Part of the challenge is how individualized the struggle can be. There are certain common trends you can find across a large population of grad students, but th

Part of the challenge is how individualized the struggle can be. There are certain common trends you can find across a large population of grad students, but the details an individual is confronted with have to do with their subdiscipline and relationship with their advisor and their department. Then there’s the issue of the fact that the core requirement of the PhD — developing a new idea with merit — is just hard. It takes a lot of time and work to do that in the best circumstances. I liked my department and my advisor and felt that they did the best job they could given their resources, but I was still pushed to my breaking point at times.