What is grad school abuse?

In grad school, you’ll likely be a victim of a special kind of institutional abuse. Institutional abuse happens when you suffer abuse because of the rules and procedures of an organization.

In grad school, you might suffer institutional abuse as a result of the university as a whole, your specific department, or just your supervisor. It may be that your program has unreasonable expectations. Or, that your supervisor always criticizes you. Or that you are chronically underpaid and overworked. All of these things aren’t “OK” even if they are common within grad school settings. Abuse is abuse even if it is common.