Preparing for 1st Semester

[rllnyc]

About 3 years have passed since I graduated with a Bachelor's degree.  The job I've been working at since then isn't exactly the most stimulating (pays well enough though). My issue is this--

 

If you've had a gap between undergrad & graduate school, how did you feel before starting school again? Were you confident that you'd easily adjust to school life again? Did you feel like you lost that ability to succeed in school? 

 

Although I did very well as an undergrad & apparently was successful in  my grad application, I feel like my brain has sort of atrophied at my desk job. I'm super eager to take classes, learn & write again, but I haven't had to critically think much since college. Or write essays. I'm scared about what it'll  be like returning to a school setting.......have I lost my brain?!!! Help!! Does anyone feel the same/has anyone felt this way before?

Edited March 14, 2013 by rllnyc

[Cookie]

I feel the same.

 

I graduated last year and have since been working in a non science related job.  I also keep doing research at my UG lab, but I do feel kinda rusty.  Now that I got accepted to several programs, I start planning out what I want to do. So far:

 

1.  Finishing up my past research essay and prepping for NSF/DOD/DOE fellowship applications.

2.  Reading background materials for graduate research (my POI provides me with a list).

3.  Learning scientific programming.

4.  Finding a place to live where I'm going to school.

5.  Reviewing materials for entrance exams.

6.  Trying to get in grad school early to do summer research.

7.  Random preparations like: learning how to make attractive posters, proofreading others' theses and proposals...

 

Beside working my 30+ hours/ week job, these have kept me busy and built up my confidence, again.  I'm also curious what others have done in a similar situation.  Some advices would be greatly appreciated.

[madricka]

I'm kinda freaked about going back also. I've been in critical care/trauma nursing for the last 6 years (after 2 undergrad degrees) and heading into a MI program. All I'm planning to do is to attend as many events at the iSchool as possible so I can start to feel like a student again. I bought a new desk & other bits (haha). I've also been doing a lot of genealogical research -- not related but getting me back into the research mode. I'm also switching jobs, doing ICU research instead of bedside nursing. Still worried about getting back to it though, as excited as I am.

[pears]

same position! i graduated last may ('12), and i've been doing lots of field and lab work since then, but not a lot of reading or writing. i'm honestly more concerned about the reading part; i get distracted very easily, and i'm a lot better at writing because it keeps me on my toes and thinking both "big" and "little" picture. obviously, my critical reading and discussing skills improved a lot towards the end of my undergrad career, but now that i've been out of school for a couple of semesters, i'm worried about being rusty! i've actually thought about going back and re-reading some textbooks, or asking ahead of times which ones i'll need to purchase (if the editions are up to date) just to get ahead and back in the swing of things.

[iowaguy]

I have been reading journal articles in my subfield, particularly all of the articles of the profs I'm interested in working with.  Have read 100 so far, hope to read couple hundred more before late Aug (1 or 2 each day).  This is good mental exercise and will hopefully let me hit the ground running...

[Sadie_Bea]

I got my BA in 2011 and have been working a 9-5 job in something I never wanted to do, so needless to say, I'm glad to be getting back to my field after 2 years!  Here are a few things I've been doing:

 

1. Re-reading my notes and annotations from undergrad, to refresh my memory.

2. Revising old papers.  (This may seem weird, but it helps me see what I've learned in my time "away" and what I've forgotten.  I was surprised how much I have retained and how quickly things I'd forgotten came back.)

3. Researching the resources available to me as a new student (e.g. academic databases, other library resources, student reading/research groups, etc.)  It's nice to know where to find and how to use each of these resources before even starting up coursework again, and I'm sure it will mitigate the feeling of disorientation common to the incoming student experience.

4. Re-aquainting myself with RefWorks (my favorite bibliography-making tool).  They've made some updates since I last used it, so I'm learning my way around it again and organizing the info I already have in there.    

5. Researching the kinds of discounts and "perks" that are now available to me thanks to my new status as a card-carrying student, and deciding what to get with the discounts (Adobe, for example, has great deals for students).

6. Recycling old school supplies (I'm a pack rat, so I had plenty of excellent binders and notebooks leftover from undergrad.) 

7. Writing in my new school at the top of my CV.  For some reason, this just makes it feel so official and has helped me mentally prepare.

