Q&A: How hard is graduate school?
Let's bring some more Q&A to you! Today, I'm focusing on the following comment that came to my blog: Not sure about the comment "what does not kill you". I have seen several candidates suffer mental breakdowns. This comment came together with the question from another reader: How tough is necessary grad school? At that time, I replied as follows: There's a big difference between building up some friction and being able to push through, and getting a mental illness. I'm not a psychologist, but I think a toxic environment, difficulties with an advisor etc. might be factors that can cause serious damage to a person's health (mental AND physical), instead of the actual research itself. But maybe I'm totally wrong? So, how hard is graduate school really? How mentally challenging is it? How emotionally challenging is it? How psychologically challenging is it? As always, let's look at all different aspects - keeping in mind the comment I made previous...