন রাখুন যাতে আপনাকে সুন্দর পরিপাটি দেখায়।
৩। Background পরিছন্ন রাখুন।
৪। মেরুদণ্ড সোজা করে, ফরমাল শার্ট পরে হাসি মুখে ভাইভা দিন।
৫। চশমায় জেনো আলো না পরে।
আমি ২১ টা প্রশ্ন রেডি করেছিলাম, কোন রকম modification ছাড়া পোস্ট করলাম। এটা দেখে আপনি আপনার টা সাজিয়ে নিন। ধারে না কাটলে ভারে কাটুন , মানে আপনি আমার মত ইংলিশ এ ছেরাবেরা মার্কা দুর্বল হলে উত্তরগুলো মুখস্থ করে নিন। সময় আপনাকে পরিপক্ক ও পোক্ত বানাবে। ধীরে গুছিয়ে কথা বলুন। আমি ইউনিভার্সিটি রাংকিএর দিকে না ছুটে কে বেশি টাকা দিবে ও comfort দিবে সেই জিনিশ ভেবেছি। তাই আমি general university / স্কুল এ না গিয়ে মেডিকেল স্কুল এ এসছি।
আমেরিকায় মেডিকেল স্কুল এ টাকা বাতাসে ভাশে, আবার TA/RA ship করতে হয় না, তাই আপনারা যারা math, physics and enginnering ছাড়া অন্য সাবজেক্ট এ আছেন, মেডিকেল স্কুল এ অ্যাপ্লাই করুন। মিনিমাম 30,000 and maximum 3300 USD per year.
চাপ নিতে শিখুন , রান্না শিখুন , নিজেকে গুছিয়ে রাখা ও পরিস্কার রাখা শিখুন , ভাল ভাবে কথা বলা শিখুন , রেস্ট রুম পরিস্কার করা শিখুন , ড্রাইভিং শিখুন , browse করা শিখুন, শিখুন কিভাবে ধৈর্য ধরতে হয়।
Question 1: Why don’t we start by you telling us a little bit about yourself?
ANSWER: I am currently working in the Department of Pharmacy, East-West University, Bangladesh, as a senior lecturer and a research faculty. I have recently been leading five research projects. Among those, one is internationally funded, and our government funds two. These research projects are on screening pharmacological activities of various plant extracts using rats and mice models.
In addition to these projects, I spend 10 hours a week delivering class lectures and provide 7 hours of dedicated student consultation hours.
I graduated with a pharmacy degree, majoring in pharmacology, securing outstanding academic achievement.
I started my career as a research and development executive in a top-tier drug exporting pharmaceutical company. My job responsibilities were the development of small-scale formulation preparation, validation, and Quality control. Later, I switched my career to being an academician. I am good at designing, conducting, monitoring, and supervising individual and collaborative research work.
Now I feel ready to take my career to the next level to pursue a Ph.D. in any top-ranked university in the USA.
I plan to continue as a research academician and set up a dedicated pharmacology lab in my department.
I believe my teaching and research experience and passion for research will allow me to be a great asset to your design team at this university.
Question 2: Why do you want to go to graduate school?
Answer: Well, it is perceived that Grad school helps to gain the skills, knowledge better position, multiple opportunities, and advancement of career, especially Ph.D. graduation is needed for research-oriented career and recognized as a professional filed by deepening knowledge. Graduate school /A graduate degree increases professional options and prospects, nurtures intellectual curiosity, and sparks passion. I do believe this will help me to be a thought leader in my impact field.
Question 3: Why do you think that this program is a good fit for you?
As you know, I am a pharmacologist, and pharmaceutical science is a multidisciplinary subject; Biological sciences in this university ranked 62, with good peer feedback. It has diverse research areas ranging from drug-drug interaction, drug discovery, enzyme kinetics, cell signaling mechanisms to evolutionary biology. As a multidisciplinary researcher, I have previous experiences working with researchers of diverse research interests and sophisticated instrumented labs. Therefore, I do think this program is a good fit for me.
Question 4: Can you tell us where else you are applying? And what do you think those programs have that our program does not have?
Yes, I have applied to some other high-ranked universities for my graduate Ph.D. program like Harvard, Yale, Boston, Johns Hopkins. I browsed each program website. Frankly, I need not be judgmental, and I believe each university has its own remarkable research and reputation output. Another point is that without pursuing those universities, it is difficult to comments in this regard.
