Graduate Student Roundtable Part 2

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Atif — No Comments ↓

Halloween and Graduate School (courtesy www.phdcomics.com)

Ed Note: I originally posted this on my blog Mr Epidemiology, but given that we’re in the midst of grad school application season, I thought it would be relevant to our readers. I posted Part 1 last week, and this is the second half of that series.

As a graduate student, you get a lot of people asking you about what graduate school is, and what it entails. Is it worth it? How difficult is it? And once you’re in, the questions don’t stop – if anything, they multiply! How do you pick a supervisor? How do you deal with rejection? What do you do next?

I crowdsourced the internet for questions – among Twitter followers, other blogs and forums and came up with a list of questions. I also invited several prominent bloggers to participate. They have all graciously agreed to donate their time and effort to this piece.

Note that these are the opinions of those involved, and do not reflect our institutions or departments in any way. I’m trying to get a range of viewpoints here, and many different perspectives. If you disagree or have something you’d like to add, please feel free to comment either here or when we answer a question you’re particularly passionate about!

An introduction to the panel is available here.

Question 5: What if things aren’t going so well? What advice do you have for those who might having a tough time – either juggling multiple commitments, losing interest or falling behind?

Question 6: Is doing a Masters and PhD at the same school frowned upon? What about undergrad/Masters/PhD?

Question 7: What has surprised you so far about the grad school experience? In which cases did it meet your expectations and when did it fail to do so? (i.e. How is graduate school life different to undergraduate life?)

Question 8: What does it take to be a successful graduate student? Are there any last minute tips/advice/inspirational words you have for budding graduate students?