PhD Discussion Forum

Sometimes I stumble upon websites that describe what grad school is like. They may do it to inspire/scare future grad students or give support to current students. Sometimes I have felt good because someone else seemed to know what it is like, and I'm not alone with my problems.

However, (too) often the websites/articles take the "universal truths about grad school" approach. They exaggerate, see things black and white, assume all students and universities (and professors) are the same and so on. They may say as a grad student you will never have any free time or any friends and you can't trust your advisor - or they may say you'll get tons of friends and the advisor is your best friend. And many other things.

In my experience there's a huge diversity in what grad students do, where their motivation comes from and what their problems are. There can be good specific solutions for specific problems (as in many threads on this forum) but otherwise "support" can be even misleading.

Do you think the general image of what PhD students are like is wrong? What kind of support would you have wanted when you started? Do you have this same experience - as I do - that the variety of paths through the program make it difficult to make generalizations?