How to Be a Successful Graduate Student

Abstract

Earning a PhD is an exciting but arduous process, marked by an attrition rate of about 50%. In this context, we provide advice—10 lessons—on how students can not only survive but also thrive in graduate school. A core message is that students must understand that doctoral education is a unique social world whose main function is to prepare trained academics. Toward this end, students should not expect to be taken care of but must be the architects of their own professional development. Thus, they need to develop research skills, learn how to teach, use unstructured time productively, and act in ways that will bolster their reputation and make faculty want to collaborate with them. Students’ most important challenge, however, is to become an independent scholar—to acquire the depth of expertise and genuine passion for the criminological enterprise necessary for subsequent professional accomplishment and fulfillment.