The Ph.D. Persona

Most individuals in a Ph.D. program can recall the incident that sparked their interest to understand the world around them. However, the path to a Ph.D. is a long-drawn process often influenced by our families, life experiences, and most importantly, our grades! While every individual entering the graduate program has done well in high school and undergrad, this early success rarely prepares them for a life in academic research. A graduate program brings together exceptional individuals from diverse backgrounds and trains them to push the boundaries of science. Graduate students balance optimism and self-doubt as they navigate the vast body of research. Every new article challenges a previously learned fact and provides alternate perspectives on the body of work. While this alone is unsettling for a Ph.D. student, there are many more instances where patience, mental fortitude, and good mentors go a long way. 

Often called the third-year syndrome, the confident demeanor of the graduate student is replaced by stress and a sense of underachievement. Around the same time, experiments that should have worked don’t work, and once-promising projects start to fall apart. What changed? While the long hours spent in the lab may be leading to burnout, which is not inaccurate, it is often a failure to see one’s entire body of work within the context of their area of research. This is when revisiting the fundamentals established early on in the project can help calm the nerves. Seeking feedback from peers and mentors on project scope and direction can also help untangle some ideas and improve experimental design. Though one’s journey through graduate school develops independent thinking and scientific inquiry, it is built by standing on the shoulder of giants. Thus, graduate students, along with being intellectually curious, need to be systematic, hardworking, and open to feedback on their work. For more discussions on the persona of the graduate student, listen to our episode on Spotify and Apple Podcast at PhDefined.