Advice for Surviving Graduate School

While I’m not completely finished with graduate school, I am on the “downhill” side of doctoral coursework and comprehensive exams, so I thought I’d provide some thoughts on surviving graduate school for some of my junior colleagues. In a world spent mostly looking toward what’s next in my career, it seems appropriate to take a look backward for a moment. 

1. You can’t read everything, so read strategically. There are some graduate advisors cringing at this right now because they read so adamantly, they’re even reading my blog. They won’t skip point two because it might be the point that unlocks the piece. But the bottom line is that you can’t possibly read everything, especially when a syllabus has “extra readings” for the week. On top of the two books required, the professor suggests you read three of these others. Really, professor? Five books for one class? Yes, seriously. This will be asked of you. So you have to read strategically. Learn to grasp the nuts and bolts of an argument quickly and efficiently. It’s an acquired skill, but it’s best to acquire it early in the process.
2. Stay balanced. One of the biggest mistakes people make in grad school is selling out to their program of study. You have to go to the gym. You have to sleep. You should stay plugged into a church. Even though none of us are studying science, we need to know enough about how the human body works to give it food and workouts and rest. Your brain will not allow higher level thinking if you don’t take care of your body. Aside from that, research shows that creativity (and higher level processing) happens when we shift our focus away from what we’re working on. It’s why places like Google and 3M allow their employees to play pingpong and take walks. Because when those workers return to productivity, they have better ideas.
3. Make and cultivate relationships with colleagues. Graduate school is, by definition, an alienating experience. You are becoming one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet in your niche of specialization. So in that, there are very few others who can relate to what you’re enduring. Your significant other may not “get” what you do. You friends may not understand the time commitment and may drive you nuts with the “so when will you be done?” question, as if grad school is just a jog around the block. That’s why connecting with colleagues, beyond just someone to complain about that “stupid paper we had to write this week” is important; they can commiserate on the life of the mind.
4. Protect your intellectual vitality. This is not an excuse to be lazy. In fact, what I mean is not that you read more but that you stay connected to the important influences that directed you to graduate school. Don’t get so sidetracked by the theory-heavy reading lists of courses that you forget to read theology and life-giving ideas about the profession that motivates you. Read pedagogy when you’re frustrated with disengaged students. Read a biography of your all time favorite pitcher if it breathes life into your historical intellectual curiosity. Don’t get bogged in the mire of grad reading lists.
5. Vary your studying atmosphere. Some of my colleagues have their spot. For some it’s at home, others a coffee shop, and some (shockingly) can get work done in the office. But wherever it is, you will eventually hit a wall. When that happens and the words won’t flow or your eyeballs seem to cross, find a new place. Universities are full of places to study. Switch it up. Study in a different building on campus. Go to a different part of town. Sometimes studying at a friend’s house can result in minimal actual “study” work, but I’ve gotten more done in 15 minute chunks in intellectually-stimulating places than I have for hours in the institutional confines of various places. Find what makes your lightbulb glow, but don’t stay plugged into the same outlet. Explore and illumine other places.

So you want to go to grad school? Five things advisers won’t tell you but you need to know

When students get the idea to go to graduate school, they immediately put their undergraduate advisor in a difficult position. The professor can encourage you to press on, apply, and go for your dreams. Or, he/she can choose to be honest, explaining the realities of the dreaded “job market” and the general societal malaise for all things “higher education.” Somewhere in this conversation of “well… you know” and “how can I say this without sounding offensive?” awkward moments, maybe inklings of truth creep through.

I decided, in my service here as the CFH grad rep, to save some of the trouble with five things your adviser never told you, but you should definitely consider about graduate school:

1. Grad school is nothing like college. Nothing. Seriously not even a little bit. It’s a job. You’re going to a job that doesn’t pay you anything. In fact, you’re going to a job that is quite possibly going to cost MORE than your undergraduate debt. The glorious stories of drinking coffee, up late in your tweed smoking jacket pontificating about some great historical figure are often squelched by extra side jobs, chicken-scratch esoteric jargon-filled commentary from frustrated research professors, and a general disconnect from the beloved “academy” that sparked your initial interest in the “profession.”
2. Job Prospects. The golden goose at the end of it is not a guaranteed “practice” as in the medical professions. No, instead, you will be in the precarious position of trying to oust a senior colleague who is, at that time, making the most he/she has ever made in his/her career. There’s a reason people don’t retire.
3. You start putting quotation marks around everything and your friends/family hate you for it. No, seriously, graduate school after the postmodern turn is akin to walking on eggshells EVERYWHERE you go. You start talking about “race” and “class” instead of race and class. You read Foucault and start deconstructing everything. You order a chocolate donut and begin asking yourself about the global impact of your personal cocoa reliance… then you throw the donut away and hope that the good people of Nicaragua forgive you for exploiting them. Then you put “exploiting” in quotation marks and feel awful, again.
4. You feel guilty for having hobbies. You will find yourself justifying going to the gym because it’s time spent away from books. You have this immaculate pressure that, because your life is not on a 9-5, it must be a 24/7 immersion in theory and difficult readings. You will be in the middle of a workout wondering what a Marxist critique of this gym might look like. You wonder if anyone else has ever even contemplated such a thing. You apply Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities” to the gym rats. Then you cry a little, and remember you have a precis to write by morning. You cancel whatever fun thing you thought about doing that night and go read because no good grad student has hobbies.
5. Awful War Stories. All survivors have a story. Mere survival IS the story. Graduate school, should you survive, makes for awful stories. When your “friends” ask where you’ve been for the past two years, you explain that you were on a mountaintop of exalted consciousness, connecting with the great minds of the ages. They ask about your library fines and tease about your use of quotation marks. Then, your friends stop calling you to hang out because either they don’t like quotation marks, or, more realistically graduate school changed the way you look at the world so much that you can’t tell a single, solitary story anymore without giving a theoretical background, a brief discussion of historiographic context, and an explicit, clear, well-articulated thesis statement. “Bro, we just asked what you had for lunch. You didn’t have to talk about the history of ‘Po boys.”

