Southern Fried Scientist's advice for new graduate students

[kiley]

A useful blog today from a 4th year PhD student on advice for new graduate students. I think most of the advice is pretty broadly applicable to other fields as well.

Southern Fried Scientist's Advice for New Graduate Students

-Kiley

[timuralp]

Looking through it, the hobby advice is a very good one - maybe the most important one. It's important to get your mind off things, otherwise you're at serious risk of burning out.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Looking through it, the hobby advice is a very good one - maybe the most important one. It's important to get your mind off things, otherwise you're at serious risk of burning out.

I agree. I also liked his suggestion of writing a paragraph a day. I'm going to do that.

[intextrovert]

This is nice advice - thanks for sharing! Although the part about exercise is depressing. Hopefully I can prove him wrong - back in undergrad I was so good about it! I'm hoping the student lifestyle is conducive to it for me, because I've fallen off the wagon in these past two years of working.

Anyone know of some good humanities grad student blogs?

[socialpsych]

Although the part about exercise is depressing. Hopefully I can prove him wrong - back in undergrad I was so good about it! I'm hoping the student lifestyle is conducive to it for me, because I've fallen off the wagon in these past two years of working.

I was going to say that I don't think that particular point of his is necessarily true. I personally am getting more exercise now than I ever have in my life. I find that the freedom to set my own hours and have a more or less regular work flow means that I am rarely in a position where I really can't spare the time. And, since I can no longer rely on external incentives, I find that keeping myself healthy and happy is more important than ever before for staying productive. If I reduce my activity level, I start to feel physically off, my sleep schedule changes, and as a result it becomes harder to focus and do good work. In undergrad, I was generally working toward deadlines so it didn't matter as much, because I could use the deadlines to keep my focus even if I didn't feel great all the time. It's just like what he said about all-nighters: being at your best matters more in grad school, so I find it really important to take the time to make sure I am at my best.

Also extremely important is the fact that other students in my program are very physically active and one of them is often my gym buddy. That is another thing I would add to his list: make sure to associate with and befriend people who have a healthy attitude toward grad school and who take care of themselves, and let them rub off on you. You will be able to maintain your own good habits with a minimum of effort.

Edited August 4, 2010 by socialpsych

[Eigen]

I'll tag in with Socialpsych here- most of the grad students in my department exercise regularly, and are generally in good shape. Many of them much more so than when they were undergrads, mostly due to the ability to set their own schedules.

For instance, instead of having to get up at 6 to run before class, now I can consistently get up later, get into the lab later, and then just work later at night.

[Jae B.]

Most students I've known are healthy and somewhat athletic. I got enough exercise walking and running late everywhere and to everything. But I'm hoping I'll actually use my school's athletic facilities this time around!

[timuralp]

The point about exercise... is definitely true for some and different fields are different. It's good to strive to exercise daily, but when I had weeks of sleeping 4 hours a night and expecting to do more work to fix bugs and get results every day, exercise was not high on the list. Once things calm down a bit, I find myself going to the gym again and partaking in the regular soccer and basketball games. Paper/quals/piles of projects can wreak havoc to any schedule you have set. I don't know of any students in my particular area that manage to sustain their normal schedules around submission times.

Edited August 4, 2010 by timuralp