sorry for the late post...

First, I apologize. I try really hard to get blog posts out on Friday, but then life happens. Let's talk a little about when things don't go the way you planned.

Many of you know about (or are participating in) the From Abstract to Contract competition. Yep. I'm part of that too. And a few of you had some issues submitting your information to our form over the last few days...which was ok. It was handled. BUT THEN...the entire registration form site went down last night at about 7:00pm when the deadline was midnight! ARRRRGGGGGHHHH...

This was how my weekend and Monday went.

me: "I'm so glad we have some students registering this weekend...I'll try to keep up with my email so I can address any issues."

me later: "Hmmmm...a few students are having issues, but they can just send their information directly to me. No big deal."

me Monday: "More submissions. Great. Man, my mailbox is busy today. And a few more problems. No worries. I've got it handled. I'm going to need to check my email all night..."

me Monday evening: "Looks like everything is going ok. I'm going to eat dinner and then check back later..."

me later Monday evening: "ohhhhhh, nooooo. The site isn't even up anymore. eeeeeek! What the heck am I going to do!?!?"

So here's where I had a choice to make. I could freak out and start trying to figure out who to yell at, or I could figure out a solution, that, while not ideal, would allow everyone to accomplish their goals. It would mean a little more work for me (and let's face it, what could be a more appropriate real-world experience than trying to submit your registration last minute and not be able to...) but in the end all would be ok.

In the end I chose B. And here's the best part. Since I chose to be level-headed about it (and repress the urge to freak out), I think I was able to come up with a better solution than if I had freaked out. I think all of you will agree that it's hard to think clearly, or see anything in a positive light, when you're in full freak out mode. So some of you know what I did from here. (And to be fair, others were on board to help make this happen so I wasn't the only one involved. Support people are always key. Thanks, Andrew and Diane.)

I sent an email to all the students who had encountered the missing registration page and let them know what information I needed from them to complete their registration by hand. Then, I created an out-of-office reply to go out from my email address, confirming that there was a problem, and how students could submit their information to me directly, so that if anyone emailed me at midnight, they could get the information without me having to be awake. I emailed our webmaster who was already monitoring the situation since we had a few issues earlier that day, and had him put up the same message on the website. And so, everything was "handled" by 9:00pm, (I did need a glass of wine after that) and I was able to get into bed at a decent hour and not dream of databases and abstracts all night. Cheers.

On the flip side, I have quite a bit of work this morning to enter in the information from all the folks who were unable to access our form, but hopefully kept most students from ending up in their own freak out mode. (We also extended the deadline to noon today to give everyone a chance, especially if they didn't email me last night.)

CONFIDENTIAL TO THOSE STUDENTS: For those of you who ended up submitting under less-than-ideal-circumstances, I will be emailing you today to confirm that I received your registration.

Hey, thanks for letting me share with you...and here's the moral of the story. I have a few take away messages for you.

1. When presented with a crazy situation, or when things aren't going the way you hoped, try not to freak out. Or give yourself permission to freak out for a few minutes, but then calm down and think through your different options. No one does their best reasoning in freak out mode.

2. THINGS HARDLY EVER GO THE WAY YOU PLANNED THEM TO. Let's be honest. It's rare that a graduate student ends up selecting and completing their degree studying the first topic they present to their advisor. Most undergraduates switch majors at least once. Advisors come and go, committee members come and go, funding comes and goes.

3. Regarding submitting an abstract for a conference...
Occasionally you will be presented with an opportunity to present at a conference, you just have to submit and abstract, and it's usually at the last minute. (My master's advisor did this to me a few months ago...here's an opportunity to present at a conference, you just have to update an abstract and submit it by tomorrow...I'll be out in the field all day so I can't help...good luck!) Not to be giving away faculty secrets or anything, but most faculty submit their abstracts, proposals, reports at the very last second, so usually, when the deadline appears for a conference, they don't have enough presenters and have to extend the deadline for another week or so. So...if you get a last minute "suggestion" from your advisor, don't freak out, contact the folks with the conference and see if you can have a few days to complete your abstract. (Feel free to blame your advisor for sending you the information last minute and tell them what a great opportunity it would be to present at their conference, and you'd really like some time to pull together something worthy of their time...) I can't promise that you will be given an extension, but it's possible (at least I've found this to be true with engineering conferences - and not where people are really competing for presentation slots), and will allow you to present a better product than if you say up all night and send them the 11:59pm-I-really-should-be-in-bed-and-I'm-totally-freaking-out version.

