Grad school isn’t easy. It’s even less easy when you’re also managing a second job, a family, or depression—or when you are a first-generation student, or if you come from an underrepresented group or a lower socioeconomic-status background. Grad students are overworked, overstressed, and over it.

Most grad school advice books focus on the professional side: finding funding, managing research and teaching, and applying for academic jobs. But students today face a difficult job market. Only a handful will obtain coveted tenure-track professorships, so they need alternative career prep. Plus, grad school is only one part of your life. And with an average age of 33 years, today’s students are juggling far more than school.

That’s where this book comes in. It will help you keep up a personal life, make the most of your time, and prepare for your career—whether in academia or beyond. This pragmatic book explains how to persevere through the grad school long haul, covering challenges both on and off campus. It shares candid, specific advice on personal finances, mental health, setting your own learning and career goals, maintaining friendships and relationships, and more.

Peppy, sensible, and smart, Grad School Life points out the pitfalls of academia and helps you build the life you want. With fresh insights, concrete suggestions and exercises, and helpful lists of resources, this book gives grad students a new roadmap for not only surviving but thriving—both in school and in the real world.

With fresh insights, concrete suggestions and exercises, and helpful lists of resources, this book gives grad students a new roadmap for not only surviving but thriving—both in school and in the real world.

Introduction
Part I. Planning Your Journey
1. What’s Next
2. Career Plans: Academia, or Not?
3. Money and Logistics
4. Making Grad School Work for You
Part II. Grad School Skills
5. Advisers
6. Labs, Classes, and Teaching
7. Research, Theses, and Dissertations
8. Managing Projects and Managing Time
9. Your Work and the World
Part III. The Rest of Your Life
10. It’s Just Grad School
11. Relationships and Family
12. Maintaining Your Sense of Self
13. Making Changes to Your School
14. What’s Next, Revisited
Glossary
Notes
Resources
Index

This is one of those books I wish I had when I was a student, which is the second nicest thing I can say about it. The nicest thing I can say from my perspective as a recent director of graduate studies in a PhD program is that Grad School Life offers real-world, accurate, and unvarnished advice that is essential to any student entering the sciences. A truly tremendous contribution.

Grad School Life contains a plethora of information and advice about finding a balance between one’s personal life and graduate school. Kory-Westlund brings a genuine, pleasant, humorous, and reassuring voice to this comprehensive work.

The book provides an insightful view of the PhD journey, focusing on how to adapt to a range of challenges in grad school, and how to protect your sense of self and well-being throughout the process.

Grad School Life is a valuable addition to a growing conversation on how graduate students can succeed inside and outside the academy. This book is well-informed and offers good advice on subjects ranging from your adviser to your budget.