 

Things I plan to do this summer:

1. Brush up on my foreign language skills (this is important in my field)

2. Sign up for an Amazon Student account so I can get free shipping on books .

3. As others have mentioned, read up on some current research in my field.

4. Browse through calls for papers, and then draft a paper (probably not submit it, just do it as a warming up exercise)

 

Hope those ideas help!  

[bizio]

I will begin my MA after 8 years out of school and am changing career paths, so I feel completely unprepared and out of my element. While I've always been a good student, I am out of practice and I know I'll need to establish some new norms in my daily routine - mostly dedicated time to reading and writing!

 

Luckily, I'll start off slowly with a language course over the summer so I can get used to being back in a classroom. I'm also compiling a summer reading list for myself, and searching for articles related to my general research topics. I'm very excited to sign up for Amazon Student, too! I bought a new backpack, and I can't wait to fill it with books.

 

Part of what makes this next month so challenging is that I'm still waiting to hear from a few programs, and am not close to making a decision yet. I think once I choose a school it will all start to feel much more "real," and I will be able to more seriously prepare.

[lypiphera]

Lots of people have posted great suggestions that I agree with.  I am also trying to get back into the swing of things, so as others have said, I plan to take some free online courses, read journal articles, and edit my undergrad honor's thesis into a (hopefully) publishable work.  For online courses, I am using Coursera.  I can't recommend it or anything since I haven't used it yet, but it looks good.  I signed up for an intro to social psychology (as a refresher), statistics (as a refresher and to learn SAS), and intro to computer programming (since I have no experience with it).  Once I'm done with my job in June, I plan to spend more time on fellowship applications as well, such as NSF.  My advisor said we should start talking over the summer so I can "hit the ground running" when I get here, and I totally agree.

 

I am looknig forward to going back to school life after work.  I do really like my job, and I work in research so it's not irrelevant, but I am excited to be an the academic environment again.

[iowaguy]

Browse through calls for papers, and then draft a paper (probably not submit it, just do it as a warming up exercise)

 

Where can one find these "calls for papers"?

[Sadie_Bea]

Where can one find these "calls for papers"?

 

Listservs, and also many universities will post them on their webpages. A google search of your field + call for papers should turn something up, although it may vary by field (mine is English).  

Edited March 15, 2013 by Sadie_Bea

[process chemist]

I was off for 5 years, and that was difficult. My adviser took off 4 years before he started his PhD and he warned me at the beginning of the 1st semister that this semester will kick my ass. It did. The thing about working before going to school was that I worked so hard, that I just wanted to go home and relax. But this can be overcome by being disciplined and trying out new things until you find your groove. This semester is going much, much better than the last. Currently pulling an A-/B+ work, but it takes discipline and a change of thinking.  

[MissC]

I graduated with my BS in 2004 and went back for my masters in 2010. During the gap I was employed full time in a completely unrelated field. My first class back I got a B and after that, it was smooth sailing and A's all the way. It just took a couple months to make that shift back. Like riding a bike, only instead of bandaids, you get lower grades:)

 

Lots of folks have made great recommendations above (I particularly love the one about editing your own old papers- DO THIS!!!!).

As long as you are aware that adjustments will need to be made, you'll do fine.

[PsychGirl1]

I took a few night classes. The first one was a little overwhelming ("how do you write a literature review?? i forget!!") but after that it was easy to get in the swing of things.

[Panama Slim]

I finished my BS in 1996.  Finished a JD/MBA in 2001.  Haven't been in a class room since.  Not only that, but the BS was in psychology, although I did take the only Anthro class my school offered.  I have been both very stressed and very confident about this upcoming semester.  I have done graduate work before, but this topic is still uncharted academic territory.

 

I plan to:

1. attend a few local school-based conferences.  

2. take some languages courses this summer.  

3. reading some articles pulled from JSTOR (still have access from the law school)

4. currently taking a Coursera course on Sustainability

5. will asking my advisor for a reading list

6. scour GradCafe for any insight and ideas to get me throught it all

7. sleep with interesting anthro text books under my pillow, hoping for some osmosis effects

[SeriousSillyPutty]

I did my undergrad in physics, spent five years working in science ed, then started back last fall at grad school for science ed. The program involves multiple kinds of classes, which both made me nervous.

