Current and former grad students: Staying motivated

In My Humble Opinion
1

This will probably ramble a bit, but we’ll try to tie things together at the end.

This concerns a good friend of mine, a fellow (just finished) first-year physics grad student. Basically, last night she started telling me about how unmotivated she’s starting to feel. It seems to be bothering her quite a bit, and she’s (urp) asking me for advice.

Why has this come up? Well, the main problem now seems to be with her new research group. She was pretty excited about joining this group to begin with, and she still seems enthusiastic about the professor (whom she met only briefly last month; he’s coming back from sabbatical in a few days). But she’s seeing an utter lack of interest and motivation in the older students in the group, and this seems to be worrying her quite a bit. From what (admittedly little) I know about those students, I think it’s more a matter of their personality than of some problem with the research or the prof, but I’m not sure I can convince her of that.

Making things worse, she just finished up some work with a professor she did independent study with last semester, but who decided not to take her on as a research assistant (he’s pretty new, evidently very good at what he does, rolling in grant money, and very sought after as an advisor; she got much farther working with him than most people who have tried). She always seemed very enthusiastic about the work she was doing with him and the projects it could lead to, and as she realizes that she’s done with that work I think she’s becoming less interested in the work in her new group. She told me that she was thinking about emailing her new advisor and asking about doing some work similar to what she would have done with the other prof, but I suggested that she wait until he knows her (and her interest in the broader subject and her willingness to work hard, both of which are rather great) better, and until she’s more familiar with his lab and group, before making any requests for a radically different project.

And we have to add to this the fact that she had some nasty stuff going on in her personal life this last semester, and that she seems to be pretty homesick (she’s a foreign student, very close to her parents, and hasn’t been home since last August and won’t be again until at least next December).

So I don’t know what to tell her. I can’t say I’m highly motivated myself (the first year of graduate courses, teaching, and research was more than I think any of us were expecting), but I’m moderately content with the work I’m doing at the moment (and writing my first paper on), and very excited about the work I’m going to start on in the fall with a different prof (my current advisor is moving to another school). I know she’s very interested in her field, and she’s one of the hardest-working people I’ve met here (which says quite a bit for her), but I’m afraid she’s already burning herself out and I don’t know how to fight that. I’m suspecting this may be a fairly normal end-of-first-year feeling, but I don’t know.

So, from any Dopers with grad school experience, any suggestions on what to tell her? We need to start studying for qualifying exams, so the situation is a little urgent! :slight_smile:

2

The stats - 3 classes to go and graduating in December in computer info systems.

I hit a pretty heave unmotivated spell about 2 semesters ago, driven mianly be the realization of all of the other things I was missing out on by being in school, doing homework, group projects, etc. I am now pretty much beyond that because I am so close to the end. This basically means I don’t as much care whzat grade I get, but rather what I learn in the class and take away from it.

Best thing is to just muddle through it and eventually the light at the end of the tunnel will make things a lot better.

3

There are always ups and downs, but one of the major keys to graduate school success in the physical sciences is hooking up with an advisor you can work well with, someone whose project interests you, and whose personal management style matches your own.

If she is not a good match with her advisor, it’s important to switch ASAP, before the amount of labor she has already thrown into a boring and unsatisfying project with a professor she can’t stand becomes a chain around her neck.

If she has a definite research interest that she’s willing to take the initiative on, most professors would take that as a positive thing, but not all! I’d be very careful about asking a new project over email, but I would advise her to talk to her new professor when he gets back into town. She might find that he expects her to pay her dues through some scut work before she launches into her own research interests.

And keep in touch with that old professor! Even if he’s not willing to pay her, he might be amenable to providing some mentoring and guidance if she’s working on something that is of interest to him.

Signed,
Podkayne
5-1/2 years experience in complete and utter lack of motivation. :frowning:

4

Boy, I was really motivated through the first two years-- you get the Masters and it’s nice and a milestone and there’s soemthing to show for your work. . . your third year happens, you enter the PhD program
and then the long haul begins. . .
Ugh.
If you are in a program that needs 5 or 6 years after the masters it’s very disheartening.
That is why the older students seem unexcited-- it’s because at one point grad school becomes measured in geological time.
She needs a new advisor-- she needs someone up there she can depend on, not dread and resent (which is good to have a masters as a sort of escape route-- at that point you can transfer somewhere else and try out a new pool-- might not be possible in your field). She needs a hobby or to join a sport team or something. Keep real life going on in the background.
This will keep her invested for a while. Then, suddenly, it won’t matter HOW uninspired she is because she will realize that there is no escape-- too much invested-- and she must. plod. on.
Yes, I’m having a bad week.

5

I was just saying to my dissertation coach this week that I hoped no one would be foolish enough to ask me for grad school advice this week.

How funny.

I am not sure I can set aside this week’s despair and utter joylessness to even fake a fair response to this. I can say that 95% of the pleasure I got out of grad school was due to the other students, who were so often a source of support, fun, conversation, hijinks, learning, and inspiration. I met some of the most AMAZING people here. So that’d be my #1 piece of advice. Don’t worry about the people in her research group–I didn’t always connect with my coworkers either. It was the people I chose to socialize with that made the journey worth it.

Also, the players will change, and that’s okay. All my initial friends have graduated and moved (most of them went straight through, instead of working/marrying/breeding like I did) but I have created new groups of friends.