It has been a long time since I made my last post here, mostly because my experiments, classes, and courses require most of my time. But also, I felt that I had nothing special to share here other than what I have already shared. Today, I felt like I should write about why going abroad for part of your PhD is a good thing. This is because, for the last 6 months, I have been working in a lab in the US at North Carolina State University (NCSU) on a side project that is now turning into my main work. I don’t know how popular this kind of experience is in other countries, but doing a sandwich PhD (as it is called in Brazil) is somewhat well-known, and I’d say a good number of people end up doing it.
I must say that I have tried several times to think of how I could explain to you why my experience abroad has been very good so far. Most of the ways I came across to explain it had to do with what a PhD student’s life is like in my country. Indeed, some of the aspects I think are good about doing part of the PhD abroad have to do with what a PhD student’s life is like in Brazil. This can, for sure, be the case for a lot of other PhD students in several countries around the world who have very low funding for their projects. However, I think that even PhD students in countries with lots of science funding (such as the US) could benefit from doing part of their PhD abroad.
Several articles in Nature have covered this kind of issue in various countries. Brazil is not the only case, but for sure, PhD student wages do not cover living costs in most of the big cities in Brazil.
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01392-w)
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03394-0)
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01279-y)
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01504-8)
The very first point that I would like to talk about is how it feels like when you are working in an environment that provides you with what you need. I would like to say first that some of the things I will describe might be exclusive (or not, I don’t really know) to the university that I am currently working in.
A better scientific atmosphere. During this short period working on my sandwich PhD, I was able to participate in and present at scientific meetings. In the last few months, I was able to attend conferences and scientific meetings where a significant number of PIs attended and actively participated (this is not the case in many places). It is indeed worth noting that the department I am working in has monthly conferences with presenters from different places and with different backgrounds. Another very good experience was what they called “SHORTS,” which are a series of short talks (usually 30 minutes) followed by 30 minutes of very casual meetings between scientists, where I was able to meet several students and PIs. All these events provided me with a scientific atmosphere in which I could see brilliant scientists discussing science, and therefore, I could improve my scientific thinking because I could see it happening just in front of me. Not only being able to attend these events where people discuss science but also seeing different points of view is something that makes you grow professionally. So, this is something that you could benefit from by doing a sandwich PhD.
Better structure. Working in an environment with a structure that provides you with what you need to do your best is stimulating. Sometimes while working with the research you might feel disappointed in working with it because when you are in a country that has low science/research funding you will get a lot of no(s) when you want to do something different. This might involve spending a lot of time trying to get equipment, devices, or any other kind of structure that is needed, and often not getting it either because there was no such equipment/device/reagent available or because those who have it would not lend it. Not only did the departmental/lab structure provide me with a very good working environment, but so did the university. Two examples of this are the availability to print posters at the university and the availability of a 3D printer, both for free.
Other lab cultures: Depending on your background and country, by this time (if you are also on your PhD journey), you might have participated in up to three lab cultures. In general, this is a high number for a Brazilian PhD student—one during undergrad, one in the Master’s program, and one during your PhD (this, of course, does not apply to those educated in systems with rotations, which is not the case in Brazil’s system). Getting to know and actively participating in other lab cultures is a very interesting experience. Some labs have more cooperative atmospheres; some do not. Some labs encourage teamwork; some do not. Some labs have commons for general use; some do not. Some labs have lab meetings; some do not. Some labs have personal weekly meetings; some do not. These are only some aspects that I can remember so far, but there are many others. I consider these aspects important for one to experience and discover which one they fit into more.
Other cultures: I have already participated in an exchange program before, as an undergrad student, and the conclusions I reached at that time regarding the experience of being abroad were pretty much the same as now. Being abroad allows you to get to know many other cultures and people’s ways of living. That is not something easy to explain because it is more something that you feel rather than you ‘understand’. After my experience in Chile in 2016 as an undergrad student, I used to say that by spending 6 months there, I got to know more about my own country. Sometimes we are so used to what we are doing, how we live and the things our culture imposes on us that we don’t even notice that the way we live is just one in the middle of an ocean of different ways of living. When we go abroad and we live it, we experience it and try to understand and see how people in the place we go live, how they behave, and what their beliefs are, we can then understand more about ourselves. There are also many questions people ask about your country that you might never have thought about, and from then on, you start understanding more and more about your own country.
Friends: Because you will probably need help in many (most of) the things you are going to do in the first 1-2 months (s) you will end up making some friends because you will end up interacting a lot with these people (this of course if you are not someone that do not ask for help at all). I ended up making some friends and had very good times with them. Some of them were from other countries and, therefore, I was able to exchange experiences, for example, cooking Brazilian food with them, and at the same time trying food/drinks from other countries too.
Embarrassing situations: I could not end this without mentioning the embarrassing situations (which are several). When you are not a native-level speaker of the language, or if you are not aware of all the details of that culture you are likely going to go through embarrassing situations which, although not very pleasant, make you improve on how to deal with situations like that. One very fun embarrassing situation I got was in my first week here, where I was asked by a very polite waitress how I would like the fried egg I was ordering, which caused a very big confusion and some blushing.
These are some of the points I think you should consider when thinking about it. Of course, these were my experiences and you might find something very different (for better or for worse). However, there is still a good chance you will have such good experiences as I have had, and it might be worth trying. I didn’t mention the downsides of doing part of the PhD abroad because they were far smaller than the positive aspects. Additionally, every experience has different positive and negative points, so it wouldn’t be worth focusing on the negatives.