Life Beyond Undergrad: A Peek into Graduate School Experience

What is graduate school really like? This is a BIG question, and it's a question that we need to answer. Having this information will help you determine if now is the right time to pursue a graduate degree.

Programs can vary quite a bit depending on your field of study and the institution. I will aim to share information that is relevant across programs.

What started as reading a textbook a semester for each course as an undergrad, became reading a few books a semester and numerous journals in my masters, which turned into a textbook every few weeks, the required journals for each class discussion, and all of the research I needed to read to write my own papers each week.

Grad school is continued, focused, specialized education. The coursework component may feel like an extension of your undergraduate coursework -- there are still textbooks, group projects, lectures, class discussions... All of that is reminiscent of undergrad.

The difference is that your peers are also just as interested in this exact field as you, and the faculty will likely expect your work to be more self-directed than undergrad programs. In my experience from undergrad to my masters, to my doctoral program --- the programs were each more self-directed than the previous, and each degree had more reading than the previous. As a grad student you are responsible for learning and that is why it's important to find a field of study that you are interested in.

In my masters I went to class in person Tuesdays and Thursdays. I took four courses as semester and each class was 3.5 hours long. One class met every Tuesday morning, another Tuesday afternoon, another Thursday morning, and the last on Thursday afternoon. While it felt like I was spending a lot of time in class, in reality each class only met once a week, and I was responsible for all of the rest of the learning on my own. In my masters I spent about 25 hours per week on coursework. My masters also required an internship, so I spent a year in the field gaining practical experience under supervision of my site-supervisor and program faculty.  My masters also had the option to complete a self-directed thesis. Not everyone completed this option, but I enjoyed having the opportunity to conduct my own research. At this point in my academics I enjoyed delving deeply into my own research interest, but I still saw myself as a grad student still in the classroom as a learner. 

In my doctoral program I was in program that was uniquely designed for the mid-career working professional. I took two or three classes each semester. We attended classes Friday evening from 5-10pm, and Saturday 8am-2pm. This allowed us to attend classes as a cohort outside of business hours. With class time and individual reading and homework I was committing about 35-40 hours per week to my doctoral courses. These courses still had reading, writing, and exams, but the emphasis on all assignments was to really explore why the field is the way it is and how I could contribute to the field. There was still the need to cite previous research, but the emphasis was on my thoughts rather than exploring ideas from others. This was quite freeing and also quite intimidating. I saw myself as a researcher, a leader, and a change maker, because we were tackling important work, but also because this is the way faculty engaged with us. In my experience these titles shift the way students and faculty interact, and they elevated the level of work I was producing.

The weekly time commitment changed once I completed my dissertation prospectus and became a doctoral candidate. In my program this meant I no longer had coursework to complete, but I met individually with my research chair to set up a timeline for conducting my own research.

Grad school is not about exams and grades. It is about knowledge acquisition, skill development, and depth of understanding. My peers may have spent more or less time on the courses, but that is about how much time I spent each week to really understand the reading, stay current on assignments, and arrive to class prepared to participate in a scholarly discussion.

In summary, grad school is self-directed, it requires a lot of reading, and a lot of time, but when it is in a content area that you are interested in, it can be gratifying and very rewarding.