What aspect of graduate student life surprised you the most?

[jujubea]

Advisor selection would be a great example, if not the most important.  That early decision sets in line your advocate, your "boss," your choice of projects or research subfield, your opportunities (publications, funded conference trips, etc.), the professional network you can eventually tap into for your job search, and so much more.  I've personally seen great students leave programs because of poor advisors.  Choose wisely.

 

[AuldReekie]

 

Bear in mind that this probably depends on your program and field. With the program I'll likely be attending you don't have a permanent adviser until the end of coursework, so there's time to get to know people.

Edited March 31, 2015 by AuldReekie

[EnfantTerrible]

I appreciate all this insight into the way early decisions affect hireability later on!

 

Could anyone who is doing an interdisciplinary PhD speak to this (specifically in terms of whether or not they tried to gear their trajectory towards a particular department or discipline, or whether that just seemed to happen naturally, or whether they tried to actively resist it)?

 

Apologies if this is better posted elsewhere.

[_kita]

1. The amount of people married to their ideas. I'm in an MA program right now, and because it's a professional degree, there's an assumption that you're going into specifically the job they have titled for the program. So there's a lot of "when you are a counselor/you're a counselor-in-training." With this being more on-the-job training, I find the ability to challenge and dialogue with several of the professors is less than it was in my undergraduate degree (where it was openly encouraged). I find this specifically amusing when I try to discuss my experience with counseling schizophrenia, BPD, etc., and get told "this is that type of counseling." Or when I talk about imposing values on clients easily during the treatment plan phase.

 

2. How ill-equipped some of the profs are for class. One prof has gotten rid of two big projects on the syllabus. Both the days their due (so thank you for the extra stress and work), because he realized the time constraints for the class (and was being observed).

 

3. The willingness to dialogue on what is a realistic and unrealistic expectation. But, I doubt I'll have that in my Ph.D. program as much. I think that's a positive from being in a counseling program.

 

4. How adapt you become at multi-tasking. The system may be terrible, but I'm able to grade tests while monitoring a research subject pool and catch up on my show (via hulu) during one of my jobs. Or, this Saturday, I worked a double. I managed to complete a 6 page paper, treatment plan and powerpoint presentation while working on progress notes and client interaction. Confusing, but works. 

[surefire]

A nice surprise has been how much profs and colleagues trust me with their projects and value my feedback. I definitely anticipated some collaborative efforts and RA work, but I didn't expect my comments to be really helpful to grad students in different sub fields, nor did I expect a prof to just hand over several months worth of data collection and just say, "Code this, I'm looking for these things, but tell me what you think is interesting". Like, really?! You want to know what I think is interesting?! It gives me probably more than the warranted amount of giddiness to be trusted with other peoples' stuff.

 

A less nice surprise has been informed by the recent TA Union strikes here in Canada. As a grad student, I sometimes entertain this notion that I am now an academic insider, privy to behind-the-scenes knowledge of the scholarly sausage-making. The recent strikes have made me question my place in the broader system; I have seen admins (and some faculty who sometimes wear admin hats) show quite a bit of disdain for grad students of late, like we're an annoying workforce to be managed rather than, I don't know, fledgling colleagues. I'm still working this through, and I suppose it might be possible to compartmentalize, to draw firm lines between the admin (which I'm wary of) and my department (which I love) while being mindful of where these intersect, or between my role as a student and my role as a TA and my role as a researcher - but yeah, there's some reconciling to do regarding the nature of the system in which you've become a cog.

[Tall Chai Latte]

Advisor selection would be a great example, if not the most important.  That early decision sets in line your advocate, your "boss," your choice of projects or research subfield, your opportunities (publications, funded conference trips, etc.), the professional network you can eventually tap into for your job search, and so much more.  I've personally seen great students leave programs because of poor advisors.  Choose wisely.

Yep, SNPCracklePop summed it up nicely. I had quite a bit of trouble finding an advisor with funds for me. As a result, I had to compromise with an advisor (my current advisor) who wants to do something she has no expertise over, and yet where my skills could apply. It turned out that the projects were very challenging -- thus making my PhD harder than it needs to be. Although we have made progress, but my overall CV is less impressive than if easier projects were given to me or more support from within or outside of lab. It could be a difficult consequence to swallow.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Tall Chai Latte

[1Q84]

Advisor selection would be a great example, if not the most important.  That early decision sets in line your advocate, your "boss," your choice of projects or research subfield, your opportunities (publications, funded conference trips, etc.), the professional network you can eventually tap into for your job search, and so much more.  I've personally seen great students leave programs because of poor advisors.  Choose wisely.

 

 

 

 

Bear in mind that this probably depends on your program and field. With the program I'll likely be attending you don't have a permanent adviser until the end of coursework, so there's time to get to know people.

 

Yes, this has been causing me quite a bit of anxiety lately. 

 

SNPCracklePop, do you mind mentioning what field you're in?

[SNPCracklePop]

Not at all, I'm in the biomedical sciences.  AuldReekie's right; programs and fields definitely differ in terms of advisor selection.  In mine, we had to have an advisor locked up by the end of the first year and complete three lab rotations to make connections with faculty.  Definitely do your research and look into your potential advisor's funding and publication record (in particular, look at how much their students publish).  If you have rotations, take advantage of them and learn how your advisor acts as a manager and leader to his/her students, their personality (e.g. micro-manager, laid back) and presence in the lab (e.g. always in the lab/office, very involved in administrative duties, frequent traveler).  The rotations serve a great opportunity to test drive your boss.  You know yourself best, so select the best fit for you. 

