pocoslughorn

I'm going to be starting an MA in English this fall and even though I am no where near getting a visa in hand, my major concern is still preparing myself for no regrets. It should be no surprise that a large chunk of students across the world adore the US Education system. A South Asian myself, seeing my undergraduate department fail miserably in handling the pandemic, I have jotted down multiple reasons to be happy about embarking on this journey even though the university I'd be joining isn't a prestigious one. However, I've seen multiple international students struggle to understand the politics of academia in the US. I, myself, would have to take up RA, TA and writing center work which still makes me yearn for anxiety meds in the middle of the night. In this thread, I hope other English Literature grad students or better yet, international students can drop in the things they learnt or observed when it comes to academic culture. For instance (not an exhaustive list): 1) How formal and frequent should the relationship with your Graduate advisor be? 2) How should you prepare for graduate seminars? 3) How can you improve your academic writing? 4) Who should you contact for summer job and internship opportunities? 5) How exactly does writing center consulting works? As a student interested in Postcolonial Theory, I've promised myself not to be apologetic for not knowing. I can only hope this thread would help other international students as well. Thank you!