Graduate
School
Survival Guide
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This guide provides concise suggestions for:
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Other sources of information:
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Getting the most out of the relationship with your reseach advisor or boss
- Meet regularly - you
should insist on meeting once a week or at least every other week because
it gives you motivation to make regular progress and it keeps your advisor
aware of your work.
- Prepare for your meetings - come to
each meeting with:
- List of topics to discuss
- Plan for what you hope to get out of the
meeting
- Summary of you have done since your last
meeting
- List of any upcoming deadlines
- Notes from your previous meeting
- Email him/her a brief summary of EVERY
meeting - this helps avoid misunderstandings and provides a
great record of your research progress. Include (where applicable):
- Time and plan for next meeting
- New summary of what you think you are
doing
- To do list for yourself
- To do list for your advisor
- List of related work to read
- List of major topics discussed
- List of what you agreed on
- List of advice that you may not follow
- Show your advisor the results of your work
as soon as possible - this will help your advisor understand
your research and identify potential points of conflict early in the
process.
- Summaries of related work
- Anything you write about your research
- Experimental results
- Communicate clearly - if you
disagree with your advisor, state your objections or concerns clearly and
calmly. If you feel something about your relationship is not working well,
discuss it with him or her. Whenever possible, suggest steps they could
take to address your concerns.
- Take the initiative - you do
not need to clear every activity with your advisor. He/she has a lot of
work to do too. You must be responsible for your own research ideas and
progress.
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Getting the most out of what you read
- Be organized
- Keep an electronic bibliography with notes
& pointers to the paper files
- Keep and file all the papers you have read
or skimmed
- Be efficient - only
read what you need to
- Start by reading only the conclusion,
scanning figures & tables, and looking at their references
- Read the other sections only if the paper
seems relevant or you think it may help you get a different perspective
- Skip the sections that you already understand
(often the background and motivation sections)
- Take notes on every paper you find worth
reading
- What problem are they trying to solve?
- What is their approach?
- How is it different from other approaches?
- Summarize what you have read on
each topic - after you have read several papers covering some topic,
note the:
- key problems
- various formulations of the problem they
are addressing
- relationship among the various approaches
- alternative approaches
- Read PhD theses - even
though they are long they can be very helpful in quickly learning about
what has been done is some field. Especially focus on:
- Background sections
- Method sections
- Your advisor's thesis - this will give you
an idea for what he/she expects from you.
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Making continual progress on your research
- Keep a journal of your ideas - write
down everything you are thinking about even if you think it is stupid. It
will help you keep track of your progress and keep you from going in
circles. Do not plan to share it with anyone, so you can write freely.
- Set some reasonable goals with deadlines
- Identify key tasks that need to be
completed
- Set a reseasonable
date for completing them (on the order of weeks or months).
- Share this with your advisor or enlist
your advisors help in creating the goals and deadlines.
- Set some deadlines that you must keep
(e.g., volunteer to give a student seminar on your research, work toward
a conference paper submission deadline, etc.)
- Keep a to do list - Checking
off things on a to do list can feel very
rewarding when you are working on a long-term project.
- List the small tasks that can be done in
about an hour
- Pick at least one that has to be completed
each day
- Continually update your:
- Problem statement
- Goals
- Approach (or a list
of possible approaches)
- One-minute version of your
research (aka the elevator ride summary)
- Five-minute version of your
research
- Discuss your research with anyone who will
listen - use your fellow students, friends, family, etc. to
practice discussing your research on various levels. They may have useful
insights or you may find that verbalizing your ideas clarifies them for
yourself.
- Write about your work
- Early stage: Write short idea papers and share
them with your advisor and colleagues.
- Intermediate stage: Find workshops and
conferences for submitting preliminary results. This can also help you
set deadlines.
- Advanced stage: Target relevant journals.
- Avoid distractions - it is
easy to ignore your research in favor of more structured tasks such as
taking classes, teaching classes, organizing student activities, creating
web pages like this, etc. Minimize these kinds of activities or committments.
- Confront your fears and weaknesses
- If you are afraid of public speaking,
volunteer to give lots of talks.
- If you are afraid your ideas are stupid,
discuss them with someone.
- If you are afraid of writing, write
something about your research every day.
- Balance reading, thinking, writing and
hacking - often research needs to be an iterative process
across all of those tasks.
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Finding a thesis topic or formulating a research plan
- Pick something you find interesting -
if you work on something solely because your advisor wants you to, it will
be difficult to stay motivated.
- Pick something your advisor finds
interesting - if your advisor doesn't find it interesting he/she is
unlikely to devote much time to your research. He/she will be even more
motivated to help you if your project is on their critical path (although
this has down sides too!).
- Pick something the research community
will find interesting -if you want to make yourself marketable.
- Make sure it addresses a real problem
- Remember that your topic will evolve as
work on it
- Pick something that is narrow enough that
it can be done in a reasonable time frame
- Have realistic expectations (i.e. Don't
expect the Nobel Prize)
- Don't worry that you will be stuck in this
area for the rest of your career. It is very likely that you will be
doing very different research after you graduate.
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Characteristics to look for in a good advisor, mentor, boss,
or committee member
It is unreasonable to expect one person to have
all of the qualities you desire. You should choose thesis committee members who
are strong in the areas where your advisor is weak.
- Willing to meet with you regularly
(about 1 hour every week or every other week)
- You can trust him/her to
- Give you credit for the work you do
- Defend your work when you are not around
- Speak well of you and your capabilities
- Tell you when your work is or is not good
enough
- Help you graduate in a reasonable time
frame
- Look out for you professionally and
personally
- Is interested in your topic
- Has good personal and
communication skills
- You can talk freely and easily about
research ideas
- Tells you when you are doing something
stupid
- Patient
- Never feels threatened by your
capabilities
- Helps motivate you and keep you unstuck
- Has good technical skills
- Can provide constructive criticism of
papers you write or talks you give
- Knows if what you are doing is good enough
for a good thesis
- Can help you figure out what you are not
doing well
- Can help you improve your skills
- Can suggest related articles to read or
people to talk to
- Can tell you or help you discover if what
you are doing has already been done
- Can help you set and obtain reasonable
goals
- Will be around until you finish
- Is well respected in his/her field
- Has good connections for the type of
job you would want when you graduate
- Willing and able to provide financial
and computing support
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Avoiding the research blues
- When you meet your goals, reward
yourself
- Don't compare yourself
to senior researchers who have many more years of work and publications
- Don't be afraid to leave part of your
research problem for future work
- Exercise
- Use the student counseling services
- Occassionally, do something fun without feeling guilty!
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Other resources:
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Books
- Getting What You Came For by Robert
L. Peters
This book contains a lot of helpful advice on getting the most out of the
PhD process. The sections on writing and giving presentations are
particularly helpful.
- The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for
Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil
Fiore
Since one of the biggest problems in finishing a PhD is procrastination,
this book should be helpful to those of you who actually get around to
reading it.
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Web Pages
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News Groups
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Acknowledgements
Much of this advice came out of reading the other resources
noted above as well as through discussions with SMI students, faculty and staff.
Created and maintained by Wanda Pratt.
Last updated on March
5, 1997
Send comments or suggestions to: pratt@smi.stanford.edu