Workload, community involvement and graduate school

[Adelaide9216]

Hello,

I will be starting a master's program next Fall and will be working 10 hours per week max. because I have a scholarship. On top of that, I've committed to be a co-coordinator for an amazing program at my university. It's a volunteer position and it would only be for next Fall. For this volunteer opportunity, I was told that it is a commitment of approximately 3-5 hours per week starting in August, and 10-15 hours for the busiest ones (which will probably occur twice or three times during next semester). I have accepted the offer because it is a beautiful program that I strongly believe in, I love being in a leadership role and empowering other people and working in team. Plus, it's also a good experience personally and professionnally.

So overall, aside from my classes, I will have 13 to 25 hours of extracurricular activities for my first semester at graduate school. Even if it is too late to give up on any of those commitments, I just wanted to hear from your experience re: community involvement and work while being in graduate school. In your opinion, how many hours are "acceptable" or "resonable"? When does it become "too much"? I've always handled being busy during university. I've done a lot of volunteering throughout my entire bachelor's degree and managed to be on the Dean's Honor List. And I was told that master's studies tend to be "easier" than undergraduate studies.

Anyone has any perspective to share?

[ThousandsHardships]

A good amount of TA's are working at 50%, meaning they are expected to spend 20 hours per week on their teaching, in addition to other commitments if they feel like it. If you're not teaching, then I think 13-25 hours of extracurriculars are doable. They'd basically be replacing the time you'd be using to teach if you weren't funded by a scholarship or fellowship. When you're funded by a fellowship, they're generally under the assumption that it'll help give you a jumpstart on your degree by giving you more time to spend on research. If you don't want to use it like that, then that's completely your choice.

[TakeruK]

A lot of this depends on your program's policies, your school policies and your fellowship. Your signature says you have the CGS-M, congratulations! As a CGS-M holder, you are expected to devote full work hours to your research and your studies. In this case, I don't agree with @ThousandsHardships because with the specific case of the CGS-M, it is not your choice on how you spend your fellowship time. Instead, you are obligated to spend full hours on your program of study. 

So, this means you should spend around 40 hours per week on your classes and your research. If you are able to do this and then spend 13-25 hours (per week?) on your extracurriculars, then that's fine. Just note that this is a lot of work hours though. If you are also TAing, then remember that TA hours do not count towards "completing your studies" since you are being paid separately for it. 

Fortunately, you are at a Canadian school so I think you have a lot more freedom on how you spend your time as long as you get the work done in addition to whatever extra things you want to do! Few Canadian programs require 20 hours per week of TAing (the CGS-M used to limit your TA commitment to 10 hours per week, max). And unlike US programs, Canadian programs don't require you spend *all* of your time in your studies (i.e. some US programs won't allow you to accept positions, paid or not, at other organizations while enrolled as a student). 

I am glad that you found a worthwhile program to spend your time on. I think you can do it, with very good time management skills. I also personally think it's important to have something else to be a part of at your school other than your work. I've been on my university's grad student government for almost the entire time of my degree, and in one year, taking on an executive position that did take a lot of time. I personally would not have taken on such a big commitment for the very first semester of grad school since it's nice to ease yourself into a new situation!

I know in other places you have said that you are interested in PhD programs so my advice would be to try to avoid taking on too many more commitments until at least the 2nd year of your Masters (if it's a 2-year program). This is because when applying to PhD programs in your 2nd year, you only have work from your first year to show and so you are better off working more in the first year and volunteering more in the 2nd year than the other way around. I think contributing to the community and helping others is great, but don't forget your commitment to your fellowship (and i.e. the taxpayers that funded it) and remember that doing well in your career can put you in a position to help even more people in a bigger way later! Eventually you will reach a point where you have more opportunities to help people than you have time and then you need to prioritize how you spend your own time.

[OhSoSolipsistic]

The workload is on the heavy side, but the hours per week sound reasonable and fairly standard for many grad students. But I second TakeruK's hesitations about taking on added commitments during your first semester. On top of getting used to a new environment and developing a good first year record for future PhD applications, the initial transition to grad programs is often noticeably stressful in and of itself. Graduate-level work isn't necessarily “harder” than undergrad, it's just very different and takes time to develop (e.g., backstroke swimmer now learning butterfly for the first time).

That's not to say that you shouldn't take on any extra volunteer commitments while you're making that transition. You know the situation and yourself best, and some programs do a good job at mitigating that stress. Is there someone in your program you can ask about typical first-semester stress to get better awareness of your situation?

[TMP]

As a TA, I honestly don't envy my undergrads' courseloads because it's a lot of classes and sometimes they're studying topics that they have no interest in.  Meanwhile, as a graduate student, all the work that I do are labors of love... which makes graduate school more bearable than undergrad.  Yet, my work is still demanding.  Unlike my undergrads who focus more on facts and are only learning critical thinking skills, I have to perform thinking, reading, writing, and speaking skills at a much higher level, akin to thinking like my professors who are scholars themselves.  To do that, I have to put a lot of  thought into preparing for my classes (and exams).  

Just remember, first semester will always be rough, no matter what anyone says.

 

[spectastic]

yea, grad school classes are supposed to be more tailored to your interest. but I would even take that with a grain of salt. a lot of programs require you take certain core courses that might be just as worthless as undergrad glasses. my program allowed me to take whatever I wanted, and even then, about half of my classes so far have been learning about stuff that i will never, ever use or become interested in (fuel cells? give me a break). that said, I did learn a lot of interesting and relevant stuff. 

i personally don't volunteer unless the rewards (eg. meeting new people, fulfillment of work, broader impact, skill development) is greater than the cost in time. and most volunteer opportunities don't meet this criteria, for me. you already have a lot of extracurricular. If I had that much to do, and worry about classes, and worry about TA, and research (if applicable), I'd shoot myself.