Resources for Success and Survival in Graduate School

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This is part two of our online content from the "Plan Your MA" session, but it is rather useful for any graduate student. Some of these books have been personally recommended to us by faculty or other graduate students, and others come from grad life blogs/web pages. If you have additional recommendations, please pass them along!

• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity -- David Allen
• The Right to Write and The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron
• Zen in the Art of Archery -- Eugen Herrigel
• Dissertations and Theses from Start to Finish -- Cone and Foster
• Get it Done: A Coach’s Guide to Dissertation Success – Dr. Rachna D. Jain
• Get it Done Faster: Secrets of Dissertation Success – Dr. Rachna D. Jain
• The Chicago Guide to your Academic Career. Eds. Goldsmith, Komler, Schine, Gold
• Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student’s Guide to Earning a Master’s or Ph.D.—Robert Peters
• Peterson’s The Ultimate Grad School Survival Guide--Lesli Mitchell.
• Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman’s Guide to Surviving in the Academic World-- Paula J. Caplan.
• Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process – Rudestam and Newton
• Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day – Joan Bolker
• Graduate Study for the 21^st Century by Gregory Semenza 

We have also researched some useful web pages to encourage, inspire, and inform you. These have all been tested by us or come highly recommended by faculty. Some are meant to aid in the job search, and others are simply there as tools to survive graduate school. If you know of additional web pages which would be helpful to us, please pass them along!

• Successful Writing Tips: an inspirational and informative blog about success —www.successfulwritingtips.com
• Complete Your Dissertation: A blog attached to this webpage has some helpful tips and advice; it also offers dissertation coaching services —http://www.CompleteYourDissertation.com
• Phinished.org: A wonderful forum site for exchanging ideas or getting advice on starting, continuing, or finishing your dissertation —http://www.Phinished.org
• How to be a Good Graduate Student: some tips of the trade and helpful advice about advisers - http://www.cs.indiana.edu/how.2b/how.2b.html
• Academic Keys: keep an eye on the job market! This website allows you to sign up for weekly email updates about job openings - http://www.academickeys.com/
• Linkedin.com: a potentially useful career tool – check it out www.linkedin.com
• MLA Membership: this is a highly valuable membership and cheap for current graduate students - www.mla.org
• Chronicle of Higher Education: keep abreast of news in various higher education fields including studies, the job market, and teaching tools. You can subscribe for the print edition or get a free online account - http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5
• U Penn CFP Website: A highly recommended site to keep track of calls-for-papers and conference updates-  http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/
• EGSA Facebook Page: like us to receive updates and r.s.v.p. for events – good for your sanity and professional/academic development!

Finally we have a list of blogs that we find useful for keeping up with campus events, academic opportunities, and success stories of other grads. The first link provides you with 50 blogs, but do not get overwhelmed - some are field-specific, but my favorites include: Unclutterer, Zen Habits, GradShare, and ProfHacker. Do you have any grad blogs to share? Please do!


   Top 50 Blogs Every Graduate Student Should Read - http://www.phdprogramsonline.org/top-50-blogs-every-graduate-student-should-read.html

·         GW English Blog - http://gwenglish.blogspot.com/

·         GW EGSA Blog - http://gwuegsa.blogspot.com/

·         GW MEMSI Blog - http://www.gwmemsi.com/

Stay tuned for more posts to come about Planning Your M.A. and other tips about time management whether you are an M.A. or PhD. student.