Brandon Koch

My #UMNFirst Story

As a first-generation college student with parents and an older sibling who never even enrolled in college, flying halfway across the country to start a PhD program in Minnesota felt like a gamble. Whenever I tried to talk about graduate school with my family, I was met with puzzling looks and found it difficult to explain to them why I was going to be in school for at least another five years even though I had just graduated with my Bachelor’s degree. Even after lengthy discussions, most of my family thought I was going to be treating patients and performing surgeries after graduate school (since I would someday be “Dr. Koch”), despite the fact I was going to study biostatistics.

After starting the PhD program at Minnesota, I was met with some of the most difficult challenges of my life. Coursework was much more demanding than in undergraduate school, and I had never lived in a city or anywhere farther than a short drive away from home. Fortunately, many people at Minnesota (such as my advisors, professors, and other students in the program) helped me overcome these obstacles, and after five years, I graduated with my PhD.

After graduation, I returned to my undergraduate institution - the University of Nevada, Reno - as a faculty member (my dream job). It was a surreal experience to teach a course in the same exact classroom I had once sat in as a student. Even though there were many times I questioned the path I was on while going through school, I’m happy I persisted and would do it all over again to get to where I am today.