I hope this helps some of you out. I don't recommend making any major decisions when you're in freak out mode. They're almost never the best choice, or the choice you'd make if you were thinking clearly. I hope the From Abstract to Contract situation did not send any of you down the freak out path, and I apologize if it did. Perhaps it turned into a learning experience for you too...

--Dawn

PhD Comic of the Day (for those of you contemplating how to use your holiday "break.")

 

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

Horoscopes for gradaute students...

One of my guilty pleasures is "reading" the daily local newspaper. This can take many forms, depending on how busy I am, or how far behind I've gotten, but in it's most minimal form, I scan the front page of every section, read the newsbrief column, look at the cartoon for the upcoming Hogs game on Saturday (those are great if you haven't seen them), and then read the comics, and yes, my horoscope. While you may or may not put any stock in the accuracy or validity of horoscopes, they provide entertainment and occasionally even some helpful suggestions/encouragement for surviving life. Over the last few years, I've read some horoscopes that I thought had to be written for me as a graduate student, hence the topic of today's column. I'm going to share a few actual horoscopes that may be able to help you through different situations you might face as a graduate student, and then share "my" horoscopes that really spoke to me. Enjoy.

On relationships. This might be your advisor, your committee, other faculty, or friends/family...

You'll be dealing with forces that are nearly impossible to mold and opinions that were formed so long ago that it would take a miracle to change them. You just might be that miracle.

Someone erroneously told you, "To get the fruit, you have to climb the tree" - or something akin to that. The truth is that sometimes the fruit hangs low, and all you have to do is reach up and pluck it off.

A work relationship suddenly blooms in unexpected, delightful ways (Author's note: In a professional context of course...emphasis on the second part here...) and praise for a job well done will come your way just when you thought your hard work is going unappreciated.

Fortuitous meetings and chance encounters (Author's note: networking?) are in store. As you interact with supportive people who want to see you succeed, you'll start thinking of yourself as the person you want to become.

Today is mostly about strengthening certain relationships while distancing yourself from the ties that either don't add much to - or seem to subtract from - your life. (Author's note: This is super important when you're trying to write your dissertation...even if it's only temporary.)

Research and Dissertation-ing (Dissertating?)

You may come across work you did long ago and discover that it makes no sense to you now, or you may be utterly baffled by a decision you made way back when. See how far you've come? (Author's note: Ok...I don't think this one needs any explaination)

This is the point at which it's best to stop planning, because you won't realize what you don't know or don't have until you take action. Trust that being in action will show you what you need.

You'll be better off tomorrow because you followed the plan today. You may be tempted to veer off, but get right back on track. Repeat the same action several times; a habit is being formed.

General Encouragement

At this time, you don't know how to get from point A to point B, but you'll figure it out if you get moving. So don't even bother telling people you don't know. You'll get it soon enough.

You'll think about an opportunity you missed years ago. Would like have been different had you made another choice? Rest assured, you made the right choice then. The future brings even better opportunities.

Halfway up the mountain, you look at the summit and think you can't possibly make it to the top. But remember that you're already so much farther than the person who never makes the attempt at all. (Author's note: You know, all those sane people who didn't attempt to get an advanced degree..)

You've never been closer to that dream that you've nurtured for so long in the depths of your heart. Don't lose faith now, no matter how daunting the obstacles may seem.

One of my horoscopes...what got me started on this in the first place.

All you can do is all you can do. When you reach that point, you'll be satisfied that you tried your hardest, no matter what the outcome is. P.S.: You haven't reached it yet, so keep going.

My favorite general encouragement horoscope for all graduate students...

One of your biggest jobs will be to avoid distractions. Block out the things that could potentially obstruct your productivity, and you'll have much to show for your efforts.

My favorite, somewhat sarcastic, horoscope...the emphasis was not mine:

You'll spend a good deal of time on a computer or other device not earning a fortune. (Author's note: Isn't that the truth...)


No matter where the journey takes you, best of luck. Maybe some of these small snippets of advice helped or resonated with you. Here's one I got as a quote at the end of an email signature that I printed out and taped on the wall in my workspace (thanks, Dorine).

A work as this is never finished; one must simply declare it finished when one has, within limits of time and circumstances, done what is possible.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, German poet, novelist and playwright

__________________________________

Confidential to my Facebook friends

While I've never been a good Facebook friend, only occasionally trying to catch up on what's happening, and rarely "liking" anything you do, things are only going to get worse. I'm going to graduate next year, and to that end, must decrease the amount of procrastination I do. While I care about many of the things you all post, and it's about the only way I seem to know how anyone is doing, or what they are up to, you also have to admit that you also post some pretty unimportant stuff...like what you ate for breakfast, some version of a "tupperware" party that's happening hundreds of miles away from me...and sometimes WAY too much detail about your latest health issue. So, if there is something important going on in your life for the next year, and you want me to know about it, please email me... and to be clear I'm not talking about forwarding me jokes or diatribes about your political views. Save all the good stuff for your "good" Facebook friends. Thank you for your understanding and support. I promise I'll be back soon. In the meantime, I "like" you all...

