Category Archives: General

by Brian Katz A few days ago, Jo posted the following question (or anguished cry) under “To Post or Not to Post” below: “Is it normal to be in second year graduate school and about 30% of the time be … Continue reading →

By Adam Boocher As Dan mentioned in his post a few weeks ago, we’ve just revamped our mentoring program at Berkeley.   I think Dan gave some excellent tips on the academic side of things, and so I thought I’d … Continue reading →

Guest post by Diane Boumenot, Manager, Membership and Programs, American Mathematical Society I want to alert the blog readers that much has changed this year about how the Employment Center will operate at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, January 13-16, … Continue reading →

by Daniel Erman I just discovered that Eszter Hargittai has started a career advice column for academics. It’s called “Ph.Do” and appears at Inside Higher Ed. Here are a couple of quotes lifted from her first column, which should give … Continue reading →

I’ve just begun mentoring a pair of first year graduate students as part of Berkeley’s mentoring program (recently revamped by the student group Unbounded Representation). Thus, I’ve been recently wondering about the following question: What is the most important piece of advice for a first year graduate student in mathematics?

I offer my opinion below the fold. In addition, Adam Boocher, who is a 2nd year graduate student (I’m in my 5th year) will offer his opinion in a companion post on this blog. We’re also curious to hear from anyone else with an opinion on this question (especially those of you that diagree with us!)

Continue reading →