careers

This is an excellent overview of the entire graduate school experience. The book examines a variety of topics including reasons for pursuing graduate school, things you can do as an undergraduate to better your chances, the graduate school application process, managing your thesis committee, writing your thesis, dealing with stress, and finding a job. The book is easy to read and keeps you interested. Every chapter is backed up with plenty of personal stories on what to do and what not to do. The book is very inspirational and truly gave me a different perspective on graduate school, one that I had never considered. I would highly suggest this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in graduate school, especially if you're still in college. I always knew that I wanted to pursue graduate school and there are many tips that I could have used as an undergrad but didn't know about. I plan to keep this book by my side during graduate school and reread relevant sections as they arise. My only complaint about the book is that it is a bit out of date in regards to the Internet and computers.

Until reading this book, I was convinced that all graduate school guides were written for second graders. The advice contained in most guidebooks is tragically simplistic and usually amounts to plain common sense. And any detailed information (on financial aid, etc.) contained within can be easily found using a good search engine on the internet.

Peters' book is the only guidebook I have ever read that is worth buying. It is geered towards educated, resourceful people contemplating graduate school and actually "tells you something you didn't already know."

Like many of the other reviewers have already said, Getting What You Came For is an invaluable tool for grad students. As informative as it was, though, it was just like all of the other stuff you end up reading in grad school, pretty stiff and boring--not that there's anything wrong with that...I bought this book along with another grad school guide called Playing the Game: The Streetsmart Guide to Graduate School. Both books contain excellent information, but Playing the Game was really funny and easy to read, too. Between the experiences related within these books, you won't likely be blindsided by any of the typical garbage that slows people down and makes them miserable.