{"id":859,"date":"2011-08-15T10:22:36","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/?p=859"},"modified":"2011-08-15T12:05:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T19:05:29","slug":"some-basic-things-you-should-know-about-being-in-a-ph-d-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/some-basic-things-you-should-know-about-being-in-a-ph-d-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Some basic things you should know about being in a Ph.D. program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"Cloister, Glasgow University," by _skynet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Disclaimer: This post is not about the politics of humanities Ph.D. programs, the ethics of these arrangements, or whether you should go to grad school in the first place. But if you haven’t already looked into this and you’re thinking of going to grad school, you <\/em>need to do your homework on this stuff. Start here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few days ago I had a nice phone conversation with a recent college graduate who was thinking about applying to Yale’s Film Studies program. Talking to her reminded me of my first year or so as a grad student at Yale, and what I remember most is just all-consuming confusion \u2014 the ubiquitous sensation of doing the wrong thing, and, worse, of\u00a0not knowing<\/em> what the right thing was.<\/p>\n

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In a way, the conditions of my entrance into grad school virtually guaranteed this. The only professors I knew were the faculty at my liberal arts college (where we didn’t have grad students). They were wonderful, but we didn’t really have heart-to-hearts. I’d never actually known a grad student. I hadn’t done my homework as well as I should have. I went to grad school because I liked college, was good at it, and thought it sounded cool to get paid to read. Simple as that.<\/p>\n

I was 23. It can’t be that unusual.<\/p>\n

And, disastrously, I was the first grad student to enter Yale’s Film Studies Ph.D. program, and the only one that year. Meaning I was a cohort of one. The faculty were generously solicitous, but they were so far removed from my own station that I think my constant missteps were baffling and sometimes exasperating to them.<\/p>\n

Not all grad students are like me. As I quickly learned, a lot of them know what being a grad student is all about, have done their research, and understand how to navigate academia. This post is not for them. This is about the really basic conventions and etiquette of what it means to be a Ph.D. student.<\/p>\n

If all this sounds like BS to you, you should ignore it. I hope you do, actually. But I think it’s only fair to have the option of knowing what the conventions are before you decide to flout them.<\/p>\n