Overview

I wrote this three-part series to share reflections, routines, and resources that helped me feel happy, motivated, and disciplined throughout the first year of my econ PhD.

Coming into a PhD program without a Masters degree and after working was definitely an adjustment. As many others have shared before me, you never really know what you’re getting yourself into until you’re here. I tried to prepare myself by speaking to friends currently in PhD programs and by reading blogs. I am a huge proponent of public goods and really appreciate the resources that are online about surviving/thriving in the first year.

While these were certainly helpful, when I look back on my first year, a resource I wish I had would be a more practical guide. My intention with this blog series is to provide just that.

Many resources emphasize the importance of “studying,” “working in groups” and “learning how to think.” When I got to grad school, everyone said their weekend plans involved “studying” - but I never really knew what people were doing! While my reflections, routines, and resources may seem obvious to me now, I definitely had not developed them or thought about them prior to starting my first year. I thought it might be helpful to document what I wish I knew before I started my PhD.

I want to emphasize that I do not think there is “one way” or “right way” to do “well” during the first year, but I want to share “a way.” Everyone has their own preferred ways of learning/balancing life and many of my classmates were extremely successful (or more successful!) in navigating first year in their own ways. Therefore, I hope people treat these tips as an example of some practical techniques that worked for me. What worked for me may not work for others and what worked for others may not have worked for me. And that’s ok.

Hopefully this three-part series can add some practical context that can help prospective and current first students navigate their own paths!

Contents

View the three parts here:

• Reflections: This post describes some practical tips I have for finding academic success and feeling socially connected.
• Routines: This post shares some examples of routines I found were important to develop and maintain.
• Resources: This post includes all the study guides I made and organizational tools for streamlining studying.

First Year Video

Here is a quick compilation of some of the fun moments I experienced with the department, my cohort, my friends, and my family. There was indeed a lot of studying every day, but there were also many small outlets of joy that I was lucky enough to find and tried to showcase in this video :)