-- Dawn

Ah, the interview...

For those of you applying for faculty positions, things are in full swing. All the “good” positions are being posted now, so get out there and tell them how great you are. I realize that different disciplines have different ways of handling interviews. (If you have been invited to go interview somewhere, congratulations! Feel free to set up an appointment with me and we can do a mock academic interview so you can practice your interviewing skills.) Some disciplines will do first round interviews at a national conference, some just jump right in and fly you to campus. It seems timely to discuss some interviewing tips for you so here we go. (And make sure you check out our Preparing for the Academic Interview page on the Career Development Site.) Please note that many of these tips are for navigating the insanity that is an interview for a tenure-track faculty position out of state, but many of them can be applied to any interviewing situation…especially one where you have to get on a plane to get to the interview: 
 

Research, prepare, research and prepare some more.

When putting together your application materials, you should have already done a fair amount of research about the institution you’re applying to. For example, How many students attend? Are there graduate students? What are common class sizes? Faculty to student ratio? Private or public? Religiously affiliated? What kinds of research are done in the department you’re applying to? Where do faculty members commonly publish? Ok…you get the idea. Now do some more research.  

Try to get an official itinerary listing all the different people  you’ll be meeting with, but don’t be a pest either. Most of the time these things come together at the very last minute. Trying to schedule multiple faculty to be in one place, let alone administrators, is like herding cats. If they can’t provide you with an itinerary, ask for a list of the search committee members as a consolation prize. You’ll most likely meet with every one of these people at some point during your visit. Get their names and get to know them. Find out about some of their research, especially if there might be a chance for collaboration. If you’re interested in some aspect of their research, ask them about it when you’re on campus. If they didn’t think you had the qualifications to be on their faculty, they wouldn’t be interviewing you. Now they want to know how you’ll fit in and if you’ll get along with everyone. They like paper-you…now what about living, breathing, talking you? If someone was interested in working for you and your company, you would like for them to care enough to do some research about you, right?

Also research the local community. How big is it? What part of the country are you in? What is the political climate? Diversity of cultures, ethnicities? What’s the weather like in the summer/winter? It is a small town? Opportunities for recreation? Arts and culture? Think about how you would like to live in a community like this…especially if you’ve grown up, lived most your life in the opposite kind of community? If you’re coming from a big city world, they’ll want to know that you’ll feel comfortable in a small town environment or vice versa? Will you? It’s something you need to ask yourself as well. 

Now read these:

Suddenly Location Matters

Embrace Your Inner North Dakotan

Location, location, location

Dress professionally

Ok. For some reason, this part of preparing for the interview drove me the most crazy. What do I wear? Does it have to be a suit every day? Do I have to wear a suit on the flight? Ugh. What about dinner with the faculty? What do I pack? 

Here’s the short answer. If in doubt, better to overdress than underdress. And part two. There are always different expectations from different disciplines and at different campuses. You don’t want to show up in a polo and khakis just to find out that the whole department wears suits and ties every day. Not good.  

Here’s my take. 

For the flight to campus: Dress on the higher end of business casual, but overall, be comfortable. Wear your most comfortable dress shoes, NOT BRAND NEW (you might have long distances to walk quickly to make a  connecting flight, or have a way to walk to get back to the car when you get there), wear a nice pair of pants or skirt, and a dress shirt, blouse, sweater. I battled with whether or not to wear a suit on the flight, but I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable, and I’d just look rumpled (and maybe a little grumpy) when I got there.   

On-campus: Suit. Make sure you iron it, no stains, look clean and presentable. Make sure you get up early enough to have time to iron and do your whole getting-ready routine, plus a little. You will be meeting with at least one administrator and s/he will likely be wearing a suit or suit and tie. 

Dinners with faculty: Usually you have a chance to get back to the hotel before dinner. I dressed higher end business casual again for these events. Most faculty are not going to be in their suits for this (if they ever wear suits). 

Flight back: If you have a chance to change, dressy business casual again. You must be in interview mode from the time you are picked up to the time you’re dropped off. Stay professional. Everyone is interviewing you. You can relax when you’re on the plane (but the person sitting next to you might be from the campus, so stay somewhat professional until you get home.)

