%20serves%20as.png){kind=small}
Book Recommendations for Potential & Current Graduate Students
Source.
1~8. Sun, K-L. (2022). Books to prepare for graduate school. BestColleges. https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/books-prepare-graduate-school/
9~11. Jen. (2020). Recommended reading. PhD to Life. https://fromphdtolife.com/resources/recommended-reading/
12. KACA Grad Student Council’s recommendation
By Paul J. Silvia
In this popular guidebook, Paul J. Silvia prepares you for the significant amount of writing required in graduate school.
"How to Write a Lot" (2018) addresses how to overcome bad habits and writer's block. You'll also learn practical strategies to help you become a stronger writer and researcher.
By Jessica McCrory Calarco
This book is a great resource for the academic soft skills most programs expect grad students to have. "A Field Guide to Grad School" (2020) covers basic academic skills, like writing and research.
More importantly, the book covers how to apply to a program, select an advisor, and benefit from conferences. It also addresses how to network and navigate the job market. The book even gives tips for balancing work, life, and grad school.
By Donald Asher
The updated "Graduate Admissions Essays" (2012) is the quintessential guide for crafting successful essays for scholarships and graduate school programs.
Whether you are seeking to earn a master's, MBA, or JD degree, or are seeking funding to become a Fulbright Scholar, this book contains 50 sample essays with detailed strategies you can apply to your writing.
By Robert L. Peters
"Getting What You Came For" (1997) begins by helping you decide whether graduate school is right for you and, if so, whether you should pursue a master's or Ph.D. Every chapter gives tips on the application process and how to deal with politics in academia.
This classic guide has been revised and reprinted with great resources and information carefully curated from academic counselors, graduate students, and professors.
By Guy E. White
Guy White's "The Dissertation Warrior" (2017) helps students think through the completion of their dissertation. This book does not contain quick and easy tips for completing a dissertation; rather, it provides skills you can develop to grow your writing craft in the long term.
White guides you through one of the most challenging parts of the dissertation — the introduction — and other pitfalls that often derail dissertations.
By Barbara Rittner and Patricia Trudeau
This 1997 book provides practical advice for women seeking to attend graduate programs in the United States and Canada.
"The Women's Guide to Surviving Graduate School" gives great tips on schools who focus on recruiting women. It also discusses how gender factors into the admissions process.
By Frederick Frank and Karl Stein
Frank and Stein, both having graduated from famous graduate schools, give readers indispensable advice in "Playing the Game" (2004). Written with a bit of sass, the advice is not what you would find in your typical grad school guide.
This book gets down to the basics and is divided into three parts: getting in, getting through, and getting out of graduate school. The authors break down the complex process into everyday language and pair it with personal, funny anecdotes.
By Joey Asher
"Even a Geek Can Speak" (2006) explains how, with our dependence on the digital world, many people have lost the art of public speaking. Author Joey Asher teaches the average nerd how to convey complex ideas in a way that successfully connects with their audience.
Even though it's not specifically designed for graduate students, this book can help you refine your presentation skills, which are needed in most advanced fields.
By Loleen Berdahl & Jonathan Mallow
I loved the authors’ emphasis on getting clear about what you want, and the advice to reflect at each stage of the graduate school process whether continuing on is the right one. It is refreshing to read a book on graduate school that neither presumes academia is the desired career outcome nor implies it ought to be. Instead, the authors encourage readers to keep their options open and rightly point out the benefits of varied work experience, training, and professionalism to careers within and beyond the Ivory Tower.
10. What Color is Your Parachute? 2021: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success (50th anniv. ed, 2020)
By Richard N. Bolles with Katharine Brooks
If you read only one book on how to get a job and change careers, make it this one. Bolles has an idiosyncratic writing style but his advice is spot-on. Read my review of the 2019 version here.
The 2021 edition was thoroughly updated by Katharine Brooks, EdD, who is the author of You Majored in What? (below). Great choice! An excellent way to bring a classic up to date, and at a time when good advice and guidance is particularly needed.
By Hillary Hutchinson & Mary Beth Averill
Two long-time academic coaches wrote this fantastic guide and workbook for the academic job market. They take you step-by-step through the process of understanding how hiring works — and how it works differently for specific types of positions and kinds of institutions, getting sorted for your search, where to find job ads and other crucial information, staying organized, creating all your materials, prepping for interviews, and other considerations. The book also takes a clear-eyed view of academia and it’s challenges for job seekers, both in the US and around the world. This book is an essential companion to your academic job search. Buying the e-book version? Download and print the worksheets here.
By 엄태웅, 최윤섭, 권창현
This is a book in which three people share their experiences: a final-year PhD student in Canada studying artificial intelligence, a current researcher with a PhD in life sciences, and a professor working in the U.S. after earning a PhD in industrial engineering. They talk about their experiences as graduate students, obtaining their doctorates, and their careers as professors. The personal experiences and advice offered for those facing challenges in research life, human relationships, and career issues in graduate school are incredibly realistic, wise, and highly helpful.
This post is composed of two blogs cited above and KACA Grad Student Council’s recommendation. Information was reorganized on August 10th, 2024.
Thinking about understanding materials and practical workshop tasks, I find the smaller practical questions more interesting than a quick conclusion. Knowing what a component needs to do can make choosing a material easier to discuss. That practical perspective helps me frame practical technical skills as a theme for Jualpipapvc. The smaller details are what I would want to return to, especially when an explanation feels too broad. Which questions should come before comparing different technical options?
A discussion of learning from gardens and growing spaces seems more useful when it connects an idea with something easy to picture. Returning to the same growing space can reveal changes that are easy to miss during a single visit. That practical perspective helps me frame gardening observation ideas as a theme for Givingtreegardenmarket. A simple comparison would help me picture the differences without rushing towards a fixed answer. What would you record to make those changes easier to compare?
Considering reading health information with clearer questions, I would want to understand a few concrete details before deciding what matters most. An explanation is easier to assess when it separates what is known from what still needs investigation. For Burunestetikbursa, I would use health information literacy as a starting point for a closer discussion of the subject. The smaller details are what I would want to return to, especially when an explanation feels too broad. What would help a reader recognise the limits of a general health statement?
A discussion of communicating ideas to the right audience seems more useful when it connects an idea with something easy to picture. A clear explanation of a practical benefit can be more useful than a string of enthusiastic claims. The name Blueskiesmktg gives this theme a memorable reference point, while digital marketing ideas keeps the subject in focus. I would be interested in an example that shows how the idea works in an ordinary situation. What would make a short message feel relevant rather than intrusive?
The theme of choosing a comfortable place for a short stay makes me curious about what people notice in their own everyday experiences. The rhythm of a stay depends on practical details as well as the view. It is the kind of question I would keep in mind when thinking about Batchcottage and short break accommodation. I can imagine different responses depending on the situation, which makes the question more interesting. What would you want to know before choosing an unfamiliar place to stay?