The first year of a Ph.D. program may be tough, but at least you don't need to worry about this guy.
Everyone from a National Football League rookie to a fresh-faced wizard at Hogwarts knows that the first year in a new place or situation can be a drag. One day the crowd is cheering your name…and a day later you’re picking grass out of your teeth. Doctoral students face challenges during their first year, too. And while these challenges have nothing do to with (we hope!) tank-like defensive ends or wizards with a mean streak, these obstacles can increase the difficulty of the first year if students are unprepared.
In this post, Tufts Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) students and students from the graduate programs in the School of Engineering share tips for not only surviving, but flourishing in year one of a Ph.D. program.
Get A Head Start (You’ll Thank Yourself Later)
The first weeks of a doctoral program—like a rocket’s reentry into Earth’s atmosphere—can be loud, bumpy, and disorienting. Students are moving into new housing; getting to know the geography (Where is the library? Where are the best places to eat?); meeting with their advisers; speaking with fellow students; and figuring out the local mass transit system.
These first few weeks are also an ideal time to get a head start on your graduate work.
One tip for the first year of a Ph.D. program? Read early and read often. Photo by FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
“I was shocked at how much work the first year involved,” said Danielle Rosvally, a Tufts GSAS drama Ph.D. student and Shakespeare scholar who writes regularly about graduate student life through her Daniprose blog. “I would advise students to read early and read often. The more you can get done early in the semester, the less you will panic at the end of it.”
Adds Grace Giles, a GSAS psychology doctoral student interested in how nutrition influences mood and cognitive behavior.
“Try to stay one week ahead of course readings and assignments. This will allow you to stay on top of your work and give you leeway for any unexpected extra work involving your research.”
Matthew McMahan, a GSAS drama Ph.D. student whose research interests include historical avant-garde and French farce, suggests taking a similar approach to writing papers.
“I wish someone had told me to start writing my term papers as I research. By the end of the semester, I was burnt out and my mind was not as sharp. Furthermore, it was a task in itself to shift through the mounds of notes I took, some of which I hadn’t seen in months. If you write as you are encountering the research, you will have more to work with when it’s time to write the paper.”
GSAS English Ph.D. student Joelle Pedersen also suggests going ‘old school.’
“Annotate your readings with small sticky notes. It sounds silly, but it’s so much easier to find references in class that way,” said Pedersen, whose research area is nineteenth- and twentieth-century century fiction. “Also, start at least one of your final papers ahead of time, and try to turn every paper you write into something that you could potentially present at a conference. There is a conference for virtually every paper topic and this kind of publishing will garner you respect in the future.”
Luke Mueller, a fellow GSAS English Ph.D. student, stresses a slightly different approach to assignments.
“Don’t look ahead unless you have to,” said Mueller, who is interested in lying and truth, phenomenology, and questions of privacy and power in British literature. “Don’t over think everything. Just live through the process one day at a time and work on the problems that need solving. Before you know it, you will have made significant progress.”
Lay Down the Law…With Your Friends and Family
The "Fresh Prince" was right…parents just don't understand. But when it comes to pursuing a Ph.D. program students need to make sure parents and other family members "get it."
Will Smith is an academy award-nominated actor; a multiple Grammy award winner; and the man who, in 2007, was named the most powerful actor in Hollywood by Newsweek. But, to us, Will Smith will always be “The Fresh Prince” who, with “DJ Jazzy Jeff,” rapped about how “parents just don’t understand.” Many Ph.D. students can relate to the frustration the young Will Smith feels, as first-year students often deal with parents—and other family members and friends—who don’t really understand what the student is doing. Therefore, it’s best for doctoral students to have a much-needed conversation with family and friends early on.
“I had to put my foot down with friends and family who are outside the academy and force them to understand the gravity of my situation,” said Danielle Rosvally. “Once they knew that this is a job, a life choice, and a valid career path, and not just about getting a fancy piece of paper, they were a lot more forgiving and understanding about the things that I had to do to make my life work. Instill this understanding as quickly as possible and you will save yourself a lot of headaches in the long run.”
