How to Be a Success in Your Ph.D. Program

Success in your Ph.D. program can depend on many things and you must already be aware of some of these factors from your past experiences while pursuing your undergraduate and graduate degrees. Add to that dedication and perseverance and you would be ready to go. Here are a few tips on how to be a success in your Ph.D. program.

Choose a good guide

The very first reaction of a student would be to choose a guide whose research interests match theirs. That may be a good strategy. However, do not rely on that one factor alone. Whether you like it or not, you are going to spend the next couple of years at the mercy of your guide. Not only should you find a guide, whose research interests are similar to yours, but also someone, whose personality is similar to yours. You might want to talk to someone that the guide has worked with in the past. Get a feel for how they treat their students. Find out whether the person will fight for the students’ rights, if necessary.

Learn to teach

• When you teach, you learn better. Even though most of the emphasis during your Ph.D. will be on research that is not all there is to it.
• Many people think that the tenure decision will be made solely on the basis of publications. However, that is not always the case.
• You will need to learn how to teach in order to make it in your Ph.D. program. Hopefully, you will be given the opportunity to work as a teacher in various classes while you work on your Ph.D. degree program.

You can try asking your guide for help on how to teach the students. A positive feedback from your teaching faculty will help you become confident in your work and if you teach well now, you could even become a faculty member in the future after your Ph.D.