ivry twr

In January my partner Beth will be starting her PhD. Since receiving the good news and in preparation for my own PhD application, I’ve been searching out advice and recommendations for both surviving and thriving in grad school. Now that October is here I’m going to start working on my grad school application, what better time to share some of the best links I’ve found giving grad school advice.

1. How to tame your PhD – I’m written before about how much I love the blog The Thesis Whisperer - How to tame your PhD is an ebook collecting some of the blog’s best posts. This book focuses on tips and tricks for writing and managing a PhD dissertation. With Beth starting her PhD this winter, I know this book will be waiting under the digital Christmas tree for her.

2. Applying to PhD programs – This excellent three-part series comes from Justin O’Hearn’s eponymous blog. This series of posts covers topics like writing your letter of intent, writing the application, and the importance of organization. For people like me who are in the process of applying for a PhD, these posts are a fantastic resource.

3. Tell your story: Blogging & social media strategy for academics – I am a massive fan of Jo Hawkins’s blog History Punk. Having spend time working in marketing before starting her PhD in Australian history, Jo Hawkins has a fair amount of experience when it comes to selling ideas. In these videos Jo offers tips for how historians can use technology to promote themselves and their ideas. She makes a number of great points – if you’re at all interested in storytelling or digital engagement you should be reading History Punk.

4. Meditating in grad school: a personal story – Grad school is stressful and while stress can be minimized and managed, there’s no way to avoid it. This post offers personal experience of how meditation can help manage the stresses of grad school.

5. What’s your academic brand? – This post recommends that academics, whether they are applying for PhD’s or working on research, distill their work into a single sentence, thus creating an academic brand. By having a single sentence that describes your research, you can create a quick and engaging connection with people ranging from other grad students, to strangers, to publishers. This post argues that academic brands save you time and money and ultimately make your research stronger.

Well that concludes another edition of ‘links of the week.’ What are your favourite bits of grad school advice?

Look for a fairly busy week here on ivrytwr. This Friday look out for another episode of ivrytwr’s Summer Road-trip 2012 as we explore the Busan Aquarium, home to the longest underwater tunnel in Korea. Also look for a post about why generic names are a curse in the age of search-engine optimization (SEO) and for a post about how not to choose a masters program.

Thanks for reading, have yourself a fantastic week.