 

What to pack

Only the basics, but make a list and make sure it’s all in there. If you can, pack it in a small enough bag to carry on so you don’t have to worry about the airline losing your bag. If you need to check a bag, make sure you take a suit and the essentials in your carry on so you can get through at least one day of interviewing if you lose your suitcase. Take your laptop if you have one. It will allow you to make some last minute changes to presentations if you get an idea, and it will allow you to do some research and follow-up on a question. I also take my laptop with me when I’m giving presentations in case my multiple flash drives fail me. It’s a pain to carry around, but you can always leave it an office for the rest of the day.  

Pack snacks and a water bottle. You will be taken out for meals, but you will be nervous and not given much time to eat since you’ll be asked a lot of questions. I recommend protein bars to stash in your hotel room. Mixed nuts, trail mix, dried fruit, etc. are all good choices. Try to keep it healthy. If offered cookies and a vegetable tray, lean more towards the veggies, although it is harder to eat those quickly to get to questions asked…just keep that in mind. Gnawing through a large piece of broccoli quickly to address a faculty member’s question is not pretty. Trust me. I’ve been there. And always get up early enough to grab some food if there’s a complimentary continental breakfast and take it back to your room way before someone comes to pick you up. Stash an extra apple, banana, whatever in your room. Take every advantage to eat in peace and quiet.  

Check the weather before you go and bring appropriate gear. Umbrella? Boots? Hat? Scarf? I went to one interview and day 1 was drizzly, wet and kind of yucky (but it was also Ohio so it felt like home to me), and overnight it snowed four inches and we walked across campus to see the Dean in sideways snow, but I had brought dress boots because I knew it would snow. And a hat. And a scarf. And a professional bag to carry them all in. Plan ahead.

 

Be yourself…just not too much.

I just read this in an advice blog on the Chronicle and I love it. It’s advice that I’ve heard many times from my mentors (and if you know me, you know why). You don’t want to act like someone you’re not and have them hire you based on you acting like someone else. You’re interviewing them too. Would you want them to hire you if they didn’t like YOU? At the same time, don’t get too comfortable. Always stay professional. Always. Try to stay away from expressing your view on controversial topics not related to your research or the position. Stay neutral, interested and non-committal. But take notes. If they offer you a position and you take it, you could be working there for a really…long…time. Does thinking about that give you a sense of dread? Probably not the position for you.

 

Make sure you can answer the question, “Why do you want to work at our institution?”

Sounds like a simple question, doesn’t it? Makes you want to answer, “Because I need a #$(@* job and you’re the ones who posted it!” (Ok, maybe that last one was just me.) In reality, this question can be many tiered depending on the context. What they really might be asking is:

a.       You’ve spent your entire college career at large research-focused universities. Why do you want to work at a small liberal arts college (SLAC)? How would you fit in here?

b.      You’re from the south. You know it snows here – a lot – right?

c.       You’re not going to want to move in three years to be closer to your family are you?

d.      You have a strong research background and we focus on teaching. Could you really be happy here?

e.      This is a really small town without a lot of cultural/recreational activities available locally. Will that work for you? (Or this is a really big town with lots of people – how will you navigate this environment?)

 

They’re going to want to make sure you did your research and really have thought about a future at their university. Ask what their typical student is like, and think about how you could/would relate to him/her. If arts and culture is your thing, tell them you’re excited about the local community theater and that you wouldn’t mind driving every once in awhile to visit a large city to get your fix. Whatever. But think about it and be ready to tell them.

 

Be prepared to ask them questions.

This is once again going to show them that you’ve thought about working there. And bring lots of them because many might be answered in the course of your visit. Look on the CDC site for some questions to prepare to answer, and some to ask.

 

Take notes

At the end of the day and the end of the trip, you’ll be exhausted, but take a minute to take some notes. Think about who you talked with and what about. Think about follow up questions you might have. All of this will be good for when you write thank you notes so you can personalize them for each person you spoke with.

 

Enjoy yourself.

You’re interviewing them too. Enjoy visiting a new campus. Learn about the exciting research they’re doing. Find out why they love working where they are and doing what they’re doing. (If they don’t like it there or don’t have nice things to say, that should tell you something.) One of my favorite questions to ask everyone I spoke with was, “What’s the best thing about working at <enter institution name here>?”

