hldavids

To answer the follow-up questions first - for an online community to look at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALAthinkTANK/ Original questions (I attended Syracuse University 2006-2008. I moved to Syracuse and took most of my classes in face-to-face format.) What was graduate school like for you? Was it easy or hard? Did it consume your life? I went to an extremely rigorous undergraduate institution, so I actually found the work load quite easy (yet still intellectually stimulating for the most part). How close are/were you with your advisor? Did you get to choose your advisor? I didn't really work with an advisor. Did your program require a thesis? If so, was it difficult to write? No thesis. I would do the optional thesis as I believe it builds credibility if academic librarianship is your goal. What were your classmates like? I actually built stronger relationships with my LIS classmates than I did with my undergraduate classmates. My curriculum has a LOT of group work. Did you have group work? Did your group members actually pull their weight? Similar experiences to undergrad and the "real" world. Group work is everywhere. Some people pull their weight, others do not. DO NOT assume that just because they made it to graduate school they will be professional. My group in one course learned the hard way (in the form of a low grade), that you must proof even fellow graduate students (in library school!!) on citations and plagiarism problems. Were there any differences between your undergrad experience and your grad school experience? As an undergrad (1993-1997) I did 10-20 hours of work-study. As a graduate student, I had a 60% contract (3 school days per week) as a teacher librarian. So I worked a bit more as a graduate student, but the academic reading requirements weren't as rigorous, so I would say my life balance was about the same. I graduated with significantly more debt from graduate school simply because of the time lapse and rate of inflation for tuition (I went to a private undergraduate institution as well).

I didn't upload a video for Syracuse - I attended classes on-campus for my MSLIS there from 2006-2008, so I know many of the professors already.