I've written so many emails and hosted so many meetings with students on this topic, I figured it might be worth just writing some of it down and directing folks here, so question and answer sessions can be more tailored to specific projects and nuts and bolts programmatic stuff. Also, some students have a lot of guidance from undergraduate advisors and some don't. Jess Calarco has written an excellent guide demystifying aspects of grad school to help level the playing field,