 

Parting words…

You may not end up liking the place where you interviewed. For whatever reason. Maybe it was obvious you wouldn’t fit in. Maybe you just got a bad feeling. Maybe there was conflict within the department or there wasn’t a good working relationship between the faculty and the administration. If you don’t feel comfortable during a two-day visit, you’re not likely to enjoy working there for years.  Even in this economy…if it wasn’t a good fit…maybe you shouldn’t take the position. You’re not going to be effective/productive if you’re miserable. It wouldn’t be good for them and it wouldn’t be good for you. Something else will come along that will be a good fit.

 

You may also feel like you've found your new home-away-from-home. They may call you almost immediately to offer you a position. You may really like them and the feeling may be mutual. I hope you all find that position in your search and go out a do great things. Best of luck!

 

-- Dawn

Now entering Network-City

By Jenn, PhD Student in English

A good adviser is hard to find.  Lucky for me, I stumbled upon my then MA adviser (now PhD) when I enrolled in one of his courses. One of the first things he advised us to do in that course was to join professional organizations, setting me on the path toward realizing how to network and be a professional.

Networking is key to becoming a professional in your field.  Professionalization isn’t just belonging to organizations or meeting members; it’s learning to be a member of a greater community.  Your field is your community, and the ways you get there are through learning to speak like your community, participating in community events, and getting to know the community members.  And networking can be one of the first steps you take toward taking on your identity as a professional.

You can think of your strategies for networking as working on several levels.  Your first level is your department: get to know your fellow graduate students and professors.  Find the ones who share your research interests, and who might be possible collaborators on projects or mentors.  I have several fellow graduate students who I discuss teaching and research with, and who are also my friends.  My advisory committee (and future dissertation committee) came together because I took classes and interacted with my professors, discovering who I shared interests with and who would be good to work with and be supportive.

The next level is the larger university campus.  It’s remarkably easy to never leave our own departments, but often connecting with other graduate students in other departments can lead to friendships, productive collaborations, and greater professionalization.  It’s through my conversations with graduate students and professors across campus that I have forged relationships and pursued possible research opportunities.  By being involved in graduate student activities, I have been able to get to know graduate students and professors from all disciplines—and have had lots of great conversations.  Better yet, I’ve felt like I was part of the University community.

The next level of networking is within your larger field. This is why it’s important to belong to your relevant professional organizations.  I maintain membership in several.  Membership for graduate students is cheap, and often you can get publications at a steep discount.  Being a member allows you to know when the conventions are—and these professional meetings are the final level of networking.

At conferences/conventions, you get to meet the major figures in your field.  You find mentors, people interested in your same research, friends, potential future colleagues. You get the chance to listen to interesting papers and get a sense of what’s going on in the scholarship of your field—perhaps finding potential directions or ideas for your own work. You also get to present and get feedback on your work.

In addition to listening to papers, be sure to attend the social functions at conferences to continue networking.  While it can be intimidating to introduce yourself to people, it pays off.  The last two conferences I attended, I had the pleasure of meeting (and presenting with!) a major theorist in my field, who gave me an idea to extend my own theories in an interesting direction.  I also met someone whose work I admire a great deal and is a potential outside reader for my dissertation.  I also made friends with other graduate students and had a great time.  Networking doesn’t just have to be about listening to ideas—it can be fun and social as well.

I want to stress something important: you can attend your classes and do your research, but if you’re not out networking, you’re not doing everything you can do to succeed.  I’m able to share this advice with you because of the networking I’ve done—networking opens up opportunities and allows you to fully participate as a professional in your field, to take on a professional identity, and to become a member of your academic community.  Networking may seem like a hassle at times, but you never know when you might meet a future collaborator, mentor…or even co-worker.  So I encourage you to take advantage of any and all opportunities to form relationships with those around you on all levels of the academy.

Jenn is a 3^rd year PhD student in English, specializing in Rhetoric and Composition.  She currently teaches writing and tutors in addition to working on her research.  Her research interests are in composition pedagogy, rhetoric of science, feminist composition, and language.  In short moments of her spare time, she runs and knits and bakes, but not all at once.

Why politics matter...

It's that time of year. Again. Time to vote. Even if you're an international student and cannot vote in the upcoming election, (and in that case, I apologize for this post, but decisions your fellow students make can affect you too) you've likely been bombarded by television ads, pop-up ads on the internet, radio ads and mass mailings. If you have a landline, you've probably been asked to participate in multiple polls asking who you would vote for in a given election. I sure have. At the most inopportune times, might I add.

It's pretty easy to get overwhelmed and want to crawl under a rock (or hide in the lab/library) and not pay attention anymore. It's hard to know what's truth, what's real, what's for show, what's just "mud slinging." It's easy to ask yourself if your one vote really matters. Reality is hard to come by. But the reality is this:

The people elected in a few weeks will make decisions that will impact you.

