Resources
Collection of resources and advice relevant to PhD students.
Disclaimer: This page is still under flux as we continue to organize and update content. In particular, we have not vetted all of the content, so we may be adding and removing links in the future.
Please let Pratyush know if there are any broken links.
Table of contents
- General Advice and Article Collections
- How to PhD
- Choosing a Research Topic
- The Advisor-Advisee Relationship
- Mental Health
- Imposter Syndrome
- Feedback and Rejection
- Time Management and Work-life Balance
- Teaching and Mentoring
- Reading and Reviewing Research Papers
- Presentation Skills
- Elevator Pitches
- Academic Writing
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Related Courses
General Advice and Article Collections
- Great research: Tips and advice for today’s researcher by Nick Feamster
- “Graduate school”, “Productivity”, “Writing”, and “Giving presentations” by Matthew Might
- Grad school advice by Jason Hong
- Advice for research students by Jason Eisner
- Networking on the network by Phil Agre
- Advice on research and writing by Mark Leone
- Dave’s advice collection by Dave Evans
- CS PhD –help
- CRA-WP resource library by the Computing Research Association
- Advice for new PhD Students (video playlist) by Casey Fiesler
- Beware survivorship bias in advice on science careers by Dave Hemprich-Bennett, Dani Rabaiotti, and Emma Kennedy
- Should you reverse any advice you hear? by Scott Alexander
Also check out related courses.
How to PhD
- Do you need a PhD? by Nick Feamster
- Advice for new graduate students by Jennifer Rexford
- Graduate school: Keys to success by Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
- The illustrated guide to a PhD by Matthew Might
- 3 qualities of successful PhD students by Matthew Might
- Lessons from my PhD by Austin Henley
- So long, and thanks for the PhD by Ronald T. Azuma
- Principles of effective research by Michael Nielsen
- Useful thoughts about research by H. T. Kung
Choosing a Research Topic
- You and your research by Richard Hamming
- Research patterns by Nick Feamster
- Importance of stupidity by Martin Schwartz
- Cultivating your research taste by Nick Feamster
- Technology and courage by Ivan Sutherland
- Claude Shannon’s “creative thinking” speech by Jimmy Soni
- How to choose a good scientific problem by Uri Alon
- Finding and proposing a PhD dissertation topic by Nick Feamster
The Advisor-Advisee Relationship
- How to get good advising by students, faculty, and staff at the Allen School
- What matters in a PhD advisor by Katie Langin
- Managing your advisor by Nick Feamster
- How to choose an advisor by Howard G. Adams and Ashwin Ram
- Graduate school mentoring guide by University of Michigan
- Getting the most from advisors and mentors by Brown Graduate School
- Guide to meetings with your advisor by Brown Graduate School
- 5+5 commandments for a PhD by Matthew Might
UW-only
Mental Health
- Why we need to talk more about mental health in graduate school by K. R. Wedemeyer-Strombel
- The unmet mental-health needs of foreign doctoral students by Bhargavi Bharadwaj
- ‘I didn’t know how to ask for help’: stories of students with anxiety by Sara Lipka
- Facing anxiety: students share how they cope and how campuses can help by Julia Schmalz
- Grad school is hard on mental health. Here’s an antidote by Ardon Shorr
- Don’t wish for happiness; work for it by Arthur C. Brooks
- Self-care: definition, ideas, tips, & activities to take care of yourself by Tchiki Davis
- How 4 professors built careers despite mental-health struggles by Sarah Brown
- PhD Balance
UW-only
- Hall health and Schmitz hall counseling center
- Counseling, therapy, and group support for UW students
- Safe Campus
- UW’s central reporting office if you are concerned for yourself or a friend. They have trained specialists who will take your call and connect you with appropriate resources. They are available 24/7 at 206-685-SAFE (206-685-7233).
- Care basket requests by the Allen School Care Committee
- Care baskets are packages of nourishing food, snacks, and occasionally other trinkets to be requested for yourself or someone else. Use this form to request a care basket.
Imposter Syndrome
- Do you measure up? by Kerry Ann Rockquemore
- PhD student experiences with the impostor phenomenon in STEM by Devasmita Chakraverty
- How I overcame impostor syndrome after leaving academia by Desiree Dickerson
- Think like an impostor and you’ll go far in academia by Beth McMillan
- Grit: The power of passion and perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- Fake it till you make it by Amy Cuddy
Feedback and Rejection
- Discussing design by Adam Connor
- Coping with rejection by Aditya Parameswaran
- Willingness to look stupid by Dan Luu
- Breaking the cycle of academic perfectionism by Kerry Ann Rockquemore
- The NeurIPS experiment by Eric Price
- We regret to inform you by Simone Santini
- Grow your own rejection garden by Max Perry Mueller
- A letter to my younger self about rejection in academia by Sauvik Das
Time Management and Work-life Balance
- The awesomest 7-year postdoc or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the tenure-track faculty life by Radhika Nagpal
- Time management (video lecture) by Randy Pausch
- Time management tactics for academics by Nick Feamster
- Guilt-free time management: The Eisenhower method revisited
- Productivity hints for academics by Matthew Might
- Tips for work-life balance by Matthew Might
Teaching and Mentoring
- The relationship between teaching and research by Nick Feamster
- Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors by Jenny Olin Shanahan, Elizabeth Ackley-Holbrook, Eric Hall, Kearsley Stewart, and Helen Walkington
- UW center for teaching & learning
- UW CSE TA training seminar
Reading and Reviewing Research Papers
- How to read a CS research paper by Philip Fong
- How to read an engineering research paper by William Griswold
- How to read a computer science research paper by Amanda Stent
- How to read a research paper by Srinivasan Keshav
- The paper reviewing process by Nick Feamster
Presentation Skills
- How to give a great research talk by Simon Peyton Jones
- How to give a technical presentation by Mike Ernst
- Creating an effective poster by John Wilkes
- How to speak by Patrick Winston
- How to make a conference talk by Adrian Sampson
- How to give a bad talk by David Patterson
- Tips for giving clear talks by Kayvon Fatahalian
- How to give a sharp technical talk by Nick Feamster
- How to create a better research poster in less time by Mike Morrison
Elevator Pitches
- Tell me a story: Why you need a good elevator pitch by Nick Feamster
- Elevator pitches by John Wilkes
Academic Writing
- How to write a great research paper by Simon Peyton Jones
- Storytelling 101: Writing a great academic paper by Nick Feamster
Diversity and Inclusion
- Allen school inclusiveness statement
- Allen school diversity workshop
- Guide to allyship
- On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life by Sara Ahmed
- Navigating graduate school with a disability by Dhruv Jain, Venkatesh Potluri, and Ather Sharif
Related Courses
A collection of similar courses which have influenced the design this seminar.
- How to do great research at Georgia Tech
- Readings on research at CMU
- Research culture and community norms at UC Berkeley
- PhD grad cohort research seminar at Harvard
- DEI in CS and society at CMU