For graduate students, the long journey of examinations and research towards an advanced degree is no piece of cake—or is it?
The work and dedication that goes into earning a postgraduate degree is no walk in the park, but there’s a lighter side to the upper-echelons of academia: food. As any college student knows through early morning pizza and late night candy cravings, remaining well-fed is important to studying and success. For those considering graduate school but worried about the availability of free food after walking out of Wallace Wade with an undergraduate diploma, have no fear. Snacks and other traditions have their place at Duke’s own graduate schools as well as academic institutions elsewhere.
Graduate students spend a good amount of time on their dissertations—original research papers that are the culmination of years of studying a specific field. These dissertations must jump through rings of qualifying examinations and revisions. Many of these benchmarks are decided in committee meetings that can last for hours.
“Most people bring some sort of food to committee meetings when defending prelims or dissertations,” said Liz Shesko, a graduate student in history.
Although these finger foods may not be exotic delicacies, they are appreciated by the committee members.
“I brought cheese and crackers for myself and my committee to munch on, especially since my combined defense of prelims and my dissertation prospectus spanned the lunch hour," Shesko added.
At her final dissertation defense sometime this year, Shesko said that she plans on cooking a dish that relates to her concentration: Bolivia. Aside from some easy finger foods such as cookies, it is not unheard of for advisors to bring champagne for a quick toast after the student passes the final hurdle. Shesko also noted an old tradition of handing down a stethoscope to the last person who passes the final dissertation defense—a humorous jab at the new “less-useful” doctors.
Dissertation desserts, however, vary across departments. In the chemistry department, for example, the food seems to run on the spare side.
“While some students will occasionally provide store-bought cookies at their defense or prelim, it's not a well-established practice in our department," said Caroline Morris, graduate program coordinator for chemistry.
Morris also noted that the graduate students in her department generally brought food “to entice other students to attend the open exams."
So while the food selection at defenses across departments may be different and sometimes rather barren, some tenets always hold true: food makes life better, and no one passes it up when it’s free.
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