So, while your advisor and some other people might be upset with me, I'm asking for those of you who are registered to vote to take some time and do some research (just not the kind they want you to). I want you to learn about who is running for what office in your district, on what platform. I want you to learn about the positions of the presidential candidates. I want you to research the issues on the ballot. I want you to make an educated decision on who (and what) you're going to vote for on Tuesday, November 6, and then...

...GO VOTE!

Tuesday your day from hell? Teach three classes and have late office hours? Need to be in the lab all day? Early voting is already open in Benton and Washington Counties. To find out where you can go to participate in early voting in Washington County, go to http://www.co.washington.ar.us/index.aspx?page=373. For early voting information for Benton County, click http://www.co.benton.ar.us/CountyClerk/EarlyVoting.aspx. To find out where you need to go to vote on election day, go to https://www.voterview.ar-nova.org/. Now you have no excuse not to.

And to get you started with your election research, please take a look at the Chronicle of Higher Education page, The 2012 Election: What Academe Needs to Know.

That's it for this week...but not for politics. If I come across an issue that affects my fellow students, I will let you know. It's easy to focus completely on your research and teaching loads, and your goal should be to complete your degree and graduate. But, if you can help make things better for the graduate students who come after you, in any way, you have a responsibility to do it, as those who have come before you did for you whether you were aware of it or not.

If there's an issue you've come across - that affects students - and would like for me to discuss in the blog, please let me know.

I personally will be heading to my local polling place, my daughter's hand in mine, and voting on November 6th. I will tell her about the importance of voting, how in another time I, and later she, would have been denied the right to vote because of her gender, and how fortunate we are that we have the privilege and right to vote in our country - without fear of being subjected to physical harm. She has come with me to vote in every presidential election (the first when she was only three weeks old) since she was born, and many other elections in between. I know that I'm romanticizing voting here, but I feel a responsibility to those who fought for these rights for me, to live up to their expectations and show appreciation for their sacrifices.

You have to vote for your own reasons...but please, go vote.

Getting "it" done...

All of us have been there...we have a homework assignment, project, paper, thesis, proposal, paper, dissertation that we just can't get finished. Over the years, I've collected a lot of tips from other students, faculty, online articles and blogs, workshops, etc. on how to get <insert your thing here> done. Some of these tips will make more sense for one type of project vs. another, but there is something to be learned from each. Some of them work better for me than others, and the ones that work for me might not work for you. Check them out and send me some of your own if you have them. (As soon as I post this blog, I'll probably think of some that I forgot...but that will be for another post.)

1. Write something every day
This one I was given in a grant writing class. In the class, the professor said that it's important to write something every day to keep in the mindset. What you wrote wasn't as important as the fact that you were writing. I suggest writing notes about whatever you're working on, but we'll get to that in another tip.

2. Carry a notebook (folder, iPhone, etc.) with you at all times
With the invention of smart phones, you no longer have an excuse. (Except I don't have one...mine's a not-so-smart phone so I carry a notebook.) If you have an idea related to your research, dissertation, whatever, you need a place to write it down. Think about where you get your "best" ideas, and keep an extra notebook to use in those situations. Is it right before bed, in the shower, exercising? Keep all these notes together.

3. (Going along with #1) Work a little on your project every day.
If you work on your project a little every day, it will ensure that you accomplish something every day. It will keep you actively thinking about your project and keep the ideas flowing. Even if it's only 30 minutes, sit down, take some notes, read a research article, edit your paper and make some comments.

4. (Building on #3) Set aside a space for your project and LEAVE IT OUT.
Set aside a space in your house, office or apartment where you can keep your project stuff out. It can be a table, a corner of your desk, or if you're lucky, a whole room. How many times have you set aside four solid hours of "work time" just to spend thirty minutes getting your things out and reorganizing them? And then an hour of that time checking email? Finding a pen that works? Getting comfortable? Yeah, me too. My house is always cleanest when I'm working on a project...Apologize to your family, but don't clean that space until your project is done.

5. Set aside work time...
If not every day (see #1 & #3), set aside some specific times that you only work on your project. No exceptions. Ok, obviously if there's an emergency, if you cut your finger and have to go to the emergencey room...there are exceptions, but needing to meet your friends at the bar is not an acceptable exception.

6. ...and during your work time, do work.
TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE. DO NOT CHECK YOUR EMAIL OR FACEBOOK! These can be huge procrastination time wasters. Know what your personal procrastination weaknesses are and make sure you don't engage in them. If one part of a project is not coming easily, try to work on another part.

