Below are a few starting points for new graduate students. These are links that have been passed onto HGSA reps, organized into broad categories. If you have a suggestion for a link to advice for PhD students, please email one of your HGSA reps. Like any advice, you should consider the guidance provided below (and any adjacent commentary) in the context of your own situation and life. There is no single blueprint for “doing grad school.” That said, many of these articles and blog posts have resonated with other grad students, and may resonate with you, too.
Coursework
- Your first year of grad school is a fantastic opportunity to explore. Take courses outside of your comfort zone – this is a great way to help you think outside of the box and to help stimulate your intellectual growth.
- Some people like to think of research papers for classes as preliminary drafts of a future publishable article. Others prefer to see these projects as opportunities to test out ideas that could potentially be developed into a dissertation topic or chapter. Either way, try to think strategically about research papers to make them as useful as possible to your future self.
- It is generally best to try to get both research papers out of the way during your first year of coursework (or by the end of the summer following your first year if you choose to take an incomplete).
- Taking incompletes is very common! LOTS of people use winter or summer breaks to do further research and write instead of scrambling to finish a paper by the end of term.
- That being said, don’t rack up incompletes!
General Exams
- General exam lists can be anywhere between 45-100+ books for each field. Length depends on the parameters of the field and the expectations of the professor.
- A few professors have a set list that they give all grad students preparing a field with them. Others expect you to put together a preliminary draft, which they will then review and make suggestions of important works that should be added or swapped in for other items.
- Ask upper Gs who did fields similar to the ones you want to prepare to share their book lists with you to help give you ideas. Many examples are available here on our website!
- You have the option of preparing exam fields (“doing a 3010”) in your first year. There are pros and cons to this. (Pros: you get a sense of how to systematically digest a historiography and take positions on important historiographical questions. Cons: you may not yet have the best note taking strategies worked out, and you will likely need to re-read a substantial amount of this material in your second year.) Just know that you have this option, and that it in fact may be necessary to prepare a field your first year if your advisor or another professor you definitely want to work with is going on leave during your G2 year.
Housing
- Email the Graduate Program Coordinator (Dan Bertwell) – he regularly sends out notices to the grad student list with information on other grad students looking for housing/roommates.
- Facebook groups like Harvard Housing
- Harvard University Housing
- Zillow
Professors
- Don’t take their delayed email responses personally – these people are super busy, with lots of demands competing for their time. So don’t hesitate to send a follow up email.
Reading and Taking Notes
- You cannot read every word assigned. Period.
- Learn to read strategically – read for argument and the author’s position within the historiography rather than for content and details.
- Take advantage of published book reviews. Everybody does it.
- Experiment early with note taking strategies and software (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, etc.). Everyone has a slightly different method for taking and sorting notes effectively, so find what works best for you – the sooner the better.
- The Harvard Bureau of Study Counsel offers a mini “reading course” that provides some tips and tricks, as well as guiding you through some exercises, to help you learn how to read strategically. http://bsc.harvard.edu/readingcourse
Social Life
- Relax – take care of yourself in whatever way makes sense to you. Do yoga. Go see a movie. (The theater in Kendall Square sometimes has some interesting films.) Sleep. Grab coffee/lunch/drinks with other grad students AND people outside of our neurotic grad student bubble. Give yourself permission to take a whole day off. Head out of town to hit a beach or take a hike.
- Make a point of cultivating your interests that have nothing to do with your academic pursuits.
- Take advantage of the knowledge of graduate students who are further along in their grad school careers.
- Come to HGSA happy hours on Fridays! These are great opportunities to meet other graduate students and to decompress at the end of the week.
Research
- Go to HGSA events on note-taking. Airtable is an amazing relational database for keeping track of research material.
- Talk to more advanced grad students and to your advisor and other professors
Mental Health and Wellness for Grad Students
SCHOLARSTUDIO BLOG: A RESOURCE FOR GRADUATE WRITERS AND ADVISORS
Talking to People
- Robin Bernstein, Harvard professor of African and African-American studies and chair of Studies in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, periodically writes for outlets like the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here is an article she wrote about “How to Talk to Famous Professors.” The piece contains advice for understanding and navigating interactions in that sometimes-awkward overlap of the professional and social. The basic takeaway: remember that professors and grad students are people, and busy people at that. They get many requests on their time and attention, both of which may be thought of as resources. Be mindful of this. See the article for concrete suggestions as to how.
Other advice
- How to Prep for Grad School While Poor (NB: This link also has navigation links on the right-hand side of the page including “LGBTQ” “POC” and “Disability”).
- Back-to-School Beatitudes: 10 Academic Survival Tips
- To amplify a point from the Back-to-School Beatitudes – be confident in your abilities! “If you feel like a fraud, you very likely are suffering from impostor syndrome, a chronic feeling of intellectual or personal inadequacy born of grandiose expectations about what it means to be competent. Women in particular suffer with this issue, but I argue that it is worse for women-of-color (particularly Blacks and Latinas) who labor under stereotypes of both racial and gender incompetence. The academy itself also creates grandiose expectations, given the general perception of academicians as hypercompetent people. Secret: Everybody that’s actin like they know, doesn’t really know. So ask your question. It’s probably not as stupid as you think. Now say this with me: “I’m smart enough, my work is important, and damn it, I’m gonna make it.”
- Robin Bernstein, Harvard Professor of African and African American Studies and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, has compiled a fascinating collection of resources and advice about grad school and academia more broadly. She particularly focuses on advice for people of color and women in academia.
- In addition to the many lecture series and research centers that bring in speakers, Harvard Book Store also hosts interesting events.
- Keep an eye out for the many awesome speakers and events around campus, but also prioritize – there are so many exciting things going on that you really can’t do it all!
Last updated: 30 May 2017
Harvard History Graduate Student Association 