Question 5: Where does this program fall on your list, and why?
You know, Pharmacy as a graduate program offers a diverse and rewarding career, with opportunities for patient care, scientific research, academician, and new drug molecules innovation. I heard about perdue research from one of my peers who is doing a Ph.D. in pharmacy policy. After intense browsing, I realized this place is for me for its promising research setup, wonderful, sophisticated instrumentation, huge research funding, and facilities provided to the international student.
Question 6: Tell us a little bit about your research interests.
I am broadly a multidisciplinary researcher and have expertise in pharmacology and public health-related research. I am interested in cancer biology, cell signaling mechanisms, cardiovascular biology, molecular biology, receptor binding mechanism, immunology, and cell biology. Apart from my area of interest, I am engaged in collaboration and research with eminent faculty members of various countries, especially from the USA, Japan, Mexico, and India. I am an expert in developing various mice and rat models like the alloxan-induced diabetic rat/mice model, carrageenan-induced paw edema model in rat/mice, induction of ulcer in the rat model, and collection of various organs after dissection and studying histopathology. I have sound expertise in diagnostic necropsy and collection of selected tissue and sample from rats and mice models. I am looking for Ph.D. in cancer biology/ receptor binding mechanism/ cardiovascular disease mechanism in a well-established lab throughout the world.
Question 7: What do you see are the major trends in the field right now?
Q 8: What do you think is your most significant accomplishment to date?
When I was a university student, it was my sole dream to become a researcher, particularly in pharmacology. From my childhood, I have grown up seeing my mother's perennial critical illness. I am fortunate that I have walked through to attain my goal involving myself in the teaching career and a good number of generic research work on the branch of medicine concerned with the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs. This is the most significant accomplishment in my life.
Q 9: What are your short-term career goals?
My short-term career goals primarily focus on my profession as a dedicated researcher that induces me to achieve my Ph.D. from a top-ranked university globally and conduct some research on essential drugs that impact human lives. However, these will help me become an expert researcher academician that I believe in mind.
Q 10: Tell me about your long-term career goals?
My long-term research goals mostly concentrate on developing a research hub in my incumbent East-West university amid other facilities to be set up. I will have some quests for international collaboration to collect funds, which will launch a research project for diabetic patients of the subcontinent. I will do it alongside my teaching career. Besides, I have a strong desire to train potentially interested students to encourage them in research works. My major thrust is to maximize the optimal output from the research works. Honestly saying, I will do it for sure.
Q 11 What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
My biggest strengths are strong determination and dedication that lead me to complete my tasks successfully, even it becomes so difficult to do. I try to put my concentration on my research works with enthusiasm, perseverance, and patience. I do not fear facing formidable challenges. I accept them quickly, and by the grace of God, I have passed away many hurdles in my life boldly. I have adequate stress management capacity, long term planning capacity, and both individual and teamwork capacity. I am very amenable to accepting any failure and learning from mistakes. I believe new challenges unveil new lessons and unique experiences to learn, making me more confident in life. I love creative works, and I am respectful of others' positions and opinions.
My weakness is I often overly tend to be critical of myself and try to achieve maximum perfection in work so far. So frequently, I feel something needs to be improved or changed in my works. That's why I sometimes miss my deadline or go for a revision of time for my work. I am incredibly introverted, which makes me wary of sharing my ideas in a group. Besides, I tend to want to take on the complete project all on my own without outside help.
Q 12 If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be and why?
If I have the opportunity to dine with anyone living or dead, I will take the privilege to sit with King Faro, the Emperor of Egypt. I would ask him how you get the concept of Pyramid making and the secret of forming Mummy, the 1000-year preservation technic of the corpse. I am very much keen to know the history of archaeological monuments of that time.
Q13 How do you respond if you receive critical feedback from your supervisor?
The human mind is compassionate and often influenced by emotion. Many persons around us usually do not want to welcome any criticism about him/her cordially. I am not an exception. Growing up with my career over time, I have changed myself and tried to take criticism or critical comments on my work with a positive attitude. When my supervisor remarks, do not favor me, I usually become a bit upset, but unlike others, I never show it off in my appearance anyway. Instead, I pay my sincere reverence and take an interest in critical comments as much as worth improving my works.
Q14 Tell us about a time when you had to deal with a strict deadline or time constraints. How did you handle it?
