Fiction About Grad Students

[MissMoneyJenny]

I'm curious if anyone knows of any books or movies or tv shows where the main character(s) is/are (a) grad student(s) and it actually is a major plot point or something followed closely throughout. I know there is a lot of stuff about high school and college . . . so why not grad school?

 

And yeah, i know, because grad students don't have time to read, but I actually will next month!

[TomServo]

An episode of Masters of Horror was about a physics grad student.  Dreams in the Witch House.  Warning: it's disturbing.

 

In Jurassic Park, I believe Ellie (Laura Dern) was a grad student in the book, I don't think the movie said.

 

Amy Wong on Futurama is a physics grad student.  http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Amy_Wong

 

Prince of Darkness, a John Carpenter horror film, is about grad students of diverse fields spending a night in a scary dilapidated building to study a thing-in-a-box.

 

Nobel Son

[the_sheath]

The PhD movie?

[spunky]

The PhD movie?

 

the acting is not great but OMG there is so much truth about graduate school in that movieeee!!!

[the_sheath]

Yeah the acting is terrible, and I only really enjoyed like the last 10-15 minutes, but it IS a movie about grad school!

[TakeruK]

You also have to remember the PhD movie was made by graduate student volunteers over a few weekends in their spare time! I agree that it is nowhere near the quality of e.g. a made for profit movie, I think it captured the true spirit of PhD Comics by having graduate students make the movie about graduate student life! But perhaps I am biased since many of my friends were involved in it

 

I wanted to say The Pelican Brief to this question but I guess med/law students are not exactly the same as grad students. It's funny--I did a Google search for "movies about grad students", found a "top 7 list" and all of them are actually about law/med students! 

[the_sheath]

Well, yeah, for a movie made by grad student volunteers, it's pretty good and does reflect what I'd imagine grad student life to be like, but objectively the movie is blah.

[efs001]

When I was working in my undergrad's archives as a student, I discovered someone had written a murder mystery about History PhD students getting murdered in my alma mater's library. The book was called "Death By Dissertation" and what little I read of it was as cheesy as it sounds.

[gellert]

I found this post: http://www.fordhamgsaslife.blogspot.com/search/label/cinema

 

"Good Will Hunting" is semi-relevant.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I found this post: http://www.fordhamgsaslife.blogspot.com/search/label/cinema

 

"Good Will Hunting" is semi-relevant.

I doubt many of us are orphan janitor math geniuses, but I applaud your efforts.

[AKJen]

Sometimes Bones will drop a line or two about its interns being graduate students, but not very often.  This week one of the characters took (and failed) her orals.  I'm just about to take mine so I appreciated this moment of coincidence.

[rj16]

Sometimes Bones will drop a line or two about its interns being graduate students, but not very often.  This week one of the characters took (and failed) her orals.  I'm just about to take mine so I appreciated this moment of coincidence.

 

I just watched that episode! Brennan failed hers too But do you honestly think the interns are realistic representations of grad students? 

[maiwalker]

How about Five Year Engagement?

[overworkedta]

The marriage plot - at least to some degree when it comes to being an RA or choosing to go to grad school, that book is depressing but somewhat honest.  It's a good read anyhow.

[gellert]

I doubt many of us are orphan janitor math geniuses, but I applaud your efforts.

 

Speak for yourself. 

 

 

The marriage plot - at least to some degree when it comes to being an RA or choosing to go to grad school, that book is depressing but somewhat honest.  It's a good read anyhow.

 

I loved this book, but depressing is definitely right.

Edited March 17, 2014 by gellert

[legan]

The Paper Chase is the only one I can come up with. My boyfriend is in law school, and he is so sick of hearing about this movie. We watched it last year, and it was honestly the dullest movie I've ever seen.

[roguesenna]

You also have to remember the PhD movie was made by graduate student volunteers over a few weekends in their spare time! I agree that it is nowhere near the quality of e.g. a made for profit movie, I think it captured the true spirit of PhD Comics by having graduate students make the movie about graduate student life! But perhaps I am biased since many of my friends were involved in it

 

I wanted to say The Pelican Brief to this question but I guess med/law students are not exactly the same as grad students. It's funny--I did a Google search for "movies about grad students", found a "top 7 list" and all of them are actually about law/med students! 

 

 

haven't seen it, but I'm curious, did they have any theatre/film studies/performing arts PhD students involved? I kind of stopped reading PhD comics because they rarely ever talked about anything related to my major and it was so science focused.

 

and as far as the topic goes, only thing I can think of is Grey's Anatomy's first few seasons, but that's all med students.

 

hmmmm.... maybe I should write something.

[Maleficent999]

I'm pretty sure a major plot point in the first season of American Horror Story is that Ben had an affair with one of his grad students in Boston so he moves his family to Los Angeles. She comes back throughout the season to generally wreak havoc.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I'm pretty sure a major plot point in the first season of American Horror Story is that Ben had an affair with one of his grad students in Boston so he moves his family to Los Angeles. She comes back throughout the season to generally wreak havoc.

Didn't he kill her and bury her in the backyard? I can't wait for season 4. The best by far was season 2. 

[Maleficent999]

Didn't he kill her and bury her in the backyard? I can't wait for season 4. The best by far was season 2. 

Yes, yes he did. I actually haven't seen season 2 yet. It's in my Netflix queue. Season 4 looks interesting to say the least.

[TakeruK]

haven't seen it, but I'm curious, did they have any theatre/film studies/performing arts PhD students involved? I kind of stopped reading PhD comics because they rarely ever talked about anything related to my major and it was so science focused.

 

and as far as the topic goes, only thing I can think of is Grey's Anatomy's first few seasons, but that's all med students.

 

hmmmm.... maybe I should write something.

 

The movie was filmed at Caltech with mostly Caltech affiliated people. Caltech is a tech school, so there are no PhD programs in theatre/film studies/performing arts etc. There is a very active theatre group at Caltech though and they put on several productions per year. I don't think any of the main cast and crew are theatre/film related people but since the Caltech community often includes a lot of non-students, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people that run the theatre club (who are actual actors and/or trained in theatre/film) played a part in creating the PhD Movie too!