by Kevin Wiley
Source: Liana Finck, 2020
No one prepares students for the rejection and failure experienced when pursuing graduate studies, especially at the doctoral level. Rejection not in the sense of submitted publications, but consistent rejection of ideas, questions, or proposals before the research even begins. The type of rejection I am describing comes both from humans and machines. Poorly motivated research questions waft and dissipate when presented to the trained eye of an advisor or mentor while that R code you attempted to run 400 times continues to output errors. We get it; research is hard. Understanding new problems take time and the discovery process is brutally glacial. Rejection forces introspection and induces self-doubt. But this type of failure is important in graduate studies, more so when students learn from them. A common adage in the Silicon Valley startup culture–applicable in this instance– is to “fail fast and fail often”, and eventually you may experience success. The volume of failure and rejection is equally important as the intensity. Preparing for these unfortunate truths requires a good mentor and maybe some psychological resilience.
Good mentors realize that no one student, however smart, has perfect ideas or even fully understands the research process. Good mentors realize that even they themselves may not always harness the knowledge or data to inform good research questions, although they may reluctantly admit this fact if asked. We hope our mentors teach us good research habits early on like documenting research steps and progress, troubleshooting issues encountered when conducting an experiment, and discussing methods and approaches with peers. Students should also actively pursue strategies and heuristics to simplify the research process. One of the most important habits I have learned and adopted is to embrace rejection and ask thoughtful questions by, for example, admitting when I am struggling with a method or concept. It is also important to establish good relationships with mentors and advisors when crucial feedback is needed. Some students reach a point where they convince themselves of their own expertise and feel they no longer have to ask questions. This is the wrong approach.
The oft-cited 10,000 hour rule set forth by a Swedish psychologist and popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers describes the amount of practice it takes to perfect a skill. It has recently been challenged and disproved where researchers have shown that other factors like age, intelligence, and setting also contribute to mastery. Gladwell’s major point is true in most cases: repetition and preparation breed mastery. While graduate students may find themselves in an endless loop of fleeting progress and struggle, the result is deep understanding, whether students want to believe it or not. Additionally, where the “curse of expertise” is absent, conveying difficult concepts becomes simpler as students learn to teach these topics.
Graduate programs have a singular goal: to prepare their students for careers as independent researchers and/or professionals. Programs are providing students with a unique set of skills and the tremendous responsibility that will shape the lives of communities the world over. However, to reach this level of skill attainment students have to endure the travails of failure and rejection when no success seems likely. Students from underrepresented backgrounds face additional pressures that include lack of preparation and research experience, adjusting to cultures where they historically have not been present, and getting through the seemingly unnavigable territory as they ascend through various levels of education. Is it normal to acclimate one’s self to rejection, struggle, and failure? The answer may vary. For students pursuing academic careers, rejection is common. Publication rejection and grant success rates are frequent reminders of the high expectations across academic disciplines. Professional graduate students are met with a labor force that increasingly demands hard and soft skills that are, understandably, learned once on the job. Obtaining that job may come with rejection as well.
Students apply to graduate schools for various reasons. Chiefly, students would like to contribute to a field, serve a population, make more money and so on. Preferred institutions are pursued, applications are submitted, programs and potential advisors are sought out, and course plans are made. There is never enough to know about what students should expect when programs begin, but the onus is mostly on you to understand the stakes and responsibility of wielding new knowledge. More importantly, students should know that throughout their studies and careers that they will be met with equal and abundant rejection, failure, and success.