How intense is grad school?

[The Green Bean]

I've always gone to school in a non-Western country and I was wondering how intensive grad school is in relation to the work load. Where I was my typical day would be classes from 8AM to 430PM with an hour of break for lunch. There would be some rest time until about 6 where we could visit the school's sports facilities. Come dusk, we would be hitting the books, revising, and completing our research projects. We would be free by 9 and get some time to relax. I usually slept early though considering I woke up at 630AM for breakfast and some early morning work. Saturdays were half days and Sundays were off.

Now that I've applied to grad school, I was wondering how hectic would my typical day be? Would I have a life outside grad school?

[UnlikelyGrad]

I've always gone to school in a non-Western country and I was wondering how intensive grad school is in relation to the work load. Where I was my typical day would be classes from 8AM to 430PM with an hour of break for lunch. There would be some rest time until about 6 where we could visit the school's sports facilities. Come dusk, we would be hitting the books, revising, and completing our research projects. We would be free by 9 and get some time to relax. I usually slept early though considering I woke up at 630AM for breakfast and some early morning work. Saturdays were half days and Sundays were off.

Now that I've applied to grad school, I was wondering how hectic would my typical day be? Would I have a life outside grad school?

For one thing, your school day will certainly be less structured! Fewer classes, more independent study. What your day would look like would be very dependent on your major/program, though.

[The Green Bean]

For one thing, your school day will certainly be less structured! Fewer classes, more independent study. What your day would look like would be very dependent on your major/program, though.

I'm applying to a masters program (most are taught degrees, one is research) in the humanities.

Edited December 26, 2010 by The Green Bean

[wtncffts]

This, of course, depends on your own circumstances: whether you have teaching or assisting duties, other kinds of work, etc. Just classes, though, I suspect you will be 'on the clock' FAR less than you were before, particularly since you're in humanities, which is similar to social sciences. Even taking three or four courses, they're once a week for two or three hours each, often in the afternoon. At least that was my experience. As UnlikelyGrad said, it's really up to you what you do with most of your time.

[fuzzylogician]

My classes are usually 3 hours in class and about 10 hours of additional work every week. I wouldn't take more than 3-4 classes a semester. Then there may be additional duties like TA or RA work, and at some point you have to start investing time in your own research. As others have said, it's much less structures than the way you describe your undergrad. Generally, no one will tell you what to do when, just what's expected of you.

ETA: I work about 70-80 hours a week on a normal week. They get more intense the closer it gets to the end of the semester (who decided to put conference deadlines and squib deadlines at the same time?). I spend 5 hours in different reading groups and colloqs; 2 hours in a weekly lab meeting; I proctor 1-2 days a week for different experiments that we run in the lab; I am currently involved in 5 different projects; I have weekly meetings with 3 profs, and I spend some time preparing for each of them; I usually have 1-2 other meetings with different people throughout the week; and there is normally 1-2 other odd events. Classwork is not how I spend most of my time.I don't even TA or RA, and I've definitely long since given up trying to do all of my reading. I'm happy if I have time to skim the assigned reading before class; but then, we're not a reading-intensive program, one can get by without doing all of the reading, though of course it's always better to do it all.

Edited December 27, 2010 by fuzzylogician

[StrangeLight]

well, i'm in a social sciences/humanities (they're not sure) program and i spend 7.5 hours a week in class. i then spend 60-70 more hours doing everything that needs to be done. christmas day was the first day i spent not working since mid-august (that's including weekends), and only because i was on an airplane most of the time. got back to work today and i suspect it'll be more daily work until the end of april, and then i'll take a breather.

i'm in a reading-intensive discipline, though. i know people in public policy programs that read two articles per class and call it a day.

[The Green Bean]

70-80 hrs a week does sound intense especially if you need your concentration level to be at optimum. That's like working 10 hours every day. I probably will not be teaching since I'm an international student and my spoken English isn't that fluent. But I guess I should not expect grad school to be a stroll in the park I have had people doing their masters in the Middle East who pass with attending about 2-3 classes a year and then appearing for the exams. I don't want to do that, but it'll be tough to keep motivated if I don't enjoy it. For now though, I shouldn't get my hopes too high and wait for an admission offer.

I'll probably be funding myself. Will that increase my chances of admission in the top schools?

[Eigen]

I'm in the sciences, and unless you're at a top 5 school, most people probably aren't working 70-80 hours a week.

We just interviewed for new faculty members (with credentials that made me worry about ever getting a position somewhere), and most said they worked 50-60 hour weeks through their PhDs and post-docs.

Especially when you spend all day working with explosive or highly toxic/deadly materials, getting enough sleep and downtime to be fresh isn't just recommended, it's necessary. I think the good students here work a decent 8-6 day, and then do another 8-10 hours spread over Saturday and Sunday.

