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Survival guide to graduate school

Graduate school is different from other levels of education, more so the intense American system that requires constant vigilance on the part of the student. As an international student pursuing a public policy program that requires a lot of study, I have learnt some skills to survive.

Prioritization
The best intentions are for the student to get all the readings done on time, and then read some more extra on the side. This, however, is not possible with the amount of writing, research, practical work one needs to do. Learning to prioritize on what needs to be done as the most urgent is the only way to keep up with all the activities of graduate school.

Writing well
Writing is a core aspect of graduate studies. Writing well, however, is required to survive and avoid rewrites and poor grades. Obviously, the more the practice, the better I get at it.

Reading, fast and wide
With tomes and tomes of required reading, I have learnt to read faster than I thought possible. I have voraciously consumed loads of materials on different topics; governance, climate change, energy justice, psychology, statistics, agricultural economics and more. This is not only expected, but necessary for the array of topics discussed in class.

Time management
Time is a scarce resource, but in graduate school, time just does not seem to be enough. Everything moves so fast, I am left wondering where the 1.5 months have gone.

Networking, job search
The moment I landed in school, it was made clear to me that I needed to think about my career development. In undergraduate, I had 4 years to wander and figure stuff out. In graduate school, I need to get into an internship in less than 6 months after arriving in the US. A concerted array of efforts go into this, including improving my resume, learning to write a cover letter tailored to the jobs and so on.

These skills I have learnt and continue to learn are helping me to survive this interesting journey. Let's see how it all goes by the end of the semester.










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