Challenges and Coping in Graduate School

I have vivid memories of my first semester as a PhD student in geography. Even before the actual move to the department, which was located five hundred miles from my hometown and the support network of my family, I struggled with the decision to pursue a doctoral degree. I had several questions and concerns, including, but not limited to, the following:* What kind of job opportunities will there be when I finish my PhD? * How will I balance my professional and personal life, especially caring for young children as a single parent while completing course work, teaching, and writing a dissertation? * Am I capable of doing the work and what are the benefits and disadvantages of going to graduate school? * How will I manage financially? * Where should I live that is affordable, safe, and has a good school district for my children? These were only some of my immediate concerns after I received an acceptance letter to pursue a PhD in geography. In the end, I concluded that it was worth the sacrifices I would have to make, and that it was the best decision for me and my family.Not surprisingly, my challenges multiplied once I arrived on campus and they changed over time, from learning how to teach effectively to doing research and writing a dissertation. However, I found ways to cope and developed a new support network that included my peers, faculty members (both inside and outside of my department), and friends. I came to realize that challenges were not necessarily negative things, but helped me grow personally and professionally. No matter what we do in life, there will be challenges and discovering what strategies work best for us is a huge step towards a satisfying career. This paper explores the challenges and coping strategies of geography graduate students in the United States.As part of a recent research project, "Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education (EDGE) in Geography," we have interviewed graduate students in the United States as well as conducted surveys and used structured logs to address a number of topics.1 We were interested in the type of skills graduate students in geography and related fields used in their careers and the kind of preparation and training they received in graduate school (Solem, Cheung, &: Schlemper 2008). We also examined departmental climate and its impact on the experiences of graduate students and its relationship to diversity in the discipline (Solem, Lee, & Schlemper 2009; Solem, Hopwood, & Schlemper 2011; Schlemper & Monk 2011). In addition, we explored graduate students' career aspirations and the expectations of faculty members for those students (Monk, Foote, & Schlemper, forthcoming). Our goal has been to create practical resources for departments and graduate students to enhance graduate education in general and to prepare students for successful careers (Solem, Fo ote, & Monk 2009; (Solem, Foote, & Monk 2012). When Janice Monk and I visited ten departments around the United States in 2006 and 2007, we conducted focus groups with students that included a number of questions about graduate school. Included in the interview schedule was a set of questions about the kinds of challenges they face and how they cope with them. This summary is based on the responses of 117 graduate students, who volunteered to participate in the focus groups. Table 1 provides a brief overview of the general characteristics of these students.Perhaps, not surprisingly, time management was reported most often as a major challenge for graduate students (Table 2). Feelings of having too much to do and not enough time in the day are common in graduate school. As one female master's students noted:Primarily at first the challenges were balancing working full time and going to school as a first year graduate student. Its very different from being an undergraduate student. So, now I don't work full time, which has made it much easier and I recommend that to anyone who can do that. …