Graduate school is an important and confusing time, filled with many questions about the inner-workings of academia and decisions students must make about their futures. The Graduate Student Guidebook: From Orientation to Tenure Track offers an overview of this experience, featuring expert advice on the many different steps and challenges encountered in master’s and doctoral programs. In the current academic climate, initial decisions—like choosing an advisor—critically shape future opportunities. Students need a consistent, reliable, and up-to-date resource. In this authoritative guide, faculty from various universities, positions, and backgrounds offer sage advice, responding to concerns identified by graduate student members themselves. Moving through the text, readers learn about the transition from undergrad to graduate-level expectations, special considerations for students of marginalized groups, graduate assistantships, the importance of key decisions, comprehensive exams, writing the thesis or dissertation, publishing, conferences, navigating the job search, and making a career in a tenure track position.

Despite continued growth in enrollments, graduate program attrition rates are of great concern to academic program coordinators. It is estimated that only 40 to 50 percent of students who begin Ph.D. programs complete their degrees. This book describes programs, initiatives, and interventions that lead to overall student retention and success.Written for graduate school administrators, student affairs professionals, and faculty, this book offers ways to better support today’s graduate student population, addresses the needs of today’s changing student demography and considers the challenges today’s graduate students face inside and outside of the classroom. The opening section highlights the shifting demographics and contextual factors shaping graduate education over the past 20 years, while the second describes institutional practices to develop the requisite academic and professional development necessary to succeed in master’s and doctoral programs. In conclusion, the editors curate a conversation about different ways institutions can support graduate students beyond the classroom.

Concise, encouraging, and filled with practical information, this book is a step-by-step guide for students in the life, natural, physical, and social-behavioral sciences. This third edition has been updated with information about new federal regulations governing research and acknowledges the importance of the internet and World Wide Web to today�s scientific community. It will be an invaluable resource not only for graduate students but also for undergraduates and high school students planning for the future.

Is a career as a professor the right choice for you? If you are a graduate student, how can you clear the hurdles successfully and position yourself for academic employment? What's the best way to prepare for a job interview, and how can you maximize your chances of landing a job that suits you? What happens if you don't receive an offer? How does the tenure process work, and how do faculty members cope with the multiple and conflicting day-to-day demands? With a perpetually tight job market in the traditional academic fields, the road to an academic career for many aspiring scholars will often be a rocky and frustrating one. Where can they turn for good, frank answers to their questions? Here, three distinguished scholars—with more than 75 years of combined experience—talk openly about what's good and what's not so good about academia, as a place to work and a way of life. Written as an informal conversation among colleagues, the book is packed with inside information—about finding a mentor, avoiding pitfalls when writing a dissertation, negotiating the job listings, and much more. The three authors' distinctive opinions and strategies offer the reader multiple perspectives on typical problems. With rare candor and insight, they talk about such tough issues as departmental politics, dual-career marriages, and sexual harassment. Rounding out the discussion are short essays that offer the "inside track" on financing graduate education, publishing the first book, and leaving academia for the corporate world. This helpful guide is for anyone who has ever wondered what the fascinating and challenging world of academia might hold in store. Part I - Becoming a Scholar * Deciding on an Academic Career * Entering Graduate School * The Mentor * Writing a Dissertation * Landing an Academic Job Part II - The Academic Profession * The Life of the Assistant Professor * Teaching and Research * Tenure * Competition in the University System and Outside Offers * The Personal Side of Academic Life

You’re advising students to help ensure their success—but who’s going to advise you? With university budgets shrinking, graduate advisors find their workloads increasing. A professor emeritus of educational psychology at McGill University with more than forty years of advising experience and several teaching awards, Bruce M. Shore provides a practical guide here that demystifies the advisor-student relationship and helps both parties thrive. Emphasizing the interpersonal relationship at the heart of this important academic partnership, he reveals how advisors can draw on their own strengths to create a rewarding rapport. The Graduate Advisor Handbook moves chronologically through the advising process, from the first knock on the door to the last reference letter. Along the way it covers: transparent communication effective motivation cooperative troubleshooting touchy subjects, including what to do when personal boundaries are crossed and how to deliver difficult news—with sample scripts to help advisors find the right words for even the toughest situations A valuable resource, The Graduate Advisor Handbook has the cool-headed advice and comprehensive coverage that advisors need to make the advising relationship not just effective but also enjoyable.

An essential handbook to the unwritten and often unspoken knowledge and skills you need to succeed in grad school Some of the most important things you need to know in order to succeed in graduate school—like how to choose a good advisor, how to get funding for your work, and whether to celebrate or cry when a journal tells you to revise and resubmit an article—won’t be covered in any class. They are part of a hidden curriculum that you are just expected to know or somehow learn on your own—or else. In this comprehensive survival guide for grad school, Jessica McCrory Calarco walks you through the secret knowledge and skills that are essential for navigating every critical stage of the postgraduate experience, from deciding whether to go to grad school in the first place to finishing your degree and landing a job. An invaluable resource for every prospective and current grad student in any discipline, A Field Guide to Grad School will save you grief—and help you thrive—in school and beyond. Provides invaluable advice about how to: Choose and apply to a graduate program Stay on track in your program Publish and promote your work Get the most out of conferences Navigate the job market Balance teaching, research, service, and life