Getting Started in Grad School: 2.5 Recognizing Potential Challenges

Knowing that challenges are common can help you maintain perspective during your graduate program. These challenges may be external (e.g., waiting for lab materials to be available) or internal (e.g., experiencing self-doubt). Some potential challenges are highlighted below.

Managing Workload

Challenges may emerge as students are expected to

• manage heavy reading loads,
• complete more complex and longer assignments, and
• cope with more ambiguity.

Time Management

Challenges may emerge as students

• manage a heavier academic workload,
• experience a less structured learning environment (e.g., few or no set classes), and
• manage competing demands (e.g., program deadlines, research, part- or full-time work, caregiving responsibilities).

Procrastination

Challenges may emerge if students

• grapple with perfectionism,
• experience feelings of imposter syndrome,
• have uncertainty about how to proceed with a task, or
• worry about effort not being rewarded.

Skill Gaps

Challenges may emerge if students do not

• possess certain digital, technological, or lab skills,
• have certain disciplinary knowledge (e.g., familiarity with leading journals in the field), or
• possess required analytical, communication, or interpersonal skills.

Feelings of Isolation/Loneliness 

Challenges may emerge if students

• lack a local support group (e.g., fellow grad students, friends, family),
• are not enrolled in many courses/do not have a structured schedule,
• have few people with whom they can discuss their courses or research, or
• do not engage in social activities, whether on- or off-campus.

Language Gaps

Challenges may emerge if students

• are studying in a different dialect or in a linguistic context that differs from their first language,
• do not have strategies in place to strengthen their language skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening, speaking), or
• are unfamiliar with academic language norms.