Nayanna Mercado-Soto (She/ Her/ Hers) is a 24-year-old born and raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez with an Industrial Microbiology bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate. Currently she is a first year PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program. She studies Aspergillus fumigatus host-pathogen interactions using zebrafish as a model organism. Nayanna is passionate about education, science, and outreach. Follow her on Twitter: @Nay_MMS

PREP: A Non-Traditional Route To PhD

Discover Nayanna Mercado-Soto’s non-traditional path to pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences by participating in a Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP). Read about how this program helped her gain research experience, improve her communication skills, and prepare for the grad school application cycle.

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How to Handle the Jump Straight from Undergrad to PhD 

Are you considering going straight from an undergraduate degree to a PhD, skipping the master’s? At 22 years old, Tess shares her experience of this and provides some valuable insights about how she prepared and applied for her PhD in Computing without doing a master’s degree.

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