Friday Links: Recommendation Letters, Note-Taking, and More!

by Manhattan Prep Nov 30, 2012

Need a break from writing your grad school applications? Take a moment to catch up on some recent stories circulating around the grad school community.

Should You Ask a Teaching Assistant for a Recommendation Letter? (About.com Graduate School)

Trying to decide who to ask to write your grad school recommendation letters? Here’s why it’s probably not the best idea to turn to your undergraduate TAs.

Grad School Application Checklist: 10 Months Out (US News Education)

It’s never a good idea to wait until the last minute to get your graduate school applications together. Here is US New Education’s third installment of advice for completing your applications in a timely manner.

What I know now: Grad School (Jeremy Yoder) (The Molecular Ecologist)

Planning to attend grad school for science? Check out what one postdoctoral associate wishes he’d known to do (and what he’s glad he did) in graduate school.

How to Take Notes that are USEFUL (grad school NINJA)

There’s no right or wrong way to take notes but if you’re looking for some new strategies check out this piece. Grad school NINJA offers tips for taking productive notes in print books, journal articles, and primary sources.

Knowledge Workers are Bad at Working (and Here’s What to Do About it) (Study Hacks)

Study Hacks suggests that knowledge workers need to engage in Deep Work, or cognitively demanding activities that leverage [your] training to generate rare and valuable results, and that push [your] abilities to continually improve. Keep this philosophy in mind throughout your grad school career.