Calling all graduate students!!!

[trillionaire]

I need your help!

I''m hopefully going back to school next month to finish my graduate degree... (long haul... damn PhD...)

I was a terrible student when I went, I didn''t know how to balance my schedule, how much work to get done on a daily/weekly basis, etc. This lead me to be anxious and avoid being around my department, then I was isolated and depressed, yadda yadda yadda, cue violins...

So, please tell me, how much time do you put in? how do you tackle writing so that you are not scrambling at the end of the semester? How can I be an obnoxiously brilliant and erudite scholar? Lol! How do you stay immersed in interested in your work? how do you go about choosing your research topics? Tell me any and everything, or any advice at all!


Help me make this an approachable task, I need mentors and guidance, lol!

 

[princessplease]

I go to grad school two nights a week, and work F/T during the day.

I usually get to school an hour before classes start, and spend that time reading in the library.

I ALWAYS buy a planner, as I am very organized, and I will write down everything that is due when I get the syllabus. I also put any important dates into my phone and set reminders for when to study/write/read/etc.

As far as papers go, I try and get all of my research done in one bunch, then my highlighting/extracting important information and organizing those notes in one bunch, then writing the paper at the end. I find it easier to break writing up into those kind of sections. I then will do X pages/day of the paper so I''m not writing it all in one huge lump sum 1 week before the semester is up, lol.

With research topics, I try and find something I''m interested in to research. With the exception of my law class last semester, I''ve been very fortunate to have professors who''ve allowed me to pick research topics. In my law class, the Judge gave me three topics to choose from. I picked the one that seemed the most interesting and applicable to my research and work that I eventually want to do.

I''m sure you''ll do awesome, trill!

 

[Elegant]

Hey trillionaire, let''s see if I can help.

I am in a doctoral program. I love the program, but as usual, life really does get in the way. Over the two years of coursework, I was always reading or writing a paper and having meltdowns, freakouts, spazz attacks - it is a miracle my bf is still around...seriously. I would go to work and come home, try to relax, eat, then read and work on papers all of the damn time. It sucked my life...as it continues to do now that I am actually writing my dissertation. I really can''t help too much about not scrambling toward the end of the semester because I work well under pressure and I am a serious procrastinator...having deadlines set for yourself and a supportive group of peers at school to help keep you on track really helps. And I unfortunately can''t stay interested in the topic of my dissertation either. Yesterday I was all into my lit review, and today, I just can''t seem to want to start typing or reading anything for it. Even if you love your topic, it is still difficult to keep on track. I am not a very self-disciplined person. But I have been in college ever since I graduated high school. Choose the topic that you enjoy and think you will be able to do a study on.

In all honesty, it really takes so much mental determination, a supportive/accepting family who understands they won''t really see you all that much, an understanding that for at least 3 years you will not have a life, you will be tired most of the time unless you can juggle a job and school and family and life and eating and sleeping...

I love being in the program, but right now, I am really wanting to finish - like now!

I think going into a doctoral program isn''t difficult for many people who enjoy going to school, etc. It takes a lot of self motivation and it is isolating. Thank goodness I don''t have kids because I wouldn''t have been able to pay much attention to them. Once all of the coursework is done and you are working on the dissertation, you make your own schedule and deadlines - which is another challenge itself...

Just some real-life things to think about!

 

[Erinleigh]

Grad school for me is a bit different than princess. I''m actually just finishing up my Master''s in biochemistry. I go into the lab around 8am and am there until around 5pm monday to friday (longer if experiments require it), and depending on how experiments are going, at least 3 or 4 hours on saturday and sunday (more or less depending on whats required). I think the amount of time required really depends on what you''re pursuing you''re degree in, as my schedule is about average for members of my lab and others in the department.

For reading, I try to read whenever I''m not in the middle of an experiment... but it makes you burn out faster, so I don''t force myself if I''m not feeling it. Keeping up to date with the literature is difficult at times. Just try to give yourself a certain number of papers to read in a given time frame and try to stick with it.

As far as a research project, ours are always structured around what the grant was written for... so I''m not sure if I''d have much advice on this topic. Staying immersed in the research is not always easy. Especially when experiments aren''t going anywhere. I honestly just try to push through it... you really need to live for the moments when things work out!

What are you going to be pursuing your PhD in trill?

 

[havernell]

I am in the dissertation writing stage of my PhD program and it''s really hard to motivate yourself to write. I get so distracted by the internet, wedding planning (until recently), other life tasks, etc... that my work often gets continually put off.

The one thing that does help me is having regularly scheduled meettings with my dissertation advisor. I meet with him every two weeks at the same time to report what I''ve done since the last time we talked. The fear of having to go in to my advisor and say I''ve done nothing for two weeks is enough to motivate me to do at least some work.

You can do this "meeting with your advisor" trick no matter what stage of the dissertation you are at. If you are trying to come up with a dissertation topic, meet with your advisor every two weeks to discuss what ideas you have and get her/his feedback. If you are in the writing stage, meet with her/him to discuss how what you are currently writing fits into the broader theme of your dissertation.

Also, the health center at my school has a dissertation writers support group you can join. I haven''t tried it myself, but I think it might be helpful simply because it lets you see that tons of people are in your position of not knowing how to motivate to write, which is comforting. You might want to check to see if your school has a similar group.


A lot of my fellow students tell me that they wrote the bulk of their dissertation in between when they got a job offer and when they graduated (in my field, political science, most job candidates are hired by December and then graduate either in May or August, so they have 6-8 months to finish their dissertations). Basically, once you are facing graduation/no more grad funding/ losing your job offer if you dont'' finish in time, you suddenly find the motivation to write!

I''m anxious to read other peoples'' suggestions on this thread because I can also use more advice on dissertation writing. Thanks for starting this thread trillionaire!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

I''m in med school which is kind of different than most grad programs, but I wanted to say CONGRATS and best wishes!

 

[D&T]

oh gosh, its been almost seven years, and a bit of a blur. I like to forget about school work, but one memorable thing actually a disastrous thing that happened to me was in one of my final two classes, I had a final paper that I had written out about 25 pages, and while I was typing, my computer crashed

, had some sort of virus, I didn't have enough time to get it fixed as I was also procrastinating. So please remember to save your work on some other external drive such as a flash drive (never was tech savvy and didn't hear of those back then?) I did finish my paper but it was lacking great information from the crash.

BTW: Congrats! and best wishes in your school work

 

[katamari]

Grats on going back for your PhD, Trill! I love grad school (though I am ready to leave if someone is willing to hire me this year), and I think you will do fantastically!

Will you be doing school simultaneously with working or will it be a full time program? I think that makes a lot of difference in terms of the advice I would offer. The most general advice I can offer is to not only always do the reading, but make sure to give yourself time to revisit them and reflect on the arguments before class. I can always tell the difference between my colleagues who don''t do the reading or skim, those who just do the reading, and those who reflect on the reading (and only the latter would I classify as brilliant, though not an entirely inclusively).

I try to work as much as I can everyday because it isn''t always going to happen. But, if I can put in 12 hours as much as I can, it will compensate for the days I can only put in 4 or 6 for some reason.

I also would reach out to faculty early and show any you are interested in working with your value. I always choose my research questions by things I am generally interested in knowing. But, in terms of working on projects (especially if I am not going to be first author and have to have that kind of responsibility), I am much more open in things I only somewhat find interesting. I stay immersed in my work by keeping as well read in the area as possible and talking about my work to others. When people outside my department or programs (or, far less frequently, academics altogether) think what I am researching is interesting, it gives me a ton of motivation. Ultimately, I think you have to keep your eyes on the prize more than anything. I am keep the big picture in mind all the time and keep a backwards timeline/accomplishment list of what I need to get there. That way, I am not trying to just write a paper or meet a deadline but am instead trying to establish myself in my field, get tenure, etc.

Do you want to go into academics? Or work in the field? That might color my opinion, too.

 

[gwendolyn]

Congrats, that''s great news!!

You going full-time or part-time, Trill?

I did my master''s full-time last year, and my supervisors (who were VERY wise) suggested that we consider the degree the way we would a job. They said to spend the same amount of time per day as you would at work--so, roughly 8 hours. That way, you don''t get burned out and write useless junk (well, less so, anyway

), and you still put in heaps of work every day.

The trick is (and this will be more challenging if you are doing it part-time while working) that, although you may schedule a nice chunk of time to sit down and do some writing on any given day, that doesn''t mean that the writing fairies will grant you any inspiration to think of anything worth writing. There were days when I sat in front of my computer and typed and deleted, typed and deleted, to end up with a net total addition of 3 words in the 6 hours I was trying to write. No matter how hard you may try, you just CAN''T force the muses. So, if you can have some amount of flexibility, where it won''t kill you to write from 9pm-4am instead of 9am-6pm or whatever, that would be good. You probably wouldn''t be able to be as flexible if you are working as well, but just know that you will need to be able to juggle things around if you just aren''t feeling it when you want to be writing.

Also, in case it makes you feel any better, I was also a pretty bad student in undergrad, but grad school feels totally different. I paid for both myself, and even still, grad school was the one where I mentally buckled down and thought, "Right, I am NOT going to flake out and piss around with this degree. I need to do well, so I am going to work my ass off." And I did, and it paid off. No doubt it will for you as well!

Best wishes, my dear! You''ll do great.

 

[iwannaprettyone]

Hi there! I am currently finishing up my Masters Degree in Org Management. I am a straight A student, but I work hard for it. Since enrollment I have worked about 50-55 hrs a week full time at work and then taken two courses (one face to face and one online). Generally I study 2-3 hours a night and then most of the day Saturday and several hours on Sunday. It has taken focus and commitment. At times it has proved to be very frustrating. I do however pride myself in being an exemplary student and I treat the experience like a mission with all of my assignments being on time and completely to the best of my ability. I do not like to leave anything out in the wind and always want to look back and know that I worked my hardest to accomplish my goal.

As far as picking research projects- I go out to the University’s online catalog and find topics that a) interest me and B) the is a multitude of sources available.

I have one more class and a comprehensive exam to complete and I AM DUNNNNNNNNNNN YAY!