Post Academic

Is the academy really an ivory tower in which professors and grad students slave away on research without contact with the outside world? Absolutely not. You have to learn how to share the knowledge you’ve gained, which means you need to think of fresh ways to present complex theories and big ideas to the outside world. The Globe and Mail offers a feature by their “Nerd Girl,” Dr. Jennifer Gardy, who has a fresh perspective on grad school:

The point of grad school isn’t to cram you full of knowledge related to one very exclusive area of research; instead it’s to develop you into a researcher and equip you with the skills — independence, academic creativity, communication — that you’ll need to succeed downstream.

It’s all about the “downstream” part. I can vouch that I did pick up the skills I needed to find good jobs downstream. Academia is half research and half learning how to share your vast knowledge with the rest of the world. If you go into grad school hoping to read and right all day, you are bound to be disappointed.

Hat Tip: Going Graduate

Cold Pizza, Destitution and Your Dream: Graduate Research [The Globe and Mail]