Starting graduate school: making the most of your first year

First, let me say: congratulations! Your acceptance to a graduate program is no small achievement!

I imagine you are excited, overwhelmed, apprehensive, and underprepared while simultaneously incredibly impatient to start, among other conflicting emotions. The first semester can be daunting, especially if you are studying a new discipline or have traveled to a new city or country for graduate school. If you were anything like me when I started, you want everything to be perfect. You are eager to set the bar high for your advisor or other professors that interact with you. You want to show them that you are worthy of being a graduate student.

As a seasoned graduate student (and that’s putting it mildly), I’m here to let you know that you do not have to impress your advisor or the other faculty because you have already proven that in your acceptance letter. Your advisor and several other professors have agreed to commit to your training for the next 5 or so years. Trust me - and, more importantly, them - you are deserving of your place in graduate school. Don’t let imposter syndrome convince you otherwise!

However, there are a few tasks you can focus on to make the most of your first year. Let me help you establish your priorities for this first semester:

Coursework

Coursework is important as it will set the foundation for your research, even if that has yet to be decided. Classes are an opportunity to learn the skills you need for your research or explore topics that interest you by honing your writing. Instructors know this and are, generally, very flexible with assignments. If you want to explore a topic that does not seem to be listed on the syllabus but may be crucial to your research - ask if that can be your final paper topic. Ask if you can replicate a figure from a research article for your final project that involves data analysis, which will teach you the skills required to create that figure. If you are in a program in the United States, you will likely spend most of your first year taking classes. Make the most of it by tailoring it to your needs and skills!

Organization

Time management
You may have some note-taking and organization skills from undergrad, but now you will have to hold yourself accountable for most of your work moving forward. Deadlines exist for your classes, but the other responsibilities of a graduate student are self-managed. There are many free tools available for your needs, but I recommend simply developing an awareness of how you work during graduate school and use that awareness to schedule your tasks. For example, do you write best in the morning or the afternoon? When do you read? What time of the day is more conducive to learning a new skill? Try to schedule your time based on how you work. If you do not yet know when you work best, that’s perfectly normal. Let these two semesters be your time to figure that out. Try tracking your time using Toggl or another tracker.
The first year is the best time to pick up healthy habits like exercising or meditating, which will be crucial as you progress in the graduate program. The beginning of your graduate career is the time to experiment with your schedule to clarify how you operate. Don’t forget to include your hobbies in your schedule!

Note-keeping
I recommend choosing a citation manager and developing a note-taking system. Citation managers, like Zotero or Mendeley, are digital storage options for scholarly sources. Citations managers simplify writing and publishing by centralizing the storage of sources and have handy tools to generate bibliographies quickly for almost any citation style. Internet extensions can add articles to your manager with one click (no need to input all the information manually). You can take notes in your citation manager, and if you create a note-taking system early on in your career, you’ll be able to use it across platforms. As part of my note-taking process, I have a highlighting scheme for all my readings:

Blue highlights are for terms or topics I need to explore to understand the premise of the work. I often use blue to mark sources that would be useful in my own research. Green highlights are to keep anything that has sparked my interest and might be a potential research opportunity. The green highlight is helpful when it is time to think of a research project or pick the project’s direction. You will have already compiled all your interests from your previous readings by highlighting them in green.

File Systems
Unless you wish to be like me, approaching the end of your graduate career and just now figuring out a file system and naming convention that works, think carefully about how you will manage all of your graduate school materials. My dissertation folder consists of data collection, analysis, and sample folders. The analysis folder is further subdivided into folders by project or the goal of a specific analysis. These project folder names match the folders of my citation manager to keep it consistent. Coursework is saved in a separate folder, and each course has a folder that is further divided into assignments and notes folders. A logical and organized file system has some benefits, including finding information quickly.

Research

Are you starting without a project? No worries! Keep those green highlights handy, and remember to always check the “future directions” in a review article and the discussion/conclusions of a research article. Often researchers will publish potential research projects.

If your project is not covered by a grant, start looking into funding sources and opportunities now to get a feel for their requirements and plan an application timeline. Grant writing is one of the most critical aspects of academic work - many professors pay part of their salaries through grants. Other professors cannot take on graduate students unless they have a grant to support them, and professors with labs fund their supplies through grants. Grants are paramount in some disciplines, but they require a specialized form of writing, and the grant process can be lengthy. It can take as many as 7-8 months for applicants to hear about grant decisions, so plan accordingly and early! New graduate students should always consider applying for the NSF GRFP for two reasons: 1) practice grant writing and 2) the potential to have multiple years of graduate study covered.

Teaching

Teaching at the college level can be intimidating if you are teaching for the first time. However, remember that you know so much more than the students taking the course – you have (at least) a bachelor’s degree! Your students will view you as the expert, so use this to your advantage and be confident in your knowledge! Teaching is an opportunity to cultivate a learning experience you have always wanted from college.

A cautionary note: preparing for a class can easily monopolize your time if you let it. Set fair limits and priorities for teaching. As a graduate student, your central focus is your research.

Social

And finally, make some time for yourself. Set boundaries. Meet other graduate students at clubs or events hosted by the school. Other graduate students will be your lifeline through the program because they will understand and support you. Students that have been in the program longer can contextualize and provide insight into undocumented expectations. They are a resource for nearly every aspect of graduate school - from social activities to publishing to finding decent housing.

Key Takeaways

1. Coursework is important but flexible. Ask your professors if you can adjust the course assignments to benefit your learning and research goals.
2. Figure out how to organize all of your files and schedule your workload. Take some time to experiment with note-taking and free programs to help manage your productivity.
3. Keep track of potential research ideas as you read. Look into grants for travel and research.
4. Teaching can be daunting, but use your acceptance into graduate school to instill confidence. Be careful - don't let teaching monopolize too much of your time!
5. Maintain your health through exercise or meditation. Make time for hobbies and social events.
6. Seek guidance and support from other graduate students.

Get out there and make the most of your first year in graduate school!

Acknowledgements: A special thanks to Corinne Watts for her suggestions on this post.