Customer Reviews

Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D.

5 star:		(62)
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3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a college professor, I am always on the lookout for a good source to help undergraduates who are contemplating getting a Ph.D. as well as to help graduate students succeed in their Ph.D. program. This book is one of the best in this genre I have come across. Although the author is a biologist, it is clear he has done his homework on other disciplines, and his advice is useful for graduate students in any field.
One of the most impressive features of the book is its comprehensive coverage. From improving one's credentials to get into a graduate program to getting a job once you have the Ph.D., Peters has detailed, entertaining advice for all the steps one encounters along the way. Liberally sprinkled through the book are anecdotes from students in a variety of fields that will leave most of us thankful that we did not have the Ph.D. advisors these poor hapless souls did.
Indeed, there were only two aspects I wish the book would have covered but it did not. First, there is no mention of handling coursework in a graduate program. This is probably because coursework and course grades are of much lower priority in graduate school than it is for the undergraduate degree, but I think Peters could have made this point and encouraged readers not to fall into the trap of spending more time on coursework than is warranted.
Second, I wish Peters had devoted more space to talking about getting academic jobs. College-level teaching is still the single most popular career goal for Ph.D.'s, and there are aspects of getting an academic job that are different than applying for jobs in the private sector. I wish he had written a separate chapter on academic jobs.
In a related vein, there was only one piece of advice that Peters give that I flat-out disagreed with, and that was his comment that teaching wastes time and that Ph.D. students should avoid teaching as much as possible. This is true for many Ph.D. students, but it is definitely NOT true for Ph.D. students desiring teaching jobs at 4-year, liberal arts colleges. Those jobs will want to see ample teaching experience, not just as a teaching assistant but also as sole instructor of a course. A student who does not have considerable teaching experience will not be competitive for those jobs, and because there are more of those jobs available than tenure track lines at research universities, taking Peters' advice on that score could be ultimately self-defeating.
However, those are the only negative comments I would make on an otherwise excellent book. I recommend it highly for anybody even contemplating going on beyond an undergraduate degree, and I plan to give copies of it to all my incoming graduate students.

I bought this book in 1997 before starting a masters program. I had a JD and thought that getting a masters would be a piece of cake. Was I wrong! However, at least with Dr. Peters' book in hand, I knew what to look out for, what to concentrate on, and what not to spend my time worrying over. Like an idiot, I tossed the book when I finished my masters program because I thought I'd gotten 'what I came for.' Now I'm applying to Ph.D. programs and knew that this was the ONE book I had to have before starting on this journey. My thoughts were borne out when a respected professor friend recommended the book. When I said I'd not only read it, but had just bought my SECOND copy, I knew from his face that he knew I was serious. Getting What You Came For offers a great service. I thought I knew about academia, but again, the law school experience is not the graduate school experience. Because of Dr. Peters' advice, I made a point of getting out of my intellectual shell and worked on developing a true network of colleagues. Two years out of a rigorous masters program, I continue to be in contact with a large number of classmates and professors - professors who know me, are supporting me in my Ph.D. applications, and who have developed into real friends.

This book isn't supposed to be read in one sitting and not every section will be applicable to every reader. Some sections are more helpful once you're in school, as opposed to the applications process, some are more helpful to doctoral students. However, much of the book is applicable to most people. There are sections on issues relevant to minority, women, international, and mature students. Most guides assume the reader is a 28 year old white American male. If you don't fit this profile, your experience will be different. Dr. Peters addresses these differences well.

If you are applying to doctoral programs, most of the book will apply to you. If you are in a program, you will return to Dr. Peters' book often for its advice on time management, thesis writing, dealing with faculty, and employment when it's all over.

I recommend this book highly to anyone considering graduate school. If you are already in a school, you should still buy it - you will get helpful insights that you can use throughout your academic career.

Are you planning to go to graduate school? If you are, this is a necessary guide which gives you all the basics--from applying to graduation and beyond. One of the most important points is that you have to prepare for graduate school early. Don't wait until after you're accepted to choose your advisor. You shouldn't even apply until after you select your advisor. This point of advice saves a lot of heartache later on, because having a good relationship with your advisor is one of the single most important things in graduate school. If you have a suitable advisor, graduate school will go more smoothly.

Another thing I like is that it doesn't try to sugarcoat the graduate school experience. It tells you exactly that graduate school is a rough experience and that out of all the people who enter graduate programs, only 8% go on to academic work. If you can't face these facts, then you probably aren't driven enough to succeed in a graduate program. If you're still burning for higher education and are willing to face the difficulties involved, you're ready for graduate school. Basically you should go in with both eyes open. I recommend picking up this guide to help you through your postgraduate life.

