Chapter 3

Navigating graduate school and academia

This chapter takes the form of short answers to questions posed by graduate students. I lay out some of the questions that I have encountered most frequently during my two decades working with graduate students as an advisor, as a Director of Graduate Studies, and as an instructor of a number of classes, including, currently, a Graduate Professionalization seminar. I also include some of the questions that are often asked of me by newly graduated students, in their first faculty positions. I first provide my own answers to these questions, and then point to the much more complete and focused information that can be found in many of the other chapters contained in the current volume.