Making Lemonade – Dealing With The Unknown, Unexpected, And Unwanted During Graduate Study

Graduate study can be a risky endeavor. Typically, graduate students perform research work that has not been done before, so problems are not uncommon. In addition to the technical challenges of doctoral work, there are other potential problems, be they cultural, interpersonal, budgetary, or other. When a problem arises, there are productive and unproductive ways of reacting. Based on the author’s experience and observation, this paper seeks to identify some common difficulties graduate students may encounter, and propose some possible actions to deal with them. As the old saying goes, when you’re handed a bunch of lemons, sometimes the best thing to do is to make lemonade.