I was nervous about all the "social science-y" classes, because, being a physics major, I never had more than one writing class a semester, so never learned to crank out a 10-page paper in a night like my friends in the humanities.  My reading pace is also the same out loud and to myself, which is to say it is slow.

I was nervous about the physics classes because I didn't remember calculus, let alone the details of physics classes -- and let's be honest, those classes had been hard as an undergrad, too!

 

My misgivings were not ill-founded, especially on the physics side.  I knew that I'd forgotten a lot, but I didn't anticipate being so "out of shape":  Even after I re-learned how to do problems, I had to spend so much more time working through them, and was much more prone to stupid mistakes.  (Even if you never forget how to ride a bicycle, five miles up hill will kick your but if you haven't been practicing.)  "Div, Grad, Curl, and All That" is a book designed to cover the basics of multi-variable calc for science types.  I looked over some of that, but truth be told, after last semester my adviser is working with me stretch the requirements to include less intense classes.

 

Taking a stats class, on the other hand, hasn't been bad at all: My class had a prerequisite of intro stats, but really assumed people didn't remember anything.  The class happens to be tricky for other reasons, but but being "rusty" hasn't been an issue.

 

I was not in a position to read up on articles before school started, but it is a good idea if you can swing it.  In many classes, you can steer assigned papers in a direction more aligned with your research interests if you know what the research is.  Even just reading the introduction/lit review section of a paper can do wonders at exposing you to the kinds of research people have done.

 

It is worth learning a reference / citation management program early.  Our library offered introductory classes on several programs(I use zotero, but in my experience the choice seems pretty arbitrary) and it's good to do one of these BEFORE you write a paper, so that you can start storing up articles early for later use.

 

Also: If you don't know how to do stuff in Excel, invest the time in learning... at least look up a few websites or videos of "Excel tricks", so you know the kind of stuff that the program is capable of.  It's the whole problem of, "you don't know what you don't know." Most of my office mates do not have a technical background but still have to process lots of data from censuses or school districts, and I find them doing things by hand that the program could do in a fraction of the time, because it didn't occur to them that there could be an alternative. 

Edited April 1, 2013 by SeriousSillyPutty

[jmu]

I finished my BS in 1996. Finished a JD/MBA in 2001. Haven't been in a class room since. Not only that, but the BS was in psychology, although I did take the only Anthro class my school offered. I have been both very stressed and very confident about this upcoming semester. I have done graduate work before, but this topic is still uncharted academic territory.

I plan to:

1. attend a few local school-based conferences.

2. take some languages courses this summer.

3. reading some articles pulled from JSTOR (still have access from the law school)

4. currently taking a Coursera course on Sustainability

5. will asking my advisor for a reading list

6. scour GradCafe for any insight and ideas to get me throught it all

7. sleep with interesting anthro text books under my pillow, hoping for some osmosis effects

AADS at FIU is having a conference this week (Thurs/Fri/Sat) on Tourism in Africa and the Caribbean. Some GSS people will be chairing sessions including Percy Hintzen. He will also be giving the keynote at the grad student conference next week. Both are open to the public. Message me if you want more info.

[peppermint.beatnik]

Now that I'm on the other side of this, my top suggestion would be to take it easy in the months leading up to your first semester: sleep in, go on vacation, etc.

 

There isn't much down time once you start a PhD.

[Panama Slim]

AADS at FIU is having a conference this week (Thurs/Fri/Sat) on Tourism in Africa and the Caribbean. Some GSS people will be chairing sessions including Percy Hintzen. He will also be giving the keynote at the grad student conference next week. Both are open to the public. Message me if you want more info.

 

Thanks jmu! I was already planning to attend the Sustainability conference.  I suppose I will see you there.  I'll be wearing a red carnation on my lapel.

[jmu]

Thanks jmu! I was already planning to attend the Sustainability conference. I suppose I will see you there. I'll be wearing a red carnation on my lapel.

Correction, the SAGGSA conference is this Thursday. I'll be working the registration table for some of that and I will be at Saturday's session of the AADS conference. I have a beard that I'm told rivals Kropotkin's. You can't miss me.