Building Culture & Community

We have all embarked on this PhD journey for a variety of different reasons. Some of us want to become teaching or research professors, some of us want to work in national labs, some of us want to go into industry, some of us want to work in alt-academic careers, and for many of us our post-PhD goals will grow or change during the five or more years that we are part of the CIS graduate student community at UC Merced. The research paths and skills that we need will learn and develop to reach these goals are broad and varying. What connects us as we share this journey, is the culture and community of support and encouragement that we build together and that create the foundation for our shared success and fulfillment throughout the PhD .

Doctoral students have three main sources of social support, friends, family, and faculty. On this page is information that we can use to best support our friends and fellow CIS graduate students, as well as links to university resources & external resources for well-being, health, and mental-health. And of course, please visit our CIS Events & Helpful Links page and google calendar to stay up to date on social and professional development events occurring in our department and across campus! =]

Additional resources:

UC Merced on making an Individual Development Plan

AAAS on SMART Goals: Mastering your PhD: Setting Goals for Success

Nature.com Career Column on Work-life Balance (and more): Twenty things I wish I'd known when I started my PhD

Imposter syndrome as we generally know it, was first described by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in the late 1970s. Clance and Imes coined the term imposter phenomenon to describe the experience of high acheiving women who nonetheless feel like an imposter or phony, as if they are fooling anyone who believes their outstanding academic and professional success. Of course, imposter syndrome isn't relegated to any one gender.

Everyone experiences it.

And higher education can be an exceptional breeding ground for feelings of imposterism. Much of this has to do with university culture. Dianne Zorn of York University states:

Scholarly isolation, aggressive competitiveness, disciplinary nationalism, a lack of mentoring and the valuation of product over process are rooted in the university culture. Students and faculty alike are particularly susceptible to IP feelings.

And for graduate students, much of the risk of imposterism arises from the transition into graduate level research and the stereotyped characteristics of those who pursue graduate school. Many of us have always been overacheivers or perfectionists. When we have had concrete benchmarks and goals to aim beyond, these traits have historically helped us succeed. However, much of grad school (and science/academia beyond) lacks structure or clear benchmarks to indicate when you've done (more than) enough. The goals are often ambiguous and changing. Even explicit structure in your degree program can be overriden by unwritten expectations. You may be required to take classes, but you are told that only your research output matters. Combined with overacheivement and perfectionism, the grad school environment can easily augment the feeling of being a fraud. So what can we do about it?

UC Merced Graduate Student Resources

Counseling & Psychological Services

Office of the Ombuds Not therapy, however the Office of the Ombuds provides a confidential, informal, neutral, and independent place to discuss any issue or concern you have on any matter whatsoever. From their website:

• `You don't have to be in an extreme conflict or problem to come in to talk. Issues are often easiest to resolve before they have a major impact. We like to say we can be, "Your first step, last resort or anywhere in between."

This google site is meant to accompany the CIS program's official website, at cogsci.ucmerced.edu. Visit the official website to learn more about current students and faculty and for guidance regarding program requirements. We've tried to include up to date information and forms (i.e. for advancement to candidacy) on this CISGradStudentGroup google site (e.g. in our "What is an IR?!" section), but always keep in contact with your committee, UCM Graduate Division, or ask your fellow grad students if you need any help navigating the paperwork side of the PhD process.

Have a question? Find a broken link? What to add information to this site, or an event to the google calendar? Contact the CIS GradStudentGroup at ucm.cis.gradstudentgroup@gmail.com