The Only Thing Lower than a Slave: or How to Succeed in Graduate School Despite Really Trying

Graduate School—the Final Frontier. Or—well—maybe the Next-to-Final-Frontier (sorry Doctors). Or, um, well-- after Law School-- maybe the Alternate-Route-Beside-and/or-Perpendicular-to-the-Next-to-Final-Frontier? Though nowadays “continuing” education might best be described as “never ending”, Graduate School is still the first, alienating step of overachievers everywhere into the void of ceaseless education. For countless generations, this epoch-defining entrance into the unknown has been ritualistically taken alone; but now, as if a phoenix rising up from its ashes, a Graduate Student GRADUATE has returned from the dark realm to give you first years a much needed lifeline, guide, and—yes—friend to help you navigate through this treacherous red-tape jungle we lovingly call Grad School. "The Only Thing Lower than a Slave" is Wilson Toney’s hilarious-yet-informative personal tale of survival from the trenches of higher education. Written in highly personable, and highly populist prose (a rarity for Engineering grads), Toney presents his own experiences and universal observations of how to succeed and/or survive Graduate School-- even while taking 24-credit hours and with a wife and kids back home. Rife full of tricks, tips, laments, warnings and tall-tales, "The Only Thing Lower than a Slave" is both a comment on, and a humorous dissection of, the reasonless insanity that’s such an inherent part of the bureaucratic, overly-legalistic experience of the modern Graduate School. Though its intention of keeping you AWAY from tertiary education altogether might not succeed, if nothing else, it’s a welcome companion and source of affirmation to you ever-juveniles we call Grads. And, if really for nothing else, this book is worth it for the intriguing title-- though if you’ve erroneously stumbled onto it in the “Sex and Bondage” section, you might want to ask for your money back.