4 The Life of a Graduate Student
Dianne Prost O'Leary
©1996,1999,2009
Last modified 21 August 2009.
The life of a graduate student is much less structured than that of an undergraduate. Hours in the classroom are fewer, although hours of course-related work are greatly increased. The structure that might have been imposed on your undergraduate life by the routine of a dormitory, sorority, or fraternity is gone. You may find yourself far from home for the first time, or you may find that your family responsibilities are increased by marriage or parenthood. In any case, there will be more responsibilities to juggle and fewer fixed points to rely upon.
The next sections consider the major elements in the life of a beginning graduate student, some tools to help manage the workload, and sanity preservation. See Sections 14.2 and 14.5 for relevant links.
4.1 Courses
Graduate school gives you new freedom and flexibility in your choice of courses, although it might be a year or two before you experience this.
While the typical undergraduate carries 15 or more credit hours, the typical graduate students carries 9 or fewer. Expectations from the instructors are higher, however: you really will need to allow one or more study hours for every class hour. Different professors have different styles. Sometimes the instructor will lecture to supplement the text, and you will be required to master the textbook material on your own. Sometimes there is no text, so outside hours are spent in doing the suggested reading or in filling in the gaps in the course notes. Sometimes the students do the bulk of the presentations, with the instructor acting as resource person.
Choosing courses for your first semester must be done with care. Make use of your official academic advisor, the instructors for the courses that interest you, and fellow students. If you have any doubt about whether you are over- or under-prepared for a course, talk to the instructor about your background and get advice.
If you enter graduate school unprepared in some aspect of your major, remedying that deficiency should be your first priority. Try to take the elementary courses you are missing within your first year of study, but make sure that you also include some graduate courses if possible so that you can hasten your adjustment to graduate life.
Most departments have a set of course requirements or a set of exams that students are expected to pass within a given amount of time. Your second priority is to take the courses that will lead you to fulfilling these requirements. It is tempting to sign up during your first semester for several advanced seminars in a specialized area, but you cannot afford much time for this unless they fit into your plan of fulfilling the basic requirements. There will be time later to take advanced courses in the areas that interest you, and you may get a lot more out of those courses if you master the basics first.