I recently received my Ph.D. as an international student, in a small town near Boston. Here are three things I learned.
- Immediately after you decide where to go, find out if your university has a summer immersion program.
When I was admitted, I had no idea that some universities hold immersive summer programs for (incoming) international students. They sometimes exist. You may want to consider these summer programs, because they may provide a cushion period to adapt to the environment and prepare you logistically, culturally, and socially for the hectic first year of Ph.D.
2. Take advice with an extra-large grain of salt.
Especially advice from a great professor. When advice comes from a very nice person, you’d think the advice is well-intentioned and and well-informed. It is more likely that you’ll follow the advice.
Before you do, however, ask yourself one extra question: “does the advice apply to my circumstance?” International students can come from backgrounds that advisers know little about. As a result, the advice may be well-informed for all of the other students in the program, but the same advice may be ill-informed for you and your circumstance.
As an international student, you just need to be much better not only at seeking advice, but also evaluating advice. To find out if the advice works for you, observe its impacts on you carefully. When you try to follow the advice, does it make you happier, or does it help you do what you want to do? Or, does it actually make your life worse? Only your own observations can tell you whether the advice works for you.
3. Complain.
Before starting Ph.D., I was not a complainer (according to my preferred memory of myself). During the later years of Ph.D., I discovered complaining. Counterintuitively, complaining made my life as an international student significantly better!
Not complainining failed me. When I tried not to complain, I was also ignoring what was not working. But there are always a lot of things that just won’t be working for an international student. Closing my eyes to things like these certainly did not help. After I started complaining, I started to have a better idea of what was not going well. Complaining was a language of articulation.
Even better, complaining can also help you better understand why some things were not going well. If you are from a different culture, it is possible that you have a bias to attribute bad outcomes to yourself. Complaining can help reduce this bias.
Finally, complaining helps you learn about the environment, which can inform you of future life decisions. What in this place does not work for you? Are there places that do not have these problems? When you make your next move, your record of complaints can help you choose wisely.
Thank you for reading! I might write more if people are interested. If you like it and want to see more, please leave a comment.
