Success in Graduate School
The key to being successful without becoming burnt out.
Graduate school starts out exciting. It is a new experience and a new achievement. Unfortunately, once you get into graduate school, that excitement can quickly wear off and be replaced by stress and frustration.
We go to graduate school because we want to be successful. We want to earn that graduate degree, whether it is a master’s or a doctoral degree. However, especially in research-based graduate schools, the path to success can seem murky at best.
Undergraduate vs. Graduate School Success
In undergrad, there is a clear path to success that is given by a course catalog or student handbook. You have a wide option of general education classes and a select number of classes in your major that are required. However, once you complete those classes, you are granted your degree and graduate. While undergrad can still be difficult, there is always a way to determine your progress towards success in your degree.
On the contrary, in research-based graduate schools, even if you complete the course requirements, you still have not earned your degree. Instead, success in graduate school is dependent on the completion of courses, qualifying for candidacy, and completing a magical amount of research that you are never certain you have reached.
Except for a few celebratory moments, like passing a qualifying exam or finishing classes, most of graduate school is spent feeling unsure of your status and unsure of your potential success.
I want to share my key to success in graduate school and my success path for all graduate students who feel lost in the graduate school grind.
The Key to Success in Graduate School
It may seem really simple, but the key to success in graduate school is focus. I am not talking about the kind of focus that means you can sit at your computer and focus on a task for hours. This is what many of us imagine when we think about a good graduate student.
Spending their hours late at night because of the love of their research. Coffee cups stacking up next to their computer. Occasional trips to a whiteboard to write out some genius, groundbreaking thoughts that is going to result in a life-changing dissertation.
This is a fantasy.
Instead, the focus I am discussing is having a top priority throughout your Ph.D. The trick to graduate school is to know what your primary focus should be when everyone is asking something different from you.
Your primary focus should change throughout graduate school depending on what stage of graduate school you are in.
Let’s take some mystery out of success in graduate school. I want to discuss what I view as the success path through graduate school
Graduate School Success Path
When you first start in graduate school, you probably felt overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities placed on you. You will likely make mistakes and sometimes may feel like you just can’t seem to do anything correctly.
At the beginning of graduate school, your primary focus should be on giving yourself grace and figuring out how it is best for you to balance all of the responsibilities placed on you. Many students when they first enter graduate school are excited about learning and performing research. Therefore, they focus on completing research and the overwhelm can grow by the day.
However, to decrease stress and increase your success, you should focus on creating a system that works for you to decrease your stress and balance all of your responsibilities.
Once you have created a system to balance your life, then you should focus on your research. Focus on working on at least one novel, reasonable research project. You should also be focused on becoming independent in your research. During this time, you may still be teaching and taking courses, but since you have created a system to balance, your primary focus can move to research. If you want more advice on starting your research, consider getting my 30 day research jumpstart guide.
Once you have completed a project or are comfortable in the lab, you should continue your research, but shift your focus to mentoring those around you and completing any required candidacy exams.
You may wonder why mentoring essential to your success in graduate school. I think this is often a step that is missed by many graduate students. First, mentoring is important in academia, and developing interdependence is essential to moving forward as a graduate student.
Additionally, mentoring students to become independent in research and being able to continue your research without you eases your transition out of graduate school. The more irreplaceable you are in your lab the more difficult it will be for your advisor to let you go. I have seen this over and over again where students have become irreplaceable to their advisor. Generally, even if their advisor doesn’t realize it, they are hindering their progress toward graduation.
After mentoring other students and becoming a candidate, your focus should then move to your thesis or dissertation. Again, you may still be performing research, taking classes, and teaching, but to move forward to successful graduation, you have to put your primary focus on your dissertation at the right time. Specifically, I would suggest having your dissertation as a primary focus for at least 6 months before your planned defense.
Finally, when your dissertation is moving toward completion, it is time to focus on your post-graduation plans. While you do this you still need to ensure that you are finishing everything required to complete your degree, but you also need to work on job applications and reaching out to future potential advisors.
Ultimately, at the end of this path is graduation, the ultimate success of graduate school. Then, just like the transition to graduate school, you will start a new success path all over again.
Preventing Burnout in Graduate School
While the primary key to success is knowing when to focus on what, the secondary key of success is ensuring that your focus is not your undoing.
What I mean of course is that even in graduate school, you are and should be a well rounded person. You should have hobbies and goals outside of graduate school.
The more that you can enjoy living your life in graduate school, the happier that you will be. The secret is that the happier you are, the more successful you will generally be.
Have hobbies. Be social. Take time to rest. Enjoy your favorite show.
There are times that graduate school can wait.
