So the first thing I thought of to prepare students before they even touch down in the U.S. or prior to starting is to get hold of these three handbook gems:
- A Ph.D. is not enough! A Guide to Survival in Science by Peter J Feibelman
- Getting What You Came For: The Smart Students Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. by Robert Peters
- Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering by Richard M. Reis
I found "Getting What You Came For" particularly useful as a handbook to navigate different parts of the Ph.D. process and even for preparation for the faculty job search. "Tomorrow's Professor" is better reading for a little later on in the process when you're at the proposal stage after you've done a bit of research and also when you're starting to think about the job market.
Of course a couple of must-have links for Ph.D. survival, particularly for HCI or CS related fields are:
- PhdComics - this is surprisingly helpful not just for humor but to learn about the American style of Ph.D. including all the wonderful things like qualifying exams, thesis proposals, thesis defenses, publishing, and life as a grad student in the U.S.
- XKCD - because it rocks.
Finally, a quick Google search and then some turned up the following very useful links for prepping to start your Ph.D. journey:
- What I tell my graduate students
- Advice for new Ph.D. students
- How to do great research
- Michael Ernst's advice for students
- Jason Hong's advice for students
- A collection of useful links from Jen Mankoff
I'll continue to put up more tips as they come to me. Signing off for now (and hopefully not for several years like my previous post :)).
