Excelling in Graduate School
Almost all graduate students encounter numerous transitional issues during their start into graduate school. These transitional issues are particularly challenging because the skills needed to overcome these obstacles are often not explicitly addressed.
During the fall quarter of our CLIMB curriculum for first-year students, we speak openly about these issues. The open discussion provides an opportunity for students to help one another, realize that they often already have strengths to contribute to our CLIMB community, and understand that they are not alone in their challenges.
Click below to download pdf files of PowerPoint presentations on these topics:
- Choosing a mentor
- Adapting to new teaching and learning approaches in graduate school: learning in study groups
- Mentoring and Mentoring Up
- These workshops deal with your relationship with your research mentor (or PI), which is your most important relationship in grad school. We introduce the concept of "mentoring up", where you as the mentee proactively manage the relationship with your research mentor. The links below provide pdf files of the slides and case studies that were used in these workshops.
- Session 1: Effective Communication
- Session 2: Establishing Goals and Expectations
- Session 3: Diversity and Unconscious Assumptions
- Session 4: Fostering Independence
- Series on Developing Metacognitive Skills
- These workshops deal with developing skills to accurately assess your strengths and weakness, to help you begin to apply your strengths to navigate your path to success in grad school.
- Succeed with your strengths: Assess and apply your unique strengths to improve your chances for success in grad school
- Assess your communication strengths with the Myers-Briggs types and apply them to work effectively with others
- Succeed through your failures: Learning to fail productively in grad school
- Discussions of Case Studies
- Case Studies of Common Issues in Joining and Starting in Research Labs
- Case Studies in Collaborations and Team Science: How to promote collaborative environments and address common issues
- Career Development: Career Planning for Mid-Stage PhD Students
- In today’s changing and challenging market for PhD’s in the STEM disciplines, it’s critical to start planning your career early, because the road to “alternative” and even “traditional” careers are no longer clearly marked out for you. This series of professional development workshops will help you to assess your professional skills and interests, and help you explore options now while you’re in grad school, for your career after your PhD.
- Part 1: Intro and Professional Self-Assessment
- Part 2: Exploring Options
- Part 3: Building Relationships
- Part 4: Panel Discussion and Summary
