General Tips

• In academia, the most important marker of success is the number and quality of your publications. In some fields these publications are books or chapters, in others (most?) they are academic publications in peer-reviewed journals.PAY ATTENTION to those boring methods classes! They are required for a reason. Other people will read your papers and your methods in their journal clubs and will definitely 100% judge you for doing it wrong. Your advisor will obviously help you out here but you should know your field’s basic methods like the back of your hand.Know that everyone in your program is smart (including you)--that’s why they are there. The difference between who succeeds--who graduates (on time) and who languishes--often has more to do with work ethic than intelligence. (Of course, sometimes things happen--having to take on extra work will delay your progress; you may have to take care of family members; and so on). But the point is that you should not doubt that you are smart enough to succeed.
  • Try to read at least one academic paper a day. This adds up over time, and eventually you will be so familiar with how papers are written that you will be expert at reproducing the best of these yourself. It is also 100% free if you are university affiliated.
  • Get involved in an easy, small research project your first year (take it slow though), and try to publish the results asap. After that, try to publish one paper every year or two during graduate school. This becomes much, much more important during your postdoc (when you should shoot for at least two a year).
• It is OK to say "No"--especially if it gets in the way of your academic and professional progress. It is a social sacrifice but so is not completing your school work. If anyone offers you any work and life balance help, say "yes", do not feel bad. It is better to have the help and not needing it than needing help and not having it. Ask for help from someone who is not in graduate school. Things like laundry, cooking, etc. Delegate those tasks. You will have the rest of your life to do all of those things.
• Assess the needs for success and job security early on to assure best placement in employment whether or not it's the academy
• Do not be ashamed to ask for help and communicate with your advisor or graduate program director. If he/she knows they might be able to help out with funding, scholarships, etc.
• "Managing up" is key for your relationship with your advisor. Your advisor should see you as a confident, low-drama, productive scholar. Create a support network for different levels of problems--personal problems go to friends, questions about how to navigate the department or do basic academic tasks go to grad students a year or two ahead of you, intellectual feedback on work, or big-picture questions about how to succeed in the field, comes from your advisor.
  • Here's a specific example of "managing up" from a friend with her Ph.D. in biology. If you're a bench scientist and need to present results to your supervisor on a regular basis, before you go on vacation, "hold back" a bit of your results so you have something to present the week you return. Yes, of course you're allowed to go on vacation and it's necessary for your mental health, but the pressure to show results in the sciences can be intense and the fewer meetings with your supervisor where you have nothing to present, the better. This is a brilliant way to "manage up" and still take the time off you need.