tenguru

I know I am a little late to this discussion, but I thought I would add something about saving on food costs.
 
I'm not in grad school yet, but one thing I do that really helps is meal plan and prep food in advance. I go grocery shopping every Saturday and then I do a big cook on Sundays so that I can put all my lunches in tupperware containers for the week. I started doing this about a month ago and my life has gotten so much easier. It is also easier to see how much money I am spending each week.
 
Here is a link to a video that helped me get started: I hope this helps
 

Where I go to school a D in undergrad is not passing. A 2.0 GPA is. Therefore, by comparison if a 3.0 is required to pass it would be more like a C......not a D. I wouldn't freak out until you speak with someone who has experience in admissions and knows about the programs you are applying to. It is possible to get into a Ph.D. program with a few B's on your transcript. There may be some hoops you have to jump through but I wouldn't write it off.

a B in grad school is equivalent to getting a D in college

This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
 
And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
 
Back to the original question though:
- Be open and willing to learn.
- If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
- Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
- Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
- Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
- Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
- Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
- If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
- Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
 
There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.

Sure. I'll put my marriage on hold (so long husband, go find a gf for the next 7 years while I finish my PhD), give my pets away, etc., just so I can focus on research. That doesn't seem like a recipe for disaster. 
 
I am a pretty successful student, I think, and I work maybe 6-8 hours a day (I'm in the humanities, so no lab work, but I do have to work on independent research and I also have teaching duties). That leaves 8 hours of sleep, and the rest of the time to the other so-called distractions. You see, I found that after working more than 6 hours, I was no longer productive. I'd sit in front of the computer staring into space, or rereading paragraphs from a book over and over unable to concentrate.
 
If I didn't have a partner* at home willing to look at my drafts or bounce ideas with (not to mention the emotional support, the cooking when I'm not in the mood to, etc.), a cat to snuggle up to me when I'm having writer's block, or a dog to force me to go outside a couple of times a day so I can go and process ideas during a walk, I would not be successful. Productivity isn't about spending every waking hour "at work," but about making your working hours count.
 
* this could also be a friend/roommate. It just so happens to be my partner.
 
Going out to beer with friends isn't just a "social" activity. We talk about our research... we bounce ideas back and forth. It releases tension but it also allows us to "work" by developing our thoughts. I find inspiration in those moments.
 
The people I know who struggle the most are those who don't have any of those things and who focus exclusively on "work." They live by themselves because roommates are too distracting. They don't have pets. They don't go to anything "social." There's no balance. Their work suffers... they don't really exchange ideas with anyone else, and what they produce reflects that.

I am already learning to give up all things I used to enjoy so I can be prepared for what's ahead I know it will be worth it sorry. I get your point work-life balance is important, but who goes into a PhD program and does not expect that they will have to put many things they want on hold, my question is why bother doing it if you are not willing to give your full 100% effort and dedication. I rather spend some alone time for a few years than have to live with knowing the fact that I could have got more done, got higher grades, wrote more papers, etc. when I had the opportunity. 

I am not saying I will be only studying the whole time but I can't have major distractions like some people do, they would take up too much time and to me it is nothing more than an additional burden weighing me down. I just want to approach my studies these four years very seriously, a PhD program is a lot more work and more difficult plus you are being graded, so you cannot expect to have work life balance. Plus it is not like you are not going to have plenty of time to enjoy your pets, hobbies ,relationships,  once you are done so why not them put them aside temporarily so you can be the most productive in your studies and research.

I am going to devote all my resources to getting A's in my coureses and doing well in my assistantship duties, sure I'll interact with the other students at times but I think everything else will be less priority. People say grades are not important but you need to have high grades to maintain your funding
 
Also I am glad I have no other responsibilities e.g. Pets, relationship, children, etc. if you have those they will just be a big distraction to your studies. I'm also giving up all the pleasures I used to do like video games during my doctoral studies, I'm just treating it like a professional job now which it is.