Still, there are many times when family life is the priority (especially for Ph.D. students with children) and there’s a need to balance it all. The best way to achieve this balance? Find a system that works for you.
“In the beginning, it was hard to balance my family life with graduate school; doing all the work that is required of a graduate student while giving my family the attention they deserved” said Matthew McMahan. “The first thing I did was to excise all of the activities that I considered frivolous. I wouldn’t watch television before 6:00 pm, and I stopped going onto Facebook and mindlessly browsing the Internet. I also started waking up earlier to maximize my time so I would have more of it in the evening to spend with my family.”
Think Outside the (Culinary) Box
While the television program "Top Chef" may not be in your future, cooking for yourself is a great way to save money and eat healthy. Photo by FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Doctoral students, like everyone else, need to eat and drink (usually coffee…ludicrous amounts of coffee). This need for sustenance often becomes a matter of dollars and cents, since many students are the epitome of the “poor graduate student.” But it is possible to eat and eat well on a grad students’ (nonexistent) salary. All it takes is planning, a good bike, and a really big freezer.
“I came back to get my Ph.D. after having spent a number of years working in industry. The financial adjustment was a challenge at first,” said Noah Daniels, a computer science doctoral student researching computational biology, machine learning, and programming languages. “I dealt with the financial challenge by figuring out how to economize. I bike to Tufts whenever possible, even though I live in Waltham*, so I didn’t need to buy a university parking permit. My wife and I save a lot on food through a farmer’s market we joined, and we recently bought a year’s worth of meat from a local farm. Yes, we have a half steer, half pig, and many rabbits and chickens in a chest freezer in our basement!’
Danielle Rosvally agrees with the merits of buying in bulk as a cost-saving measure.
“Get yourself a box of paper from Costco and feed off that until it dies,” she said. “It’s the cheapest way to print stuff.”
Be a ‘Working Stiff’
Working nine-to-five might not have worked for Dolly Parton and company, but for many first-year graduate students it’s the only way to go.
You probably can't jump on a private jet for a weekend in Paris at the Louvre, but it's a good bet there are some great museums near you. Make sure to take a break from your Ph.D. studies and go to a museum, blog, or hit the road for a run. Photo by FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
“Treat graduate school like a nine-to-five job as much as you can,” said Grace Giles. “Focus on your research and schoolwork, but make time for your personal life. Go for a run or go to a museum.”
Danielle Rosvally agrees with the importance of having a life away from the books, classroom, or lab.
“My outlet is blogging, but I know other people who take classes in the circus arts or go to the gym regularly. Everyone needs something at the end of the day that isn’t work. At the same time, I have realized that graduate school is a full-time job. Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.”
Adds Joelle Pedersen, “I set a pretty strict work schedule during my first year. I committed to reading six to eight hours a day and then allowed myself to put down the books and spend quality time with my fiancée, family, and friends without being distracted. I found that a few hard, focused hours of work was way more productive than trying to work with the television on and a Bruins game in the background.”
By Robert Bochnak, G07, senior writer/communications manager, Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences
We want to hear from you! Are you heading into a doctoral program? Do you have advice for Ph.D. students entering their first year? Are there any best practices that we missed? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below.
*the driving time from Waltham, Massachusetts to Medford, Massachusetts (where the Tufts campus is located) is around twenty minutes
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Road Warriors: What Every Grad Student Needs to Know About Presenting at Conferences or Meetings
Do you have any advise for working professionals pursuing a Ph.D.?
I just finished my doctorate degree in May of 2011. I began the program in September of 2006. I held a full-time job that sometimes required working evenings and weekends. I am mother to 2, grandmother to 4 (two that lived in my house) and wife to a husband who retired due to a disability. While I was in school, my husband had a stroke, reconstructive surgery on his foot, contracted an infection that hosptialized him for 5 months and lost the ability to walk. But I finished the degree in less than 5 years which was the goal I set when I entered the program. I attribute my success to several things. I shared my educational goals with my supervisor and my staff. They were all very supportive. I did not accept any additional assignments and some of my staff often volunteered to pick up evening and weekend programs for me.
