Develop a realistic schedule

Before you start the first semester (ideally), develop a reasonable schedule and plan for tackling your academic work. Take an honest look at your current schedule and develop a realistic plan for managing your new responsibilities as a doctoral student while not neglecting yourself and your loved ones. You may need to consider what current responsibilities and time-consuming activities you will need to forgo to have enough time for your academic work. In doing this, it is wise to elicit the help of your family with daily tasks. For example, if you cook dinner most nights or are responsible for daily school pick-ups for your children, you may need to negotiate these tasks with your spouse or partner. Be realistic and remember you do not have superpowers: adding your doctoral education on top of all other home and work responsibilities will be setting yourself up for failure.

“The beauty of an asynchronous program is the option to plan and work ahead. Given the amount of writing required, it was helpful to plan out the semester and identify what I could tackle ahead of the due dates so I could free up time to work on the bigger assignments. There is no room for procrastination at this level.”

Vanessa Brugge. Class of 2025.