Btw 始めまして 私も日本語わかりますよ。13歳の時から日本語勉強していましたから、今はもうなんでもわかる程度です。主に中国歴史研究しますが、日本も興味あります。
私は今MCGILLに通ってます。Professor Thomas Lamarre 知ります？彼は私のClassical Japanese の先生です。あなたは今どの学校？

Nice to meet you too! Very cool, you certainly have studied longer than me (so, thanks for using kantan nihongo)! Haha. I don't know Thomas Lamarre, but Ill look him up.   My classical Japanese Prof. was Mack Horton at Cal, although I did a bit of work on the Heijimonogarari while doing my year abroad at Sophia. I'll be in Eugene pursuing my MA in early modern Japanese history starting in the Fall. よろしくね〜

Just to add my personal experience to the mix: I got into a top public school (Berkeley) with 97th percentile verbal scores on the GRE but only 33rd percentile math scores (I applied to a humanities program, and I'm just not that great at timed math tests). I got the standard funding package without any extra fellowship tacked on, which is definitely enough to live on, but I'm planning on applying for other external fellowships as soon as possible once I get there to bump it up a bit. Even if your GRE scores don't get you the chance for getting special merit-based fellowships above and beyond the standard package as an entering student, this doesn't mean that you won't have chances to apply for further funding over the course of your graduate studies! I don't think that there were even that many merit scholarships that entering grad students could qualify for (based on what I remember from the funding/scholarships section of the Berkeley website). Don't let your GRE scores define you or drive you crazy - a good SOP and LORs are in my opinion much more important.

Haha. No. They accept less than 40 people each cohort. You have no idea what you are talking about. Go back and crawl in your hole, no one needs your opinion.

I'll give some of my input.
 
Don't read message boards like these, the only thing they will do is psyche you out. Instead, follow the admissions instructions very clearly and write to the best of your ability. I just registered on these forums and read some of the applications forums and everyone makes it seems these applications are rocket science!
 
I only applied for two MPH programs and got accepted into both. I don't even have an amazing GPA high B+.

He eats a lot. Plus, Canada tax. Wet food is more expensive than dry. Perhaps $100 is too high an estimation, but 80 at least. I don't try too hard to keep track.


It's rather irresponsible to take on two cats 2 years before grad school tbh, but most pet owners are less than ideal. I try not to judge people wrt their attitude about owning pets, but ugh. A cat is a 15+ year commitment. If you think that's too long, your local shelter has plenty of choice to show how many people don't get this...

Whoa, rvict, where are you buying your cat food from? My cat has to get prescription food (ie $$$) and it doesn't come anywhere close to even half that amount. Vet bills are a real risk, though.

I'm of the belief that when you choose to be a pet owner then it is your responsibility *for the life of the pet* to assure it adequate care. To me this would mean getting the apt that allows cats. Roommates can help. I understand your pain - I have a cat myself and the supply of cat-friendly apts is a small fraction of all apts. Doesn't matter, the cat is just another requirement on my list for an apt (along with things like price, size, and location).

If you honestly feel that keeping the cats would be too much of a strain then it is your responsibility to find them a good home. Please do not just take them to the shelter; put the work into finding them a suitable home. Finally, if it comes to that, think long and hard the next time you're considering a pet. Think about your future plans and be sure that a pet can fit into them. I know you can't always plan 100% but please do your best. A pet doesn't deserve to be shuffled around or killed because the owner had "things come up". If you can't reasonably assure that you can care for the pet for its life then please reconsider getting the pet.

One of the harder, more valuable lessons my professors/mentors had to beat into my thick skull was that there is no comparison between one's undergraduate coursework and the work one does in graduate school.
If you approach graduate coursework with an undergraduate's mindset and if you look at studying history in graduate school as a more rigorous iteration of majoring in history as an undergraduate., the you may find the work amazingly easy. At first, second, and third blush, this view is understandable--you're performing many of the same tasks albeit with greater frequency.

However, despite the apparent similarities, you're working toward an entirely different goal as a graduate student. That goal is the creation of new knowledge in your field of expertise. To achieve that goal, you will have to develop a different set of tools that include (but are not limited to) the ability: to define fields of specialization, to develop and to demonstrate a sufficient level of knowledge in those fields to pass qualifying exams, and also the ability to research and to write about a narrowly defined topic with a level of understanding that only thirty or forty people alive will really understand your dissertation.

So however you pick and choose the methods that will get you through your course work, I respectfully urge you to keep in mind that you're striving for goals that your expected to fulfill even though you may receive much less guidance on defining those goals and how to achieve them than you'd like. (To paraphrase, it is graduate school, not historians' school.)

I also recommend that what ever choices you make in terms of method, if you study history, you will be responsible to meet all of your professors' explicit and implicit expectations. If you end up with even tempered, experienced professionals, the process of defining the expectations will be excruciatingly difficult. If you end up with professors who are less so, you will be in for one of the most daunting intellectual, emotional, and psychological challenges of your life. (But I'm not bitter.)

