Acquiring visibility as a graduate student in your department

Image courtesy of nikolayhg via Pixabay

Introduction

The early phases of a graduate program, specifically a Ph.D. program, are often cluttered with exams. These exams tend to be quite difficult because faculty really want to test students’ mastery of the material. Often entire semesters or summers are devoted to preparing for these exams, both alone and in groups. While I do not want to understate the importance of preparing for and succeeding on these exams, I do want to emphasize that they are not the only part of a Ph.D. program.

In particular, the Ph.D. program is ultimately about research. Written or oral exams you take along the way all have well-suited purposes, but it is important not to become invisible while you prepare for these exams, as ultimately you will need to choose an advisor for your research. Sometimes this commitment is made upon arrival into the Ph.D. program, but many programs, especially those in the United States, intend for the first one or two years to be predominantly about coursework and exams, and only then does the focus shift to research. I think a mistake students make is making this a “hard shift,” rather than a softer transition. That is, students can get to the point of being ready to do research and have no idea what they want to do, when in reality, they can be thinking about it all along. In other words, preparing…