Playing the Game: The Streetsmart Guide to Graduate School

by Frank, Fredrick / Stein, Karl Frank, Fredrick / Stein, Karl, Fredrick Frank, Karl Stein

Book Overview

"This book is lewd, rude and superb Frank and Stein have written the first guide to grad school from a student's point of view; and the result is an irreverent, humorous and USEFUL book of advice.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595304869
• ISBN13: 9780595304868
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

PLaying the Game : The Street Smart Guide to Graduate School

This is a must read for anyone considering, entering, or attending graduate school. As a graduate student in Anthropology, I can attest to how useful this guide is. Unlike similar books, this guide is both humorous and practical. Drs Frank and Stein will have you rolling in the halls of your current or future program, drinking non-alcoholic beer in class and taking tests in crayon. In sum, you need this book!

Fab-u-lous

This book is great. While the language in the book temporarily increased my personal level of profanity, the ideas the authors present have stayed with me. As a first semester doctoral student, the most valuable lesson I've learned is that the smart kids do research projects linked to their dissertation topic along the way. I definatly recommend this book. Unlike many of the articles I am assigned to read, this one isn't boring. And while I wondered how I'd find the time to fit in reading something "for fun," it was an easy read when I only had 15 or so minutes free, not enough time to get into the "heavy, boring" reading, or when I got tired of reading big words in sentences that seemed to never end.

This poorly written trash is the best thing ever. (Really)

The cover of this book looks like a third grader made it. Inside the book, the text is poorly edited. The jokes are inane. Some of the content is worthless. So why should you buy this book? This book gives you a very clear idea of what graduate school is like. It will save you countless hours by showing you how to keep on task and stay organized. The book gives you the authors' opinions on what's important and what's not. After reading the book, I feel much better prepared for graduate school. I've purchased several other books for graduate school, and their main weakness is that they tell you the advantages of everything, but offer no guidance. In other books, the authors state axioms such as "Grades are Important" without giving you a clear idea of how they might fit into your future plans or how important they are compared to other things you need to do. The Streetsmart Guide explains how grades fit into the authors' plans, and from there, intelligent readers can determine the value of grades to them. One thing to note, though, is that this book is written for people who do NOT plan on a career in academia. I do plan to be an academic, but I still found this book to be the best thing since sliced bread (inside joke if you read the book) because it gave me a nice picture of how things actually work. Seriously, buy this book.

Not Just For Graduate School!

This book is an outstanding one that would benefit all students not just grad students. Having taken the time to read more than half of this book in two days it is clear that any student, collegiate level or not, would greatly benefit from the tools and tips provided here, particularly in the studying and paper writing departments. If you master the skills early when it's time for graduate school you will be well prepared. These gentlemen present their tips in a practical way tempered with enough humor to remind folks not to take themselves too seriously. I have previously used some of the tips provided and can't wait to put the new ones to use. Of course this is to my benefit as should most, if not all, of the decisions/actions you make/take regarding your educational career. This is one of many great tools to help keep students from meandering through school without a clear goal in sight. The best tip, in my opinion, that all students would be wise to learn early on is that no one cares about your education more than you; be your own advocate. This book is a great place to start learning to be just that. Life Rewards Action; Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger.

Travel With A Guide

Before I went to Ireland last year, I bought a couple of guides so I could prepare to understand the local culture and to use my time efficiently. When I traveled there, of course I brought the guides with me. My point is, grad school is a place with a culture (and map) all of it's own, too. With that in mind, I wouldn't recommend going to (and through) grad school without a good guide. Some guides try to intimidate (or even scare) you, though, and are actually discouraging. Be careful which one you choose. I liked Playing the Game for a couple of reasons: First, the authors wrote the book in a down-to-earth way and were really entertaining. Their humorous approach is absolutely unique. Second, the stories and advice are first-class, and have the effect of calming the readers' nerves. The authors really know what they are talking about.