Advice for a new grad student?

[shaboomshaboom]

Hello all!

I'm about to start my first semester of grad school (MA in History/Public History) and I'm freaking out! 

Can anyone give me some advice, or something you wish you knew before you started grad school? Literally ANYTHING would be appreciated

Thank you!!
 

[Cookie]

Please read a bazillion threads on this same topic. Like one pinned right above yours??????

[Loric]

AGREE TO NOTHING AT FIRST.

 

Everyone I know says that's the key when joining a new program and I agree. I mean, yes, agree to basics.. but don't agree to little side projects and this or that until you have a firm grasp of your schedule, abilities, tiredness, etc.. lest you end up vastly over extended and then facing a "C" in a class because you were busy watching Pinkie (a white cat with a pink nose who belongs to a prof in the department) instead of studying which kills your funding.

[TakeruK]

I would rephrase Loric's advice as "Learn to say No"

 

Grad school is a timesink that will eat up as much as your time as you allow it to. So, Loric is right that you definitely want to not commit to anything big right away until you get settled in a bit. However, I also think that it's really important to commit to other things that really important to you (i.e. necessary to maintain your health/sanity) sooner rather than later (e.g. that weekly tennis class) because it can be really hard to motivate yourself to do something non-school related when you're super busy. If you commit now, before you're too busy, then you will be more likely to make that tennis class (or whatever) fit in later!

 

And I think learning to say No will be important throughout all of grad school and beyond too!

[Loric]

Prof waltzes into the Grad Assistant lounge...

 

"Can you watch my class for me? It's just an exam.."

 

NO.

 

"Can you cover my lab? It's just exam study.."

 

NO.

 

"Can you run to Panera and buy my niece a croissant, I've got a meeting that's running late.."

 

NO.

 

"Can you help me with this project that has nothing to do with your course of study but interests me while I take all the credit and try to make you do all the work, in my garage, at my beachhouse, when we're 2 hours from the ocean, in the middle of the night?"

 

NO.

 

"Can you watch my cat? His name is Pinkie.."

 

NO.

 

"Can you open the building in the morning since you're doing the morning lab hours?"

 

NO. (and specifically because you don't want to be the one person who has never lived in CA and has no idea what to do during an earthquake drill and yet you're only "faculty" in the building at 6am with at least 3 dozen undergrads who came in early to study, rehearse, etc..)

[TakeruK]

Yikes, did all these things happen to you? I think a "no" is appropriate in all of these cases, but of course, there is a difference in how you say it! I think that many graduate students will encounter some of the situations below so I will also provide an analysis:
 

Prof waltzes into the Grad Assistant lounge...
 
"Can you watch my class for me? It's just an exam.."
 
NO.

 
This did happen to me and my colleagues at one of my past schools. Exam proctoring counts as TA work and in Canada, TA work is paid hourly. I will leave out major details but basically the department was asking graduate students who was not assigned to TA a particular course to proctor an exam acting as a Graduate TA but they wanted to only pay a fraction of the hourly TA rate (while the actual TA for the course, working the same exam would be paid the full TA rate). It took awhile (and required help from the union) for us to say "no, you can't do this" and eventually the practice stopped.
 

"Can you cover my lab? It's just exam study.."
 
NO.

 
This has not happened yet but if it did, then see above. (Unless you were able to trade one TA responsibility for another--e.g. the prof whose lab you covered would cover something for you in return and both parties are okay with this arrangement).
 

"Can you run to Panera and buy my niece a croissant, I've got a meeting that's running late.."
 
NO.
 
"Can you help me with this project that has nothing to do with your course of study but interests me while I take all the credit and try to make you do all the work, in my garage, at my beachhouse, when we're 2 hours from the ocean, in the middle of the night?"
 
NO.
 
"Can you watch my cat? His name is Pinkie.."
 
NO.

 
These things are okay to ask only if the prof is able to ask them in a way that actually allows the student to feel comfortable answering freely without consequence (well, not the "take all the credit part" of the second example). However, it's very hard to judge if a student is actually comfortable enough to answer freely, given that the relationship between advisor/professor and student is not exactly equal. Definitely tricky scenarios and really depend on each relationship between prof/student--actually I don't really think there are very many cases where the first scenario would be really appropriate either! 
 

"Can you open the building in the morning since you're doing the morning lab hours?"
 
NO. (and specifically because you don't want to be the one person who has never lived in CA and has no idea what to do during an earthquake drill and yet you're only "faculty" in the building at 6am with at least 3 dozen undergrads who came in early to study, rehearse, etc..)

