Navigating Graduate School: Insights and Recommendations for a Productive Degree Path

Beginning graduate school can be an exciting experience; however, given the new social and intellectual experiences, there will be unique challenges that arise during your graduate program. Within this article, the author shares what was useful, helpful suggestions others have offered her, and pieces of advice she wishes she knew going in. In the author's experience, her lessons learned in graduate school fall under five main categories. These include planning for success, beginning a line of research, writing papers, focusing on learning during coursework, and becoming part of the academic community. In each of these sections she shares with you her experience, as well as the experiences of some peers, so you can learn from some who have already gone through this process. Many of these suggestions come from the author's experience preparing for an academic profession, but these suggestions can be stretched and edited to professional paths outside of academia as well.