attn: 1st Years. What are some things you wish you knew about grad school for incoming first years?

[imonfire98]

This can be about anything. Research, school, life in general? What were the learning curves, or learning moments? LAY IT OUT!

[Jay's Brain]

I'm no longer in first year, but I found maintaining work-life balance to be a challenge and I'm constantly refining this as I get older in PhD years. That's why my first bit of advice that I give to incoming students is to build that balance into your routine so it becomes a habit! As grad students we face the conflicts of "What is good, is bad; what is bad, is good" syndrome (the less talked about cousin to Imposter Syndrome) where we can feel guilt and shame for not focusing on our research productivity and, instead, think that working many hours is a good thing (it's not. You'll feel burnt out and STILL feel bad). But grad school is a lifestyle and lifestyle habits would benefit the most from consistency. So practice self-care and build that into your routine. Try to set your schedule so you have time that is fixed AWAY from work and school and more on yourself and the close people by your side.

Also, remove push notifications on your phone so that you don't get bombarded by emails and feel the urge to reply right away. There's nothing worst than having a good day and then seeing the dreaded email from supervisors asking you about your progress! In grad school, you get A LOT of emails already!

[MarineBluePsy]

I'm also no longer a first year, but I found it endlessly frustrating that faculty harped on how important self care is and that we need to model that for clients, yet gave us grief for actually trying to do it.  Meaning if we worked exercise, regular sleep, or time with friends into our schedule faculty would then tell us that whatever research, clinical, or class related tasked was top priority and everything else should be put on the back burner.  There was no respect for the need to maintain these routines when trying to schedule meetings (that were often unproductive) either.  I declined to give up my self care routine and have no regrets, but I could have done without the attitude from the faculty.  Other students caved and found themselves constantly ill, gaining weight, and exhausted.

[ResilientDreams]

3 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

I'm also no longer a first year, but I found it endlessly frustrating that faculty harped on how important self care is and that we need to model that for clients, yet gave us grief for actually trying to do it.  Meaning if we worked exercise, regular sleep, or time with friends into our schedule faculty would then tell us that whatever research, clinical, or class related tasked was top priority and everything else should be put on the back burner.  There was no respect for the need to maintain these routines when trying to schedule meetings (that were often unproductive) either.  I declined to give up my self care routine and have no regrets, but I could have done without the attitude from the faculty.  Other students caved and found themselves constantly ill, gaining weight, and exhausted.

Out of curiosity...how exactly did they give you grief?

[PokePsych]

To not question myself so much...

[MarineBluePsy]

16 hours ago, ResilientDreams said:

Out of curiosity...how exactly did they give you grief?

The constant negative comments such as.....

....Well everyone else seems to be doing everything, why can't you?

....The program has always been this demanding and past students didn't complain

.....Can't you do that some other time?  

.....You really need to take your work more seriously and learn to prioritize

.....I'm disappointed

.....Maybe this isn't the right program for you

 

Yet they had no problem prioritizing their self care needs and refused to let anything we needed from them disrupt their plans.  Overall just not a supportive environment and that can be especially damaging to a first year student who may not know how to advocate for themselves.