You’ve just started your graduate program. Congratulations! I bet you are excited and eager to embark on this journey that will most likely change your life. If you went to college here in the US and excelled, you are hoping to rinse and repeat all the techniques you developed that made you a great undergraduate student. Unfortunately, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but that will simply not work! Being a graduate student is very different from being an undergraduate student. In fact, the experiences are so different that we’ve decided to create a blog post to help you figure out which undergraduate tactics to “unlearn” and which to keep in order for you to be a successful graduate student.

If you recall, in our optimize your graduate school list article, we mentioned that the overall goal of a Ph.D. student is to become an individual contributor by the end of your degree program. It is important to keep the goal in mind as we discuss some of the techniques that will not serve you well in graduate school.

Technique to unlearn #1: Focusing on your GPA.

Making A’s in classes is NOT the most important thing as a graduate student. As a Ph.D. student nobody cares about your GPA. We recognize that this is really hard to believe. Especially, since you, are most likely a high achiever who has worked really hard to get to this point. You probably made all A’s during your undergraduate years, or a mixture of A’s and high B’s, and are so excited to repeat this in your classes at graduate school.

Here is what would most likely happen if you attempt to go down this part. For some of you, making A’s will actually be a breeze. So feel free to skip to the next point. For majority of readers though, you are going to exert so much energy into making A’s in any class that you might get burned out in your first semester.

Be average, or a little above average in classes. We understand that it sounds weird. But most graduate programs require that you finish a class with nothing less than a B anyways. So as long as you do about as well as the whole class (average), or a little better, you will be just fine. Some classes will come naturally to you, and you will make an A in them. Others won’t, and that’s okay, as long as you are average you will make a B in these classes. In no time, taking classes will be a thing of the past and you can get on with your graduate school career. So, don’t sweat classes.

Technique to unlearn #2: Over-involvement in extracurricular activities.

You do NOT need to be involved with extracurriculars on campus to “pad” your resume. Your time as a graduate student is finite. You will inevitably spend most of it in the lab trying to get experiments to work, or trying to troubleshoot your code. So you don’t need to be involved with nearly the same amount of extracurriculars that you were as an undergraduate. The earlier you unlearn that, the better for you.

Instead, you need to be selfish with your time. Only get involved with activities that you are passionate about. Before you say yes to anything extra outside of research, ask yourself Why? Why should I add this to my plate? Is this something I’m going to care about when I have a deliverable for this activity but my experiments need more time? What skills will I develop in this extracurricular? If you can articulate answers to all these questions, then it is something that you should definitely jump into!

Technique to unlearn #3: Being the smartest person in the room.

You do NOT need to be the most brilliant person in the room. While as an undergraduate it might have been helpful to be the smartest person in certain rooms, it just doesn’t serve you as a graduate student. For one, research is about venturing into the unknown. By that definition, no one ever starts out as the smartest person in their research field. Even those at the peak of their research careers are still searching for new knowledge and answers to questions. So you need to learn to embrace being a small fish in the big pond of knowledge.

If you ever find that you are indeed the smartest person in the room, then you need to find a different room or take on a more challenging project. More than likely, you will quickly learn that there is a lot you do not know about research. So go along for the ride with humility.

That’s all we have for now! If any of you current graduate students have any other tips, leave them below!