Dear Graduate Students,

 

    It’s important for you to realize that a graduate student’s actions and inactions send messages to faculty colleagues, and these messages may help build or erode important social capital in the environment of your professional development.  It is not uncommon for undergraduates to think of themselves as pretty much invisible to the faculty; unfortunately they are often, not always, correct in that assessment.  When I lecture to 300 students in an intro class, I really don’t get very much immediate feedback from them individually, not many messages.  A student will have to go out of their way to impress their reactions on me (asking questions after lecture, by email, or coming to office hours); perhaps unfortunately, most are comfortable being fairly anonymous.  Furthermore, undergraduates take course units from across the university’s faculty; perhaps dozens of faculty members contributing to one undergraduate education.  Adequacy is acceptable, the GPA is important, and evaluation is done in the abstract, on the (or some) curve. 

 

    But, graduate student status changes everything in these respects.  Graduate students are noticed and appreciated by the commitment, enthusiasm, and discipline they bring to their programs and the academic structure that houses that program.  You’re not just in classes, you are joining a community; it is a portion of the larger University which was generally home to the undergraduate, but much smaller, more intimate.  Your GPA is only considered if it falls below some floor, you are expected to be good.  Your behavior is noticed and everyone expects more than adequacy.  In this community the links are with perhaps only 5 or 6 faculty members, maybe fewer, for sure not dozens. 

 

    It’s important that you begin to think of yourself as a colleague, and the behavior of colleagues is important to the success of a project.  I have had a few graduate students who consistently ignored my advice, suggestions, references, etc.  These individuals’ commitment to the discipline, abilities to engage in dialogs of equals, willingness to entertain criticism and learn from it, and more were all in serious question.  The messages they’ve sent to me (and others) is that my advice, suggestions, references, etc. are just not valued.  This is clearly their right, but I will not be so interested in giving further of these things or anything else.  If they’ve just moved on from me, fine; but if they exhibit the same attitude toward all the faculty they will have a problem.  Their performance might be seen as “adequate,” but more subjective measures are now dominant, the GPA is only used on the down side.  The important things are letters, the recommendations, the more subjective things, all of which are influenced by these messages.  You must send messages, so make them good ones.  If at the end of your graduate program no faculty member remembers you, even though you may have an acceptable GPA, you will not be seen as a success.  If a faculty member believes you slid by, just doing what was adequate, the recommendations will be tepid at best. 

 

    I remember telling a PhD student, an advisee, they were taking a minimalist path, avoiding more interesting and more worthy work; when confronted she admitted it too.  I told her while I might “pass” her, I could not write a letter of support for an academic position.  She explained, she didn’t care; she wasn’t going to do “Geography” for her career, she was going to write science fiction.  This student “passed” but 16 months later when she came to me for a letter of support to get a job teaching at the college level I reminded her of our conversation.  I’ve never heard from her since.

 

    This notion of message sending behavior is very important with one-on-one relationships, but also communal ones.  Our department has a colloquium series, workshops, reading groups and award ceremonies; faculty notice when only certain graduate students attend (indeed we notice when only certain faculty attend too).  Faculty notice when graduate students are consistently late for classes or always finding excuses for missing deadlines.  Reputations are formed and lost.  Faculty members are not strangers; we’ve actually been known to speak with each other!  

 

    The typical undergraduate might be seen as the fuzzy minded customer but graduate student status makes you part of a disciplinary team, almost a family, but more formal than a family.  Faculty members see you as an investment.  I’ve always said my job, at least as I deal with graduate students, consists of helping to develop colleagues. 

 

Some brief, specific, items of advice

 

For Applicants

 

1. The GREs are important; if you don’t do as well as you think you should, take them again.  Over years and years I remember only one student NOT going up on the re-take and she got the same score.

 

2. Your essay is important for many reasons.  It shows whether you can write or not; a very important measure.  But, it also shows what your thinking is and why you think we’re a good match for your plans.  As important, it can explain interesting things that make you special or explain why there’s a 10 year gap between your last degree and the next one.  It is read by several people; use it to communicate good messages (proof read it).

 

3.  This is graduate school you’re applying to, meaning that a degree of maturity and independence of thinking is expected from you.  With only slight modification, an applicant once wrote:  “I’ve always known I wanted to serve the public but I was never sure how.  When I began thinking about graduate schools my Dad suggested I look at Geography.  As usual he’s right; Geography will be a perfect fit for me.”  Can you imagine what’s wrong with this comment? 

 

4.  Spend a few minutes researching the Department and its people.  If you’re reading this you’ve found the web site; use it to see what we do, and who we are.  If you want to study Oceanography, MSU Geography might not be the best place for you to come for graduate work.

 

5.  Silly to have to say this, but DON’T LIE ON YOUR APPLICATION. 

 

6.  If at all possible visit us; we are friendly folk, and our campus is comfortable.

 

For Active and New Graduate students

 

1a. Ask questions.  Be THE active agent in your graduate program!  I used to have a banner on my door that said “The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.”  The vast majority of professors want to communicate knowledge (content and process) to you.  Asking questions is not rude, it is respectful and it sends a message of involvement, an interest in the subject and in the person you’ve asked.  This simple piece of advice might highlight a cultural difference for some students.  I repeat, in this culture, it is NOT rude to ask questions.

 

1b. Listen to the answers.  The only way asking questions can be seen as “rude” is if you ignore the answers.  Don’t think just asking a question will impress; you need to digest the answer.  You may well disagree with the answer; that’s fine, in fact, great.  Because then you are on the threshold of a meaningful dialog; a very important part of graduate school.  Prepare your disagreement and engage; don’t just ignore the answer.  Exercise both your mind and your communication skills; that’s why you’re here.

 

2. Keep appointments, maybe even be early.  Maybe it’s a little thing, but it’s important.  When you make an appointment to meet with a faculty member you are asking someone to set aside part of their day for you; if you don’t show up, you are wasting their time.  You have just sent a message: you find their time worthless.  If you can’t make it to an appointment, contact the person as quickly as possible, reschedule, and apologize.  A corollary is, don’t make appointments unless you are fairly certain you will be able to keep them.  I recall a young man, a GEO major I think, but he had not been in any of my classes.  He emailed and made an appointment for a consultation.  I responded with a day and time and he agreed/confirmed.  Then, he didn’t show up for the appointment, no call, no email, just no show.  A few weeks later he emailed again and asked for an appointment.  I responded that he’d blown off the last appointment he’d made with me.  He didn’t bother to apologize, and so I didn’t have time for him for a couple of weeks out and he never got in touch with me again.  Maybe his not interacting with me will have no lasting impact on his life but, then again, maybe it will.

 

Most of us have “open office hours;” meaning we’re in our offices and anyone who wants to find us, fine.  If you want, or need, special time, please make an appointment; but then please keep it.

 

3. Do what you’ve said you’ll do.  Graduate work is sometimes part of some larger whole and if you don’t do what you’ve said you will, the whole may be diminished.  The paper you decided to write might be an integral part of some larger whole, not just your program; be aware of the context of the evolution of your paper.  The way you satisfy your programmatic commitments sends a message about how you will satisfy collegial commitments as a professional.  A corollary: don’t agree to do something you aren’t certain you can do in the time permitted.  If you are uncertain about this, make it clear that your product is conditional on __?__, then be clear what you will need (time, help, resources, etc.)  In graduate school your efforts should be seen as more than class assignments or homework; you are practicing a profession, and your efforts are of concern to your community members.

 

4a. Attend Departmental Functions like colloquia, seminars, and public lectures.  You will learn something from each of these, but you will also demonstrate that you are engaged in the operation of the Department.  Ask questions in the question and answer portions.  Engage in the professional processes underway.

 

4b. Attend Fellow Student defenses.  Read the current Handbook for current wording, but at this writing it says: “Geography graduate students may attend with permission of the student being examined.”  Ask for, and give, permission; it is a major learning opportunity! 

 

5. Spell check and reread anything that’s handed to anyone else, even to your graduate peers!  The quickest way to let your image slip several notches is to turn-in a paper to a faculty colleague with bad typos and silly misspellings.  The message sent is that your work is not important enough to you for you to invest the time necessary to improve it.  Or, may be worse, you expect your advisor to clean it up! 

 

I recall a faculty job applicant who actually spelled his own name two different ways in his application packet (only one was wrong!).  This person was not considered for the job at all.  Be careful with automated “spell check” protocols in most software packages; the programs don’t always understand what you really want.  Another faculty applicant, who was actually interviewed, sent a “thank you” email wherein they said “all the conversions were interesting,” rather than the “conversations were interesting.”  These are not times you want faculty laughing at your carelessness.  I’ve seen Chai square tests,” “Monte Cristo simulation,”  “Arch-view software,” and a host of others; they are silly, even funny, errors that can often be attributed to Microsoft messing up.  But they still make you look silly and are pretty good evidence that the work wasn’t proof read well enough.

 

6.  Dishonesty; be honest and ethical.  I shouldn’t have to give this advice but there are enough precedents to suggest this is not common knowledge.  Please know that it is your responsibility to know what “plagiarism” is and how to avoid it.  At the first real sign of dishonesty (including plagiarism) or unethical behavior from a graduate student, I make my position perfectly clear; this is serious, it can have a major impact on your future.  The second time, I quit the committee, at least   no other explanation is necessary.  I will not serve on the committee of students who are dishonest or unethical.  Filing charges is possible, if warranted.  (Please see and understand the range of penalties for plagiarism and similar infractions.) 

 

This doesn’t have a magnitude aspect to it, any dishonesty counts (at least for my resignation).  You don’t have to rob a bank; some examples: when X told the Graduate Secretary I said it was OK to use her/his personal computer on written comps, s/he lied to the secretary, we’d never discussed it.  When Y borrowed Z’s lecture materials and passed it off as their own, it was plagiarism, a very serious infraction.  When W used a photocopying account from a course he hadn’t been working in for months instead of his own account, that was theft, minor, but still theft.  When V used their MSU computer account to send a “vulgar and threatening” email it was a violation of University ethics standards.  You might ask, should a student be thrown out of a program because they steal a few photocopies?  I’d have trouble arguing that, on its own.  But, bundled with other things, yes; it’s a pattern and there are probably more things I don’t know about.  Colleagues, at least like family, should behave ethically. 

 

7.  Be respectful of other students’ rights.  This is just good manners blending into ethics and is, perhaps, most urgent for Teaching Assistants.  Be sensitive to what you say about other students.  About your classmates, for sure, you’ve got to live with them; but especially your students.  Don’t be found publically talking about one or any of your undergrad students.  This can be a REALLY serious infraction of University rules.  For example, I’m not permitted to discuss a student’s performance, or grades, with their parents without written permission from the student.  Yes, even though Mom & Dad may be paying the bills, I can’t talk to them without the student’s written permission.  So, if you’re describing your students to the bar crowd you can get in real trouble.  Just search the MSU web site for FERPA, it stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act; it’s the law. 

 

8. Internet Postings.  This is a relatively new one and is quite general.  Graduate student, or just intelligent person, think twice (maybe three times) about what you post on the internet, or take actions that will result in your being put on the internet.  It just will not go away.  Dumb is as bad as illegal and both is worse.  We all make mistakes but don’t compound them with the internet.  Case studies abound.  Your email address of sexikitten or hungnine might not be the best for professional messages.  If you’re exposed (literally or figuratively) on MySpace or FaceBook it just won’t go away.  So, you want to be a Professor?  That picture of you at 22 years of age, barely dressed in Pampers, covered in K-Y Jelly and Fruit Loops isn’t going to get you the job you want.  Be sensible!  

 

9. Comprehensives.  This transformation from undergraduate to graduate discussed in part above also has more subtle aspects.  Doctoral comprehensive exams are a way of explaining what is different; but the implications extend beyond just comps.  The following is a letter I sent to a PhD student who had failed their written comprehensive examination on the first attempt.  I was a committee member not the advisor.

Dear XXXX,

 

I previously produced a written evaluation of your comprehensive exam responses to my questions and I believe Professor ___ will be giving it to you shortly, if s/he has not done so already. 

 

Your letter of April 2 is troublesome because it reads like a request for your committee members to write answers to the questions you were unable to answer.  More importantly, it makes it clear you believe specific "right" answers were sought, even though you were told repeatedly that this is not the case.  In my estimation, this misperception is one of your major weaknesses to date; you don't seem to grasp the synthetic, creative core of a Ph.D. program.  A comprehensive examination is designed to test more than a student's retention of bibliographic and even theoretical content.  A comprehensive examination tests a student's ability to creatively respond to probing, almost open-ended questions.  My creative answers to questions, even if they are my own questions, should be quite different from your creative answers to them. 

 

These answers, yours or mine, are not the result of readings and discussions over the last month or two (or the next few months).  They are the result of years, perhaps decades, of academic geography; indeed, that's why they are called "comprehensive."  If you think an answer outline for the comps just taken, from one or all of us, will provide you with the necessary content to pass the next time, you're wrong.  You need to develop a facility with all that you've done here at MSU and before.  You need to be able to call upon geographic literature and method to formulate intelligent, creative argument; repeating your committee's arguments isn't sufficient.

 

Now, back to the first issue.  It is not my responsibility to write answers to the questions.  As it is, it seems to me that I invested more thought into the construction of the questions and the evaluation than you did the answers.  And now, this letter of yours appears with a degree of structure and focus which was totally lacking in your answers!  Unfortunately it seems when your motivations are other than scientific curiosity or your academic topics, you produce better-crafted prose!                                                      BWP

 

When you were in grade school, high school, and even an undergraduate, you were often charged with learning material and being tested to see if you knew the “right” answer.  Many undergraduates experience multiple choice tests all the time; measuring information retained.  Graduate school isn’t just the internalizing of more data, you are now expected to “use” your Geographic knowledge, including methods, theory, and literature, to formulate argument, critique, and hypotheses.  Ideally, this is the purpose of all education; to allow you to function better.  Now, you are expected to become facile and synthetic within your discipline.  Yes, it’s harder but you aren’t here because it’s easy!

 

Welcome to graduate school!

 

Bruce Wm. Pigozzi

7/11/2007 (revised 2011)