Grad/Professional School

[AKA_Monet]

YOU MUST have someone in your "corner" of the world... "Your mentor(s)" per se... And you need to have S-E-V-E-R-A-L mentors...

Mentors for good and bad days

Personal mentors

Life guiding mentors

"In your area of expertise" mentors--and this should be the most primary, with them serving as a role model giving supportive advice.

It is hard identifying mentors, the American Heart Association has a good mentoring book out there. Other good mentoring books are dealing with "coaching".

And I hate to say it, but it is all about "playing the game".

For me, I just had someone who barely knew me tell me that in my field, how to play the game...

Also, as for writing all documents, you MUST have--meaning purchase--E.B. Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" as well as other grammatical texts that you can use for your field...

I am a poor writer when it comes to grammar--especially when I write for science. So, I looked at several research articles in my field from Nobel Laureates and "imitated" their writing style. I improved somewhat. But either way, it takes practice.

So, how do you get to that point? Well, when there is "stuff" or "things" that your advisor needs to write that is of low priority on them, request if you could review it and write a blurb.

Also, in your meetings with your advisor, do it just like a "Robert's Rules of Order" type meeting, with an agenda and Old and New Business, with you taking the minutes--YES, as a matter of fact, you probably need to have that kind of documentation.

And YES, that is how "tight" you MUST play this "graduate/professional school" game.