Okay people.. it’s all over in two days. On August 26th, I will defend my dissertation!!!! I started grad school in August 00 and will finish in August 08. Granted lessons are like advice. They should taken with a grain of salt meaning that circumstances will be different for different people and you have to do what you feel comfortable with. With that said, here are some things I learned.
1) You collect way more data than you need. This is good for reasons, but also if you were like me, you felt a need to collect more because you didn’t have enough….
2) Be-friend older graduate students. They have a wealth of knowledge and make great friends and colleagues to meet at future conferences.,
3) Join a professional society that is beyond the major one (i.e. smaller or focused on some thing). You’ll find people.
4) Seek out those in your department when you feel isolated or lost. There are others and we often wish we would’ve talked before.
5) Don’t act better than others as a facade to hide your insecurities. People see past it. We are all insecure. It’s the field of academia.
More to come…
