Related Links
On this page:
- Time Management
- School/Life Balance
- Taking Ownership of Your Experience at Graduate School
- Motivation and Stress
- Comprehensive Exams
- Presentations & Posters
- Conference Etiquette and Strategies
- Planning Ahead (Academia)
- Professional Graces
- Blogs, Newsletters and Listservs
- Other Great Links Pages
- Online Support and Services
Time Management
Study Advice: Avoiding Distractions and Staying Motivated
Source: University of Reading
This webpage from the University of Reading (UK) discusses some common difficulties students experience with managing time, distractions, and extra-scholastic responsibilities. It covers topics such as taking responsibility for your personal time management, setting goals and targets, dealing with distractions, and learning to say ‘no’. It’s also connected to the rest of the University of Reading Study Advice site, which contains a wealth of other resources, if you feel like browsing.
ProfHacker: 6 Ways to Avoid Letting Your Computer Distract You
Source: Brian Croxall, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Computers are both a professional boon and a potential time vortex. This article reviews some software programs and other strategies for reducing the extent to which we’re diverted from our work by the Internet.
Source: Jeremy M. Boss and Susan H. Eckert , Science, April 9th, 2004
Time flies, but how? Many people experience days in which they do not achieve the objectives they had set for that day. One day like this is not a problem, but when it becomes a pattern it could mean trouble for your academic progress. This article discusses some common ways people lose control over their time, and offers wonderful advice about how to reclaim it.
School/Life Balance
ProfHacker: Hacking Your Personal Life
Source: Erin E. Templeton, The Chronicle of Higher Education
It is easy to become caught up in our work and to lose perspective in the face of academic responsibilities and challenges. This article suggests some ways to create time for yourself and explores some of the benefits of doing so. Whether on or off campus, there are always opportunities to take time for ourselves, and this is often both personally and professionally rewarding.
Taking Ownership of Your Experience at Graduate School (Preparing and Planning For Graduate Success)
Source: University of British Columbia, Faculty of Graduate Studies
The UBC has produced a very thorough overview of the stages of graduate study and some of the common events and challenges encountered along the way. This four-part web document brims with insight, encouragement, and advice. Each section is organized into easily accessed subsections dealing with both practical and psychological aspects of graduate study. The document refers to UBC services that are available to assist students in their studies; please contact the GSLI about similar programs offered at Guelph.
Learning Support for Higher Degree Research Students
Source: Monash University
Monash University has provided an overview of the graduate research process. They have arranged the process into five steps. Each step discusses strategies and considerations that can be applied in order to facilitate the research process.
Time Management for Graduate Students
Source: Learning Skills Services, University of Western Ontario
What behaviours are characteristic of successful graduate students? This article outlines some of the behaviours that graduate students should adopt or avoid in order to have a positive and rewarding graduate experience. Topics include priority setting, network development, student/advisor relations, and more.
Source: The Graduate School, Michigan State University
The Graduate School at Michigan State has produced their own model for helping students plan for a successful doctoral experience and a smooth transition into an academic role. Their model focuses on four skill areas: Planning, Resilience, Engagement, and Professionalism. They have provided resources in order to help students develop these skills at three points in their program: early, middle, and late. This is a great resource for students looking for advice on just about any topic. Just a warning their information takes the form of links—so you could end up sifting through a lot of sites.
Mentor Memo: Creating a Research Agenda
Source: Justin Reedy and Madhavi Murty, Inside Higher Ed
A research agenda should be a major goal for all graduate students. A research agenda is a plan that identifies that subset of the topics in your field that you are going to research in graduate school. The goal is to identify your area of interest in order to direct your academic activities during your time in graduate school. This article discusses how to formulate and advance your research agenda.
Motivation and Stress
Burned Out? Take A Creative Sabbatical
Source: Gina Trapani, Harvard Business Review Blogs
You’re in graduate school, and that means long hours, intense focus, and complete commitment to the task at hand. This, at least, is an assumption that many graduate students share. But, as other links on this list suggest, it is actually in your best interest to take time away from your studies in order to maximize productivity. This article extols the virtues of taking time off to create or experiment.
Emotional Fatigue: Coping with Academic Pressure
Source: Nick Repak, Grad Resources
Do you feel tired, unmotivated, and overwhelmed by your work? You are not alone. According to this article, the majority of graduate students struggle with emotional fatigue. But, just because this is a common psychological state among graduate students does not mean that it should not, or cannot, be ameliorated. Repak provides a detailed account of the factors leading to emotional fatigue, the symptoms, and solutions that students can apply to their own lives in order to manage burnout.
Comprehensive Exams
Source: University of Pittsburgh
Setting up a comprehensive exam is an important, and usually unfamiliar task. There are many steps that need to be completed in order to prepare for your exam. This fact sheet provides some tips and issues for consideration while choosing a committee, choosing a topic, writing proposals, and giving the presentation.
Presentations & Posters
ProfHacker: How to Record Your Talking Habits (and Why You Might Want To)
Source: Heather M. Whitney, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Your success as a professional, particularly if you are planning to enter academia as an instructor, depends on your ability to speak well publicly. Many people have awkward or distracting speech habits that are completely correctable. As is the case with many other bad habits, others are hesitant to point them out to us. This article provides a preliminary guide to correcting speech patterns.
Preparing Professional Scientific Posters
Source: Kristine Kirkeby, UMN
Poster presentations are often given as part of conference or departmental events. They serve as an informal method for briefly presenting your work. Presenting your work well is important for generating interest in your work and communicating effectively. This page serves as an excellent guide to producing a quality poster. This source is directed at a scientific audience, but has things to offer students from other disciplines as well, as it is focused on practical issues like proper gluing technique.
Do's and Don'ts of Poster Presentation
Source: Steven M. Block, Biophysical Journal Volume 71, December1996
Poster presentations are often given as part of conference or departmental events. They serve as an informal method for briefly presenting your work. Presenting your work well is important for generating interest in your work and communicating effectively. This PDF provides detailed instructions not only about board construction and layout, but also about content and giving the presentation itself. An excellent source of advice about successfully preparing your poster presentation.
Designing Communications for a Poster Fair
Source: McNair Scholars Program, Pennsylvania State University
Poster presentations are often given as part of conference or departmental events. They serve as an informal method for briefly presenting your work. Presenting your work well is important for generating interest in your work and communicating effectively. In this webpage from Pennsylvania State University graphic designers outline the aesthetic principles for designing attractive, elegant, and effective poster boards. It also has links to additional pages that contain additional resources about building poster presentations.
Conference Etiquette and Strategies
Ph.Do: Conference Do’s and Don’ts
Source: Eszter Hargittai, Inside Higher Ed
Once you’ve decided to go to conference, how do you make the most of the experience? As it turns out, the formal presentations are not necessarily the main event. This article talks about how to prepare for a conference, and meeting the people at the conference in order to make the most of the experience.
Source: Eszter Hargittai, Inside Higher Ed
Conferences are an inevitable part of an academic career. They are important both as ways to keep up with research in your discipline, and as ways to participate academically. Selecting which conferences and meetings to attend is a complicated affair. There are numerous possibilities and they each have their own merits. It’s not always the case that smaller, regional conferences will be less academically productive than larger ones. Presenting fully-polished papers are not the only options for conference participation. This article provides an introductory overview of some considerations to take into account when selecting conferences.
Planning Ahead (Academia)
Source: Eszter Hargittai, Inside Higher Ed
How important is it to think ahead when your career aim is a tenured professorship? This article argues that planning for tenure review should start when you enter graduate school, or at least as early as possible. Academics who do not plan ahead by developing good relationships, attempting to understand ‘the system’, etc., in addition to pursuing scholarly achievements are not necessarily ideally positioned to get the position they want, or even that their academic work merits.
Professional Graces
The Best Leadership Advice I Ever Got
Source: Marshall Goldsmith, Harvard Business Review Blogs
Intelligence is not the only tool graduate students need to have in their ‘tool box’. Tact and humility go a long way. In this article, Marshall Goldsmith recounts his rude awakening to the need, at times, to work with the conditions of the ‘real world’ regardless of whether they match the ideals we can imagine.
Collegiality and Graduate Training
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Date: January 24th , 2006
By: Donald E. Hall
Here Hall continues his discussion about developing collegiality among graduate students by making some practical prescriptions for integrating skills promoting collegiality through the other kinds of preparation graduate students already undergo. Specifically he discusses how to bring attention to collegiality in the dissertation and professionalization processes.
Blogs, Newsletters and Listservs
All-But-Dissertation Survival Guide
This is a monthly newsletter for graduate students, particularly those who have finished all program requirements except their dissertation. Each issue is devoted to practical strategies for successful completion.
GRADUpDATE
To receive GRADUpDATE, e-mail ; type the word 'subscribe' as the subject.
This monthly e-mailout is directed towards all graduate students and is dedicated to helping students succeed in graduate school. It is produced by the Learning Skill Services division at the University of Western Ontario.
We also suggest:
TopOther Great Links Pages
There is an excellent list of websites at University of Western Ontario that it recommends to graduate students.
Online Support Services
Dissertators and Thesis Writers Support Thread
This online forum is hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. It’s a place where graduate students can share their challenges (and successes!) with other graduate students. A great place to look for insight, perspective, and community.
This online forum is a place for Ph.D students to go to connect with other Ph.D candidates and with those to have completed their Ph.D. There are places to share experiences, ask questions, give and receive support, and learn about transitioning from a Ph.D student to work.
Graduate Junction is postgraduate community where you can find and connect with others within your field of study or who share your research interests. This community seeks to provide a way for graduate students to connect with each other to share interests, advice, and inspiration. Requires creation of an account.
