I’m at the Grad School of My Choice, NOW WHAT?
I have arrived at the grad school of my choice- NOW WHAT?
SO, you’ve gotten into the grad school of your choice…NOW what?
Starting grad school is a challenge (understatement).
Not only do you have to navigate a new place, meet your peers, find mentors, and engage in rigorous academic activity… you also have to finish on time!
The key to accomplishing this is to immediately assess where you want to be when you graduate, and take the path of least resistance to get there.
Here’s how.
You can just “get by” in grad school until your advisor tells you… “The funding has just ran out. You need to be out in 6 months”.
I have seen many people done that.
AND the worst case scenario would be “Sorry the funding has run out and you are not far enough to graduate. Go find a new advisor”
I have seen that too. Trust me, that’s no fun.
No one wants to be in their final year only to find that they have to start all over, all because of a few missteps.
Therefore, make sure to make every step proactive and not reactive.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. Don’t fail to plan.
Here are a few things to keep in mind…
- Make sure the people on your team are taken care of and that they having great chemistry with each other. You don’t want two committee members playing politics at your expense.
- Make sure your working research model is robust and that you produce results on a timely basis.
- Make sure that you manage the research funding conscientiously.
- Make sure you know how long your run way is.
Seek out advice on ways to get to where you want to be fast and without a lot of snags. Remember…there is a huge difference between knowing and being.
Smart people know a lot of things but many smart people do not follow these common sense guidelines.
Over the next weeks, I will be posting a series of tactics to accomplish your grad school aspirations.
