by Tammyjo Eckhart

Created on: May 11, 2009   Last Updated: May 15, 2009

Since I earned my PhD at a high ranking university in November 2007, I feel I have enough experience and distance now to give the reader some tips for succeeding in graduate school.

First, chose your program by their expectations and over all program including what minors you will be required to take. Do not go into a program only to work with a specific professor. Here's a harsh reality: Professors leave. When you are at the applying stage, a lot of information will be withheld from you including if someone is near retirement, if someone is not earning tenure, and any competition or hostilities between professors in your fields. So don't get attached to one or two people.

In fact, integrate yourself into the greater department. Volunteer to help a professor in your minor field or to work with the undergraduate program or even just to help out at a departmental gathering. The more widely you are known by the general faculty in your department the better placed you will be for funding opportunities.

When considering your course schedule remember to be balanced. Yes, you must listen to your advisor but only you honestly know if you can assist in a course with 300 students and do 4 graduate level courses. My advice is to start off gently and learn what you can and cannot do in an excellent fashion. Excellence is important. While individual grades do have as much value in graduate school as they did in your undergraduate years, avoid getting behind in your work because a black mark will be weighed against you for years. Never ever take an incomplete on your work. It is too hard to catch up between semesters and with professors taking time off that missed deadline can turn into a reason you are not promoted from Master's to Doctoral program.

Do the basics during the summer. Need languages or basic statistics? Don't waste your time during the fall or summer when you may be assisting in a course yourself. Take those basic classes during the summers. Always take something during the summer to keep your mind active and you connected to the department even if it's just a readings or guided research course.

Do not be afraid to say "no" to party invites or extracurricular activities both from your fellow students and faculty. Give yourself one or two times a month to socialize beyond a small stable pool of friends. It is too easy to discover a week before that 20-30 page paper is due that you've got nothing done and agree to go to a concert or babysit.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>