Once you graduate from college, you can kiss goodbye the concept of getting three months off in the summer. Although there are some exceptions (for example, if you are a teacher or lecturer), by and large the fun is over.
Graduate students should take some consolation in the following benefits of working full time toward your degree during the summer:
- The summer months represent a great time to focus on your research, without having to devote time to coursework and attending research seminars that seem most concentrated during the fall and spring semesters.
- Summers often provide the opportunity to think and work independent of micromanagement on the part of your PI/Advisor, who will likely be on vacation at least part of the summer!
- Your opportunity to be uber-productive also coincides with your advisor’s vacation. Fewer/no lab meetings, etc. No spur-of-the-moment instructions from your advisor to totally change what you’re working on as he/she nonchalantly strolls past your workstation . . .
- Graduate school is all about time management, which includes deciding how much time to spend “in total” working toward your degree. The typically more productive summer months spent working on your project will ultimately shorten the number of months/years needed before you earn your degree.
- In the biomedical sciences, summer usually provides an outstanding opportunity to gain experience as a mentor. You should welcome the opportunity to mentor high school, undergraduate, and medical students spending the summer in your lab. You are the expert and they are newbies to research!
- Even though you don’t get the entire summer off, this is a decent time to escape or disappear for a short time. Because faculty and staff often take vacations in the summer, you are less likely to be missed if you are away from the lab for a week in the summer.
- In some fields, graduate students are paid meager stipends as teaching assistants — nine-month positions. These individuals spend the summer trying to avoid running out of money, scrambling for summer jobs on the level of flipping burgers. Be thankful that you’re not in that boat!