Does anyone else feel like their Masters program (research based) isn't challenging enough?

[friesandwater]

Hey, Y'all! 

Hope everyone is enjoying grad school life. I'm almost done my first year in my graduate program in Public Health and I feel as though I am not challenged at all. I'm not pushed in the ways that I thought I would be. Undergrad seems way more challenging than this is right now to be quite honest... at least throughout my bachelor's degree I was always learning something new, challenged in the way I think or see different issues in the world, forced problem solve using interdisciplinary thinking... stuff like that. Here I feel like I have been pigeonholed and limited in a way. It is a lot of work, but nothing is new or cool or interesting.

Thoughts? Does anyone else feel the same way? 

 

[rising_star]

I sort of felt that way the first year of my MA (eons ago now). Then, I got some good advice from more senior grad students: your experience will be as challenging as you want it to be. If you seek out opportunities to go beyond the coursework, get involved in more research, learn to be a better teacher, etc., then your master's can and will challenge you. But if you don't do that and complain about the program, you really only have yourself to blame. Instead of saying you feel pigeonholed, seek out the things you think are cool, new, or interesting. Go to office hours to talk to profs about them. Read up on them on your own. See if anyone will take you on as a RA to focus on one of those topics. Your education in grad school is driven by you so make the most of it while you can.

[Adelaide9216]

I kinda feel the same way. So far, I find my MSW quite easy. The only thing that I find challenging is not having the research process go exactly as planned. But I am trying to get opportunities to challenge myself, I got a fellowship for the health and social Policy instiute at my uni to do work on my MSW research topic next year + I applied to be a TA as well while working on my dissertation. I've also tried to be a member of research groups to meet other researchers and know about the opportunities to present in my field (for example, I am going to a conference in France this summer). 

But I agree with you, overwall to me, my MSW is easier than my BSW and I kinda hear a lot of people say the same thing around me. 

[PokePsych]

Yeah.. it happens. I found my Master understimulating and getting high grades was fairly easy for me. So I did a lot on the side. Including:
- Editor for a student Journal
- Lab assistant for 16 hr per week
- Extra research projects
- TA-ing at some point here and there (helping with grading mainly)
- Internship in consultancy 2 days per week (OK at that point I overdid it haha)
- Read a lot of extra material unrelated to my classes, just because I liked it certain topics (which then helped me with writing proposals, again making thigns easier, but OK).

Was helpful for getting a PhD - they were 'very impressed' by my experiences.