Good Grad School Blogs

April 25, 2006 10:32 PM

Help me find good blogs (or blog-like sites) about graduate school.

I am creating a website about getting into and succeeding in graduate school. Things are going swimmingly so far, except for one little hitch. I want to have the obligatory "link list" of relevant, recent posts from around the web. Trouble is, I'm having trouble finding sources to populate this list. Most of what I know of are either blogs written by people who happen to be in grad school (and only mention it a few times in between posts about their dogs), or sites like About.com.

So, do you know of any good grad school blogs (or blog-like sites) out there? I'm thinking sites that are to grad school what Zeldman is to web design or Orangette is to cooking.

posted by that_one_guy to Education (15 answers total)

Start with PhdComics!
posted by onalark at 10:36 PM on April 25, 2006

Err... PhDComics, that is.
posted by onalark at 10:36 PM on April 25, 2006

Best answer: One more time?
posted by mr_roboto at 10:41 PM on April 25, 2006

Best answer: Tom Kealey's Creative Writing MFA Handbook blog would've been invaluable to me when I was applying to writing programs. In large part he runs the blog to promote his book, which I've heard is fantastic, but the blog's very informative on its own.
posted by soviet sleepover at 10:43 PM on April 25, 2006

Best answer: Also, you may already know about livejournal communities like Academics Anonymous & Applying To Grad. As with many lj communities, they're hit or miss, but there's plenty of good info in there if you're willing to dig.
posted by soviet sleepover at 10:45 PM on April 25, 2006

Best answer: Here are some grad student's blogs I follow fairly regularly. They're not as hit or miss as you describe (ie, mostly about dogs), and the best posts on them I feel come from trying to describe what it's like to juggle a homelife with school and the stress that results.

They've overwhelmingly female, and most in History and MFA programs.

Acade(me)
Ancrene Wiseass
Dr. Four-Eyes
It's Probably Me
On Any Given Day
Opinionated and Fragile
Stressful Times for Psych Girl
Post PhD Blues

Your mileage may vary, but I find them quite good.
posted by barnacles at 11:15 PM on April 25, 2006

(and only mention it a few times in between posts about their dogs)

Keep in mind that grad school is the place of employment of a grad student, and it can be an intensely political and competitive one at that. There are a lot of good reasons for grad students (who are also completely at the bottom of the hiring ladder) to not talk about their place of employment on the web (for instance, to take an extreme case). I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but I thought you might be interested in this viewpoint given that the site is about how to succeed in grad school, and it explains the paucity of references in the blogs that you have found.
posted by advil at 11:22 PM on April 25, 2006

Best answer: Dorothea Salo has a very thorough account of her time in grad school here. A worthy read for anyone thinking of walking down that path (keep in mind she was a Liberal Arts grad student, so her experiences may not be the same as a Science grad student).

Straight Talk about Graduate School
More Straight Talk on Grad School
posted by naelyn at 11:26 PM on April 25, 2006

I'd suggest Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, or The Castle by Franz Kafka.

Does it need to be written that I'm in the early stages of writing my thesis? Apologies for the snark.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:37 PM on April 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

Not exactly grad school, but you might like the Stingy Scholar.
posted by BigBrownBear at 1:46 AM on April 26, 2006

Also, check out these lists of Scholars Who Blog.
posted by BigBrownBear at 1:48 AM on April 26, 2006

Best answer: I don't think you can make grad school as yummy as that Orangette page...

More of a magazine than a blog, but as an aspiring academic I find Inside Higher Ed a useful site.

You might find PhD weblogs useful, although I haven't checked it out much so I can't say for sure. I found it through del.icio.us. You might find the academic blogging tag useful as well.
posted by carmen at 7:33 AM on April 26, 2006

Second Dorothea Salo, and you should investigate the archives of Invisible Adjunct (sadly, defunct since 2004).
posted by languagehat at 7:44 AM on April 26, 2006

Best answer: I'll point to a fellow mefite who's probably too humble to volunteer himself: Mike @ v i t i a.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 11:35 AM on April 26, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the good suggestions, all! There's some really nice stuff here.
posted by that_one_guy at 4:00 PM on April 26, 2006