date: 2010/07/17
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This summer I am trying to decompress and analyse my decision to go to graduate school and also explore the career option of staying in academia. I have been scouring the net looking for books that explain how to “survive” grad school, what to expect, or what the career of teaching is like and the transition into such a career, etc. Here are a couple of the books I have been reading and some of my notes about each one. Most tend to be focused on Ph.D. students in either Science or Humanities but I believe there is a lot of valuable information available if you are looking for it. I would love to find a book specific to fine art MFA’s but I haven’t found any. There is a ton of books about creative writing MFA’s. (no irony there)
SPLIT_SUMMARY_BEFORE_THIS
Graduate Study for the 21st Century
by Gregory Colón Semenza
eBook available at SJSU Library
Ch. 1 The Culture of a Graduate Program
The first chapter offers valuable insight to the hierarchy of a typical humanities grad program. It explains who everyone is, what they do, how they interact, and gives some tips to grads. Biggest one, be very, very, very nice to the secretaries of the department. This tip has been echoed to be by T. Asmuth as well, and in my experience as an undergrad at SJSU was critical to my development as student. It also breaks down the different classifications of teachers there are at a college, what tenure track is, and how modern trends, such as hiring many adjunct professors and graduate teaching assistants are creating less and less tenure track positions. They cite a change of 40% since 1988. Other interesting facts are that teaching 4 classes per year (with maybe 1 as a grad seminar) is preferred for researchers. It suggests it takes 20 hours per week for each class, though often more, especially in the case of a grad seminar.
The latter part of the chapter talks about the political pitfalls that a grad or new professor can make. One example is a MFA that wrote the school paper criticising the program. Basically that person ousted themselves from future opportunities. The authors advice: “Try and make it a personal policy to sit back and try to understand the way that things work.” This chapter also gives a breakdown of the “characters”: The High Priests and Priestesses (people to follow), Deadwood (usually older and contribute nothing), The Black Sheep (someone that annoys everyone, usually they will approach you first to win you to thier way of thinking, beware), the Careerists, Service Slaves, the Curmudgeons, the Young Turks (new hires), the Grad Student or Faculty Hall Talker, Theory Boys or Girls (talk to them but never date them), Life Long “Learners,” and the Everyman and Everywoman.
Here are some other basic things learned in chapter 1:
- Read the Chronical of Higher Education one hour per week
- Go to as many department talks and functions as possible
- Become a historian, learn why the department operates the way it does.
- If your professors work a 65 hour week, then work 70. if they work saturdays, so should you.
- “Act like your professors, not like your students.”
- Best Grad students = excelent work habits and organization rather than intellegence or immagination.
- don’t be lazy or disorganized.
Chapter 2, The Structure of your graduate career
The only part of this chapter that seemed to really pertain to fine art MFA’s is about selecting advisors. A lot of it seems like common sense, but there was some decent advice to consider such as what type of personality do you want to work with. For example, do you need a task master that is going to stay on top of you and make sure you hit deadlines.
Ch. 3 Organization and Time Management
This chapter is broken down into 5 sections, with a 6th describing the academic CV. Part 1 is about establishing a daily schedule. He suggests to figure out what works for you and stick to it. For example, a 10 hour day is good, because you can “work” most of it, unlike other office workers that slack off, take hour lunches, etc. As a grad you can come in at 7am or at 2pm, as long as you are consistant. This way if you stay out on the town, the pattern cannot be broken.
Part 2 is about prioritizing responsibilities. Keep your high energy times for important tasks. One can grade papers in low energy states and spend the bulk of your time on research activities. Try to avoid distraction. Don’t take calls and try to meet with students at other times. He has a whole section about working with students. Basically grading can be a time suck. 15 minutes per paper is ideal. Grading isn’t about time, but rather creating an efficient system for approaching papers with a sense of energy and purpose as apposed to dread. Try to meet with students by appointment. Never encourage someone to stop by during your office hours. Schedule your hours with one on each track, TuTh and MWF and suggests that students should go out of their way to meet with you, not the other way around. Working with your students can be rewarding, but be careful, this can be a huge time suck and burden.
Part 3 is about “Family Planning.” Plan your weekends so you can spend more time with family. Either while your spouse is sleeping in or in little pockets if you can manage that (grading).
In response to family that doesn’t understand your career you can a) educate them, b) compromise, split the weekend visit it half. c) create a workplace there like the local library or starbucks. and d) propose that they visit you, reducing stress for you. He suggests that married grads can be better but it is best to coordinate schedules to maximize time spent together.
He gives some valuable advice about summers and “breaks”. Work on your research. Stay near your university. Jump on summer teaching and research opportunities like your life depended on it, and if left with nothing make sure you complain loudly. Also, try to budget your money so you can make it through the summer with less working hours.
Part 5 is about filing and storage or organization. Get at least one filing cabinet. Check the univ. surplus. Label the drawers, research, teaching, other and start right away. Also file “other peoples stuff” with cvs, exams, proposals, portfolios, etc. from your peers and professors. Secondly, get a bookshelf. Collect all the materials from a single class, in a Binder. Get a tack board. Have a calendar and make sure to put every assignment from the syllabi on it right away.
He also makes a suggestion about a personal computer. It seems a little dated, but suggests to a) keep syllabi organized, b) have bookmarks for the university and chronicle, calls for papers, etc. and c) clean up your files every semester or at least every year.
Basically, keep everything clean and organized.
He also suggests that daily exercise can help you structure your day. You can schedule it anytime as long as you are consistant. It could even be in the afternoon. It relieves stress, improves the immune system, clears a space in your day for deep thinking, and will provide you more quality work time. Additionally it is good to have a hobby that makes you happy: a garden, university games, or buy a dvd when you finish a paper.
The chapter ends with a section about CV’s. The important advice is to start one early and maintain it.
Chapter 4 has some good tips such as: don’t ever miss a seminar, make sure you find out what is required and exceed it, make sure you meet with professors during office hours to learn how to improve your seminar grades, etc. but most of it seemed less relevant to a fine arts MFA program.
