Graduate study challenges and strategies for success

Education

Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success

The first challenge to graduate study is the understanding of what kind of graduate study will prepare and meet basic individual needs. Time constraints are another issue because interaction with professors, current graduate students, and counselors are necessary in making that initial decision. Online degree attainment boasts of schedule flexibility, students setting their own pace, no travel time, and 24/7 Web interaction. But there are still deadlines and assignments that must be attained while trying to juggle the demands of daily life. Online students often feel cut off from other students and faculty. Similarities and differences of various graduate programs must be looked at by potential students. Students must balance work, family, and school stresses where feelings of being rushed and fatigued are frequent. Often, everything else in ones life takes priority over school. Failure to complete a course or degree is typically caused by social or family reasons rather than academic reasons (Kramer, 2007).

There are several strategies for success. The first is that of choosing the right school. The second strategy is time management. One should keep a notebook to jot thoughts, ideas, and observations to use at a later time. Students should make to-do lists, crossing out tasks as they are completed. The key is to be realistic, flexible, creative, and persistent. The third and final strategy for success is stress management (Kramer, 2007).

Graduate studies often take several years to complete, are fairly meticulous, and take place in a much less ordered context than undergraduate studies. Because of this, it is very important to have clearly distinct, specific goals and be extremely motivated before taking on such a quest. It is vital to know what one wants to achieve and why. It is important to: identify career objectives and determine how further studies will achieve these aims, familiarize oneself with the field into which their research or development project will fall and base their choice of study on the programs that are offered. On must also define their personal motivation for wanting to enter graduate studies, and determine whether it is appropriate. It is important to distinguish between: intrinsic motivation, such as the desire to take on new challenges or a strong affinity for research, extrinsic motivation, such as a need to conform to the expectations of others such as parents and partners, intrinsic motivation provides a more solid footing and will help one to overcome any difficulties they might encounter in their studies (Strategies for Success -- Factors, n.d.).

The challenges that will face graduate students are many. If a person has taken time of from school, one challenge will be the change of pace. They will have a different schedule, new expenses, fresh stressors, and new goals to reach. They may have a very full scheduled, being a parent, a spouse, an employee and now, a student. Or, they may be a fulltime student who doesn't have an outside job. Whatever the case, and whatever their responsibilities are, it's up to each person to control their priorities. Many people find themselves overscheduled and stressed out, not because they have to be, but simply because they refuse to say no (Danesco, 2009).

One big variation between undergrad education and grad school is the amount of initiative a person will be asked to take. A person find that grad school, where a good chunk of the course load is self-regulating work, research, or study, requires a lot more initiative and individual responsibility than ever before. This is one area where being more mature might give a person a benefit over students who have just left undergrad school. Knowing that one must stay on top of their classes, assignments, course requirements and graduation requirements is a key. It is also very important to realize that it is up to the individual to look for and seize occasions to network, have hands-on experiences, publish or otherwise go beyond what is required on the syllabus (Danesco, 2009).

Many problems can be avoided by doing some advance planning. It helps to have a good idea of what one wants to specialize in, and preferably a couple of particular research projects that they might like to work on. It is often that graduate students change their minds about research projects and even specialization fields after they start school (desJardins, 2010).

For many new graduate students, graduate school is different from anything else they've ever done. At times it's hard to know exactly what it is that one is supposed to be learning. Graduate school is usually a much unstructured atmosphere in most cases. Graduate students characteristically take nine hours or less of coursework per semester, especially after the second year. The third year is when most coursework has been completed and preliminary exams have been completed. This is when a student is supposed to find a thesis topic. Once one is found, they can expect two or more years until completion, with very few landmarks or milestones in sight (desJardins, 2010).