Thread by @economeager

Have you just accepted an offer of admission to an economics phd? Congratulations! Now read this excellent advice from Matthew Pearson on how to survive first year, it helped me and many of my friends: law.vanderbilt.edu/phd/How_to_Sur…

It also has the best cold open I've ever read: "Dear First-year Graduate Student,
Welcome to the threshold of hell (just kidding, more like the patio, or courtyard of hell)."

The one thing I disagree with here is I don't think you should want the phd - or anything - more than life itself. The most important thing is your physical and mental health, and you will have to be strong in holding to this priority in first year.

Even at MIT where there's no real threat of being kicked out and no big quals in first year, it's a real boot camp, and I remember realising that I would have to prioritise the key factors that support my mental/physical health ABOVE passing my classes.

So for example I always went to taekwondo class twice a week, I always allowed for 8 hours of sleep, I made sure to skype my family/friends back home every week, I meditated daily and I cooked for myself at least once a day, because I knew those things supported my mental health.

Those things are/were so important to my functioning that they were not negotiable, and I consciously admitted to myself that I was willing to fail classes over them and even drop out over them if necessary. As it happens, I never failed any classes at all (but who knows why).

For meditation nerds: this was a difficult time, so I was doing loving-kindness meditation not awareness meditation. I DON'T recommend awareness meditation if you're going through very difficult things and feel you're in crisis.