Academic Coaching Blog — PhD

It's been a few months since I posted, in spite of my 2025 New Year's Resolution to be more engaged through blog posts.  But of course the best-laid plans are often interrupted by life, and illness and helping friends and family.  As I said, it's been a while since I posted. But here I am again and determined to try and post more regularly, so that I can share some of the knowledge I've gained over years of working with the most brilliant minds on the planet -- that's you and your academic peers. So for today, here's a reminder...

It's great to start off a new year with a message notifying me that one of the graduate students in my "flock" has completed his PhD thesis and passed his oral Viva in the UK.  Congratulations, Matt!! Very few people how much effort is involved in earning a doctoral degree. It goes on for years, and of course it doesn't just take effort. It takes intelligence, commitment, understanding of the research process, skills in academic writing, and above all a love of the subject that you're studying. Most students don't start a graduate program knowing that they will need all...

I keep this little statue on my book shelf, and as you can see she's looking out at the world in which I live.  I bought her many decades ago when I was making changes in my life and it suited my mood at the time. Contemplative. Today, I was looking at it again and realized that it's just as relevant now as it was earlier in my life and career.  So I moved it from a lower shelf to give it pride of place on the top shelf to help me focus on what I'm going to do next.  ...

On International Women's Day, I sent a message to all women PhD candidates who are pulled in so many ways as they manage their studies.  But it's not just women, of course.  Juggling studies, work and home is something that all grad students have to do.   I know that the stresses and challenges of completing a PhD program are experienced by everyone who starts the journey.  I’d like to send a few words of encouragement to you too, with one or two suggestions for making it to the end. First, some of the happiest students are just focused on their...

      Expecting to be dawdling over your thesis in 2024?   To help you avoid that, I invite to join me for a four-week series of tutorials on how to write a “Good Enough” thesis, starting January 25th. Why?  Well, did you know that the average thesis takes eight years to complete? I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that PhD programs are excessively long and that doctoral students take too much time. In spite of the best of intentions, too many find themselves failing to reach the end of their studies, and there are probably several...