Getting Started in Grad School: 2.4 Growth Mindset for Graduate Students

Now that you have reflected on your mindset, watch the short video below (1.21) to hear how adopting a growth mindset helped Jennifer, a Biology student at MIT, manage the struggles she encountered in graduate school.

Source: Jennifer: Growth Mindset by Flipping Failure

Do Jennifer's insights resonate with you?

If you would like to learn more about her experiences, or the experiences of other graduate students, explore the Flipping Failure website.

While students with a growth mindset frame challenges as something to be overcome with deliberate effort, students with a fixed mindset may view challenges as insurmountable based on their fixed abilities. This perception can contribute to feelings of imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome refers to "the feeling that your achievements are not real or that you do not deserve praise or success" (Cambridge Dictionary). As Carol Dweck writes in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

It took one day for [the grad students] to feel like complete imposters. Yesterday they were hotshots; today they’re failures. Here’s what happens. They look at the faculty with our long list of publications. ‘Oh my God, I can’t do that.’ They look at the advanced students who are submitting articles for publication and writing grant proposals. ‘Oh my God, I can’t do that.’ They know how to take tests and get A’s but they don’t know how to do this – yet. They forget the yet. (as cited in Gallagher, K., "Fixed vs Growth Mindsets: What I Wish I Knew Before Entering Grad School, Inside Higher Ed)

You've previously learned about the power of yet, now learn about strategies for managing imposter syndrome by watching the short interactive video below (4:19).

Source: What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it? by Elizabeth Cox for TED-Ed

While imposter syndrome may be fairly common in graduate school, not everyone will experience it. However, if you do, knowing about this concept is the first step to managing it. To keep from feeling like an imposter in your program, remember to make connections, share experiences, and reflect on your skills, abilities, and prior successes to remind yourself that you do belong.