How to be a good graduate students ? Marie desJardins, 1994 • The two main things that make graduate school hard – unstructured nature of the process, – lack of information about what you should spend your time on. • First, ask yourself why go to graduate school at all? • After you start, you will look for books and current journals and conference proceedings in your area, and read through them to get an idea of who's doing what and where. • Keeping a journal/daily of your research activities and ideas is very useful. • Staying Motivated, try to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. • Breaking down any project into smaller pieces is always a good tactic when things seem unmanageable 1 What does a graduate student should achieve? • • • • • • • Learn to be a good scientist Independent thinking Independent research capability Effective communication/presentation Reasonable writing skills Laboratory skills Writing Grants/Proposals: Planning, design, and budget preparation • People skills • Organizing skills What does a university/institute want? • • • • Tuition Resources from government/agency Labours Future leaders / scholars! Quality Controls • • • • • Admission Course work Qualifying exams (written + oral) Defense Committees: – Advisory Committee – Exam Committee – Supervisory Committee What does a professor want? • • • • ‘Cheap’ labors Young and active brains Future helpers/followers Future colleagues Finding a good advisor • Read research summaries by faculty members • attend or audit courses given by professors you might be interested in working with • Talk to other graduate students and recent graduates • Find out: – What is the average time their Ph.D. students take to finish their degrees? What is the dropout rate for their students? • The most important thing is to ask 6 How to use your supervisor • Knowledge • Experience • Resources – Monthly Stupid – Machines / Equipments – Reputation – Connection Finding a Thesis Topic • A good thesis topic is a topic interesting to you, to your advisor, and to the research community • Try to become aware and stay aware of directly related research • If you see new work that seems to be doing exactly what you're working on, don't panic. • Present your ideas for solving the problem in as much detail as possible, and give a detailed plan of the remaining research to be done • Remember: you know more about your thesis topic than your committee; you're teaching *them* something for a change. 8 How to be creative? • • • • Use your common sense Practice your brain Make mistakes and learn from it Jot down your thoughts (good or bad) Attending meetings/seminars • • • • • Very important and wonderful opportunity Know people and their research Make yourself known Sense the art of science and feel the future Ask questions, stupid question is also a good question • If you don’t think you are stupid, then you are not stupid Writing the Thesis • Realize that your audience is almost guaranteed to be less familiar with your subject than you are. • Explain your motivations, goals, and methodology clearly • Getting Feedback – learn to cope with criticism, and even that you actively seek it out – Learn to listen to valid, constructive criticism and to ignore destructive, pointless criticism • Giving feedback – helps you to polish your critical skills, which are helpful both in understanding other people's work and in evaluating your own – helps you to build a network of people who will be your colleagues for years to come 11 Writing • • • • One of the most important skills in research Papers Grant proposals Reports/reviews How to write a good manuscript? • • • • • • • • • Think before you write Prepare an outline/story line Fill the outline with ‘messages’ Logic is important: good story vs bad story Write clearly/use short sentences Be explicit as much as you can Good discussion is important Reading other people’s writing Proofread again and again ! Reference • How to be a good graduate student http://heibeck.freeshell.org/Grad_Advice/how2b/how.2b.html http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/09/26/unsolicit ed-advice-iv-how-to-be-a-good-graduate-student/ http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/facstaff/practices/mentoring.html