Tim Baker:
Welcome to the Center for Data Science Admissions Podcast. I’m your host, Tim Baker.
Meet Barot:
My name is Meet Barot in a CDS PhD program. And I do research in computational biology with Richard Bonneau and Kyunghyun Cho.
Tim Baker:
OK. And when did you apply for the program? I applied 2018. OK. And was that your first time ever applying?
Meet Barot:
Yeah, that was the first time. I was two years out of college at that point.
Tim Baker:
So were you working at that time or?
Meet Barot:
I was working at the Flatiron Institute, which is this kind of nonprofit research institution that’s focused on basic scientific research and the computational sciences, like in computational biology, physics and these things.
Tim Baker:
OK. And when you applied, how did you find the application process? You know what was difficult? What was easy?
Meet Barot:
I didn’t feel like it was that different from undergraduate applications for college. I felt like it was just more focused on the research that I was doing in this, in my job and in undergrad. So I felt pretty comfortable writing about that, so it wasn’t so, I suppose.
Tim Baker:
And then, so when you were doing your application, when you were trying to get letters – one of the big questions we get from potential applicants who should reach out you for letters? What kind of questions did you ask them? Do you have any advice for potential applicants about how to go about that?
Meet Barot:
I would say anybody who is affiliated with your research that you have good relationship with and that you have a good rapport with so you know them and they know you and they know what kind of person you are and what kinds of work that you do. Also, if you think that a lot of people know them, then maybe their reputation can help you out too. So that’s something to keep in mind, I think.
Tim Baker:
OK. And then you had mentioned that you were at the Flatiron Institute, so I assume you were doing some research prior to your application?
Meet Barot:
Yeah, I was doing research actually with (UNKNOWN) there of course. OK. So I started there as an intern and then I got a full time position as like a kind of research and an engineer, which was a pretty sweet thing, I think.
I mean, so that anyway helps.
Tim Baker:
OK. So, I mean, I assume basically since you’re working with (UNKNOWN), you had contact with faculty prior to applying, but would you recommend that you just reach out to faculty or potential applicants reach out to faculty?
Meet Barot:
I think if you’re interested in their work, I would say that you can always reach out and ask questions. I guess, I mean, a lot of the professors, I think, have like comments about, you know, I cannot help you get into the program if, you know, before you’re applying or something like that. Like maybe sometimes that’s not going to result in anything, but I don’t think it really detriment to your chances. So you might as well. That’s my view. Yeah, I think that’s a good view.
Tim Baker:
So you didn’t necessarily come from a university or industry to the programs more research institute, but how did you find a tradition going from that into a PhD program?
Meet Barot:
Yeah, I mean, it’s very similar in terms of the way that institute was. Like it’s just about doing research and like there’s everybody there is a scientist that is trying to get publications, you know, and I mean, there are differences, slight differences in between in terms of like because the people there don’t have to apply for grants and things like that.
So that makes certain things easier and whatnot. But anyway, I mean like that’s for me, I guess the main thing is different is like taking classes again and that for the background that I have. So I studied chemistry and computer science when I was an undergrad, but mostly chemistry for most of my college. Like the computer science added at the end where I suddenly like to rush to fill it all in and like a bunch of summer classes and that kind of thing. So it was, it got me immersed in it, but then afterwards I think it was like it would have been better to have like a lot more maybe theoretical like and maybe more stats oriented classes back then. Because when I came to CDS, I think a lot of the courses that I was taking were pretty, I guess like more time consuming for me that I felt like a lot of other people just because a lot of other people I think had more of a math and statistics background than I did. That’s mostly what I think. So if I were to go back, I would go like, while I was working or something, I would have maybe brushed up more on like those topics and that would have been better for the transition, I think.
Tim Baker:
OK. it’s good advice. So you were already in New York City when you started, but you know, before you lived in New York City, I know you lived somehow local. You lived you grew up in New Jersey, I believe, as we discussed earlier. So your transition to New York City is not going to be as crazy as somebody coming from across the world. But you have advice for people who are coming to New York City for the first time, know anything like searching for housing or any sort of advice that you can offer for things like that?
Meet Barot
Yeah, I would say that there’s a lot of online groups and things like that that’s what most people would use. I mean, and in terms of this, like, I never use that because I was an undergrad at NYU and then after that I worked at the Veterans, which is also in New York. And then I had a lot of friends that lived in the city already. So I, you know, I could find roommates like that because I had local connections. But, I think these online groups are pretty reliable, I think.
