Savvy Afro Success

This is a series of letters to a new graduate student, where we share learnings from our experience, and things we wish someone shared with us. In this letter, we will provide specific tips on classes, life outside classes, and in-depth tips for advisor selection. Read the previous letter on surviving classes.

First stop, classes

We are 2 months in now. You’ve had your 1^st set of exams in your classes. Are you happy about the results? If yes, congratulations. You just have to sustain this momentum for the rest of the semester. If you are not happy, that is okay. You most likely have another set of exams before your final exam. Now is the time to go over those exams and concepts you didn’t do well in. Go to your professor’s office hours and talk about the exam. Ask your professor for tips to study better.

The other pro-tip we will offer you is to find those in your class that did well on the exams. You don’t have to be part of their tribe (see past letter about tribes), you just want them to be able to explain the concepts to you. If you can put all this in practice, you will be sure to do well on the next exam.

Next stop, life outside classes

By the way, are you finding things to do outside of classes yet? I know classes seem like a lot to handle right now, but what do you do after all your homework and studying for the weekend are done? Have you found a church that you like? Have you hosted or gone to game nights hosted by other graduate students? What about any cool restaurants or bars near you? We cannot stress enough how important it is to find something, anything, that helps maintain your sanity and keep you away from thoughts about graduate school, even if it is only for a moment. It could even be running? Or any outdoor sports.

close up photo of monopoly board game — Give yourself permission to play
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Whatever activity you pick, make sure it is an activity that you can immerse yourself in totally for the period in which you perform the activity. That way, once you’re done with the activity you can return back to regularly scheduled programming with a clear mind. Graduate work will always be there no matter how much time off you take, but the memories you make outside of graduate school will last you a life-time.

Last stop, Advisor selection

As we promised, some practical tips on how to approach the advisor selection process.

Advisor selection tip #1 — Identify Professors

Identify a list of professors’ you want to work with. You hopefully did this during your application process, which is why you selected this school. Now is the time to put that list to use.

Advisor selection tip #2 — Reach out to professors early

Check to see if these advisors are currently accepting new students or if they have projects for new students to work on. Download this guide to assist you with reaching out to potential advisors and to ensure you stand out during the selection process.

Before you show up to a meeting with a potential advisor, it is important to read a few of their papers and go through their lab’s website. Afterwards, come up with questions on their current research, and future research directions. Your goal during the interaction is two folds; i) To get them talking about why the research they do is important ii) To convince them that you are the best candidate to do this work. Even if your past experience doesn’t align with their current research, be sure to talk about your passion for the research they do, and how you are not afraid of a challenge and of learning new skills. In our guide, we’ve listed out 10 questions you should definitely ask a potential advisor to help you decide during this advisor selection process.

choices, choices.
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Advisor selection tip #3 — Network with graduate students in the group

Ask professor’s for their group meeting times and if you can sit in on meetings before you make your selection. This will help you learn more about the group’s research – from the perspective of the graduate students, and also see how the group interacts. Remember, these are your future colleagues, so it is important to see how they treat one another, especially during group meetings. It is important you meet and schedule 1:1’s with several of the current graduate students in the advisor’s group to learn about their experience working with the potential advisor. Find a BONUS list of questions for networking here.

Goodluck! By the time we meet next month you would have chosen your advisors. We will talk about that in our next letter.