Books That Helped Me Survive (and Maybe Even Thrive) in Graduate School
Advice from an assistant professor who was there not too long ago
I am just over one year into being a faculty member at an R1 institution and as I reflect on that experience, it makes me recall about a decade ago when I first began graduate school. When I first started grad school, I dug into several books that guided me on my path.
I hope these suggestions help some folks out in their graduate school journey — they definitely have helped me out many times over, and a few of them I still come back to repeatedly. I now even keep a few copies of each on hand to loan out to students in my lab and college (especially How To Do Ecology), maybe you could get shared copies for your spaces, too!
This article is divided into sections:
Books for getting into and beginning graduate school
Getting What You Came For
by Robert Peters
Before starting my master’s degree I was given a copy of Getting What You Came For and read it in a few days. The advice within it is somewhat perennial, but it was, even at the time a bit out of date (mostly the outdated stuff was related to the way personal computers are discussed). I think generally, however, it holds up well and provides ideas on how to find the right fit for your graduate program and how to make use of your time once you begin. It contains a little bit on the sort of “decoding graduate school” type information, but the next book really shines for that.
A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Skills for Scholars)
by Jessica McCrory Calarco
A Field Guide to Grad School is a bit more of a modern take compared to Getting What You Came For and I think it earns a rightful place in your reading list. There are a lot of rules in graduate school that are somewhat unwritten and certainly not well communicated. I receive lots of emails from hopeful prospective students who could be served well by reading this book. For example, crafting a solid opening email about your research interests and not simply how much you care about bees or something is important. This book contains practical knowledge on communicating professionally and effectively before and when beginning graduate school.
Books for improving your scientific writing and making writing enjoyable
The Scientist’s Guide to Writing
By Stephen B. Heard
I really enjoyed The Scientist’s Guide to Writing by Stephen Heard, and enjoy his writings and blog posts in general. One particular line that has really stuck with me was something along the lines of “there are no spoilers in science” and has changed the way I’ve written my introductions. It’s a practical book that really could help people get out of some writing funks and get their ideas out on paper and out into the world. These types of books are what also inspire me to write blog posts and the like, too. Just sort of having consistency in writing, even when it’s not “strictly professional” keeps those writing muscles strong and makes professional writing come more easily.
Writing Science
By Joshua Schimel
I think Writing Science by Joshua Schimel tends to be the more typical book recommended. It’s a solid book and may work better for your style, though I find Stephen Heard’s a bit more personally enjoyable. You can find lots of used copies, however, so maybe get both and see what you like.
I’d also note that I follow “La Method Brookoise” for my outlining and writing, which you can find here.
Books for improving technical skills and statistics training in graduate school
At this point, I think most people learn their technical skills (for me R and other programming languages) mostly from online tutorials. I find Coding Club to be indispensable in my own training/memory refreshing and also recommend it a bunch to my students.
That said, I think having a book or two to give a more formal and thorough introduction to the languages can be helpful at first. Here are are few that I made use of heavily when I started, though now I do not use or check them:
- R Cookbook (apparently I bought this exactly 10 years and 1 month ago!)
- R Graphics Cookbook
- Practical Computing for Biologists
- Bioinformatics Data Skills (admittedly, I have never read this one, but it’s by an old grad school pal, Vince Buffalo, who helped teach me a bunch about bash and general programming skills over lots of coffee!)
A book for job hunting towards the end of graduate school
Leaving Academia
by Joshua Schimel
Although I ultimately ended up in an academic track, I got a lot of comfort and confidence out of reading Leaving Academia by Christopher Caterine. The book details the sorts of skills you’ve learned in graduate school and how they can translate to all sorts of careers you may have never considered. It gives practical guidance on how to change your CV into a resume or how to translate the types of language you use to more industry or non-profit oriented ways of speaking. I actually still found it quite practical for my academic interviews as well. I think a lot of advisors would do well to read this book so they have an understanding of how to prepare their trainees for their future, as well.
Honorable Mention: How to Do Ecology
How To Do Ecology
by Rick Karban, Mikaela Huntzinger, and Ian Pearse
The last book I want to mention is a little bit niche, in that it applies to my particular field whereas the others are more general. How To Do Ecology by Rick Karban, Mikaela Huntzinger, and Ian Pearse is perhaps the book I hand out copies of the most. There are other ecology or natural science type books I loan out, but that’s for another write up. How To Do Ecology is sort of like comfort food of advice for aspiring (and continuing) ecologists. It goes through how to generate questions, how to set up a solid study design, how to analyze your data, and gives practical advice on publishing and job seeking. It’s basically a one stop shop for advice as a graduate student studying ecology. It’s a brief read, but gives you a solid foundation for then tracking down more in-depth or complete coverage of specific topics. [Please note, I might be a little biased in that Rick was an unofficial mentor of mine in graduate school, and then I did a postdoc with Ian :P ]
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