One needs three things to succeed in any graduate program, and they are an interesting topic for research, the necessary facilities and resources to pursue the topic, and finally the money to pursue the topic of interest. Although I agree with Peters when he says that one should attend grad school only if one needs an advanced degree for career advancement, he neglected to mention that having an interesting, doable topic for your research can make the difference between a heavenly or hellish grad school experience.

In twenty-four highly detailed, readable, and often (darkly) humorous chapters, Peters shows the reader an excellent way to play the academic game as a traditional graduate student. Bear in mind, however, that there are other options to obtaining the graduate degree. When considering the decision to obtain a graduate degree, one can choose from a variety of colleges and universities. Furthermore, one can obtain an advanced degree in any number of ways, thanks to advances in technology and a changing social and corporate climate. In today's red-hot economy, many companies offer continuing education for free, and will even foot the bill for an advanced degree to retain workers. Rather than quitting a good job to attend grad school and put up with a lot of stress and abuse for the prospect of making peanuts (if you're lucky enough to get funded) and an uncertain career future, one could, depending on the field of study, work while going to school. That way, you get the education without sacrificing the salary, experience, promotions, networking opportunies and career contacts. By paying for your degree yourself or having your employer pay for it for you, you more often than not get a better education, and you most certainly avoid all of the abuse and exploitation which unfortunately pervades many grad schools (Peters is absolutely right here).

This four hundred page book is designed to help the traditional graduate student get through the academic meat-grinder with a minimum of physical, mental, and emotional turmoil. The first three chapters of the book give you a good idea of what you are really up against, and the picture really is not pretty. The fourth chapter helps one to decide whether or not to take a break before going to graduate school, and if you do, what sort of job to take to increase your chances of getting into grad school.

Chapters five through eight offer a lot of extremely useful information on the grad school admissions process and good ways to get accepted by the school of your choice. Chapter nine gives a brilliant, very detailed, though a bit dated discussion of the most important concern among grad students- financial support for grad study.

Chapters ten and eleven give a brief background and history on the master's and doctorate degrees. Chapters 12 through 19 go through organization, time management for grad students, and selecting, completing, writing and defending a thesis topic. Chapter 20 deals with oral presentations, and being the bread and butter of academic life, should have come before the chapters dealing with the thesis.

Chapters 21 and 22 talk about coping skills specifically for graduate students, and emphasize the importance of having a life- something many grad students simply do not have.

Chapter 23 gives very general advice to students who do not happen to be white and male- most of this information can be skipped, as it is not very helpful. The 24th and final chapter outlines some practical steps to landing a job on your own, and covers such things as resume preparation, the informational interview, and optimizing the use of various resources to find a position worth having.

Peters also appends a couple of chapters on buying a good computer and useful education related web addresses, both of which may be of some use but are pretty much dated given the speed at which things change in the computer and internet space. Finally, he includes a useful bibliography which contains a plethora of good references for further reading.

If anything, this book serves as a sobering eye-opener for those who are either thinking about making the plunge, or have made the plunge. Keep in mind that some schools are changing for the better by offering grad students other experiences and career options (though not fast enough) outside of research and academe, and some are getting worse. A briefer, blunter treatment of much of the material in this book can be found in P J Feibelman's book, 'A PhD Is Not Enough'.

As a current PhD student about to embark on the heavy matters required after coursework, several people have recommended Peters' book to me. Apparently a lot of academic heavyweights have noticed this book. But whether that influence is deserved in another story, because the book's supposed usefulness is either an anachronism or an idealization. Other reviewers have noted that the book is severely outdated, with its focus on the admissions environment and job market of the early 1990s, and especially its coverage of ancient software and databases. Granted, no author should be expected to see into the future, and such criticism is unreasonable. But this certainly has an impact on the book's true usefulness, as modern readers will find large portions to be a waste of time.

Regardless, this book deserves some more timeless criticism. For starters, Peters has written for the segment of graduate students who go straight through from a bachelor's program all the way to the PhD without ever leaving school. This is not the case for many grad students including myself, as I was a not-so-uncommon "returning" grad student after several years in the working world. But that phenomenon is glossed over in a mere three pages here, making much of the book nonsensical to a large percentage of its potential readership. During my master's program I was also irritated by academia's lack of concern for master's students in the face of PhD students - an unfortunate phenomenon that Peters generally repeats throughout this book. More generally, Peters' advice on managing time and stress, and navigating the job search process, are essentially the same as that found in any old self-help manual.

