Advice from AY2021-2022 Annual Student Survey

“My recommendation to incoming students is to pursue balance in their life while also pursuing their passions.”
“I recommend that incoming students try their best to challenge the inner voice in their heads that says that if they need to ask for help, then they’re unworthy of being here in the first place.”
“I would recommend students to build a strong relationship with their advisor and to get into the field as soon as possible.”
“The advice I would give to graduate students entering the program is to create a timeline of exactly what requirements there are for your program in which years and have students in the years above you as well as your advisor review it for accuracy.”
“I would recommend incoming students be as flexible as possible in most areas of their graduate training: advisors and committees, dissertation focus, grant funding and career prospects. It seems that anthropology as a discipline is trending in this direction, forcing students to get more creative with where they get funding, find work, and how they do research.”

Advice Continued

“The major advice is of course to connect with older grad students and get their advice, and then pick whichever works for the incoming student. My advice would be not to take classes that seriously and have a life besides school. It’s easy to forget that grad school is not life.”
“My recommendation to incoming PhD students is do not get so swept up in your work that you forget to have a life and neglect your own happiness.”
“To make efficient progress during the PhD I would advise students to treat it like a job – that means two things: 1) don’t totally lose yourself in it, try to maintain some separation between “work” life and something outside of “work”; 2) but also do expect to work at least 9-5 every day & in the first years probably a lot more than that! Also start applying for lots of grants early on, present at as many conferences as you can, and learn to “pitch” your research and yourself in a way that people both within and beyond anthropology depts. will find interesting.”
“My recommendation to incoming graduate students: Graduate school and academic life is only a part of our life. There are times that life is hard on all of us due to sickness, family problems, and so forth. Thus, we need to keep going, even though with a slow pace. We should avoid worrying too much and comparing our path with other friends and colleagues.”

“I recommend that incoming students speak with their advisors about research opportunities and take advantage of all of those opportunities available to them.”
“For incoming students i would say: 1) develop a strong relationship with advisor. 2) take care of your mental health because if you don’t it’s going to impact your performance in long term.”
“For incoming students, I would recommend that transitioning from the perspective of an undergraduate student to a PhD student would include attaining skills in effective time management of the multiple responsibilities and in approaching the position as more of a typical job. However, during the first semester / year I do feel that focusing on coursework and knowledge building is essential.”