A doctoral program is a new experience for everyone. It is unlike any of your previous school or university experiences. It can be exciting and exhausting, energizing and frustrating, rewarding and depressing. At times it may seem as that your doctoral program is as much a matter of perseverance as scholarly accomplishment and you may never feel as if your life is balanced. You may spend weeks or months researching a topic or engaged in field work sometimes with a brilliant result, insights that no one has ever had before, a unique and important contribution to the field that makes a difference for students and teachers; but sometimes all of that time has merely led you to a dead end. You will probably experience all of this - and more.

Our best suggestion is to stay in close contact with your faculty advisor. Seek advice from him/her. If you have a doctoral committee or dissertation committee, seek the counsel of those faculty.

As you go through your doctoral program you may want to get advice from people who are going through the doctoral program or who have recently done so. No one has exactly the same experience in the doctoral program, people are different, and contexts change. We’ve collected some commentary from current and former doctoral students on various aspects of the doctoral program. We’ve tried to get a variety of views on each topic. You might want to listen to all of the views and then consider what makes sense to you. Click on the picture or icon next to the person’s name to hear their comments.