*This is decidedly tongue in cheek. If you’d like advice on attending graduate school, do not hesitate to email me at grjones83@gmail.com. I’ve had some really incredible “experiences” in graduate school and am happy to help any aspiring students with the pesky questions you’d never really ask your own advisors. And yes, I do put a lot more things in quotation marks now.

Letter from the President – Professor Barry Hankins, Baylor University

Dear CFH Grad Students,
As we start another school year I want to send along the CFH’s best wishes for a successful semester. I’ve always believed that the primary benefit of the CFH is that it brings Christian scholars together for fellowship and mutual encouragement. In recent years this vital function has been extended to graduate students in unprecedented ways, so let CFH be a resource for you. Stay connected through the website and Greg Jones’s blog, and begin now to network with CFH members on faculty at Christian colleges. Also, as you develop seminar papers this semester, keep the October 2012 biennial CFH meeting in mind. When you give a paper at a CFH conference, you will encounter a diverse array of participants who want to help you develop as a scholar and who see you first and foremost as a human being created in God’s image. Finally, when you hit that mid-semester point when you wonder whether all your effort is someday going to be worth the sacrifice you’re making, stay in the present. Being a scholar means reading, thinking, writing, and teaching, which is what grad students do. In other words, while grad school is in one respect “training,” it is also one’s entrée into the vocation of scholarship. God has opened doors for you to be a scholar right now, so make the most of the opportunity. Be a good steward of your present calling and trust God to open future doors at the appropriate time.

Barry Hankins
President, Conference on Faith and History

What He Tells His Grad Students

Check out this article in the Chronicle about advice for graduate students.

If you’re not already queasy about the job market, this ought to do it for you. I guess the only silver lining I can find here is that in history, I suppose, no hiring committee would expect three publications for a freshly-minted PhD.

Any veterans want to enlighten us or react to this article? Give us hope, please?

Think Before You Tweet (or Blog or Update Your Status)

For the “next generation” of scholars, social media is part of our lives in significant ways. This very blog is part of a trend of being digitally connected while also occupationally and spiritually aware.

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed provides a timely reminder about caution with social media.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/think-before-you-tweet-or-blog-or-update-a-status/30949

 

Top 5 Common Mistakes of New Grad Students

It is now halfway through the fall semester, so most graduate students have caught their stride.  Papers, readings, all turned in and performance is not too bad.  This isn’t so hard, you’re thinking.  This is just 17^th grade!

Here are a few of the common mistakes that graduate students make:

1)      Reading every page of every book

-New graduate students tend to feel the immense pressure of graduate school and desire to impress their new advisors, instructors, and colleagues.  As a result, when preparing for classes, despite the unbelievable number of pages to read in a given week, new graduate students feel the need to read every page of every book.  Here’s a little secret about everyone else.  Most students do not read every page of every book.  There is no human way to keep up with the volume required in graduate school.  Read strategically.  Get the argument and think intelligently about it.  Then, go back to the book to read the parts of the book that will help you better understand that key argument.

2)      Writing with passive voice

-Graduate students let things happen TO them.  This is part of how we write.  “The soldiers were shot by the bad guys.”  Okay, so that may not be the most sophisticated example, but it’s an easy illustration of the problem of passive voice.  Just make the idea active.  “The bad guys shot the soldiers.”  This simple change greatly improves clarity, flow, and quality of writing.  Find a friend who can easily identify passive voice and work, often, on fixing it in your writing.

3)      Putting the intellectual above the spiritual and physical

-People live life differently.  This is part of the point of a free will life.  However, when new graduates enter the academy, far too often they focus all of their energy on reading every page (see #1), thinking every minute, and telling everyone about this new, exciting adventure.  While these are undoubtedly good pursuits, they should be balanced with both the spiritual and the physical.  Stay connected with faith-minded friends both inside and outside of academe.  Make a point to go to the gym, once, three, or five times a week.  Even if you are not a “go to the gym” kind of person, make a point to meditate or do yoga.  Keep mind, soul, and body all under consideration or you will certainly be exhausted before the long papers at the end of the semester.

4)      Finding voice in graduate classes

-One of the things that scares new graduate students is the fear of rejection in classes.  There’s a basic fact to encounter here: all graduate students were new and had trepidations at some point.  We all found our voice.  Some speak more than others by nature, but you must find your voice in graduate class.  Do not be afraid to express your thoughts about a book.  Of course some of you do not find it difficult to come up with something to say.  For some, the problem is knowing how to keep comments to yourself.  In this case, remember to yield to others, take copious notes, and if necessary, meet with the professor after class or on another day to further develop the ideas you did not have time to share in class.

5)      “Trashing” every book

-The last common mistake of new graduate students is to “trash” every book.  One of the first skills that graduate students learn is to refine their “critical” or “analytical” eye.  It becomes a knife, more butcher knife than scalpel, used to carve up the arguments of several important works of scholarship.  Instead of feeling the need to undermine these fantastic works, perhaps it might be useful to consider why the professor assigned the book in the first place.  Often, it seems, professors choose examples of excellent scholarship, rather than terrible books.  With that in mind, develop a style of positive critiques.  Ask yourself, “what did I learn from this book?” and make sure to answer that question in an equally “critical” way as the books that you completely demolish.

Feel free to comment or add to this list.  If you are a new graduate student and have questions the rest of us may be able to help.  Please post questions, or if you’d prefer, email me at grjones83@gmail.com and I will relay the question to others.

Stay the course!  The semester will be over before you know it.