 

It's strange to me that an individual (whether it's a professor or a student or a staff member) would be personally responsible for opening the building to the "public". In every school I have been to, I have had keys or the ability to unlock my building's door for my own personal access but I would never let someone else in (unless they were coming in with me) and definitely not to "open the building" like an employee might open a store for the business day. As you said, the safety and liability concerns is way too much responsibility for a person! In every school I've been to, representatives of the University (e.g. janitorial staff or security staff or plant services or electronic locks) are the ones that officially open the building to students during official hours that the campus/building is open! So this is a definitely absolutely "no"!!

Edited December 22, 2013 by TakeruK

[Loric]

It's hard to really explain without having to understand the whole heirarchy of the system and where it was and how the complex was setup..

 

But I'd come in and unlock the doors of a single hallway to get into the building. The students like little pavlonian dogs were trained to know that someone would enter the building at that hallway and essentially let them into the building.

 

This is on the "working" side of the building, far lack of a better term. Where the various labs and rehearsal spaces were located. There's also the actual theater spaces and those are locked off at that point - so are most of the classrooms that fill the space between the venues and labs/shops and then of course there's the faculty offices that are each locked on their own.

 

Pavlov dogs soon learned that I had keys to everything because I was the not the golden boy but rather the #2 - the one who does everything. That's why in the same day I'm yelled at for being 5mins late (getting a ticket for speeding no less) the golden boy waltzes in 2 hours late and the response is "You were supposed to be here at 8am.. Oh, don't give me that face! I can't stay mad at you!"

 

That seriously happened.. what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the dogs, undergrads, whatever you want to call them. They'd hear the jangle of my keys and know the door to the building was going to be opened. Often anywhere they needed or wanted to go was propped open or they "somehow" had a key.. but in areas where someone had 2 wits about them the doors were closed and locked and the dogs would swarm me to ask if I'd open this lab or this rehearsal space or let them into the CAD lab or or lighting studio or something.

 

Many of them just wanted to sit inside on the couches in the lobbies of the theaters and drink their starbucks and study before morning classes.

 

Once while returning from a run to the library which required crossing the quad I was accosted by some awful battle of bands student event that people really should have more sense than to have in the common area of a university during the middle of the day when I need to get books. Anywho, trying to avoid a terrible ska version of Like a Prayer I noticed a little doorway on the side of the building that I'd never noticed before. It was locked. It was like 2 in the afternoon.. it shouldn't be locked! I whip out my keys and after about a dozen tries it finally clicks open and I scoot into the building and close the door behind me.

 

I turn around and there's the head of the department just looking at me. I'm in a common hallway, so it's not like I wandered in somewhere. So i'm like "Yes..?" and he's like "How do you have that key?" and I'm like "They gave me all the keys.." "But that key?!?" "Umm.. yes.. I just used it.....?" "No one uses that door. That key opens opens my office!" and he gestured at his nearby office door.

 

I stepped over.. stuck the key in the lock.. and despite having some trouble since I was balancing several library books I unlocked and relocked his office door.

 

"I supposed it does." I shrugged and walked down the hall toward my destination. I looked back as i turned the corner and he was still just sort of standing there in the middle of the hallway staring at me.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Loric

[DCguy]

Hello all!

I'm about to start my first semester of grad school (MA in History/Public History) and I'm freaking out! 

Can anyone give me some advice, or something you wish you knew before you started grad school? Literally ANYTHING would be appreciated

Thank you!!

 

I finished my MA in history last spring. Don't freak out. the only advice you need is to have fun, but expect a lot of reading. It will depend on what professor you get - some will assign more than others but there is a lot of reading. the writing part wasn't unmanageable but expect to write more than you did as an undergrad. the best part is there are few, if any, tests other than your exit exams but you don't need to worry about those for a while. good luck friend

[juilletmercredi]

This advice may or may not apply for an MA program, but it took me 3 years to learn and I wish I had known it at the beginning.  It's a two-parter.

 

The first part is that no matter how much you think you see, you're not living anyone else's life, so you can't really assume that you understand what they are doing.  There are going to be students who seem to be perfect - they work round the clock without breaking a sweat; or they are working on about 5 different projects and are churning out publications; or they have a perfect work-life balance.  None of those things are likely true, as there are consequences to everything that you do.  So try not to compare yourself too much to other graduate students - do what works for you, as they will figure out and do what works for them.

 

The second part is related - only you can decide what you want to sacrifice to grad school and to your career in academia or something academically related (or as tight as the academic market is).  You have to make the decision, and then try really hard not to compare yourself to your peers.  If you've decided that you only have enough time to work on two projects and it's really important for you to go cycling with your cycling club twice a week, don't be swayed by Sally Perfect who churned out 3 papers this year because she's working 7 days a week on 5 projects.  Some people need/want less free time than others, and there are always going to be a few grad students who don't want hobbies and want to live and breathe their research.  If you don't want to do that - decide it up front, and then stick to your guns!