Now, in terms of studying assigned works, I recommend that you first figure out where a book or article fits within the historiography of the field. This task can be done by reading the acknowledgements, the introduction, recently published historiographical essays on the field, and a handful of shorter reviews. The process of reading the historiographical essays and the shorter reviews can be especially beneficial if you do background research on this historian who wrote the work you're reading and also those who wrote the reviews.

If you perform this set of tasks often enough, you will get to the point where you will be able to talk about where a work fits not only within the historiography, but also in the trajectory of a historian's professional and intellectual development. (Or, at the very least, you'll get some phone numbers and email addresses to use if you have questions, comments, or concerns.)

Then, I suggest you read the bibliography backwards (i.e. secondary works first, primary sources last). If your understanding of the historical facts (who, what, when, where, why, and how) within the book is less than what you would like, you may want to read the book very carefully--including every footnote/end note. If you think you're good to go on the basic facts, you can probably get by studying the book for its argument.

In any case, I do suggest that if a professor articulates an expectation (such as to read every word of every book), do all you can to meet that goal. You never know when a professor is going to be grumpy (or playful) and decide to pull your card. (If you find yourself getting pummeled by your professors during a semester, you may be doing things very right.)

I also suggest that while you build relationships with fellow graduate students, please consider the possibility that regardless of how highly you think of them (or they of you), your peer group is actually the professors in your department and that your primary competitor is your own limitations (whether real, imagined, or self imposed). When you're talking about history, demonstrate (with the appropriate amount of civility, intellectual generosity, and good cheer) that you are more than capable of eating everyone's lunch--including the person who wrote the book under discussion, if she happens to be in the room.

HTH.

i mentioned this in another thread, but thought it merited its own topic. a lot of people on thegradcafe seem to be pretty consumed with graduate program rankings. i think the prestige or national recognition of a given graduate program is important to our future career prospects, but i firmly believe that the US news and world rankings system (which is what most people are referring to when they mention "top 10 in my subfield") is deeply flawed. the rankings are built upon the opinions of other historians, but those historians are ranking all subfields and usually only have a real knowledge of the movers and shakers in their own subfields. as a result, the big name schools tend to make it into the top 10 by default because profs will just say, "penn's a great school, they must have a strong african history program."
the US department of education hands out lots of funding to different schools and designates them as national resource centers for given geographical regions. schools have to apply for this designation and funding and they go up for review every 3 years, so the centers are usually located at the schools with the strongest area studies programs in whatever region for which they receive funding. the schools that become national resource centers are usually (but not always) the schools that receive title VI funding and the ability to grant FLAS fellowships to graduate students.
so, while the NRC and FLAS designations are built around "area studies" programs and not necessarily "history" programs alone, i think they provide a pretty strong indication (at least stronger than the US news and world rankings) of which school is strong in which geographical focus.
so, for the rankings obsessed, here is the funding situation for 2010-2013: (schools with slashes means they're in consortium, which means they're splitting the funding)
africa: boston university, harvard, indiana, michigan state, ohio, UC berkeley, florida, kansas, UNC, penn/bryn mawr/haverford/swarthmore (undergrad only), wisconsin, yale.
canada: maine/SUNY plattsburgh, washington/western washington.
east asia: columbia, cornell, duke, georgetown, harvard, ohio state, stanford, UC berkeley, hawaii, illinois/indiana, kansas, michigan, oregon, southern california/UCLA, virginia, washington, wisconsin, yale (no FLAS), michigan state, colorado (no NRC), utah, penn.
international: columbia, duke, indiana, michigan state, penn state (no FLAS), illinois, kansas (no NRC, undergrad only), minnesota, UNC, pittsburgh, wisconsin, washu.
latin america: columbia/NYU, florida international/miami (no FLAS), indiana, ohio state, stanford, tulane, arizona, UCLA, UC berkeley, florida, illinois/chicago, kansas, michigan, new mexico, UNC/duke, pittsburgh, texas-austin (no NRC), wisconsin madison/wisconsin milwaukee, vanderbilt, yale (no FLAS).
middle east: arizona (undergrad only), UC berkeley, columbia, george washington (no FLAS), georgetown, harvard, indiana (middle east), NYU, ohio state (undergrad only), princeton, UCLA, chicago, michigan, UNC/duke, penn, texas-austin, washington, yale, indiana (islamic studies, no NRC), portland state.
russia/eastern europe/eurasia: columbia (no NRC), duke/UNC (undergrad only for duke), georgetown, harvard, indiana (inner asian and uralic), indiana (russia and east european), ohio state, stanford, UC berkeley, chicago, illinois, kansas, michigan, pittsburgh, washington, wisconsin.
south asia: columbia, cornell/syracuse, UC berkeley, chicago, michigan, penn, texas-austin, wisconsin, washington.
southeast asia: cornell, northern illinois, UC berkeley/UCLA, hawaii (pacific islands, no FLAS), hawaii (southeast asia), michigan, wisconsin, washington.
western europe/europe: cornell (no NRC), UC berkeley (no FLAS), UCLA, forida, illinois, minnesota, UNC, texas, washu, wisconsin, yale.

There are many many strategies for this.  The only piece of universal advise I will give is that you can not read every word but you should turn every page.  As for me... when I was in course work I read every word of the introduction, the conclusion, I than looked at the notes to see what kind of sources the author used.  In part this is to decide if he or she could possibly reach the conclusions they do using those sources (this turns out to be a surprisingly easy way to spot massive problems in books).  I than pick a couple of chapters that seem most interesting or like they are key to why the book was assigned.
 
If chapters are repetitive, pick one.  Nature's Metropolis for example has three commodities chapters which are brilliant but for the sake of a grad seminar you really only need one to get the argument.   
 
Some people read the first sentence of every paragraph, which can work, but I don't use that very often. 
 
It may seem like a waste, but at least skim acknowledgements, after a bit you'll learn to read a lot into academic family trees.  Learn to read pictures and maps critically.  Are they there just for the sake of being there or are they part of the argument.  Hint, if they're not captioned well it's not a good sign for the book.
 
Articles will always take longer to read than the equivalent number of pages in a book.  They have to be read more closely.  Just the nature of the beast.
 
As for reading loads.... my masters program (respectable state school, not big name), was 1 book per week plus 1 article.  My phd program (ivy, big name), is between 1-2 books per week or the equivalent number of pages in articles but rarely both that many articles plus a monograph. 
 
In my experience "Reading" for course work, "Reading" for comps, and Reading for your own research are all very different and what I just said applies to course work.
 
For comps it's read the book until you get it and put it down.  In my program comps lists can be up to 250 books.  You can't spend a lot of time with anything and you learn to be super efficient.  It was my experience that books I really liked in comps I really had to have the discipline to put down.  If I liked it I had gotten the argument.

Back in the day, BA-MA-PhD used to be the standard route... but no longer. EVERY one of my professors have said not to bother with an MA. Just look on department websites and you will see that most of the admissions information is geared toward those applying with only a BA and then they include additional information such as, "Those coming in with an MA...."

I know this is not the case for everyone and I might get flamed for saying this but I think those who have areas which may need improvement or are without a defined focus are the ones that benefit the most from going the MA route first. And there's nothing wrong with that. Some, like Katzenmusik, will be in a better position to get into a better PhD program after an MA than immediately after their BA. But PhD programs nowadays are designed primarily for those coming in with only a BA.

Basically, apply widely to MA as well as PhD programs to hedge your bets and then sit back and go crazy for four months with the rest of us waiting to hear...

About your dog: I think that depends entirely on you and your program. I am in a social science program where the majority of my analysis and writing can be done from home, and I prefer to work from home or from a library (as opposed to my cube in the windowless cube farm). When I was taking classes I was generally there from 9-6 or so, but now that my coursework is finished I am rarely at the school itself. I go for meetings, seminars, interesting kinds of things and I do most of my work remotely. My time is verrry flexible, and if my building didn't prohibit it I would get a dog in a heartbeat. Another thing to keep in mind: a dog can be a great comfort when you're all stressed out over graduate school.

Advice?

Age:
-Don't feel like you have nothing to offer just because you are younger. I was 22 when I started graduate school. You got accepted to the program for a reason, and chances are you are just as equipped as any older students are to successfully complete the program, just in a different way.

-Your older classmates may be just as terrified as you. Talk to them. You have a lot in common. You are, after all, in the same place.

-You will feel like an imposter, like you don't belong, or like you are constantly behind. Or all three. It's normal. It will pass. (Well, sort of.) People of all ages go through this.

