Ten simple rules for being a faculty advocate of first-year graduate students

摘要

The first year of graduate school is hard—new location (usually), new peers, new expectations[1]. It can be especially difficult for students who are starting their PhD with health challenges,student debt [2], imposter syndrome [3], or a background outside the “Research 1” (R1) Car negie Classification [4]. If there are impediments to making the undergraduate-to-graduatetransition, or there is no prior context to draw from, is it really all that surprising to see somestudents struggle? PhD advisors should help pave the way, but they usually do not becomedeeply involved until the end of a coursework-heavy first year. More direct engagement withfaculty could help but runs up against the issue that there are only so many hours in the day.Any change would need to be highly circumscribed for it to be durable.