I was a member of a cohort. If at all possible, I recommend that everybody consider being a part of a cohort. Having all of my classes with the same group of people really helped me get through the process. When I had to miss a class (and I didn’t miss many) due to my husband’s illness, my classmates got me up to speed on class requirements, etc.
Last, I didn’t give any part of my life more consideration than any other part. It was all equally important. I did not put off my family for schoolwork. I also did not put off schoolwork for my family. I scheduled the time for the different activities and stuck to it as closely as I could. I never put school on the back burner like some of my friends did who are still ABD after 10 years. I took my laptop with me to the hospital while I sat at my husband’s bedside. If I took time off from school to be with him, while I was there I did school work because that time was designated as school time. If I was with him during work time, I did work. I became the queen of multi-tasking. And my motto throughout my entire doctoral program was “this too shall pass.” I’m sure each person’s strategies are different, but these worked for me.
I’m 6 months in and still figuring out the balance. I am mum and a PhD (research) student. I find maximizing my effective study time is easier when I turn off FB LOL. My escape is blogging and tatting (craft) when I get time. The quote above ‘read and read often’ resonates with me, as does the ‘write and write often’ version of it…my blog brings together an number of things from my study mussings, organisational thoughts and little things to help make study and life smoother.
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Great article! I just finished the first year of my Ph.D. program at BC (I did my masters at Tufts), and I agree with many of the contributor’s points. I also agree with Debra above–the cohort model really makes a difference. I have a small cohort of 5 and we lean on each other all the time for help and support.
Another piece of advice I have: talk to more advanced doctoral students in your department as much as possible! They are great resources for information on courses, faculty, grant opportunities, conferences, travel funding, and much more. Not only can they help you out while you are in graduate school (both personally and academically), but they will also be colleagues in your discipline after graduation. No matter what your field, you have to make connections like these early and often!
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I was a single parent in graduate school and I agree with all that has been said already. Keep up with your cohort, network with others in your department, live in the moment, and read not only what is required but also from the recommended list as well. Below are some other things that I did my first year:
(1) On day 1 I picked up a copy of the graduate school handbook to find out what the requirement were to graduate with a PhD in my department. I then decided what courses I would take and when.
(2) With my copies of syllabi from previous graduate courses in Econometrics, statistics and regression, I also looked to see if I could get out of taking the required introductory courses in statistics or the courses for the required “outside minor”.
(3) Any course that required a paper, I used for my benefit. For example, I used the required Research Methods course work out what methodology and data I would use later for my master’s thesis .
(4) In another seminar course I wrote the literature review. By the end of the first year, I had a draft of my master’s thesis that I could revise during the summer.
(5) Instead of waiting for study groups to be formed, I was proactive in getting them together.
(6) I let my advisor know from the first day that I had a child and could not take meeting after 3pm.
(7) By October of my first year I purchased my graduation ring with PhD on it because, I knew I was going to finish no matter what.
In sum, be confident—Planning+ Perseverance +Persistence=PhD
I hope these tips help someone in their first year.
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This is to inform you that I am Second year PhD student. I finished my post Graduate studies in 2009. After that i worked in various institute. When i was working in the industry my aim to take a Doctoral degree; but the question is How..whether its possible..? i asked these questions to myself and i finally i got an answer. I resigned my job and went for the university and enquire regrading the PhD requirements. Fianlly Wrote University Entrance examination and admitted for the doctoral degree. Due to some family problem i am not sure to complete my studies. My request for the juniors; who have interest for doing their doctoral degree try hard, have to finish the programme in the short period. don’t worry you will succeed in the life…
In sum, be confident—Planning+ Perseverance +Persistence=PhD
I hope these tips help someone in their first year.
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