Adviser related:
-If you are lucky enough to get both research interest fit and personality fit perfect, congratulations! But sometimes, personality fit is more important than research interest fit as long as the research isn't too different. A great adviser is interested in your career development, likes you as a person, advocates for you, and wants to hear your ideas. Even if his or her research is quite different from yours, they may give you the autonomy to work on your own projects and just supervise you. A bad personality fit will drive you nuts, even if you love his or her research. Consider that when evaluating your adviser fit. (This will vary by field: research fit may be less important in the humanities, more important in the natural and physical sciences. Social sciences are somewhere in-between.)

-Don't be afraid to be straight up blunt with your adviser when it comes to asking about your progress. Ask if you are where you should be both academic program wise and getting-a-job-after-this-mess-wise.

-Be proactive. Advisers love when you draw up an agenda for your one-on-one meetings, come with talking points and progress to share, have concrete questions to ask, and have overall shown that you have been thoughtful and taken control of your own program. Of course, this won't immediately come easily to you, but in time you will work up to it. Every semester I type up my semester goals, and at the beginning of the year I type up annual goals. I show them to my adviser and we talk about whether they are too ambitious, or whether I need to revise them, and how I can meet them.

-Don't expect your adviser to actually know what courses you have to take to graduate. They will know about comprehensive exams and the dissertation, but a lot of professors don't really keep up with the course requirements, especially if their program is in flux. Get you a student handbook, and find out what you need to take. Map it out in a grid, and check off things when you finish them. Show this to your adviser every semester. You may have to explain how such and such class fills a requirement.

-Nobody loves you as much as you, except your mother. Keep this in mind as you take in advice from all sources, including your adviser. Your adviser is there to guide you, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything he says.

Studying:
-You will have to read more than you ever did before, in less time than you ever have before, and you will be expected to retain more than you ever have before. The way that you studied in undergrad may need some tweaking. Be prepared for this.

-Corollary: you may find that your methods change with age or interests or time. I preferred to study alone in college, but in grad school, I prefer to study in groups. It keeps me on task and the socialization keeps me motivated. You may find that you shift from being a more auditory learner to a visual learner or whatever.

-You will feel behind at first. This is normal.

-At some point you will realize that your professors don't actually expect you to read everything they assign you. This, of course, will vary by program, but there will be at least one class where the reading is actually impossible to do in one week. The point is to read enough that you know the major themes and can talk intelligently about them, and then pick some of the readings to really dig into and think more deeply about.

-For most programs, don't worry so much about grades. If you stay on top of your work and do what you're supposed to, you will probably get an A. How much grades matter varies from program to program. In some programs, a B is a signal that you are not up to par, and more than a few Bs will warrant a discussion with your adviser or the DGS. My program isn't like that - A, B, it's all meaningless. My adviser doesn't even know what my grades are. But at almost all programs, a C means you need to retake the course, and two Cs means you have to convince the DGS not to kick you out.

Extracurricular activity: What's that? No, seriously:
-A lot of your time will be unstructured. You will have coursework, but most grad classes meet once a week for two hours and you may have three classes. You may have meetings with your adviser every so often and some seminars or things to catch (like we have grand rounds and colloquia that are required), but a lot of time will be unstructured. However, since you have so much more work than you had in undergrad, you actually will have less free time than you had in undergrad. This may initially cause you great anxiety. It did for me. Some people love unstructured time, though. (I don't.)

-Because of this, you'll have to be planful about your non-grad school related stuff.

-TAKE TIME OFF. DO it. It's important for your mental health. However you do it doesn't matter. Some people work it like a 9-5 job. Some people take a day off per week (me) and maybe a few hours spread across the week. Some people work half days 7 days a week. However you do it, there needs to be a time when you say "f this, I'm going to the movies."

-Find your happy place, something that keeps you the you you were when you came in. I love working out. It gives me energy and I feel good. I stay healthy. I also love reading fiction, so sometimes I just curl up with a good book, work be damned. You have to give yourself permission to not think about work, at least for a couple of hours a week. You may also discover new hobbies! (I never worked out before I came to graduate school.)

-Your work will creep into all aspects of your life, if you let it. This is why I hate unstructured time. You will feel guilty for not doing something, because in graduate school, there is ALWAYS something you can do. ALWAYS. But since there will always be more work, there's no harm in putting it aside for tomorrow, as long as you don't have a deadline.

