Things I had Wrong About Graduate School
Starting graduate school, I thought I had a good idea about what it meant to be a grad student and what academic culture was like. But 5 years in I’ve come to realize how wrong I was. Coming from a smaller liberal arts school, I wasn’t as familiar with the research university environment. Maybe I was a bright-eyed highly motivated fresh-out undergrad student who tried to look on the ideal side of things, and that’s where my flawed thought process was. Either way, I wish I didn’t have these misconceptions about graduate school.
My experiments will be like my lab courses
Remember how lab during undergrad worked out most of the time in the three hours you had to work? Well, graduate-level research doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. Graduate research is a lot more troubleshooting and making changes than going into the lab and everything working the first time.
I will spend most of my time doing research
NOPE. Most of my time in grad school was split between research, classes, reading, mentoring, training, and other tasks.
If I say yes to everything, my advisor will be impressed with me and I’ll leave grad school with an advantage
Don’t do this, please. I fell down the path of thinking I needed to do everything to please my advisor. Instead, this led to me taking on too much and not spending enough time on classes and research. Don’t get lost in doing other work simply because you feel obligated to do it!
Long hours = productivity
Just because you’re in the lab for hours, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. Make sure your time working is spent doing productive work and not busy work.
Everything I do needs to be perfect
It’s easy as an undergrad to think everything you do needs to be perfect. I think especially in the US, students are taught that work needs to be perfect in order to reap the benefits of “being the best.” But in grad school this all changes. There likely won’t be enough time in the day to get everything done and that’s ok! Sometimes tasks need to be just done, and not done and perfect.
Most academics are in academia for the pursuit of knowledge and to mentor students
You would think someone who has a Ph.D. and is at a research university would be in the field for the sake of science, mentoring students, and contributing to new knowledge right? No, many academics are only in it for themselves. Chasing the prestige of tenure or highly cited papers or a high-impact journal publication will allow big egos to strive.
Acacemics are genuises
You don’t have to be a genius or the smartest person in the room to be successful in grad school. You have to be persistent, dedicated, and resiliant.
What are some things that you had wrong about grad school?
