The fact that the impact of these top collaborators is more significant the earlier they occur in a researcher’s career (Qi et al, 2017; Li et al, 2019) means that when students are least knowledgeable about the world of scientific research is when their decisions may be of highest impact for their future careers as scientists. It should be noted that while the impact of collaborating with top scientists is significant, Qi et al found that this relationship is not linear. There is a diminishing return to collaborating with an increasingly superlative scientist, and this is an indication that an early researcher does not need to be extraordinarily selective, and that almost any scientist in the top 10% of their field would be a valuable boost to an early researcher’s career.