http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/blog_landing/public/Screen%20Shot%202011-12-12%20at%2012.29.48%20PM.png?itok=ITDqfJNPBy Kaitlin Gallagher. The best advice I’ve received about surviving in the competitive world of grad school was passed down from a colleague: “Kaitlin, make sure to run your own race.” This came in response to a question I asked about how to deal with people around me doing all sorts of things that I wasn’t doing. What she meant was that it was my degree and it’s what I do that matters.  Looking around at your colleagues, there will be people publishing more, teaching more, and people who have more extracurricular activities, or more funding. It can be easy to think you don’t measure up. This self-deprecating thinking ignores strategies that can help make you successful and instead fixates on what others are doing. Read more...