Peters' advice on more specific matters of grad school itself is usually more robust. But for every good piece of advice on evaluating potential thesis topics or preparing for an oral defense, there are tidbits of dubious practicality like finding potential advisors years before applying to a school, or joining Toastmasters for six months to practice public speaking; and occasional outright groaners like leaving your office light on all the time so professors think you're a real hard worker. Peters' thoughts on the grad school process overall are rather limited and one-sided, with a focus on ingratiating one's mentors to the point of dependency and taking an overly pessimistic (even bitter) view of degree requirements and the job market. Granted, I detected some good advice here about my own near-future requirements. But I found much of the book to be based on an academic atmosphere and environment that might be in Peters' experience but is much different than my own so far - and I'm sure I'm not that far out of the ordinary. [~doomsdayer520~]

Rob Peters has written a book which is more helpful to college students deciding whether or not to pursue graduate studies than any other resource I've seen. Much of the book focuses on developing organizational strategies and building relationships with professors and other contacts in your field. These tactics are just as helpful at the undergrad level as they will be later, so "Getting What You Came For" is helping me already! The book avoids the vague or trite advice one finds in other sources, and an enjoyable sense of humor (complemented by Peters' cartoons) pervades the book. The chapter on choosing between Ph.D. and Master's programs is quite helpful. Peters emphasizes that grad school is as political as any other working environment - his concrete tips for developing successful networks and interpersonal rapport with your adviser and thesis committee are invaluable. If you are a college student thinking about postgrad work, reading this book is a sine qua non.

This book offers real and practical advice that you won't get from school advisors and counselors who encourage idealistic students to follow their dreams, to ignore the money and to ignore the job prospects. It provides serious questions every student should consider before embarking on the graduate admissions process. If you make it through the first few chapters and still want to pursue a graduate degree in the arts or humanities, the book also offers straight advice on how to go about it effectively. This book is no fluff. A good buy.

IMHO, this book really should be issued out to every graduate student. I bought it because I was floundering on how to approach choosing a thesis topic, and more importantly, a thesis adviser.

By applying some of the techniques presented, and with great luck, I was able to land a research position with a very proactive research lab. And in fact, in my case, not only did I find just one professor to work with I actually found 3. In each case, when I interviewed with them, I felt very prepared as a result of this book.

Now some of you may be thinking that this topic is "common-sense"; but not really. This book formalizes it in such a way that it helps you understand your role in the overall "forest" of the Academic Political structure. The author provides insider info from the perspective of a-student-who-has-gone-through-it-already.

Overall, it really helped me in a positive way. Also, its priced right for fellow graduate students. So I would say its a "keeper", and is definitely worth checking out. If anything, it provides motivation and inspiration for those needing encouragement on how to transition from the class phase to the research phase of their graduate student life.

hope this helps

This is an excellent, excellent book. I used this book as my primary guide to getting through the graduate school application process. Having gone to a good college that was part of a larger research university, I recognized the info. in this book as straightforward and accurate to the climate and tone of serious research universities. Get it. You will prosper. I did; using the advice in this book to manage the admissions process contributed to my succesful applictations. I was accepted into every competititive program to which I applied. I look forward to being able to now utilize the back chapters on the politics of advisors, time management and minority issues to ensure continued success in the Fall.

I have a bachelor's of science degree in Psychology, and I had every intention of going to graduate school for a Ph.D.

Until I read this book.

This book made me face some serious questions and real issues I wouldn't or couldn't face on my own. It makes some straight-forward points and tells the reader what to expect from Grad school.

The book also challenges the reader to ask him- or herself why he/she wants to go to grad school, and what he/she expects out of the experience. It also states what Grad school can give a student, but also what it cannot.

It tells you how to get in, how to stay in, the time it takes to complete a degree program, your odds of staying in, and your odds of finding a job in your field after you (finally) graduate.

"Getting What You Came For" is also certain to bring up the questions, "Is this what you really, really, truly want to do for the next X years?" and "Do you just like the look of 'Ph.D.' after your name?"

This book kept me from getting in and then dropping out of grad school. After reading it, I discovered I didn't want to go necessarily to become uber-educated, but because I wanted to be the authoritative source for ANY knowledge--and I liked the letters Ph.D.