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Preface
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xiii Preface Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of students who aspire to earn master’s degrees and doctorates start graduate school.1 Many new graduate students know a lot about their fields of study, perhaps having pursued them as undergraduate majors or worked as research assistants on professors’ projects. Others are discipline changers or autodidacts, who explored their topics individually , outside of standard education tracks. Some have obtained advanced degrees in their native countries but are new to the U.S. system of education. However much new graduate students know about their fields, most know little about graduate school. Unless they were raised in a family of academics, enjoyed excellent undergraduate mentoring, or pursued a graduate degree previously, the experience of graduate school itself is probably new, unfamiliar, daunting, and exhilarating, all at the same time. The purpose of this book is to demystify the institution of graduate education in the United States for people who do not yet know much about it. I describe how people decide where to earn a master’s or doctoral degree, financial issues, academic culture, the processes of graduate education, and job prospects. The main focus is how graduate school works. I also include “voices,” comments from real graduate students reflecting on their experiences. “Expert Tips” from faculty and other experienced students provide guidance on some of the stickier situations graduate students find themselves in. The sources for these quotations are provided in a separate section at the end, preceding the endnote references. A glossary at the back of the book defines academic terms that may be unfamiliar. Fi- xiv pRefAce nally, a bibliography suggests further reading, especially for people seeking detailed advice about succeeding in graduate education. This book is written for people who want to know more about what graduate school is like, whether they are thinking about applying to programs, are already enrolled, or just want to understand what education beyond the college level entails. Undergraduates can learn about how to apply to the programs of their choice and what to expect there. Current graduate students can use it as a roadmap through their programs. International students may find that the U.S. system’s expectations differ from their home-country norms. People who love graduate students but do not understand how they are spending their time will find straightforward explanations of the process. This book focuses primarily on the liberal arts rather than the kinds of professional training offered by M.B.A., J.D., M.D., and other degree programs. One of the things biggest hurdles in graduate school is the thesis or dissertation, a project that is usually essential to completion of the degree. It is hard because producing original scholarship for the first time is more than just coming up with new ideas; it also entails engaging in an unfamiliar process of research and writing. A student must figure out how to manage a large-scale, independent scholarly project at the same time as understanding a phenomenon no one has ever explained before. The same thing is true of graduate school at large. Graduate school, in the liberal arts, at least, is not just an extension of the undergraduate degree. As one of my friends explained in the orientation to my doctoral program, the point of the exercise is to change the student from a consumer of scholarship into a producer of scholarship. Figuring out how to navigate this transformation—an intensely personal one—makes graduate school scary and exciting at the same time. The information and advice I offer come from a range of sources. I first imagined this book when I was studying for my doctorate in American history at Northwestern University and teaching ethnography alongside sociologists and anthropologists. They taught me that I should understand what I was doing as well as what I was [44.192.53.34] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:11 GMT) pRefAce xv studying. When I took a position as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, my advisor suggested that I write down all the things that confused me about the institution so that when new colleagues came along, I could ease their way by sharing these tidbits. So while I studied as a graduate student, had friends who were graduate students, and taught graduate students, I also played ethnographer, paying critical attention to the ups and downs of their experiences, the things that they needed to learn about academic life...