5. You’ll Find Your Way

“The Lies Graduate Programs Tell Themselves.” “Why We Need to Talk More about Mental Health in Graduate School.” “So Your PhD Program Is Not Going ‘As Planned’?” Those are headlines to stories in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the principal news organ of university life and work. Graduate school can be—will be—tough. To succeed, you need to prepare yourself academically as well as mentally and emotionally. But it’s not all just one difficulty after another. Despite the warning notes I have sounded in this guide, the vast majority of students who begin a PhD program in economics will finish the program. In the end, most of them make their own peace with their graduate school experience. And if you earn your PhD, you will almost certainly be offered a good job. Getting there won’t be easy. But if being an economist is what you want to be, you can certainly do it.