How to do well in graduate school

[chilling]

Hi all,

I just got in a top-20 program, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to how to do well in graduate school.

Any tips?

Thanks

[lambspam]

I'm wrapping up a master's program in a few weeks (AHHHH!) and starting my Ph.D. in the fall. This is what I can suggest:

Make good connections with the faculty. If your university doesn't have an official forum for meeting them through a seminar or whatever, go to each professor's office and introduce yourself. You might find some really interesting people and run across some fantastic opportunities -- many of which involve pay, publication, or both. Professors tend to treat grad students like junior-junior-professors, since grad school is essentially a very extensive apprenticeship, so for the most part you won't be treated like a kid. Enjoy and appreciate it.

Bond with your cohort. Do bar nights, go to their symposium sessions, talk about the class material, share ideas. Other students are a great resource and a lot of fun. Get the scoop from older students, too. They're full of valuable information -- which classes to avoid, which professors have a lot of funding, that kind of stuff.

Don't get involved in departmental drama. Don't become the person that everyone hates because they're a total pain/whiner/jerk/drain on resources. That stuff always comes back to bite people. If you need to complain about things, which you will eventually, limit it to your SO or your best bud in the department who you're sure will keep it on the DL.

If you haven't had a lot of experience with it, read a bunch of journal articles over the summer to get in the groove. You don't have to understand everything they're saying, especially in the analysis section, but it'll help you be ready to hit the ground running. You'll be miles ahead of some people in your cohort.

The most important thing I've ever learned in any context: Always, always be nice to the administrative staff. In addition to being excellent people (for the most part) who deserve respect, they also wield a lot of power. When you miss a deadline or need to get signed up for a class or have some sort of emergency (which will happen sometime in the next six years), secretaries are the ones who will save your ass.

Another hint: A lot of young grad students feel like frauds -- it's a really common phenomenon called Impostor Syndrome. Don't freak out. Everyone is just as nervous as you are. Just knowing that might help.

You'll do great!

[jacib]

-Get to know as many faculty as possible your first year. Just at least know what every one in the department works on.

-Develop a good study schedule. This is worklife 1.5, not undergrad 2.0 (this honestly shocked me a lot, and was the biggest adjustment. I was expecting to sit back and drink much more than I am able to).

-Know that your grades don't matter. Like, at all. Extensions are also easy to get. Stress about doing good work, don't stress about doing work on time. Learn to prioritize which work is important.

-Explore your first year. You may never have the chance to again. If you're a quant person, look at qual things, and vice verse. At the very least be sufficiently comfortable with other methodologies to evaluate "this is good" and "this is crap" so that you may cite appropriately.

-Go to TONS of talks. Again, this is a first year luxury. You're not really expect to produce work. Find out what good work looks like.

-If there is someone you want to work with, meet with them, talk with them, don't annoy them, get their advice. Start trying to establish a relationship, and figure out how your relationship works. My relationship with my adviser works best when I have something to present her, which is different from my undergrad adviser who I used to abstractly discuss ideas with. The sooner you figure out what relationship works for you, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits.

-Know your cohort, do social things together. You will be together for years to come. Be friends with your colleagues, hopefully. Be polite them in all situations, at the very least.

-Make sure you have enough time not working in school to stay sane.

-Older students are the best place to learn about everything. No, seriously, everything. From the department gossip, to department drama, to what you should be doing, to what classes are legit, they know a lot. Be friends with them as soon as possible. I seriously benefited from being a smoker (gasp!) and being able to be friends with the other three (older) smokers in the department. They clued me in on a lot of things.

-Yes, maybe for the first time in your life, everyone in around is genuinely smart. Including you. Never forget that you were chosen among many, many qualified candidates. You are there for reason. You deserve to be there.

Edited April 14, 2011 by jacib

[jacib]

Also at least at my school, the vast majority of graduate students came in with sociological interests, but no sociological background. Sociology is a big random field, from historical sociologists who could be easily in a history department to strongly quant people who could be in the math/statistics department. It's cool, you're just expected to start figuring out where you fit into all of this during the first little bit.