7. Try writing things out by hand.
In general, I refuse to do a first draft of something on the computer...I write it out by hand. It forces me to take my time thinking about what I'm writing, use a different part of my brain, and slow down just a little. I outline, outline, outline, bullet, etc. first and then fill in with my information. I have lots of paper lying around, but I also use paper that's not white so it's easy to find my work in amongst my research articles, etc.

8. Your time is valuable and you need to protect it.
Having issues saying no? Filling up your schedule with "other stuff"? Try this tip recommended by another graduate student. He keeps a paper calendar on his desk at his office. When people ask him to do something, he tells them that he'll get back to them after he checks his schedule, which is of course, back at his office. This gives him time to think about the request, if it's something that he has time for, is valuable to him to do, if it conflicts with something else he needs to be doing, and then get back to the person instead of immediately saying yes because he has a block of time open on his calendar. Try it. Never say yes immediately (unless your advisor says it's mandatory...and even then, let her/him know you need to check your schedule to confirm).

9. Write out a TO DO list and then prioritize.
It's easy to write a to do list, and then do the easy stuff and feel like you've accomplished something...but then your research doesn't get done. Reviewing an article should not have the same priority as folding the laundry. Try making a weekly list and working through the high priority items first...carrying them over to the next day if necessary.

10. Set timeline goals and seriously try to meet them. LIKE YOUR DEGREE DEPENDS UPON IT.
Set goals for yourself. If you want to graduate by a certain date, count backward. You have to turn in your dissertation a certain amount of time before graduation, which means you need to schedule your defense enough before that to defend and make changes, you need to get your dissertation/thesis to your committee a certain time before that, etc. Check out the grad school website to get started on this process. Work with your advisor on this because s/he will need to be reviewing your documents in a timely manner to meet your timeline needs. S/he needs to be on board with your schedule and can hopefully help you set realistic goals.

11. Have a goal that you're reaching for.
This might be a career goal (I want to have a tenure-track position after I graduate) or another goal that speaks to you (I want to get my coursework done by this semester). Working towards something specific always works for me. Working on getting my thesis done so I could start my PhD at the University of Arkansas was a great driving force for me to get finished.

12. For those of your working on a dissertation/thesis.
THIS IS NOT YOUR LIFE'S WORK...IT'S JUST A PROJECT. You are working with a limited set of funds, and a limited timeline. (If they paid us well to do this work, we'd NEVER get done, right?) You can't take on a ten-year project and expect to finish your dissertation in four years. Do something you're proud of, but then move on. I spoke with one professor in engineering who said that very few of her colleagues continued to do research that was directly related to their dissertation work. This is especially true if you're working on a project simply because that's where your funding comes from. Just get it done. Once you land that position after you graduate, you can take on a longer-term project...or even try research in another area you enjoy.

Here are some articles for you to take a look at regarding finishing your thesis/dissertation, but once again, the advice can transcend to other projects as well:

Completing your dissertation 
(http://gradschool.about.com/cs/thesiswriting/a/diss.htm) 

How To Finish Your Dissertation
(http://chronicle.com/article/How-To-Finish-Your/45619/) 

Finishing the Dissertation
(http://chronicle.com/article/Finishing-the-Dissertation/45136/)
 How eBay Helped Me Finish My Thesis(http://chronicle.com/article/How-eBay-Helped-Me-Finish-My/46361/)  

Place and Space
(http://chronicle.com/article/PlaceSpace/44695/)

Best of luck with your future endeavors. Hopefully one or more of these tips will help you out with your writing/project. Keep at it. Sometimes you need to take a step back before you can jump back in. Ask others for help and accept when it's offered to you. Let me know if you have some tips that worked for you and I'll do a follow up column: "Advice from your fellow students..."


PhD Comic for the Day...

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

This week's topic: You're not alone

One of the best resources I have found out there for help/advice and sympathy (other than PhD Comics), is the Chronicle of Higher Education > Advice > Graduate Students (http://chronicle.com/section/Graduate-Students/559/) For example, there is a whole section on “Writing the Dissertation” for you to peruse at your leisure. One of my favorite articles in the bunch is Frodo Baggins: A.B.D. (http://chronicle.com/article/Frodo-Baggins-ABD/45036/) which I suppose you can only appreciate if you’ve read the Lord of the Rings series or seen the movies…There are also columns on finding your first position, being a graduate student with kids, and much more. 