-You may need to reach outside of your cohort for a social life. None of my close friends are in my doctoral cohort. I've met master's students in my program, master's students in other programs, and I know a few non-graduate students I hang out with, too. Go to graduate student mixers. (If your university doesn't have any, organize some, if you like planning parties.) Join a student group that doesn't take up too much time. I had a doctoral acquaintance who kinda laughed at me because I joined some student groups other than the doctoral student one, and I was usually the only doctoral student in those groups, but I met some close friends (and future job contacts) and had a good time.

-DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR WANTING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL. This is paramount. This is important. You are a well-rounded, complex, multifaceted human being. NEVER feel bad for this. Everybody wants some kind of life outside of work. Yes, you may loooove your field, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day long. Some other doctoral students, and perhaps professors, may make you feel bad about this. Don't let them. Just smile and nod. Then disappear when you need to.

Career:
-This is job preparation. Remember that from Day One. Always be looking for ways to enhance your skills. Read job ads and find out what's hot in your field, what's necessary, what's in demand. For example, in my field statistics and methods are a hot commodity, and they're not a passing fad. I happen to really like statistics and methods, so I have pursued that as a concentration of mine.

-Don't be afraid to take on volunteer work and part-time gigs that will give you skills that will be useful both inside academia and out, as long as it's not against your contract. Your adviser may be against it, but he doesn't have to know as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.

-If you want to work outside of academia - if you are even *considering* the possibility - please please definitely do the above. Even if you aren't considering it, consider the possibility that you won't get a tenure-track job out the box and that you may need to support yourself doing something else for a while. You will have to prove to employers that you have developed usable, useful skills and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. But don't overdo it - get the degree done.

-For more academic related ones - always look for opportunities to present and publish. Presentations look good on your CV. Publications look better. When you write seminar papers, wonder if you can publish them with some revision. Write your seminar papers on what you maybe think you may want to do your dissertation on. Even if you look at them three years later and think "these suck," you can at least glean some useful references and pieces from them. Discuss publication with your adviser early and often, and if you have the time and desire, seek out publication options with other professors and researchers. But if you commit to a project, COMMIT. You don't want to leave a bad impression.

-If you can afford it, occasionally go to conferences even if you aren't presenting. You can network, and you can hear some interesting talks, and you may think about new directions for your own research. You can also meet people who may tell you about jobs, money, opportunities, etc.

-Always try to get someone else to pay for conference travel before you come out of pocket. Including your adviser. Do not be shy about asking if he or she can pay. If he can't, he'll just say no. Usually the department has a travel fund for students, but often it's only if you are presenting.

-If you are interested in academia, you should get some teaching experience. There are two traditional ways to do this: TAing a course, and teaching as a sole instructor. If you can help it, I wouldn't recommend doing a sole instructor position until you are finished with coursework. Teaching takes a LOT of time to do right. You should definitely TA at least one course, and probably a few different ones. But don't overdo it, if you can help it, because again, it takes a LOT of time. More than you expect at the outset. If you are in the humanities, I think sole instructor positions are very important for nabbing jobs so when you are in the exam/ABD phase, you may want to try at least one. If your own university has none, look at adjuncting for nearby colleges, including community colleges. (I would wager that the majority of natural science/physical science students, and most social science students, have never sole taught a class before they get an assistant professor job. At least, it's not that common n my field, which straddles the social and natural sciences.)

-Always look for money. Money is awesome. If you can fund yourself you can do what you want, within reason. Your university will be thrilled, your adviser will be happy, and you can put it on your CV. It's win-win-win! Don't put yourself out of the running before anyone else has a chance to. Apply even if you think you won't get it or the odds are against you (they always are), as long as you are eligible. Apply often. Apply even if it's only $500. (That's conference travel!) Money begets money. The more awards you get, the more awards you will get. They will get bigger over time. If you are in the sciences and social sciences, you should get practice writing at least one grant. You don't have to write the whole thing, but at least get in on the process so that you can see how it's done. Grant-writing is very valuable both in and outside of graduate school.

-Revise your CV every so often. Then look and decide what you want to add to it. Then go get that thing, so you can add it.

-The career office at big universities is often not just for undergrads. I was surprised to learn that my career center offers help on CV organization and the academic job search, as well as alternative/non-academic career searches for doctoral students. In fact, there are two people whose sole purpose it is to help PhD students find nonacademic careers, and they both have PhDs. This will vary by university - some universities will have very little for grad students. Find out before you write the office off.

