What is the first year of grad school like?

[faculty]

Like the first year of anything, the first year of grad school is really about getting your bearings and adjusting to a new life. As evidenced here in other posts, most people are living in a new place, feeling like impostors, struggling to make ends meet on a stipend, dealing with relationships and trying to make new ones with members of their cohort, and learning what graduate study in sociology is all about. People's experiences with all that vary, but don't underestimate the stress of the first year. It is hard.

Programs vary on what they have students do. Like at UT-Austin, every program will make you get many of the required courses out of the way. It can make you feel a bit like a hamster on a wheel, anxious to get somewhere but just standing in place, but it actually lightens the load course-wise, as there is often less reading/writing required for stats, prosem, etc. Some of you will have the year off from any assistantships (teaching or research), others won't. Those that have them will be busier, but will also be gaining important teaching and research experience. The value of such busyness shouldn't be overlooked or taken for granted. It's good to learn how to balance either (or both) with your other academic responsibilities.

Ultimately, it - like the rest of grad school - is what you make of it. You can coast through the classes by skimming the readings, contributing only sporadically and superficially to discussions in class, saving your paper for the end of the semester, and doing a lot of the things that undergraduates do. There are no requirements to present your work that first year (or really any year after that). However, you'll be establishing the habits (and reputation) that you'll carry with you throughout your time as an academic. Your professors will know who puts in the hours, who does the reading. When they choose who they want to work with on their next grant, it won't just be the passion you have for their field, but the work you put into those classes that influences whether or not they select you. If you work hard, do the readings, pay attention in classes, attend the workshops, job talks, and speaker series, submit to and attend conferences, you'll learn so much. It makes grad school much more difficult, but it influences where you end up. Don't do those things because you are in a top program, or not do them because you're not, because one of the main ways that programs move through the rankings is their graduate student placement. Regardless of where you are, act like you're at a top program, giving it your all and you are bound to not only help yourself, but could also improve the status of where you got your degree.

[msafiri]

First year was crazy hectic and intense and fun. In a nutshell, a shit ton of reading. Someone earlier said 500 pages/week. I'd say more than that, especially if you're doing research as well (and you should be!). You've got to start working on the end of semester papers well before they're due, which will require reading above and beyond what you're assigned for your courses. There's the required courses that may make you want to pull your hair out, especially when taught by obstinate faculty. But, those courses are good bonding for one's cohort and give you a chance to get to know everyone and their interests pretty quickly. For a lot of people, there's the experience of teaching for the first time, even if that's just leading discussion sections, and grading student work and giving feedback on that work.

There are a lot of times when you'll feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done so you'll be making decisions about what has to get done and what can wait. You'll learn to prioritize if you haven't already. You'll eat junk/fast food until you figure out easy, quick, inexpensive things to cook and keep around. You'll forego most physical activity by saying you don't have time without realizing that sacrificing your health is the last thing you should do. And, in many cases, you'll want to quit at least once or twice.