Graduate school is an exciting time of discovering new things, making meaningful contributions to scholarship and your chosen field, gaining new perspectives, and focusing on work that is important to you.
At the same time, juggling so many commitments—such as coursework, project or thesis research, teaching or research, and professional development—can be tricky and it can be especially difficult to understand how much time and energy to devote to tasks.
The conversation guide below it meant to help you and your adviser discuss expectations for each semester, including selecting coursework, setting reasonable goals, and developing a plan for checking in.
Looking at the Big Picture: Semester Plans
Graduate students often wear multiple hats during their studies, so a good first step is stepping back and considering what responsibilities you have this semester.
- What coursework and other degree milestones still need to be completed?
- Run a Degree Audit to help you keep track of your degree progress.
- What progress are you making this semester on coursework or degree milestones?
- Do you have any other degree milestones or research projects that you are working on this semester?
- What are responsibilities and goals do you have for the semester?
- Things to consider might include any work commitments, professional development, conference presentations or publications, career exploration, wellbeing and time away from work.
Understanding Time Commitments
Assessing your semester responsibilities can be helpful in determining the number of hours you decide to register for. Students and advisers should work together to determine the best academic load for each semester.
- What are your significant commitments?
- Classroom-based courses: What classroom-based classes are you taking? How many hours of both in-class and out-of-class work do you anticipate per week for these classes? The Office of the Provost has guidance on this on its website to understand how credit hours translate to expected student work, based on the federal credit hour definition.
- Research credit hours: If you are registering for research hours (such as independent study or 599 “thesis research” hours), the same effort per credit hour definition applies. Discuss your research goals with your adviser, determine the amount of time you plan to commit to this research project, and identify the corresponding number of hours for registration. How many hours a week do you anticipate for your research class?
- Employment (RA, TA, hourly, off-campus work, etc.): If you are working this semester, how many hours are you expected to work per week?
- Estimate your total hours of weekly commitments.
- Total the number of hours for your classroom-based courses, research courses, and employment. Is this a reasonable schedule for you?
- Keep in mind that your schedule will fluctuate from week to week. For example, you might have more classwork or grading to do around midterms, or a journal article might need more attention right before a deadline, while other weeks, you might have a lighter workload.
- Don’t forget your broader semester goals. You’ll want to make sure you still devoting time each week to things outside of work and classes that are important to you and your professional development and wellbeing.
Research Credit: Developing Semester Goals
During your time at Illinois, you might be working on a research project or a thesis or dissertation that spans multiple semesters. It’s a good idea to reflect on your research progress thus far and then make plans for what you hope to accomplish this semester.
- What tasks do you have completed for your research project? What do you still need to accomplish?
- Think about bigger tasks here: data collection, archival work, chapters complete, etc. Research projects can take a long time, so keeping track of the steps that are complete can be a good way to feel like you are making progress.
- Based on the number of research hours you are registering for, what are some tasks that you will dedicate time to this semester?
- Work together with your adviser to set manageable and reasonable goals. Make sure to leave time for conversation and questions to better understand shared goals and concerns.
- Keep in mind that research is messy and that the planned work may need to pivot (for example, if a tool in the lab breaks or a trip to the archives is cancelled). Work together to find a new path for the semester work to go.
Planning Check-ins
Meeting with an adviser is a great way to get feedback on your work, check your understanding of a topic, and to get advice on next steps.
- How often do you want to meet to discuss progress, feedback, and/or questions?
- Work together with your adviser to determine a plan for staying in touch. Some things you might talk about include how frequently you want to meet, the method of communication (in-person, via Zoom, email, etc.), how you would prefer to receive feedback, etc.
- Strategize on how best to keep track of notes and questions that you have for your adviser so that you can be prepared for your check-ins.
- If you are working on a paper or a long-term project, talk with your adviser about how best to get feedback on this work. Would they like to read small sections of the paper or wait until the full draft is complete? You might consider reaching out to the Writers Workshop or find an editor to help with any grammatical concerns so that your adviser can focus on your arguments.
- If the research topic for the semester is outside the specialty of the adviser, they may suggest that you seek additional support from another faculty member or a committee member who is an expert.