Advice from Graduate Students

Here is some advice from philosophy graduate students:

If there is anything else that you can do and be happy, do that.  If there is nothing else that you can do and be happy, then come join us.  You'll love it. But being a graduate student is a very difficult way to live. 

Consider the decision with great care.  Graduate school takes more time, energy and thought than new grad students ever thought possible.  A Ph.D. is a massive undertaking that exceeds all predictions and estimates concerning the resources you have and will need.

Reconsider your decision to pursue a Ph.D.  The job market in most fields is poorer than your professors will lead you to believe.  You could be making a decent living or making the world a better place in the years that you'll be scraping out a living doing arcane research and teaching for a fraction of what professors are paid for the same work.   

http://www.phd-survey.org/advice/philosophy.htm