(update: comments now open - sorry!)
In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:
I'm excited to finally be wrapping up the coursework stage of my PhD program. This is a milestone for me because, as much as I like philosophy, I really don't enjoy sitting still, usually in a shamefully tiny desk, and listening to class. I'd always prefer to talk philosophy in office hours or read at home. Now that I don't have to go to classes, should I? How should I go? To what end? Should I disregard time in classroom and just work independently? Should I do something like take one grad seminar a term, just so I keep learning? I see more advanced graduate students in my department taking this last approach pretty frequently. I realize this is a pretty personal decision, but I'd like to know how people have navigated the change from required to optional coursework. I would especially like to here from people who do not particularly enjoy spending time in a classroom.
I think this is a really important query, for reasons I detail below. In brief, my own experience in grad school (not just firsthand, but also observing other grad students at my own program and beyond) is that the period after finishing coursework becomes increasingly fraught with dangers, ones that all too often derail people's careers. I'll explain why momentarily, but am curious what everyone else thinks: what do you think grad students should do after finishing classes? Why?
Here's my suggestion about taking courses after the coursework stage of the PhD program. First, if you do it, keep in mind your priority is (now) qualifying exams, dissertation proposal, dissertating, etc. Second, since you only have a finite amount of very limited time compared to all the possible things you could do, you can't afford (at this stage) to whimsically take courses just because they sound interesting. Any courses taken should serve some real purpose. For example, if your dissertation is on topic X and professor Y is running an advanced graduate seminar covering new work on X, then take that seminar. Similarly, if someone's teaching a survey seminar on topic Z and you have reasons to want a teaching competence in Z, take it. If you don't enjoy spending time in the classroom, this approach may help as well. Graduate coursework, at this stage of your journey, isn't really "coursework" or about "learning" (as a *student*) per se. It's about being a good colleague by participating in research discussions or professional development.
I don't think Mike is exactly wrong about any of this, but I have to confess that I am a bit surprised at its overall sentiment. This is because, as I indicated above, I think there's quite a lot at stake at this particular point in grad school, as well as some serious mistakes that grad students often make at just this stage that can end up completely derailing their grad career (and beyond).
Here is what I saw in grad school: many very intelligent and otherwise-diligent students doing just fine in their courses, before going onto totally 'screw up' once their coursework is over. I saw this over and over again, both at the comprehensive exam stage and then (even more so) at the dissertation stage. Grad students would simply disappear from the department to 'study for comps' or 'try to work on publishing and dissertating' but end up spinning their wheels and in a very bad place. Let me begin with my own case, as I'm a prime example (though by no means the only one, as I'll explain!).
Almost my entire life, I have been a very conscientious person. I score very highly on Conscientiousness on Big 5 Personality Trait measures, and the Big 5 traits are extremely well-validated constructs with high lifetime stability and high predictive value in different areas of life. I worked diligently in high school, during my grad school coursework, and have a very strict work schedule as a professional academic. There is exactly one time in my life where I was a total unmitigated screw-up: the period of grad school after my coursework. And I'm not the only one I've seen it happen to. Why? What tends to happen to grad students at this stage to throw them off track.
Here's my story: after I finished coursework, things started off well-enough. I began studying for comp exams, and got a couple of journal R&R's (one at Analysis on a paper on Newcomb's paradox and another at the Journal of Social Philosophy on an earlier and longer version of this reply piece, which ended up being my first publication many years later). Everything seemed like it was going according to plan! Then things slowly began to go sour. After revising my 2 R&R's, I spent the next 6 months or so studying for comps (because everyone took them as the same time in the fall). During that time, I slowly stopped going into the department so much, instead mostly studying on my own. Then, like many other grad students I knew, I found myself some hobbies to blow off some steam while studying for and stressing about comps. In my case, the hobbies in question were playing in a band and playing videogames (the latter of which, oddly enough, led years later to this paper). Anyway, around the time comps came around, both of my R&R's ended up rejected. That left me discouraged--and immediately after I took and passed comps I was supposed to get moving on a dissertation prospectus. Alas, I'd spent the last 6 months studying for comps, so I hadn't really been thinking about that. Long story short, after comps I found myself discouraged, with little idea what to write a dissertation. At that point I spent around the next year and a half trying to think up a dissertation topic between playing music and videogames--all the while almost never seeing anyone in my department (except for weekly colloquia and post-colloquium restaurant/bar hangouts where I was too ashamed to admit that I had no clue what in the world I was doing anymore).
I tell this story both to give some context on how things can go wrong after coursework, but also (more importantly) because it didn't just happen to me. I saw a number of other talented grad students I knew--both at my program and at other programs--fall prey to different versions of the same story. All of them were brilliant and otherwise-conscientious people who had been academically successful since childhood. However, because they no longer had coursework to orient their lives around (for the first time in their entire academic life since grade school), they slowly lost direction, focus, and isolated themselves from their grad departments either out of shame or mere avoidance--often turning to side hobbies (such as videogames, brewing beer, etc.) that, while enjoyable, served to distract them from actually publishing and finishing their degree. In at least a few cases, I knew students who never did finish the PhD for broadly these reasons.
