How to start your PhD
Do you really want to start a PhD?
Do you really know what to expect & in those 4-5 years?
Is graduate school right for you at all?
Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D.
The PhD Chronology (PDF) - practical advice, resuming resuming the whole Chronology of a PhD on just two pages. From the initial thought process before starting a PhD course through the milestones of the whole PhD. From the application to the oral examination defending your thesis. Start with this one!
PhD students say... - Quotes from the responses made on the Survey of Doctoral Education and Career Preparation, sorted by discipline. Current PhD students responded to the question: "Knowing everything that you know now, what advice would you give others entering or in the early years of graduate school?
Questions To Ask When Thinking About Pursuing a Ph.D. - Questions To Ask When Thinking About Pursuing a Ph.D. is an article of advice for selecting a doctoral program; by Chris M. Golde (2001)
How to start a PhD in computer science? - a blog post by Nicolas Bonvin, PhD student at EPFL on How to start a PhD in computer science, how to write a thesis plan, how to refine your idea and define your focus. (2008)
What you should know... - What you should know before starting a doctorate... a great blog post by Tom Coates (2004)
PhD Comics
PhD Comics - if you haven't subscribed to the famous PhD Comics via RSS yet, it's time to do so! You will love it! (and it will provide you with a great insight into Postgrad Life :-)Useful books with PhD starting tips |
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| For PhD Applicants | ||
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The PhD Application Handbook - The PhD Application Handbook by Peter Bentley is a comprehensive handbook for PhD applicants all around the world. It provides a step-by-step explanation: what a PhD is; how to apply for your PhD; and how to find the right graduate school, the right advisor and thesis project.
It also provides detailed information about funding, eligibility, examples of research proposals, application forms and interview techniques, helping you to survive graduate school with less trouble. Paperback: 192 pages; Publisher: Open University Press (2006) |
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| For PhD Freshmen just starting their studies | ||
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Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. Based on interviews with career counselors, graduate students, and professors, this PhD starting Guide is packed with advice based on real-life experiences a student will need not only to survive graduate school: instructions on applying to school and for financial aid; how to excel on qualifying exams; how to manage academic politics—including hostile professors; and how to write and defend a top-notch thesis. Most important, it shows you how to land a job when you graduate. Paperback: 400 pages; Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1997) |
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The Ph.D. Process: A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences by Dale F. Bloom, Jonathan D. Karp and Nicholas Cohen is a practical guide about graduate school. It goes through all aspects of the grad school experience, from application through dissertation defense, with special advice to foreign students. The combination of authoritative summaries along with anecdotes from students themselves help you understand more the do's and don'ts about grad school. The book is organized in a more or less chronological sequence of major events and issues in the grad school process. The chapters work both to explain how things work and also how to make things work well for you.
Paperback: 224 pages; Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (1999) |
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