When there is a time constraint or deadline in my work, I try to stay calm under pressure. I make a critical path of my work from the beginning. First, I prioritize my to-do list by breaking my task down, flagging all problems early of work, and assessing how each segment of my job can fit in my schedule. From the beginning, I prefer to take help from others who have relevant expertise in line with my assigned task.
Q15 Tell us about the situation when you had to stand up for a decision that you made even though it was unpopular
When I had to make a difficult decision that I have ever made, I take my time and review all possible aspects of the situation. This is important to me to assess the implication and what brings the ultimate results for this decision-making. In my teaching career in the university, I had to face several times this odd situation. What I believe is I will do justice to everyone while doing my responsibility. Though it is painful, I make such a decision keeping all possible ways open so that anyone can ease all setbacks.
Q 16 Tell us about the most difficult or frustrating person you have had to work with and how you handle interactions with that person?
A teacher-student relation is very divine, in my opinion. I am sorry to say that when I was the intern of my Master's program, my supervisor was cordial with me. I did not get the right directives and enough cooperation from him. As a student, I was hurt, but I did not show any disrespect to him. Despite non-cooperation, I maintained regular contact with him from my side to complete my task.
Q 17 Can you describe a time for us where you had to bend the rules to be successful or to accomplish a goal?
Not for my gain, I had to bend sometimes for the welfare of my students. When I have found my student facing a family crisis could not pay the tuition fees of the university, in this situation, I have come forward to help them, even addressed to the authority beyond maintaining the rules. Everyone should abide by the rules, but I consider the crying need of human lives for the emergency period.
Question 18: Who is your favorite scholar in this field?
Question 19: Can you describe for us how do you work in a team setting?
I believe that I have a lot to contribute to a team environment; I love resolving group issues through research and communication. For example, during planning for a significant event, our team struggled to decide how to set up the room. Rather than getting into an argument about personal preferences,
These ideas became part of our strategy and helped us complete the project.
Question 20: What else should we know about you?
I have the experience to coordinate various administrative works like working as a board member in viva voce, conduct examination
, and harmonize in association with the central examination control committee. I help run biological, biomedical, and quality control, method development-related projects, liaison with pharmaceutical companies, and medical institutions to develop drugs and test their efficacy and clinical investigation.
I manage the resource materials for both traditional and e-learning for each semester. I execute the department examination as a central exam committee member and batch coordinator, project student supervision, lab resources maintenance, prepare questions, conduct examination, and result publication on the university portal.
I've covered most of my work experiences that make me a strong candidate for this position, including my six years of teaching and research experience, research project design proficiency, and communication skills.
I want to reiterate how excited I am for this opportunity—it's always been my dream
to pursue my Ph.D. study at this
world reputed prestigious university. My teaching and research background has prepared me well for this role, and I want to thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today and learn more about the experiences that would help me succeed here.
Question 21: Finally, what questions do you have for us? Just list them out, and then we'll get to them?
1. The department of molecular medicine and molecular pharmacology is segmented into four other research areas, namely, Biophysical and Computational Chemistry, Genomics and Systems Biology, Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Molecular Cellular Pharmacology.
My question is that in which aspects of the unique Ph.D. program could be differentiated from another program?
• Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Disease
• Neuroscience and Physiology
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Biology Education
• Structural, Biophysical and Computational Biology
2. Among TA ship and RA ship, which one is more convenient and beneficial for an international student?
3. I am a faculty and have had teaching experiences for more than seven years. Is it mandatory for me to work as a TA? I want to join as a RA. Are there any additional requirements that should I require?
4. Within which semester do I need to select my research supervisor? Or it will be chosen by the department as I did not contact any faculty member personally.
5. How does the department help the student to achieve their full potential apart from the regular curriculum?
6. Is there any targeted number of papers I am required to publish before I graduate?
7. Would you please mention to me What type of guidance I will receive at the beginning and later during my Ph.D. study?
8. Would you please inform me is there any specified summer plan dedicated for an international student? What about the work opportunities during summer and the type of appointment?
9. What is your expectation from an international Ph.D. student, and is there any training session to know more about cultural shock?
10. What is the specialty of your program?
Medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology focus research in four specialized areas: Biophysical and Computational Chemistry, Genomics and System Biology, Medicinal chemistry and Chemical Biology, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.
11. Is there any clinical opportunity or internship or practicum for me as a registered "A" grade pharmacist. Will you value this achievement on your part?
ধন্যবাদ ।