I spoke last week to graduate students at the University of Maryland on the topic of “How to Reach Your Dissertation Goals This Semester.” At the end of my presentation, I was asked for some tips on completing the dissertation as a foreign student; that is, someone who had come from another country to complete a U.S. University Ph.D. program.

I had a few strategies to share which would make the process easier, and I thought that if they were helpful to the students in the talk, they would probably also be useful to those of you reading this blog.

So here are a few tips for dissertating as a foreign student: