Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond

Earning a graduate degree in political science is the first step in pursuing an academic or alt-academic career. Yet there is a large hidden curriculum in graduate school pertaining to strategies, norms, and practices which, when implemented, can help students navigate graduate school. Yet these can be difficult to learn and navigate, even for the most successful undergraduate students and early career professionals who are beginning their graduate career. Beyond gaining entry to graduate school, surviving, and thriving as a successful graduate student requires insights into academia and political science that most undergraduates, recent college graduates, or early career professionals simply will not know. Additionally, lack of access to this hidden curriculum most disadvantages first generation and minoritized students, which maintains inequalities in the discipline. Presently, the APSA leadership is enhancing its efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion across the profession by addressing issues of climate and culture, as well as institutional and systemic inequality through a variety of measures: diversity and inclusion programming, presidential task forces, and other council-backed initiatives. This resource guide is an essential component of APSA's effort to fill the knowledge-gap for prospective and current graduate students, as it provides insights into everything from applying for admission and finding a mentor to landing that first job-and everything in between.