Hi, I'm 18. I'm not in college yet but I've decided that I'm very probably going to grad school and there's a chance I will be a PhD. I'm aiming at the best school I can possibly get...

So I need some advice. What can I do to best position myself at this current moment in time? I'm ahead of my age and read quite a bit. I read academic journals and scholarly works. At this point, I totally understand academic journal content when I read it, but my problem is understanding how to write one myself. I was thinking of trying to get published, I might need to get a book about publishing before I try though. Basically, if you were 18, what could you have best done or wish you had done to prepare yourself for grad school and beyond?

P.S. i'm interested in the liberal arts, particularly english, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Thanks for any reply.

it's sort of sad how all you people care about is getting through your next paper, or this or that stressful event. why are you pursuing PhD's, again?

First piece of advice - don't ask for advice and then be rude about the people you are asking. Tends to annoy them.

Secondly, you are 18 - what would you know about doing a PhD? People are worrying about it because it's flipping stressful and at times you need support from the very helpful and friendly people on this forum. Don't expect them to be too friendly towards you though, given your attitude.

obvious troll is obvious.

I second Smoobles' post. It's great that you're thinking ahead and planning for the future, but I don't think you decide on doing a PhD until you've experienced an undergraduate and Master's- it's a pretty long road until you get to the PhD stage.

I haven't begun my PhD yet- I begin in September- and I can already understand the threads here because of stress during my Master's. Just because people experience stress and need others to speak to it doesn't mean they don't appreciate or enjoy their overall PhD experience. Please don't insult people who are going through difficulties because of stress. I'm currently putting the finishing touches to my Master's thesis (which I have loved researching) and due to anxiety I have developed stomach spasms. It's great being here and not hearing the kind of opinion you've put below- people in this situation need a support network, regardless of the fact that they are privileged to be doing what they're doing.

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If you read the threads on here, you will see why it is so stressful - because it takes hard work, dedication, motivation and lots of other qualities to get through a PhD. It's nothing like being at school, and it's not even really much like being at university. To help yourself at this point, I would just concentrate on getting the best grades I could and getting onto the uni course I really wanted. Beyond that, I wouldn't worry too much - you've got a number of years ahead of you before you need to start thinking about a PhD. You might even decide, after starting uni, that you don't like it that much after all and don't want to do a PhD.

As for publishing, it's not a case of just 'totally understanding' academic content and just writing your own. Firstly, you need to have an original contribution to make to the field for someone to consider publishing it. Secondly, people don't tend to just write papers off their own back and send them in - most papers come from people in academia or industry who are affiliated with a particular institution - have a look at the papers you read, the address they come from will be a uni or company. The reason for this is that they are the people doing the research. You don't just decide out of the blue to write a paper - you do a lot of research and then discover that some of it is publishable and worthy of a paper. Again, not meaning to be patronising but journals are unlikely to accept a paper from a random person, unestablished in the field, no connection to a university, etc etc. If your research was brilliant they might consider it, but I've never heard of it happening before. Also, paper writing is a skill that you develop over the years, as it is important to consider things like referencing, plagiarism, original contribution, impact factors, audience etc.

I'm not all together convinced that you are genuine, but if you are then I think the best advice I could give you would be to knuckle down to your studies, and wait until you're doing your own PhD (MANY years in the future) before you criticise people who are experiencing difficulties with theirs.

If anyone cares, I started yesterday and spent a few hours just reading over certain articles. That proved to be in vain though, as nothing came of it. But today I've developed some kind of 'idea' or thesis on a different subject that I'm pursuing. I've actually had it for quite some time but have been unable to meaningfully articulate it. Its still in the germination stages but I expect it to blossom as I swarm myself in research materials from the library.

If I was 18 I wouldnt be thinking about a phd but rather having fun, going on breaks and things like that. Think about it in a few years when u start uni.