Bearing all of this in mind, here's my response to the reader who posted the comment: sit in on courses, stay active and involved in your department, see your advisor regularly, get involved in working-paper groups, don't let enjoyable hobbies side-track you. Don't fall down the same rabbit hole that so, so many grad students find themselves down. I paid dearly, in ways that affected my career for many years, because I didn't make these choices--and I've seen worse happen to others. Sorry if this seems overwrought or scares the crap out of any of you. Feel free to take it all with a grain of salt. It's just my perspective. I just share all of this out a sincere sense of obligation, as I wish someone had told me all of this before I made the mistakes I did!
You obviously have to focus on doing what you need to do to get the remaining requirements out of the way. But other than that, use this time:
(1) to read widely, and outside your AOS.
(2) to develop good work habits (e.g. write at least a little every day, early on; figure out a sustainable reading pattern that works for you, etc.).
(3) to start working your ideas up into conference papers (which can work on publishing a little later; but baby steps!).
(4) to start regularly attending and presenting at the conferences in your AOS. The point of 'networking' isn't cultivating a list of people who will do you favours; it's to become a known quantity in your AOS. Start building your relationships to other grads in the AOS, as well as to the more established people in it.
(5) to set up your PhilPapers account so that you get regular updates on conference and publication CFPs, and so that you get a regular digest of new articles of interest in your AOSes and AOCs. If you haven't already done so, that is.
I think that auditing classes is valuable, and worth doing (but not overdoing!). Auditing one a semester (or every couple semesters) is a good way of giving your post-coursework life a little structure, and a little structure is a very good thing. It also keeps you active in the department. But it's also a great way to get you reading and thinking about work outside your AOS, and giving you some grounding in other subfields. Or you could join/set up a reading group for the same purposes. Just feel free to sacrifice the class you're auditing on the altar of your research productivity when dissertation progress demands it.
Posted by: Michel | 04/29/2020 at 05:07 PM
Just to follow up on Michel's last point ("Just feel free to sacrifice the class you're auditing on the altar of your research productivity when dissertation progress demands it") in a couple ways:
- Don't read very hard for the courses you audit. Sacrifice that reading time on the altar of your research productivity on a weekly basis.
- Make sure you do some work on your own stuff before and after you go to a class that you audit. Don't let that class be the "main event" for the day that tires you out or lets you feel like you've achieved something substantially productive for the day. (I think I did some of this.)
Posted by: anon | 04/29/2020 at 05:43 PM
To follow up on my original comment, I intended it with the sentiment "well, if you must ...". Really, I don't see much value in trying to read widely, or take a bunch of courses, in graduate school. I agree with Marcus that the dangers of getting sidetracked and not learning to do your own real, professional-level research are too big. After coursework your goal is to figure out how to write publishable philosophy papers and get the dissertation done. It's also your time to develop your own views on a topic and start to mature them. There's a new mindset and set of habits you need to cultivate. You can read widely later, as other opportunities arise (e.g., teaching new courses, joining reading groups w/ friends).
Part of my thought also was that courses, if done purposively, can contribute to that professional development. For example, you want to work on X; you have specific interests in question Y; professor Z is teaching an advanced seminar on Y; you take it, and the sessions lead you to new angles on Y, introduce you to other new work on Y, and give you space to deepen and develop your ideas on Y with instant feedback from Z and others. You audit the course, only read what's necessary, don't do the assignments, and just sit and chat as it helps you. That sounds productive.
Fwiw, I graduated on time without the sidesteps Marcus mentioned, and I maybe sat in on 4 or 5 seminar sessions (not whole seminars/classes) total after completing coursework.
A final thought: in line with many of the posts on this blog, and what Michel says above, you also should be focused after coursework on networking, and cultivating alternative careers outside academia. Get an internship, join the consulting club, take a programming class, volunteer to be on an IRB, etc. Figure out how to cultivate a dissertation project with obvious overlap in some practical area (the ethics of AI/big data, epidemiological modeling, the spread of fake news and partisanship, climate change, etc).
As I started, take courses if you must, but make sure there's a point to it and it's going somewhere. There are so many productive and exciting ways to spend your time after coursework, and (as Marcus says) so many dangers and new challenges to face, that coursework should be your 5th or 6th priority at best.
Posted by: Mike | 04/30/2020 at 12:41 PM
Also, this line sticks out to me: "Should I do something like take one grad seminar a term, just so I keep learning?"
You don't need to take a seminar to keep learning. You should find yourself self-teaching. I learn all the time just in the normal process of doing research, participating in reading groups, reading others' work, being a journal referee, etc.
Posted by: Mike | 04/30/2020 at 12:45 PM
My situation post-coursework was similar to what Marcus shared: I studied for comps, passed them, and then was supposed to begin work in my prospectus. My problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to write about. My advisor suggested I sit in his grad class that semester, so I did, and it was in the course of sitting in on that course that I developed what became my dissertation. The idea that sparked this wasn’t that connected with what I thought I might write on, but nevertheless intrigued me. I think this is not an unusual story; I know several people who have similar stories. So, for me, I found courses post-coursework very philosophically generative.
Posted by: Lauren | 05/02/2020 at 02:21 AM
I think the answer to the question largely depends on how much course work you did before now. I did one year of courses in an MA, and 2 more years in my PhD. I was done with course work. I was ready to move on. I think you have to keep your eye on the ball - the point is that you are supposed to finish the thesis. And course work is generally a distraction. If there are courses that you should have taken, then you did not do the course work part of your program properly.
Posted by: course | 05/02/2020 at 09:26 AM