Yale, UT, and Everything in Between: Maoli Vizcaíno on Building a Career in Earth Science

What really goes into choosing a graduate program in the geosciences? In this episode, Yale PhD candidate Maoli Vizcaíno offers an honest look at the decisions that shape an academic career: from navigating funding and institutional support to choosing between a master’s and a PhD.

——————

Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. 

Got a lava questions or want to be featured next? Email me at [e-mail]

——————

Transcript

Choosing Between UT Austin and Yale

[00:36:33] Diya Gaur: So what made you choose between like, okay, well, what were the things that you were considering when you had to pick between UT, Austin, and Yale? Like, what were the maybe different things in terms of, you know, academics or resources? What exactly drew you to Yale over UT? 

[00:36:48] Maoli Vizcaíno: Yeah, so, um I think it was, it was a couple things.

Uh, both were by my family. So it was by my dad and it was by my sister. So I was like, great. UT, uh, the professor, he, um, had a project that I could go in. For the first couple of years. And that was really attractive to me because I had never come up with my own research project before yet. So I was like, that'll be great to like, have something that I know I'm doing while I'm, you know, getting everything settled and like starting this program, you know, versus at Yale, I knew I'd have to come in and figure it out.

[00:37:24] : And that was 

[00:37:25] Maoli Vizcaíno: intimidating to me. Um, but I, you know, I felt both, both professors who I was looking at were people who like, I had heard a lot about from, you know, other people and like, you know, I think it's always important to like. Oh, and as a side note too, like, unsolicited advice you didn't ask me, but I will say if, you know, you are interested in going in, I would definitely, if you haven't already, like, think about where you would be able to do research.

I think that if someone wants to do geology, like, undergrad research is, like, extremely important. I think more And then in other fields where it's kind of a given that you're not like gonna always be like, have done biology research or like, if you're pre pre med or whatever, because it's like, why, you know, lots of dangerous things going on.

I don't, I don't know. I don't know anything about pre med, but for geology, I think, you know, you know, thinking about where, where schools, you will be able to like, talk to professors, gain a real relationship with a couple of them, like work in their labs for real, for real. Like, I think that's a huge, huge thing.

Like, something you should think about. For sure. But yeah, so research wise, that was it. Um, I ended up choosing Yale, um, because, um, one, is I knew that I was going to be coming in with another student. So I knew that my, um, the professor, my professor here at Yale, she was also recruiting another student, so there were two of us.

And so, um. I talked to her and she was like, I'm probably gonna go. She was actually also choosing between UT and Yale. Oh wow, interesting. She was looking at biology at UT and then obviously, but yeah. So then she was like, I think I'm going to go Yale. And I was like, okay, if I go to Yale, I'll be going with someone.

And I love having a buddy, like I love commiserating. And I was like, pretty sure I would be the only student coming into the other lab. And then, um, UT. UT really did me dirty. So I did liberal arts undergrad, but I also did a master's. I remember they were like, um, you don't have the correct prereqs from undergrad for the program.

So you'd have to take an extra class to fulfill those prereqs. And the professor I was applying with, he was like, she has a master's degree, like, who cares if she missed one science class in unde