"Is graduate school right for you? Should you get a master's or a Ph.D.? How can you choose the best possible school? Since its publication, Getting What You Came For has proved itself a necessity in helping students answer these vital questions and much more. If you are already a graduate student, this book will help you finish in less time, for less money, and with less trouble." "Based on interviews with career counselors, graduate students, and professors, Getting What You Came For is packed with real-life experiences. Updated, and now with a brand-new section on buying and setting up a personal computer, Getting What You Came For has all the advice a student will need not only to survive but to thrive in graduate school, including: instructions on applying to school and for financial aid; how to excel on qualifying exams; how to manage academic politics - including hostile professors; and how to write and defend a top-notch thesis. Most important, it shows you how to land a job when you graduate."--BOOK JACKET.

This book can help (and you probably need it!)--What is graduate school like? -- Do you need to go? -- Should you work first? -- Choosing a school: the thesis adviser -- Choosing a school: secondary aspects -- Application and admission -- Improving your credentials for admission -- Financial aid -- The master's degree: history and hurdles -- The doctorate: history and hurdles -- Managing yourself -- Playing politics: building a reputation -- Master's comprehensive and Ph. D. qualifying examinations -- Choosing and managing your thesis committee -- The thesis topic: finding it -- The thesis proposal -- The thesis: writing it -- The thesis defense -- Oral presentations: the key to being a star -- Dealing with stress and depression -- The social milieu -- Swimming with the mainstream: returning students, women, minorities, and foreign students -- Bringing it all together: the job -- Appendix A: Buying your computer and software -- Appendix B: Useful internet addresses.