[rising_star]

I know lots of people that say they work 70-80 hours per week and can't think of anyone that actually does. I can't write during typical business hours, so I reserve writing for late at night (10pm-2am). I do put in a few hours of work during the day as well. I don't typically do lots of work on the weekends, particularly not in the fall. This has worked well for me, though I'm planing to tweak it this coming semester. Graduate school can consume all of your time if you let it. I personally refuse to let that happen.

[balderdash]

I know lots of people that say they work 70-80 hours per week and can't think of anyone that actually does. I can't write during typical business hours, so I reserve writing for late at night (10pm-2am). I do put in a few hours of work during the day as well. I don't typically do lots of work on the weekends, particularly not in the fall. This has worked well for me, though I'm planing to tweak it this coming semester. Graduate school can consume all of your time if you let it. I personally refuse to let that happen.

70-80 would be about right for me. Class starts at 10 am, and immediately after it's a solid 6 hours in the library... go home for dinner, then do some research from about 9-2. It's about 12 hours per day, each of the 5 working days, then another 6-8 hours on saturday and sunday each.

[StrangeLight]

yeah, i hit 60 to 70 hours a week regularly. on average this last semester, mondays and tuesdays i'd spend an hour in class and 8 or 9 hours working on my own stuff. wednesdays and thursdays i'd spend 6-7 hours working and 3.5 hours in class. on fridays i'd spend 4 hours working/prepping, 1 hour in class, and 4 hours teaching. on saturdays i'd get in about 6 hours of work and sundays i'd put in a solid 10 to 12 hours (with football on tv on mute as i worked). on particularly busy weeks, i'd work a little longer on saturdays, mondays, and tuesdays. i don't know how people put in 80 hours, i feel exhausted on the especially busy weeks when i break 70 hours of work.

70-80 hrs a week does sound intense especially if you need your concentration level to be at optimum. That's like working 10 hours every day. I probably will not be teaching since I'm an international student and my spoken English isn't that fluent. But I guess I should not expect grad school to be a stroll in the park I have had people doing their masters in the Middle East who pass with attending about 2-3 classes a year and then appearing for the exams. I don't want to do that, but it'll be tough to keep motivated if I don't enjoy it. For now though, I shouldn't get my hopes too high and wait for an admission offer.

I'll probably be funding myself. Will that increase my chances of admission in the top schools?

i'm not sure about what programs you're applying for, but i definitely wouldn't assume that you won't be teaching because you're an international student. it's very common for international students with less than fluent english to be TAs.

and no, funding yourself will not increase your chance of admission at top schools. or most schools. they'll admit you on your ability and fit only. then, if they can afford it, they'll offer you a fellowship/research assistantship/teaching assistantship package, or if they can't afford it, they won't fund you. then, if you can pay for yourself, you can go to a program without funding. but especially at the top schools, they won't take you just because you can pay. they don't take your financial situation into consideration when they determine acceptances (at least for PhD programs). only after they make you an offer does your financial situation really come into the picture.

[The Green Bean]

Thanks StrangeLight. I've applied for master's at Harvard, NYU, Utexas Austin, UChicago, U of T, and Mcgill. I'm also going to apply of Oxford and SOAS. I'll just hope for the best and wish I can get into at least one of them. I'm confident that I'm a strong candidate but I don't know how they will look at my foreign credentials. I have good experience in the field, a strong SOP and decent reference letters. I have also heard that my GRE score (600V, 690Q, 4.5AWA) is very good considering I've never studied in the USA. Above all I feel I offer diversity that not many others can offer.

Even if I don't get in, it's not going to be a total waste. I feel the whole application process was a learning experience in itself. I realized that Western academia is vastly different from what I have experienced. In fact, the only reason I want to enroll is getting a glimpse of the other side.

/

]/'

[RosemaryJuniper]

I wouldn't worry too much about the 70-80 hour estimates--numbers are a lot fuzzier than you might think! Some examples from my schedule: I spend, on average, some 10-12 hours per week in an unofficial Latin reading group. I'm a medievalist, so I could count those toward my 'work' total (if I did, I'd definitely break 70hrs/wk!), but because I'm crazy, I tend to think of it as relaxation time instead. Likewise, what about the times I decide to 'study' at the coffeeshop where a lot of people in my program hang out? Chances are my productivity will be halved--and my work-time doubled--but for sanity's sake, I do it anyway. Probably, if I did all my work in the library at full speed, no distractions, I could cut my overall time working by a third or more, but as a quality-of-life issue, I won't. Basically, you make your own schedule, and whatever you choose to do will be right at the limit of what you *can* do.