-It's never too early to go to seminars/workshops like "the academic job search inside and out", "creating the perfect CV," "getting the job," etc. NEVER. Often the leader will share tips that are more aimed towards early graduate students, or tidbits that are kind of too late for more advanced students to take care of. This will also help you keep a pulse on what's hot in your field. It'll help you know what lines you need to add to your CV. And they're interesting.

Other:

-Decide ahead of time what you are NOT willing to sacrifice on the altar of academia. Then stick to it.
I'm serious. If you decide that you do NOT want to sacrifice your relationship, don't. If it's your geographical mobility, don't. I mean, be realistic, and realize that there will always be trade-offs. But you have to think about what's important to you for your quality of life, and realize that there is always more to you than graduate school.

-If you don't want to be a professor, do not feel guilty about this. At all. Zero. However, you will have to do things differently than most doctoral students. Your adviser will probably never have worked outside of the academy (although this may vary depending on the field) so he may or may not be able to help you. But you have a special mission to seek out the kinds of experiences that will help you find a non-academic job. Test the waters with your adviser before you tell him this. My adviser was quite amenable to it, but that's because I told him that my goal was to still do research and policy work in my field just not at a university, AND because it's quite common in my field for doctoral students to do non-academic work. If you're in a field where it's not common (or where your professors refuse to believe it's common, or it's not supposed to be common)…well, you may be a little more on your own.

-Every so often, you will need to reflect on the reasons you came to graduate school. Sometimes, just sit and think quietly. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you love your field? Do you need this degree to do what you want to do? Usually the answer is yes and yes, and usually you'll keep on trucking. But sometimes when the chips are down you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through this in the first place.

-To my great dismay, depression is quite common in doctoral students. Graduate work can be isolating and stressful. Luckily your health insurance usually includes counseling sessions. TAKE THEM if you need them. Do not be ashamed. You may be surprised with who else is getting them. (I found out that everyone in my cohort, including me, was getting mental health counseling at a certain point.) Exercise can help, as can taking that mental health day once a week and just chilling. Don't be surprised if you get the blues…

-…but be self-aware and able to recognize when the depression is clouding your ability to function. Doctoral programs have a 50% attrition rate, and this is rarely because that 50% is less intelligent than, less motivated than, less driven than, or less ambitious than the other 50% that stays. Often they realize that they are ridiculously unhappy in the field, or that they don't need the degree anymore, or that they'd rather focus on other things in life, or their interests have changed. All of this is okay!

-You will, at some point, be like "eff this, I'm leaving." I think almost every doctoral student has thought about dropping out and just kicking this all to the curb. You need to listen to yourself, and find out whether it is idle thought (nothing to worry about, very normal) or whether you are truly unhappy to the point that you need to leave. Counseling can help you figure this out.

-Don't be afraid to take a semester or a year off if you need to. That's what leaves of absence are for.

Lastly, and positively…

…graduate school is great! Seriously, when else will you ever have the time to study what you want for hours on end, talk to just as interested others about it, and live in an intellectual community of scholars and intellectuals? And occasionally wake up at 11 am and go to the bank at 2 pm? Sometimes you will want to pull out all of your hair but most of the time, you will feel fulfilled and wonderfully encouraged and edified. So enjoy this time!

> comes to forum asking for advice
> complains when people give advice

Just curious, but have you checked to see if your MS program will let you stay on after a failing grade?
 
Most programs I'm familiar with consider any grade lower than a B- to be a "failing" grade, and any failing grade will result in expulsion from the program. 

They do seem pretty persistent and motivated. You should say to them, "Where was this fire during the semester? You put more effort into disputing the grade than doing the project."

In the future, don't discuss grades over email at all. Only discuss it in person. And, at that time, ask the student why they think the grade they received is not correct based on the rubric and guidelines distributed for the assignment. That usually helps them see that they have no real basis for receiving a higher grade.

Oh hey, a Japanese history person too! Small world~
For classical they may tag you on to an undergrad class. When I took bungo, I was technically under an undergrad number, but it was me and another grad student meeting with our prof once a week in her office. Kanbun was also a two students/one prof deal, but that was a grad class. Though you also have other options for Kanbun- there's the USC Kanbun Workshop every summer (last year we did Muromachi-period documents, this summer we're reading Chuyuki), and I believe IUC in Yokohama now has a Kanbun workshop of sorts. Feel free to PM me for more info.