[desp1]

That "fully funded" was a euphemism for "working two jobs, one of which is unpaid slave labor".

[bj430]

Sticker shock of renting an apartment because on campus housing wasn't available, in a city that was supposed to be "affordable", after living in and paying for a house mortgage. The only way you can figure this out correctly is to actually call or visit housing in the area or use Craigslist. 

Renting a room (rather than own apartment) isn't so bad, even after living by myself for five years.

Sleep Pillow is a wonderful app for getting rest when living with roommates.

How difficult it would be to transition from a full-time job to no job and full-time graduate (MA) school. Losing that sense of fulfillment and usefulness that comes from having a job/career. 

As someone else mentioned how much sitting I do, sitting in class, LOTS of reading, never ending reading assignments, and some writing. The outside of class work read load is much larger than undergrad. 

Lack of finals or any type of exam (at least in my field, international studies) for classes. When people ask how I'm doing in my class, uhh...I don't really know because the class only requires a final paper and presentation, which I won't get a grade for until the class is over! 

Comparing my undergrad institution with my grad institution...trying to not make those comparisons.

How quickly my interests and career goals could change once I actually started.

Advisors are not always very helpful. My assigned advisor kept letting me know I was free to choose my own advisor, well thanks, but I don't really know anyone else here yet.  

Disappointment in my grad school and program, i.e., program not as diverse or flexible as originally thought (despite checking the course schedule & descriptions), limited availability of classes (summer, fall, spring), decrepit facilities compared to the cost (it's a good idea to do a full tour of campus, back to comparing undergrad).

How many times I would think about quitting.

How much I would enjoy the class topics, discussions, and readings. How much I have learned in a short time and how much my original views have been turned on their head way more than as an undergrad. That if I wanted to do a thesis (not required in program), I now have plenty of ideas to choose from. 

[RunnerGrad]

A couple of things:

 

- The number of people that don't do the assigned readings!  Yes, I know there is a lot to read, but at least skim the abstract, results, and conclusions!  Or the methods, if it's for a methods class.

 

- The number of people who don't contribute in class or seminar.  This may be tied to my first point, but often we are talking about thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc.  I guess some people are just shy, or don't like contributing.

 

- The number of people who are on facebook, Youtube, or other non-academic sites during class!  I thought once we got to grad school, people would actually be interested in the subject matter, and so want to pay attention, take notes, and contribute.  I mean, if you are going to spend the entire class on facebook, why even bother coming to class?

 

- That "highly ranked" institutions do some things incredibly backwards.  For example, there is no central repository listing all the graduate courses offered by the varous departments.  It makes looking for interesting electives in other departments difficult.  One of the benefits of going to a large, highly ranked university is the wealth of opportunities out there.  But if you don't know they are there, because there is no central repository, it is very easy to miss out on some incredible experiences!

 

- The number of "reflective papers" I've had to write.  It seems for every. single. course. there is a reflective paper (exceptions: Policy and Nutritional Epidemiology).  While I try to make meaningful reflections, often it feels like I'm just writing B.S.

[jujubea]

I continue to love this thread! Please tell us more!

[eeee1923]

How draining writing a thesis can be

[Guest]

A couple of things:

 

- The number of people that don't do the assigned readings!  Yes, I know there is a lot to read, but at least skim the abstract, results, and conclusions!  Or the methods, if it's for a methods class.

 

- The number of people who don't contribute in class or seminar.  This may be tied to my first point, but often we are talking about thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc.  I guess some people are just shy, or don't like contributing.

 

- The number of people who are on facebook, Youtube, or other non-academic sites during class!  I thought once we got to grad school, people would actually be interested in the subject matter, and so want to pay attention, take notes, and contribute.  I mean, if you are going to spend the entire class on facebook, why even bother coming to class?

 

- That "highly ranked" institutions do some things incredibly backwards.  For example, there is no central repository listing all the graduate courses offered by the varous departments.  It makes looking for interesting electives in other departments difficult.  One of the benefits of going to a large, highly ranked university is the wealth of opportunities out there.  But if you don't know they are there, because there is no central repository, it is very easy to miss out on some incredible experiences!

 

- The number of "reflective papers" I've had to write.  It seems for every. single. course. there is a reflective paper (exceptions: Policy and Nutritional Epidemiology).  While I try to make meaningful reflections, often it feels like I'm just writing B.S.

Repeat of undergrad, much? Lol.

 

I admit though that I need to break my habit of being the shy one who barely talks in class (I have bad anxiety). Maybe grad school might be different though since I will be focusing on specific subjects that interest me...instead of nonsense courses as in undergrad.

[avflinsch]

#1 - Free food is available just about every day, you just need to know whee to look.
#2 - The department secretary is the absolute most important person in the university - they can get anything done for you.
#3 - Every major project/paper in all of your classes are guaranteed to be due on the same day
#4 - Email, email, email & more email.

As a followup to #2 - an occasional box of donuts/candy or bag of bagels dropped off in the department office goes a long way towards getting special attention towards stuff you need done.
 

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

How tiring teaching is. Never felt this bad during my MS... but holy shit the teaching...

[eeee1923]

How tiring teaching is. Never felt this bad during my MS... but holy shit the teaching...

 

Ditto