I mean, there’s always difficulties not knowing who you’re going to live with before you actually get there. But I mean, this is like even beyond just the NYU people coming into the program, like general housing, NYC kinds of groups for students and things like that. But if you can find someone going to the same program, I mean, that’s probably the easiest thing, right? You can actually connect with other people, like from your class and like make some sort of I mean, I know right now we have a lot of remote stuff going on. So actually maybe people are more receptive now to like making these connections before you actually get to New York. Yeah.
Tim Baker:
So now you in this story of your career at CDS, you’re at CDS and what is life like for a PhD student at CDS? Like, what is your day in the life like for you?
Meet Barot:
So, I mean, personally, I have all different type of days, you know, but because I think certain periods of time you really rush to get things done and then other periods of time you feel like you have to rush to get things done a lot.
So you need a little bit slower pace. I don’t know that the day in the life when we’re actually going to CBS, I suppose I can talk about just the things that stayed the same. I guess I do feel that there are times that I work maybe like 10 hours a day during the week and on the weekends right now I try to have some like that’s my time to relax, you know, depending on what stage of the project that I’m doing is on. Like it could be anywhere between like once a week or like maybe once every three weeks or something. If I don’t feel that I need any guidance, you know, but interactions with other PhD students, I guess it’s, I mean again all this is like kind of different now. But we would get lunch every night, pretty much every day, go to some place out in New York. Right now that would be really nice. You know, like you know, in New York, the weather’s good, stuff like that. But now we just have like kind of scheduled because we like say, OK, well, we’ll call each other at this time during lunch, you know, during the week.
And then we have like a little get together, although I think that’s been smaller (UNKNOWN). So, it sounds like you are able to strike a work life balance. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s like pretty essential because otherwise you’re going to get I don’t know, you get burnt out, you know. And I think I did kind of do that my first year. Like my first year I felt so I’m in, I’m going be in my third year now. So my first year because I had classes and research that was going on. I was kind of trying to do a lot of things at once. Like on one hand, I had continual projects that I was doing before I got into the program and I wanted to like finish those up in a certain way. And then I also wanted to like exploring new things. And because I was coming from like the Research Institute, I didn’t need to take classes. I had like a certain pace in my mind of like the research that I was doing, and I was trying not to let it slow down because of classes. But they definitely, it definitely does impact how much time that you have.
So like, I mean, you learn a lot, right? These classes are tough, but like you, you learn, you learn things. So but it requires a lot of your time. So I think at that time I should have been a little bit more tempering how much that I would expect myself to be able to do, because otherwise, if you spread yourself too thin, you will, you won’t be able to do any of the things that you wanted to do very well. On the other hand, I think a lot of the times we have periods of our life that are very intense or not very intense, and then variations really make life what it is, you know.
Tim Baker:
Definitely. So how do you find the culture at the Center for Data Science in general? Yeah, within the classroom, socially. You know what, how would you describe that?
Meet Barot:
I think people are very open to, you know, talking about problems that other people are working on. Among peer students, I think you can basically go into anybody’s office and start talking about something. And then it’s very like they start talking about something research related and people will be engaged, you know, and I think that that’s cool.
I think that that’s something that, you know, really facilitates ideas being spread and developed. And like, I think that’s like a healthy research environment, you know, like if people are open to that kind of thing. So, and in terms of social stuff, I think I mean beyond that, that kind of social, I guess there’s multiple kinds of social. I think people are generally pretty friendly if busy. So because, you know, in maybe other situations, a lot of people might be very friendly. But during the semester and stuff, everybody is pretty focused on doing research and working that it may be hard to like get everybody together or something outside and like for the relaxed because everybody has different deadlines, you know. So it’s not like everybody has a single thing that they’re working towards. So like not everybody always feels like now we can relax, you know, like even at the end of the semester, people are working on deadlines and stuff. So because like, people have different times where they feel like socializing.
It can be like I have a lot of, like one on one kinds of friendships, I think. But like a group, things are much harder to plan and things like that. But I guess I’m also, like, more of a one on one kind of person there’s that.
TIm Baker:
Yeah. So earlier in the podcast, you briefly mentioned touched on the research that you’re doing. Would you mind sharing a little bit more of, you know, kind of what you’re working on, what you’re focused on?
Meet Barot:
Yeah. So my research is focused on determining the function of proteins using machine learning methods. One of the things that, so the most recent project I guess that has been mostly completed is like this method for determining protein function from protein interaction networks, different organisms. So if you have multiple species, like if you have multiple organisms and each of those organisms have like a network of protein interactions, how do you use, like all of this network information stored in the separate networks in order to create a single machine learning model, that can use all of the training data from all of these different networks to predict functions of all of the proteins in all organisms.
Tim Baker:
So you’re actually an interesting person to ask this question because you have experience in a research institute, and a lot of the PhD students don’t have that experience to really compare and contrast or, you know, what are the benefits of doing research at a place like CVS versus doing it at a research institute?
Meet Barot:
Why did I go from there to being at CDS? I mean, one big thing is that you can choose your advisors, right? You can go and do research with all of the people at CDS, and there is a bunch of very interesting stuff that people are working on. And that choice itself, I think, is a very good thing. I mean, working at one of those research institutes, you’re just you’re working with a single most likely with a single group. I don’t think it’s like really a solid thing if you want to change the research that you’re doing to work on like some completely different topic, right? Yeah. I mean, there are definitely things about being in a research institute that are very good. But being in CDS allows you to, like, learn a lot more.
And that’s the primary reason why I am doing my PhD is to learn more things, because doing research at a research institute would like allow you to learn at your own pace certain things. But sometimes that way of learning unstructured is not suitable for like diving into some very new thing. You’re always going to be building upon your prior knowledge, like very incrementally, and you’re not going to be able to build up like new foundations very, very easily, I think unless you’re very good at self-learning, in which case that’s a wonderful skill to have, and that’s something that you would learn through doing a Ph.D. as well. Another benefit also is that you are surrounded by other people who are also in the same decision. All the other Ph.D. students are there, whereas in the Research Institute, if you don’t have a Ph.D., you’re going to be one of a few people, I think. I mean, maybe depending on where it is. You know, for me, I was basically, one of the only people my age there and everybody else had a few who were post-docs and whatnot.
So being in a research environment with other people at the same level and like looking at this that similar papers as you are looking at is a good thing so that you can talk more, I guess, candidly about things and like not be afraid to, you know, make yourself look not knowledgeable or something to like. Yeah.
Tim Baker:
Cool. So couple of final questions real quick. Why did you ultimately decide to come to CDS?
Meet Barot:
So I think that it’s like all tied to like the research that I was already doing at Flatiron. And because I work with (UNKNOWN) here, that was a big reason for me to come. Another thing is that my family is in New Jersey and I would like to I was thinking that it would be good for me to be nearby in my family. And also I was here in New York for the previous six years before I applied. So I didn’t want to leave all my friends at the time, which might be a lot different from the reasons that some other people might choose CDS I’m realizing now. But, yeah, but it might be the exact reason some people choose CDS.
Tim Baker:
Yeah. So this is kind of a weird question, but it’s, you know, it doesn’t have much to do with CDS. But for somebody who’s coming to New York City for the first time, what is the one thing that you recommend that they experience?
Meet Barot:
You know, usually I’m not very good at these kinds of recommendations, but (CROSSTALK) depends on the person. You know, I would say if you’re I guess if you’re like me, I would go to any of these like musical events that are going on. Like there’s so many, so many weird things. Like there’s like a screamo concert in Tompkins Square Park every Saturday or something, or it was going on for a while. I went to that. That was pretty interesting. You can go biking along the East River. There are really nice areas that bike around there. I don’t know. Basically if you have a niche interest, you should find meetups of that interest in the city because you will find that that niche interest also has like, like subcultures of subcultures, you know.So that’s more of a general piece of advice, I guess.
Tim Baker:
Yeah, I think that’s good advice. So final question, is any sort of last or final advice that you have for the (UNKNOWN) 2020 applicants?
Meet Barot:
I think you guys are applying at a very special time. You should not lose hope. I don’t know, I just, I think the world is changing very rapidly. And it’s hard to say that, you know, like what you should do now, but make sure you are in a good place mentally. You know, I think that’s what my advice would be, be healthy.
Tim Baker:
That’s great advice. Cool. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the CBS Admissions podcast. The music for the podcast was composed by the instrumental artist, Cryptic one. You can find his work at crypticone.bandcamp.com.