A Short Guide to PhD Graduate Study
by John Langford 
5/17/2005

Graduate study is a mysterious and uncertain process. This easiest way
to see this is by noting that a very old advisor/student mechanism is
preferred. There is no known succesful mechanism mass PhDs as is done
(in some sense) for undergraduate and masters study. Here are a few
hints that might be useful to prospective or current students based on
my own experience.

   1. Masters or PhD (a) You want a PhD if you want to do
      research. (b) You want a masters if you want to make
      money. People wanting (b) will be manifestly unhappy with (a)
      because it typically means years of low pay. People wanting (a)
      should try to avoid (b) because it prolongs an already long
      process.

   2. Attitude. Many students struggle for awhile with the wrong
      attitude towards research. Most students come into graduate
      school with 16-19 years of schooling where the principle means
      of success is proving that you know something via assignments,
      tests, Research does not work this way. Research is what a PhD
      is about.

      The right attitude is something more I have some basic questions
      about the world and want to understand the answer to The process
      of discovering the answers, writing it up, and convincing others
      that you have the right answers is what a PhD is about.

      Let me repeat this another way: you cannot get a PhD by doing
      homework (even homework assigned by your advisor). Many students
      fall into this failure mode because it is very natural to
      continue as you have for the last n years of education. The
      difficulty is often exacerbated by the mechanics of the PhD
      process. For example, students are often dependent on their
      advisors for funding and typical advisors have much more
      accumulated experience and knowledge than the typical student.

      Their are several reasons why you cannot succeed with  approach:

         1. Your advisor doesn't have time to micromanage your work.

         2. A very significant part of doing good research is
            understanding the motivations (and failures of
            motivations) of different approaches. Offloading thinking
            about this on your advisor means that you are missing a
            critical piece of your own education.

         3. It invites abuse. Advisors are often trapped in their own
            twisty maze of too many things to do, so they are very
            tempted to offload work (including nonresearch work) onto
            students. Students doing some of this can make some
            sense. A bit of help with nonresearch can be useful here
            and there and even critical when it comes to funding the
            students. But a student should never be given (or even
            allowed to take on) more load than comfortably leaves room
            for significant research.

         4. With respect to the wider research community, a PhD is an
            opportunity to develop a personality independent of your
            advisor. Doing your s homework t accomplish this.

   3. Advisor. The choice of advisor is the most important choice in a
      PhD education. You want one that is comfortable with your own
      independent streak. You want one that is well enough off to fund
      you and who t greatly load you down with nonresearch tasks. You
      want one s research style fits yours and who has the good regard
      of the larger research community. This combination of traits is
      difficult to come by.  Even more difficult is coming by it
      twice. I recommend having two advisors because it gives you
      twice the sources of good advice, wisdom, and funding.

   4. Institution. The choice of advisor is more important than the
      choice of institution. A good advisor is a make-or-break
      decision with respect to succeess. The institution is a less
      important choice of the make or make . A good institution will
      have sufficient computational resources and sufficient funding
      to cover student costs. Quality of life outside of school should
      be a significant concern because you will be spending years in
      the same place.

   5. Lifestyle. Before choosing to go for a PhD, try to understand
      the research lifestyle.  If it doesn't fit reasonably well,
      don't try. You will just end up unhappy after years of your life
      wasted. This is a common failure mode.