Grad School Life

I saw the advices from the webpage of a professor, Douglas Densmore, which make sense.

1. Grad school is YOUR time. Not your advisor’s, not your friend’s, and not your colleague’s. You need to learn the things that you are interested in and how to do research related to those topics.
2. You and your advisor should be partners in research (i.e. you are not his/her servant).
3. Think about what you want your “resume” to look like when you graduate. Look at students in your department to find those with similar resumes NOW. See what groups they are in, find out what they did, etc.
4. Network, Network, Network
5. You are a research peer now. Don’t be afraid of professors. Your eyes are fresh to the problems they have been looking at for years. Perhaps you will find something they missed.
6. Be confident but not cocky. Look for ways to be constructive in your criticism, not destructive. Find ways to make things work, not why they won’t work. People don’t like “know it alls”, be humble but assertive.
7. Think about the goals of the people you are working with. Find a way that both your goals and their goals align.
8. Remember that you have already accomplished a lot just by getting to grad school. Try to keep life in perspective and keep your priorities straight.
9. Do good research and then publish. Trying to force a publication before you have done all the work is really hard and not sustainable.