What graduate school is about: goals and survival skills

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What graduate school is about goals and survival
skills

• Anne Condon, UBC
• Marianne Shaw, U. Washington

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Redefining success

• Class performance is not as important as before
• Critical and creative thinking are essential
• strong evaluation skills are necessary
• often there is not a correct answer
• Research is about discovering new ideas
• your advisors dont know the answer either
• BUT, they have the skills experience to help
  you find it
• their job is to give you the opportunity to learn
  these skills and gain the experience!

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Outline

• How to succeed in grad school
• Some common issues and how to overcome them

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Do good research

• All aspects of grad school can teach you
  something
• class discussions projects practice basic
  research skills
• seminars exposure to literature, practice
  critical analysis
• your peers a terrific sounding board for your
  ideas
• dont wait until your ideas are perfect!
• Research is a perpetual process
• a research result often reveals more questions
  than it answers
• inspiration for the next idea usually happens
  while working on the current one
• easy to spot in a progression of papers from a
  group

5
Manage your time

• You are in charge of how you spend your time
• master the two basic skills prioritizing, and
  eliminating context-switching overhead
• Prioritize
• decide what is most important, and do that first
  and best
• make time to think about and do research!
• Eliminate context-switching overhead
• allocate enough time per task to amortize the
  overhead
• for TA duties, respond to emails in batches,
  rather than being interrupt-driven
• for research, allocate several contiguous hours,
  and eliminate distractions

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Communicate technical material well

• Distill complex ideas down to a few clear,
  concise statements
• TAing is a great opportunity for this
• volunteer to present others research in seminars
• write your ideas down and get feedback from peers
• Learn how to construct and deliver verbal
  presentations
• practice, practice, practice
• go to practice talks, give multiple practice
  talks
• include peers from a variety of research areas
• the art of the elevator pitch
• have 1 minute, 5 minute, 15 minute versions of
  your material

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Select courses and profs strategically

• Choose course content to
• satisfy breadth requirements
• get project experience similar to research
  projects
• fill in gaps in your skill set
• if doing interdisciplinary work, take a course in
  the related area
• learn about other areas you might want to do
  research in!
• Select professors by
• taking courses with potential advisors impress
  them!
• asking other grad students about profs teaching
  styles

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Plan for milestones

• Map out a timeline with your departments
  milestones
• include deadlines for completion of courses,
  qualifying exams, choosing an advisor, thesis
  completion, etc.
• budget extra time for reaching some milestones
• plan to take the quals early if two attempts are
  typical
• If you anticipate you wont reach a milestone,
  let someone you trust know as early as possible.
  If you know beforehand, workarounds can be made.

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Not that you expect to, but...

• Sometimes unanticipated situations arise when
  working closely with others...
• Consensual relationships with faculty are risky,
  due to inherently unequal positions of power
• if things go well
• not a good forum for experiencing evaluating a
  relationship
• if things go badly
• uncomfortable at best
• may color what other faculty think of you
• the faculty wont leave
• may compromise your career

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Outline

• How to succeed in grad school
• Some common issues and how to overcome them

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Adjusting to grad school

• Everybody arrives with different strengths
  experiences
• it would be easy to assume youre missing
  something because you see other people have it
• in reality, other students are in the same boat
  as you!
• and, pretty quickly youll learn the things you
  need
• Grad school is very bursty
• at times, it will demand enormous amounts of time
• deadlines that collide, prelims, etc.
• important to give yourself time between the
  bursts
• work hard, but play too!

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Making it click

• Different people will click with different
  research areas, advisors, and peers
• when it clicks, everything can line up
• youre passionate about what youre working on
• youre good at it
• you enjoy the people youre working with
• You might need to explore several different areas
  and advisors before it clicks
• so dont be afraid to change things if its not
  working out
• sometimes bringing in a co-advisor is enough!

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Growing as a researcher

• A major transition happens in grad school (often
  year 3)
• classes are finally done
• youre trying to define your own research agenda
• your daily schedule is less structured and more
  self-driven
• Having a good support network will smooth this
  transition
• build and maintain relationships with mentors
  during first 2 years
• draw on them during this transition to help
  support and inspire you
• re-introduce structure to your environment
• reading groups
• monthly social lunches to build a sense of
  community with peers
• etc.

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The advisor/advisee relationship

• Best case life-long friendship and collaboration
• many success stories like this
• research community foundation is built on it
• Sometimes, the relationship needs work to work
• you can and should take steps to make it better
• advisors are almost always willing to help -- but
  you may need to help them realize that its
  needed
• Sometimes, it wont work out
• bad chemistry
• switching advisors is the right thing in this case

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Managing the relationship

• Your advisor is as human as you!
• they have personality flaws and quirks, and are
  over-extended
• They want to help, but you may need to be
  proactive
• regular meeting times are a good idea
• talk about process and expectations as well as
  the research itself
• the most important (and hardest) time to talk is
  when you are lost
• Other people / places can help too
• co-advising is tremendously helpful
• discretely talk to faculty and grads to get
  constructive suggestions
• internships can give fresh perspectiveand
  experience with success
• campuses have counseling services -- a valuable
  support tool

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You are in charge of your graduate career...

• You need to make things happen
• You CAN make things happen
• and if you need it, help is there. Use it!
• Good luck! Youll do great!