We’re here because we care about your well-being and success

This course was created and is run by faculty who are devoting their time/energy to it on top of to normal teaching responsibilities, with the aim of improving the experience of PhD students in the Statistics Department. We care deeply about your well-being, sense of belonging, and ability to succeed at UBC (and beyond). In the context of this course, that means that…

We want to get to know you

Be yourself. Share your thoughts. Come to office hours. We want to learn about your research interests, your life outside of class, how you got here, where you’re going, etc. At the end of the day (and in class!), we’re all humans and connecting with you is one of the most interesting/rewarding aspects of teaching.

We want you to get to know each other

Students in this course are embarking on a multi-year journey. There will be many ups and downs. We hope that your interactions in this course help create a community—one of mutual respect and support, and also of creativity and fun.

We want to see you even more when you’re struggling, lost, or down

Those of us that finished the PhD had our fair share of struggles throughout (and beyond), and current PhD students are still regularly struggling. We recognize that there are “good” types of struggle—ones that build you up and help you grow—and “bad” types of struggle—ones that don’t make you a better researcher or person and negatively impact your PhD experience. When things get hard, the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself, and seeking support is the absolute best thing you can do—even if it feels difficult. We can, together, find ways to productively deal with both the good and the bad.

We have high expectations for you to be thoughtful and engaged

This course is not supposed to overwhelm you with work. We specifically designed it this way because we understand the pressure first-year PhD students are under, juggling courses, research, and their personal lives. However, we do expect you to be thoughtful in your engagement with the course materials and in your interaction with your peers. Substantial amounts of research have shown that PhD programs can create cultures of isolation and impostorism, in which students feel judged for common struggles many experience, instead of coming together to support one another. We ask you to be thoughtful in how you validate your peer’s identities and experiences, and create a safe and supportive space for everyone.

Acknowledgments

This page is inspired by (and adapted from) the corresponding page from Harvard’s CS2901/2, which was itself inspired by Evan Peck’s What I want you to know about me as your professor.