Before joining ESN as a writer/editor in 2014, Hannah Eagleson wrote her series What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School just after finishing her PhD in 2011.Â
Managing coursework is definitely a challenge. Here are a few things I wish I’d realized at the beginning of coursework. All of them eventually helped me both to get more out of my studies and to have a life outside of study.
You can’t do it all. Learn to prioritize different academic responsibilities
Most people arrive in graduate school with an impressive record of scholastic diligence. Grad students are usually the people who turned in extra credit assignments, attended optional events, and engaged in academic correspondence with their professors during summer breaks. All of those habits will help you in graduate school, but they also have an unfortunate tendency: they give the illusion that every single assignment can be accomplished as well as one would like to accomplish it. For many people, this is simply not true in graduate school. If you are taking 2-3 graduate courses which expect you to read one book-length primary source per week and critical articles, and you are also carrying a one or two course teaching load, you probably will not be able to read every word of every assignment and also sleep. I found it depressing to realize this, but graduate school in the humanities is probably going to entail some skimming. It’s crucial to decide on a few central priorities for a semester and focus on them. It’s still important to work hard in courses that aren’t central to your interests, but you probably will have to skim some readings.
You can still do it well. Pursue your interests diligently.
When I started my Ph.D., I was frustrated because it seemed that I didn’t have time to do anything well. I felt guilty when I didn’t get every word of every assignment read, and I wanted more time to process everything. Over time I did discover a few tips for giving long-term thoughtful attention to things while still being a productive member of each seminar. Here are a few things I learned: [Read more…] about What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload