From "The Chronicle of Higher Education"
Dr. David Shorter, associate professor of world arts and cultures at UCLA, shares six lessons for first-year doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences.
Do you have any other advice for new and current LLC doctoral students? You may leave a post in the comment section below!
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As graduate adviser in my department for the past five years, I’ve distilled the advice I offer each fall to new graduate students down to six key lessons. Here is my crash course aimed at those of you just starting out now in M.A., M.F.A., or Ph.D. programs in the humanities and social sciences, and at those of you running orientation programs.
1. Be grateful for this opportunity, but prepare an exit strategy. First and foremost, pause to consider that you wanted to be in this graduate program. And here you are about to receive attention and training from leaders in your chosen field. Not many professions provide this phase of directed reading, mentorship, and fostering of your creative, intellectual, and personal goals.
As many of us in the academic world come to learn, graduate school seems at times like the absolute worst; but in hindsight it was the absolute best. When else will you be asked to pursue your goals and be provided a peer group and support network to help you do so? You will look back at this phase and fondly remember the time you had to read, to read more, and then to read some more. Relish it, but don’t get too comfortable, because graduate school is a stage, not the destination.
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Posted: September 15, 2014, 6:43 PM