Seven Qualities of Highly Effective Graduate Students

I have been privileged to mentor exceptional graduate students in the Purdue Industrial-Organizational Psychology Program, many of whom have become outstanding academics and applied researchers. While each student has their own unique set of strengths and interests, I have noticed that there are core qualities that can be found in stellar graduate students.

Given my interest in role models of human excellence, I catalog some of these positive qualities. Perhaps these are qualities you already embody – or perhaps these are dimensions you can cultivate. Personally, this exercise of listing these qualities has inspired me to continually develop them in my own work and life.

1.     Prompt and Clear Communication. Successful graduate students work hard at responding promptly to emails and other correspondence. They treat graduate school as a full-time job and respond to emails quickly during the workweek. They also summarize critical thoughts and action points to ensure that the main points are not lost in the communication. During meetings, they have a clear agenda laid out for discussion. This practice of prompt and clear communication reduces the chances of misunderstanding and helps move projects and ideas forward.

2.     Learning Mindset. During my undergraduate studies, one of my psychology professors remarked that despite his achievements, he is “always a student first.” I have noticed that successful graduate students similarly cultivate a learning mindset. They are constantly reading, learning, and willing to challenge their own understanding and knowledge. While they constantly put in their best effort, they are not afraid of failure because it is an opportunity to learn. As a result of this mindset, there is less performance anxiety. It also reduces the experience of imposter syndrome as they care less about what others think about their limitations – instead, these are viewed as opportunities to learn and grow.

3.     Focused Work. During the start of my graduate school, I was jokingly told by a senior graduate student that research productivity is related to the number of hours you sit in your chair. Clearly, the quality of being effective is not how much you can warm your seat. Rather, it refers to the willingness to work long and hard on the tasks at hand. Successful graduate students are hyper-focused when they work - and they achieve this by actively removing distractions from their during work hours. In doing so, they achieve more in less time.

4.     Proactive. Top-flight graduate students do not sit around waiting to be told what to do or spoon-fed. They take charge of their own learning, projects, and career. When they need help or advice, they reach out. When facing problems, they don’t throw their hands up but instead, look for solutions. This often entails discussing obstacles with others, conducting internet searches, reviewing the literature, and finding out what they don’t know. Going beyond that, they think through likely challenges in their projects and seek to prepare for and preempt them. In doing so, they develop leadership, independence, and solid personal insights.

5.     Humble-minded. The goal of top graduate programs is to train graduate students to become world-class experts in a field of knowledge. Often, this can lead to some level of hubris. However, outstanding graduate students tamp down their pride in order to be better listeners and collaborators. They work on receiving and incorporating feedback in their work. They are open to deeply understanding other perspectives, and other disciplines, that may even run counter to their own. This habit of mind - and heart - makes their work truly amazing.

6.     Prosocial orientation. The best graduate students care deeply for the welfare of others around them. They seek the well-being of others around them and the program they are in. They take time to meet and support fellow graduate students, help others on their projects, and volunteer to take on service tasks. Their prosocial orientation leads others to trust and value them deeply. And often, this opens up many different doors. As organizational psychologists, we recognize that finding talent is hard enough. What would you give for a talented individual with a heart of gold?

7.     Not consumed by work. While graduate school – and academia – can be all-consuming, successful graduate students have developed good work-life routines to ensure that they are prioritizing their sleep, rest, exercise, and healthy relationships. The most successful students actively ensure they are physical and relationally healthy. They are able to say ‘no’ to work opportunities in order to stay well-balanced. After all, it is not the graduate student who can sprint the fastest but the graduate student who can work at a consistent and sustainable pace that will thrive. In doing so, they maintain a growing passion for the work they do and are less likely to experience burnout.

I hope these seven qualities of highly effective graduate students inspire you as they have me. And that you can find ways of incorporating more of these into your own graduate school and academic career.

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Louis Tay is the William C. Byham Associate Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Purdue University and the Director of WAM-Lab. His expertise is in well-being, research methodology, and data science. He is the founder of the tech-startup ExpiWell that advances the science and capture of daily life experiences through experience sampling methodology.