A website on graduate education and mentoring that you may find useful is called Grad Student's Guide to Mentors & Advisors at http://gradschool.about.com/cs/aboutadvisors/a/mentor.htm
We also encourage all new graduate students to read at least one of the four books below. These resources will help you to become more knowledgeable about the advisor selection process (essential at the graduate level) and provide you with skills to make you successful in your chosen program.
Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or Ph.D., Robert L. Peters, Ph.D., The Noonday Press, 1992.
It costs about $12.50 and is one of the few books on the market that deals with graduate school specifically. It provides proactive suggestions for students to navigate the various arenas of academia. The author took eight years to get a doctoral degree from Berkeley in Fish Management. He had problem fish, problem professors, and he ran out of money. To show others how to avoid the pitfalls he experienced, he wrote a book and recently updated it.
Leaving the Ivory Tower, The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study, Barbara Lovitts, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001.
Dr. Lovitts applied to, was admitted, and left two major research intensive universities (The Univ. of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins Univ.) before finally earning her Ph.D. at The Univ. of Maryland. Her book is $33 on amazon.com, but is also in most libraries. The author writes about acquiring a conceptual map that ensures success in the academy. Dr. Lovitts says success does not depend on what students bring to the academy, but what happens to them once they arrive.
Journey to the Ph.D.: How to Navigate the Process as African Americans, Anna L. Green & LeKita V. Scott, ($14.21 on amazon.com).
Journey is a collection of essays on the doctoral experiences of 24 African-American scholars. The narratives include stories from current doctoral students as well as those who have already completed their degree. In general, the authors provide advice and impart personal reflections on the influence of familial, financial, intellectual and emotional factors on their decision to pursue a Ph.D. Despite the array of personal histories, there is a wealth of information on graduate schools for anyone regardless of major discipline, social background or stage in the doctoral process.
The Latina/o Pathway to the Ph.D., Abriendo Caminos, ($18.21).
From Stylus Publishing. The Latina/o population constitutes the largest racial and ethnic minority group in the U.S. and is disproportionately underrepresented in college and in graduate programs.
This is the first book to engage specifically with the absence of Latinas/os in doctoral studies. It proposes educational and administrative strategies to open up the pipeline, and institutional practices to ensure access, support, models and training for Latinas/os aspiring to the Ph.D.
