Student blogs

Hello from the second semester of the Molecular Techniques in Life Sciences (MTLS) Master’s programme at Stockholm University (SU)! Here, I hope to reflect on my very first semester of the programme on my academics, new friends and offer some advice to my past self.

While I am still here as a blogger, my time in courses at KI has officially ended for the time being. We had a single weekend break between our end at KI and the start of SU back at the end of January. Now that things have settled down a bit, I wanted to share more of my reflections with you.

Remember to check if any of the courses mentioned here have changed since writing this!

Courses and Academics

Structure

Have you ever only attended one course at a time in one single semester? I definitely did not ever have that experience before I started at KI in August. The first semester primarily falls on a structure that relies on consecutive courses (4 in total) with slight overlaps between them. (Do note that this structure can change year by year as feedback and change is always relevant to the programme). Personally, I had to take some time to adjust to how concentrated the courses ended up being. In a single week, you only attend that one course, and that one course could be finished in the span of 4 weeks.  It was disorienting because I had less time to digest the material in between classes but I eventually appreciated the focus they allowed us to have on one course’s material.

Teachers

An additional new structure that was surprising to me was the presence of multiple lecturers and professors for a single course. When I was in my bachelor’s programme, all my seminars were very small due to the small size of the school (there were less than 10 people in my major in my cohort!). Therefore, all my lectures under one course were primarily handled by a single professor. Here, there are multiple guest lectures and professors assigned to the course with the presence of TAs for feedback and assistance as well. They all have different expertise and a diverse range of experiences that contributed to different angles on the material.

Course Content

If I could describe the course content of the semester, I would describe it as a taste of everything. You have some foundational skills, textbook learning, mixed learning and sprinkle in some math and coding at the end.

Applied Communication

We started the semester with Applied Communication (6 ECTS) which was the perfect levelling ground for the Master’s. We reviewed foundational skills in science communication, and I enjoyed the rhetorics portion of the course the most. It was a good reminder that as much as science is dependent on actual factual knowledge, mathematics and analysis, it also is reliant on how we effectively communicate that information.

Genetics and Frontiers in translational medicine

Then we quickly moved on to learning foundational factual knowledge in Molecular genetics and genomics (5 ECTS) and a mixed structure of learning in Frontiers in translational medicine (13 ECTS). Genetics was more of a traditional classroom setting (for me at least) and I welcomed that. I studied the textbooks and for the exam with some group presentations in between.  In Frontiers, my favorite portion of the classes were some of the visits we had to facilities (e.g. A zebrafish facility or the Biobank facility). It was exciting to see how the course material fits into the real world. Additionally, we had a small wet lab experience in the Frontiers course where I did cell culture for the first time!

Biostatistics

Finally, Biostatistics (6 ECTS), the last course, challenged me the most. I had to break out my rusty R programming experience and fully dive into the statistical portion of the course. Luckily the professors and TAs were there to answer any questions during the lab writing sessions after every lecture.

Right now, as a sneak peek into the next semester, we started off with a course on programming.  While the topics might feel disconnected at first, I foresee myself using more and more of the first semester’s contents in our Bioinformatics course.

Making new friends

In addition to academics, the first semester was also primarily about navigating the new city (as I hinted at in my first ever blog!) and new friendships. Our programme consists of approximately 30+ students. A lot of socializing surprisingly came in the form of the 10 minute breaks during the lecture where we gathered in groups to chat or drink some coffee. Since a lot of us lived on the KTH campus at the beginning, we also headed back from class together or met each other on the way to KI. As the Biomedicum bus stop was the first stop of its journey, we could often occupy a little bubble at the back of the bus.

The second year students also organized a nice overnight trip to Osqvik (a cabin owned by KTH’s THS) for a fun bonding time with games, food, nature and a sauna.

One of my favourite days with my programme was our December cultural potluck. We each brought a dish from our own cultures leading to one of the most diverse spread of food I have ever had. I made Jamaican chicken soup using some seasoning I brought all the way from home. Hearing people give me positive reviews of my soup made me super proud of sharing something with everyone as well. That night, I ate and ate and ate. I ate so much that I had to take an extra walk at night to help me digest all the tasty food I had!

Advice for the past me

Finally, I wanted to share some advice for the past me (and maybe the future you). To keep things simple, I would say: Be proactive!

If I could go back to August again, I would be more proactive in both academic and friendships. Take advantage of the exposure to different experts in the field. Learn more about the research or dive deeper into the material. Ask more questions and talk to more people. Ultimately, what we receive from the resources provided depends on the effort and choice we make ourselves.

Similarly for friendship and life, I would tell myself to step out of my comfort zone (literally because I should have gone outside more while it was still sunny). Be open to trying new things in a new city. Go to more museums, take more walks and maybe step out of Stockholm too if there’s the chance.

If you’re looking to come to the MTLS programme in the future, I hope that this has helped create a picture of the first semester. If you have any questions on MTLS, you can send me an email!