1. Finding Your Fit: a Recipe for a Meaningful Life
Daniel Wong, PhD
Associate Director, Educational Equity Programs

2. My background and “qualifications”

3. Two Questions

4. Two Questions Why go to grad school? (PhD)
How to choose a grad school?

5. Finding your “Dream Job”
Or, “A vision for a life well-lived”
(adapted from Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You)

6. The wrong question: “what is your passion?”

7. What’s wrong with this question?
It is very specific
It is very narrow
It is very inflexible
People don’t tend to change their passions. It does happen from time to time, but the passions we have are often the passions that persist. The challenge then becomes a matching problem. What if your passion is teaching, and you can’t find a teaching job? What if your passion is performing surgery, but you can’t get into medical school? Disappointment often ensues, and I think that’s both unfair and avoidable.

8. A better question: “what do you value?”
Finding a meaningful life

9. What do you value? Time affluence? Influence and recognition?
Playing a meaningful role in family and community?
Having an impact on the world of ideas?
Freedom from financial concerns?
Adventure?
Fewer obligations, less mental clutter?

10. Protect your values, but be flexible in your strategy for meeting them

11. “You need to know where you generally want to go, but don’t get too obsessed about the route that can get you there.”
- Cal Newport

12. So: why grad school?
And, grad school is a career.

13. ca•reer
NOUN. An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress
-Oxford Dictionaries, OUP

14. What grad school offers:
Time affluence
Influence and recognition
Playing a meaningful role in family and community
Having an impact on the world of ideas
Freedom from financial concerns
Adventure
Fewer obligations, less mental clutter

15. What grad school offers: time affluence
During:
Your hours are your own
Your hours are flexible
After:
Your options are open
Most career options enjoy this

16. What grad school offers: influence and recognition
During:
You work will be known (but perhaps not by many)
Your work will have influence
After:
Careers in academia depend on it
People listen to PhDs

17. What grad school offers: playing a meaningful role
During:
You work deals with important problems
Your work should matter to someone
After:
You’ve been trained to address big issues
Research skills useful in any arena

18. What grad school offers: impact on world of ideas
During:
This is all you do
Required and encouraged
After:
Specific set of skills
Uniquely positioned to answer such questions

19. What grad school offers: freedom from financial concerns
During:
Grad school is funded
Access to resources
Freedom = options

20. What grad school offers: freedom from financial concerns
After:
High median annual income
Bachelor’s: ~$46K
Master’s: ~$57K
PhD: ~$70K
28 Feb 2014

21. What grad school offers: adventure
During:
Focused on contributing to the cutting edge
No boundary between the classroom and the “real world”
After:
Equipped for a broad range of options
Exposure to variety = better career “imagination”

22. What grad school doesn’t offer: fewer obligations, less mental clutter
During:
You will be busy and obligated
You will want to be
After:
Great power = great responsibility
You know you love it

23. How to Choose a Grad School
Many think that going to the US News list and choosing from the top schools is the best approach. I argue that that’s precisely the wrong approach. First begin with a self-assessment of your values and goal, and then find the best fit for grad school.

24. How to Choose a Grad School:
Know Yourself
Know Your Goal
Know Your Destination

25. Know Yourself Identify your learning and working style
Understand your habits and preferences
Recognize your needs and lifestyle
Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses

26. Know Your Goal Identify your values and plan accordingly
Explore career options of your chosen program
Spend time investigating your desired profession(s)

27. Know Your Destination Prioritize people over programs
Gather as much information as you can
Visit the campus if possible
Count the cost (of living)
Explore the available resources

28. Why Illinois?

29. Why Illinois: Reasonable cost of living = options
Vast available resources
Accessible faculty
Interdisciplinarity
Support for grad students

30. Cost of living

31. Cost of living

32. Resources
University Library: 13 millions volumes in 37 unit libraries + vast database access (2nd largest academic library in US)
Top recipient of NSF funding among all universities ($170 million, in FY 2014), with total annual research funding exceeding $600 million
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Art Museum, and the Spurlock Museum

33. Interdisciplinarity Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Tech
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
Coordinated Science Laboratory
Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities

34. The Graduate College Graduate Student Academic Services (GSAS)
Graduate and Professional Admissions
Educational Equity Programs
Fellowship Office
Graduate Student Development and Postdoctoral Affairs
Illinois Professional Science Master’s