Tim's journal

Even if you don't know whether the program will be functional, the individual people involved (faculty, students, and staff) matter a lot too. As I tried to suggest here, it helps to be as outgoing as she can possibly be and start forming relationships early with faculty and other students. Students, in particular, teach you the unofficial rules of the game -- or, if it's a new program, help make the rules :-)

I think _Leaving the Ivory Tower_ should be required reading for everyone starting a graduate program. Knowing what the structural factors are that affect success or failure is the first step towards developing an individual strategy that's resilient to those factors.