Characteristics of Gradutate Students

Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Graduate Students

 Why are some graduate students successful and others are not? Pure intellectual abilities--as measured by the GRE and reflected, to a certain extent, in undergraduate GPA--play a significant role, but there is more to graduate school success than raw brain power. Mental toughness, self-reliance, a desire to excel, and a commitment to scholarship are the essential personal characteristics of a student who can adapt to the rigor, stress, and often impersonal nature of graduate school. The successful graduate student is one who possesses both the intellectual abilities and the necessary personal characteristics. The following sets of characteristics of successful and unsuccessful graduate students in the social sciences were identified by Friedenberg and Roth (1954) from extensive self-report and interview data. Which of these characteristics do you possess? If you see yourself possessing more of the characteristics of unsuccessful than successful graduate students, are you willing or able to change some of your beliefs and feelings to increase your probability of graduate school success?

    Characteristics of Successful Graduate Students

    • Prefer scholarly detachment.
    • Favor competitive relationships.
    • Express attraction to pure scholarship.
    • Consider personal relations as secondary.
    • Do not resent faculty's preoccupation with their research.

    Characteristics of Unsuccessful Graduate Students

    • Disturbed by competition.
    • Relatively dependent on others.
    • Consider the intellectual gratification of their work as trivial.
    • Consider warm and friendly human interactions one of their urgent needs.
    • Tend to be hurt by what they consider a lack of faculty interest in students.

"In sum, graduate work takes initiative, independence, perseverance, acceptance of responsibility, and a general freedom from emotional conflict and anxiety. The benefits of going to graduate school, especially a top-ranked school, are enormous, but they demand a high price in sweat and anxiety...Succeeding in graduate school requires years of single-minded dedication, much energy, individual initiative, and responsible independent study. We wish you well!" (Fretz and Stang, 1988, p. 79-81).

Does the information on this page make you nervous? If it does, you are a normal undergraduate student who is contemplating graduate school. Take this information as friendly advice--not as an ominous warning--from people who were just like you before they went to graduate school.

Characteristics of Successful Graduate Students in Clinical Psychology

Descutner and Thelen (1989) asked 79 faculty members from nine APA-approved clinical psychology graduate programs to describe a successful clinical psychology graduate student by rating 25 characteristics and behaviors on a 6-point scale ranging from not important (1) to very important (6). These characteristics and behaviors (and their average ratings) are listed below in decreasing order of rated importance.
  • Working hard 5.60
  • Getting along with people 5.17
  • Writing ability 4.83
  • Clinical/counseling skills 4.81
  • Doing research 4.74
  • Handling stress 4.72
  • Discipline 4.64
  • Good grades 4.61
  • High intelligence 4.53
  • Empathy 4.48
  • Establishing a relationship with a mentor 4.39
  • Getting along with peers 4.00
  • Broad knowledge of psychology 4.00
  • Specialized knowledge in one or two areas of psychology 3.88
  • Reflecting program values 3.78
  • Being liked by faculty 3.69
  • Creativity 3.67
  • Obtaining a master's degree as quickly as possible 3.60
  • Visibility in the department 3.45
  • Competitiveness 3.29
  • Relating to professors on a personal level 3.24
  • Teaching 2.81
  • Attractive physical appearance 2.53
  • Serving on student committees 1.95
  • Serving on department and university committees 1.62

It is no surprise that faculty in clinical psychology programs place a premium value on graduate students who work hard, possess good social skills, and write well. However, a surprise does occur with the fourth and fifth items. Most students preparing for graduate education in clinical psychology assume that clinical and counseling skills will be much more valuable to them in graduate school than their ability to perform research. NOT SO! Descutner and Thelen's data clearly indicate that potential clinicians should work equally as hard to develop their research skills--in courses such as experimental psychology, statistics, computer-assisted research, and directed senior research--as they do to develop their clinical and counseling skills. Another interesting finding from this survey is that the ability to handle stress and display discipline are rated as more important to graduate student success than either good grades or high intelligence. Apparently graduate faculty prefer to work with emotionally stable students who can produce consistently above average work and meet deadlines than with highly intelligent, straight A students who are personally and academically erratic, unorganized, or unpredictable. Undergraduate students who suffer from stress and who have a difficult time managing their academic and personal lives in a disciplined manner can develop the skills to overcome these deficiencies through classes (e.g., Stress Management) or personal counseling.

Characteristics of Graduate School Superstars

Graduate school can be a traumatic experience. Many graduate students spend their time complaining about the heavy work load, the uncaring attitudes of faculty, and the constant pressure of being evaluated. These students quickly begin to devalue their graduate education, deny its relevance, and develop strategies that help them to "beat the system" (i.e., merely satisfying degree requirements without engaging in any actual learning). Graduate school for these people is an unpleasant experience to be endured, survived, and forgotten as quickly as possible. What a shame! Another group seems to thrive on their graduate education. According to Bloom and Bell (1979): "These are the few who proceed through the program with the minimum amount of difficulty and a maximum amount of quality performance. They are respected by the faculty, they receive the best financial assistance, they receive accolades, and as a group, they end up with the best employment" (p. 231). These are the graduate school superstars. But what makes them so successful? Bloom and Bell asked 40 of their colleagues (who had earned doctorates from well-known programs around the country) to describe the superstars they had known. The results were amazingly consistent and can be organized into the following five factors.

    Visibility
    The most often mentioned behavioral characteristic was visibility. Superstars were observed to be physically present in the department, during and often after working hours.

    Hard Working
    The next most often mentioned quality was that they were hard working. It is important to point out that the superstars were perceived as hard working because faculty actually saw them working hard. Other students may have worked harder, but because they were working hard at home or in the library, they were not perceived to be as hard working as the superstars.

    Reflection of Program Values
    A consistently mentioned quality was the faculty's perceptions of their professional values. These values were concordant with program values of research and scholarly excellence. Superstars are engaged in ongoing research projects in addition to their MA and PhD theses. Non-superstars did research because it was a degree requirement. Superstars viewed research as an integral part of their discipline and a desirable and worthwhile activity for any professional psychologist. They were curious enough about a problem to want to see data on it. Superstars also recognized the value of having contact with broad areas of psychology, even though their own programs might be highly specialized.

    Professor Attachment
    From the time they entered graduate school almost all superstars attached themselves to one or two faculty members with whom they continued to work during the course of their training.

    The W Factor
    The final characteristic was that superstars had the ability to make faculty feel worthwhile and rewarded. Typical faculty responses were "early on, they were easy to teach," "they picked up things quickly," "they could receive and use feedback well," "they were not constant complainers," and "they were able to grow into colleague status without taking advantage." In essence, the superstars listened, learned, grew, and produced, which in turn made the faculty member feel worthwhile and rewarded for his/her investment and chosen occupation" (p. 231).

Please note that the above characteristics do not include intelligence, excellent grades, or writing ability. Perhaps these qualities are simply assumed to exist in superstars. The lesson to be learned from these findings is that success in graduate school is due to more that just raw brain power. It is also strongly affected by dedication, hard work, loyalty, a willingness to embrace the values of a program, and the ability to make faculty feel worthwhile and rewarded.

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