The long and short of it is this: being in graduate school can be exciting, amazing, liberating, fulfilling, and at the same time, isolating, stressful and lonely. Family and friends don’t understand what you’re doing or why. Significant others can feel neglected or like “dissertation widows”. If you have young children, and deadlines, AT THE SAME TIME, it can be even more stressful. We’ve almost all gone through a period where things were not going as we had hoped, and our options seemed limited. Many of us have been there, or are there right now.  

Please read this article on the Chronicle: What I Learned About Surviving Graduate School (http://chronicle.com/article/What-I-Learned-About-Surviving/131247/). Here’s a poignant excerpt: 

“I immediately recalled an episode of The Simpsons in which Bart mocks the plight of young scholars by saying, ‘Look at me, I'm a grad student! I'm 30 years old and I made $600 last year!’ To which Marge replies: ‘Bart, don't make fun of grad students. They just made a terrible life choice.’”

 

All kidding aside: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

 

Read about other students’ experiences. If you’re comfortable, you can talk to your advisor or another trusted professor. Hopefully s/he knows you well enough to be able to give you some good advice. Talk to other graduate students…in other departments if you’re worried about things getting back to your advisor. You can always talk with the people at the Graduate School. Dr. Patricia Koski is amazing and will meet with you to help figure out what you might need to do or what changes you might need to make. Email her and she will get back to you. I promise. If things seem too hopeless, like you’re just too overwhelmed or stressed to function, go talk to someone at CAPS. They’re housed in the Pat Walker Health Center and are available to all students. (Even students only enrolled in one hour – you know who you are). They’re awesome people who are there to help you. It can be about school, relationships, family, health, finances, whatever.  

Graduate school can also be amazing. You learn all kinds of new things and have access to an astounding amount of information – for free*. It can be life changing. You may discover something new and exciting that can carry you through your program and beyond. You have the opportunity to meet amazing people through conferences, seminars, presentations and events on campus. You are doing research and “adding to the body of knowledge.” It's a chance to meet people with different backgrounds, cultures, languages, traditions and viewpoints from you. Go out and meet them. Join an organization outside of your discipline.

While being a graduate student has it's ups and downs, here's to celebrating the ups, asking for help when you need to make it through the downs, and to your success after graduation wherever it may take you. I'm going to get done and so can you.

To borrow a line from A Prairie Home Companion, “Go out, do good work, and keep in touch…and send me your questions/topic ideas.” 

-- Dawn

 

*By “free” I mean that you have access to thousands of journals, books and other references paid for through your student fees. TAKE ADVANTAGE. And ask our librarians for help. They’re amazing too…

Welcome to the University of Arkansas Blog for Graduate Students

Welcome to our new graduate students, and welcome back to our returning graduate students (although I know you didn't really leave for the summer...) Thanks for checking out our new blog for graduate students at the University of Arkansas.

The purpose of this blog is to provide valuable and timely information to graduate students working on a degree here at the University of Arkansas. There will be posts about everything from finding a job after graduation, to upcoming seminars you might find interesting (especially those with free food), to finishing your thesis/dissertation, to time management, to networking, to getting over writer’s block, to balancing graduate school and family, and any other topics that seem germane. You may also get some glimpses into my job search, successes, failures, frustrations and "aha" moments…
 

I will be writing (at least) weekly blog entries with these tips, tricks and useful links for your quest to survive graduate school, finish your degree and find the job you want after you graduate. If you think of a topic you would like for me to address, or have a question for me that you’d like me to answer, please feel free to email me (dfarver(at)uark(dot)edu). If I can’t answer your question, I will find someone who can. Or if you’d like to share an experience, or your own advice for fellow graduate students, please feel free to comment or send me a story.  

Hopefully I’ll be able to get a few guest bloggers to post here as well from time to time to share some other perspectives on graduate school and the hunt for the elusive tenure-track position.  

About me

I am a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering working on finishing up my degree and working on my own job search. I have gone through one round of applying and interviewing, and am looking forward to sharing my experiences, and experiences of others, to hopefully make the process more straightforward for you. I am currently a graduate assistant for the Graduate School and Career Development Center at the University of Arkansas, so I am literally here to serve you as a graduate student on our campus.

I am also enrolled in Preparing for the Professoriate: Research & Service with Dr. Bill McComas. I highly recommend the two-course PFP series if you're a PhD student and are interested in entering academia after you graduate. I'll be posting some updates on what we're doing in class and sharing some of my insights, but to get all the information you'll have to take the class yourself. Next semester is the Preparing for the Professoriate: Teaching course. Make sure you sign up early...

PhD Comic for the day...

 

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com