If you read my previous post on surviving graduate school, you would have been thinking that there's probably more to surviving than what I posited. Well, I think there is, here are some more thoughts.
Connecting the dots
Early on in graduate school, I have learnt that I need to connect dots. There's a lot going on here, and no one will decode it on your behalf. Graduation starts when you are admitted; and so the job search begins as early.
Keeping up with the email
This is the most common means of communicating news and information from the school. Professors use it, administrators use it, the President uses it, sports and activities use it, the health center uses it, the police department uses it. About every department, and there seems to be a lot of them in the University, sends information via email. Going through it, making sense of it, ignoring some, archiving others, responding to others is an important task I have learnt to do at least once a day.
Working in teams
More often than not, this is the default working approach in every class. This requires coordination of efforts to ensure work gets done, on time and with requisite quality, not an easy task. Tools I use then include email threads, GroupMe groups, WhatsApp groups, Google Drive folders, synced calendars and so on. These have become a necessity in order to keep up with the shared tasks at hand.
The Whys
Grad school is less about knowing stuff, but more about knowing the whys behind the stuff. It is also more about asking questions rather than answering them. It is also knowing the right questions to ask; the world is infinitely complex, and navigating it requires even more effort. Professors do not necessarily assume the role of gurus, rather, they guide and prod to ask the right questions, in order to begin decoding these issues.
Stepping back and taking it all in
Policy school presents a unique lens into some of the "wicked" problems of our world. These rabbit holes can suck the soul right out of us like dementors.
Stepping back and taking everything into perspective is helping me keep my priorities at the fore. A weekend out of town, a game with friends, a walk in the neighborhood, cooking and so on are activities that have helped me to come back to my senses when I get bogged down by the detail.
Connecting the dots
Early on in graduate school, I have learnt that I need to connect dots. There's a lot going on here, and no one will decode it on your behalf. Graduation starts when you are admitted; and so the job search begins as early.
Keeping up with the email
This is the most common means of communicating news and information from the school. Professors use it, administrators use it, the President uses it, sports and activities use it, the health center uses it, the police department uses it. About every department, and there seems to be a lot of them in the University, sends information via email. Going through it, making sense of it, ignoring some, archiving others, responding to others is an important task I have learnt to do at least once a day.
Working in teams
More often than not, this is the default working approach in every class. This requires coordination of efforts to ensure work gets done, on time and with requisite quality, not an easy task. Tools I use then include email threads, GroupMe groups, WhatsApp groups, Google Drive folders, synced calendars and so on. These have become a necessity in order to keep up with the shared tasks at hand.
The Whys
Grad school is less about knowing stuff, but more about knowing the whys behind the stuff. It is also more about asking questions rather than answering them. It is also knowing the right questions to ask; the world is infinitely complex, and navigating it requires even more effort. Professors do not necessarily assume the role of gurus, rather, they guide and prod to ask the right questions, in order to begin decoding these issues.
Stepping back and taking it all in
Policy school presents a unique lens into some of the "wicked" problems of our world. These rabbit holes can suck the soul right out of us like dementors.
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