By: Hayley Billet
As your undergraduate studies are winding down, it’s important that you begin to look to the future and plan your graduate studies. Graduate school can be very daunting and tedious if you do not prepare for it.
Start by asking yourself these questions:
Why am I attending graduate school?
What do I want to get out of graduate school?
What do I want to accomplish and achieve?
You should keep these questions in mind as you navigate graduate school. Not only will it keep you and your studies on track, it will also serve to benefit you as you begin to look for jobs or a career path that fits your interests and skills. The most important thing to remember is that the more prepared you are for graduate school, the more you will succeed.
If you are attending a different school than the one you went to for your undergraduate degree, you should familiarize yourself with the campus resources and get to know your professors. It is crucial that you do this because it will help you when you begin thinking about a committee for your master’s thesis.
You need to ask yourself why you chose to pursue an advanced degree, because answering this question will help you understand what you want to get out of graduate school and take with you once you finish your studies. The graduate program is more extensive and thorough than undergraduate programs, so it is vital that you go into it understanding your role in the program and where you would like to see yourself once you graduate.
Knowing what you would like to accomplish by the end of your graduate career is important because it will help you and the professors you are working with refine and retool the program to fit your needs and interests. It will also give you the academic experience you will need for the future jobs and career paths you are interested in. It’s also important that you set realistic goals for yourself and work to achieve them by the end of your studies, because these goals will not only help you build your resume, but they will also help you begin to solidify yourself as an academic scholar.