1. Deciding to Go to Graduate School -- 2. Selecting an Advisor: Whose Lab Is Right for Me? -- 3. The Stages of Graduate School -- 4. Classes, Journal Clubs, Lab Meetings, and Seminars -- 5. The Absent Professor -- 6. How You Learn -- 7. Deciding on Research Projects for Your Dissertation -- 8. Networking -- 9. Picking a Dissertation Committee, and Defending the Proposal at the Preliminary Oral Exam -- 10. The Life of a Graduate Student -- 11. Some Additional Aspects of Graduate School Life: Lab Notebooks, Etiquette, Competition, Luck -- 12. Do I Belong Here?: Insecurity and Stress -- 13. Foreign Students: Unique Problems and Stresses -- 14. On the Art of Scientific Writing -- 15. What Should Your Goals Be While in Graduate School? -- 16. Times They Are A-Changing -- 17. The End Is in Sight: Writing the Dissertation -- 18. The Final Oral Exam (The Defense).