Okay so I just posted on the new move, now for the thing that has taken up most of my life for the past week and a half.
I wanted to write a little bit about my experiences in the first few weeks of grad school, and reflect on what I expected in coming here.
The first thing to say is that I had no idea how much activity grad school would involve. My question this past spring as a pre-grad student was always, “What will my daily schedule look like? Will it require 20 hours of research and 2 classes? … etc.” I have since realized that those are not the right questions to ask. If you are really wanting to get an idea of how grad school is from the perspective of being an undergraduate student you must realize that the grad school life is a tremendous paradigm shift. I tried to understand grad school from a perspective of how many hours I would work, and have realized that the grad school experience doesn’t fit into a certain number of hours a week, it completely fills every minute minute of your life. 
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With that said it isn’t bad, and you do have time for a lot of other things, but the idea is that when you are in graduate school you are applying yourself to your dreams. You are getting to do what you want to do. Instead of being told do this so you can get a job where people tell you what to do, you are asked, “what interests you?”
Another thing that changes is that to be a grad student means you adhere to a much higher standard than you did in undergrad. You can skip pre-requisites for courses because you are expected to either know the information before class or learn it on your own. The great and awesome aspect of this is that it is your choice. You are responsible. No one else. I know that the difference between high school and undergrad is a similar one, but the jump from undergrad to grad is an order of magnitude higher.
So to sum up this concept, in grad school you work hard, but you become so motivated about that work that it isn’t bad. It’s like if you want to be a professional video game player what are you going to do? Play tons of video games! You will not be very good to start and spend tons of time at it, but in the end its extremely rewarding (don’t know about that part yet, but the mere suggestion of such an outcome fascinates me). Of course there are some lines that must conform too, but overall it is so freeing.
As per the last paragraph I have found shifting into grad school extremely easy and soooooo rewarding. I have been reading more than I ever did in my undergraduate years. I skipped a class and went to the library and read tons of pages the week before school. Why? Because I didn’t know the information and wanted to. No one made me, or said I should. I wanted to do and did. Soooo sweet! I have found the experience so far to be extremely freeing. This freedom has helped me to be motivated. Its hard work but great. My schedule has been drastically changed… Right now I basically follow this schedule:
- 7:30 Am get up
- 8:30 leave for school on bike
- 9-6ish: go to classes, workout, research, and meetings at school
- 6-9ish: hang with audrey
- 9:30ish to 12: do more work
Its been crazy, but awesome!
To sum up it is a crazy ride, and one that isn’t for those who aren’t prepared or that don’t really want to do grad school. I hope this post serves two purposes: 1) to remind myself of the feelings I had before coming to grad school, and 2) to open the minds of potential grad students so that they can ask the right questions in determining whether or not to pursue grad school, and which school fits them best.
As usual thanks for reading!
-Nathan
