Bricks and Mortar

A Clearinghouse on Faith, Development and Nonprofits

Lessons from a first year PhD student

February 25, 2009 at 10:26 pm · Filed under About me, About this blog, Community Development, Community Economic Development, Community Organizing, Higher education, International Development, PhD, Social Work

  1. The PhD will change the way you think – you begin to see the connections between theoretical and practitioner mindsets.
  2. Eat curry – it will make you smarter.
  3. Make a detailed chart outlining what you plan to do each day – when you are done with your daily task list – stop working.
  4. Remove all tertiary commitments from your life – this is especially true if you have full-time job and a family.
  5. Talk with other faculty members at your alma mater  about what worked and did not work for them during their PhDs.
  6. Spend time playing matchbox cars, monopoly and uno with your kids — kids keep you grounded.
  7. Tailor your assignments to your dissertation topic
  8. Take an independent study and use it as the way to expand and build your literature review section
  9. Take time to break bread with your fellow students
  10. Take time to critique your dissertation topic (design, methods, etc.) with fellow students and faculty outside of your field
  11. Start talking/interviewing experts in the field of your topic – one of them might be willing to be on your committee
  12. Your chair should be vested in your topic, but you also need to have a methodologist who will help you to create a robust research design
  13. Create a database on excel of your literature review – author(s), title, full abstract, and content area which the article fits into your “literature tree”
  14. Reflect on what you read – don’t inhale it. (This is very difficult to do when you are not a full-time student).
  15. Watch a good movie every week that stirs your soul.

2 Comments »

  Connie Lightfoot wrote @ March 3, 2009 at 3:17 pm

These are great lessons — and show your sense of humor as well as your drive. Hang in there — it WILL be worth it one day! :-)

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  blackwasp19 wrote @ June 2, 2009 at 11:20 am

Haha, I just saw this. I love, “Make a detailed chart outlining what you plan to do each day – when you are done with your daily task list – stop working.” Even in my master’s program there is just so much to do everyday that I can easily get caught up overworking and ignoring “minor” things like sitting with my wife or taking a walk that have a large impact on life

I was actually just thinking about the lessons from my first year of Grad School. I may be posting my list soon.

Thanks again for your insight.

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