To assist our first-time visitors and ensure they make the most of their maiden voyage to CSHL, we asked several resident scientists and staff members to share some “insider” tips. Their words of wisdom provide the perfect crash course for all who step foot on campus!

It is our pleasure to introduce the launch of our guest writer series. The series will highlight pieces from course and meeting participants, and graduate students of the Watson School of Biological Sciences who share their personal insights to a meeting or course in which s/he took part. Kicking off the Series is Heather Ray, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an alumna of the 2017 Xenopus course, who recounts her CSHL course experiences, and the unexpected benefits her participation at the course continually presents.

For the fifth installment of the #CSHLCourseLife Series, we turned to our alumni liaisons for their “insider tips”. Recent course participants themselves, the alumni liaisons share tips on a wide array of topics – including how to prepare for a course and how to make the most of chance interactions during a course – and we hope their collective wisdom will be valuable as you prepare to apply and/or attend a CSHL course.