The Philosophers' Cocoon

(update: comments now open – sorry!)

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I'm excited to finally be wrapping up the coursework stage of my PhD program. This is a milestone for me because, as much as I like philosophy, I really don't enjoy sitting still, usually in a shamefully tiny desk, and listening to class. I'd always prefer to talk philosophy in office hours or read at home. Now that I don't have to go to classes, should I? How should I go? To what end? Should I disregard time in classroom and just work independently? Should I do something like take one grad seminar a term, just so I keep learning? I see more advanced graduate students in my department taking this last approach pretty frequently. I realize this is a pretty personal decision, but I'd like to know how people have navigated the change from required to optional coursework. I would especially like to here from people who do not particularly enjoy spending time in a classroom.

I think this is a really important query, for reasons I detail below. In brief, my own experience in grad school (not just firsthand, but also observing other grad students at my own program and beyond) is that the period after finishing coursework becomes increasingly fraught with dangers, ones that all too often derail people's careers. I'll explain why momentarily, but am curious what everyone else thinks: what do you think grad students should do after finishing classes? Why?

In a follow-up comment to above comment, Mike writes:

Here's my suggestion about taking courses after the coursework stage of the PhD program. First, if you do it, keep in mind your priority is (now) qualifying exams, dissertation proposal, dissertating, etc. Second, since you only have a finite amount of very limited time compared to all the possible things you could do, you can't afford (at this stage) to whimsically take courses just because they sound interesting. Any courses taken should serve some real purpose. For example, if your dissertation is on topic X and professor Y is running an advanced graduate seminar covering new work on X, then take that seminar. Similarly, if someone's teaching a survey seminar on topic Z and you have reasons to want a teaching competence in Z, take it. If you don't enjoy spending time in the classroom, this approach may help as well. Graduate coursework, at this stage of your journey, isn't really "coursework" or about "learning" (as a *student*) per se. It's about being a good colleague by participating in research discussions or professional development.

I don't think Mike is exactly wrong about any of this, but I have to confess that I am a bit surprised at its overall sentiment. This is because, as I indicated above, I think there's quite a lot at stake at this particular point in grad school, as well as some serious mistakes that grad students often make at just this stage that can end up completely derailing their grad career (and beyond).

Here is what I saw in grad school: many very intelligent and otherwise-diligent students doing just fine in their courses, before going onto totally 'screw up' once their coursework is over. I saw this over and over again, both at the comprehensive exam stage and then (even more so) at the dissertation stage. Grad students would simply disappear from the department to 'study for comps' or 'try to work on publishing and dissertating' but end up spinning their wheels and in a very bad place. Let me begin with my own case, as I'm a prime example (though by no means the only one, as I'll explain!).

Almost my entire life, I have been a very conscientious person. I score very highly on Conscientiousness on Big 5 Personality Trait measures, and the Big 5 traits are extremely well-validated constructs with high lifetime stability and high predictive value in different areas of life. I worked diligently in high school, during my grad school coursework, and have a very strict work schedule as a professional academic. There is exactly one time in my life where I was a total unmitigated screw-up: the period of grad school after my coursework. And I'm not the only one I've seen it happen to. Why? What tends to happen to grad students at this stage to throw them off track.

Here's my story: after I finished coursework, things started off well-enough. I began studying for comp exams, and got a couple of journal R&R's (one at Analysis on a paper on Newcomb's paradox and another at the Journal of Social Philosophy on an earlier and longer version of this reply piece, which ended up being my first publication many years later). Everything seemed like it was going according to plan! Then things slowly began to go sour. After revising my 2 R&R's, I spent the next 6 months or so studying for comps (because everyone took them as the same time in the fall). During that time, I slowly stopped going into the department so much, instead mostly studying on my own. Then, like many other grad students I knew, I found myself some hobbies to blow off some steam while studying for and stressing about comps. In my case, the hobbies in question were playing in a band and playing videogames (the latter of which, oddly enough, led years later to this paper). Anyway, around the time comps came around, both of my R&R's ended up rejected. That left me discouraged–and immediately after I took and passed comps I was supposed to get moving on a dissertation prospectus. Alas, I'd spent the last 6 months studying for comps, so I hadn't really been thinking about that. Long story short, after comps I found myself discouraged, with little idea what to write a dissertation. At that point I spent around the next year and a half trying to think up a dissertation topic between playing music and videogames–all the while almost never seeing anyone in my department (except for weekly colloquia and post-colloquium restaurant/bar hangouts where I was too ashamed to admit that I had no clue what in the world I was doing anymore).

I tell this story both to give some context on how things can go wrong after coursework, but also (more importantly) because it didn't just happen to me. I saw a number of other talented grad students I knew–both at my program and at other programs–fall prey to different versions of the same story. All of them were brilliant and otherwise-conscientious people who had been academically successful since childhood. However, because they no longer had coursework to orient their lives around (for the first time in their entire academic life since grade school), they slowly lost direction, focus, and isolated themselves from their grad departments either out of shame or mere avoidance–often turning to side hobbies (such as videogames, brewing beer, etc.) that, while enjoyable, served to distract them from actually publishing and finishing their degree. In at least a few cases, I knew students who never did finish the PhD for broadly these reasons.

Bearing all of this in mind, here's my response to the reader who posted the comment: sit in on courses, stay active and involved in your department, see your advisor regularly, get involved in working-paper groups, don't let enjoyable hobbies side-track you. Don't fall down the same rabbit hole that so, so many grad students find themselves down. I paid dearly, in ways that affected my career for many years, because I didn't make these choices–and I've seen worse happen to others. Sorry if this seems overwrought or scares the crap out of any of you. Feel free to take it all with a grain of salt. It's just my perspective. I just share all of this out a sincere sense of obligation, as I wish someone had told me all of this before I made the mistakes I did!