Grad School

This is a brief journal talking about my experience in picking my Grad school. I started looking into grad school on the tail end of my second year in teaching English language. I already knew which country I wanted to go, so the only questions I had were "which program, " and "where?" I started going to the websites of every program I was remotely interested in, applied for additional reading material, and I tried talking to everyone who had any affiliation to my chosen major. Professors, professionals, advisors, and to the schools themselves. Eventually, I narrowed down my choices in schools from approximately 200 to 12.

Probably the best place to start, once you decide on the major/program that you're interested in pursuing, is brainstorming a list of questions. I'm not sure what considerations matter most to you, but just for the sake of example here, here are the type of questions I was asking myself when I was looking into Grad school: 1) Do I want just an MA, or a Ph.D afterwards? (Some programs are better suited for different academic/career ambitions) 2) What type of job placement success does this program have? 3) Does the program offer financial aid? (e.g. grants, loans, teaching/research assistantship, etc.) 4) Are there faculty on this program that have research interests similar to my own?

To make a long story short, just be honest in what you want, and ask as many questions (to as many people) as possible. When you start getting a lot of overlap in the answers you're receiving, you can develop a consensus that makes the decision-making part a little easier. This is my story in picking my beloved GSE at the University of Pennsylvania.

Study Tips

One of the best things I have learned in the GSE is not to study for hours and hours straight. You should study for about 50 minutes, and take a 10 minute break. I used to listen to books on tape for that 10 minutes to take my mind away from what I was learning. You have a learning curve, you usually retain the most from the first 10 and the last 10 minutes of studying.

One of my colleagues used to have the same problem of studying for hours and getting sleepy by hour number 3. The thing that worked for him is taking breaks. Like a 30 minute break every 2 hours! he either had to get out of the room he was in or let his mind relax. i think what you DON'T want to do is over do the Coffee/Energy Drinks/Soda.....I think the caffeine eventually wears off and it's only a temporary relief. I know in college life it is hard to manage any free time you have let alone manage how you are going to study, but I ALWAY found time to study AFTER a nap. I had to have naps in order to study....

An important tip is that in stead of cramming it in the week before or during the finals, you should have set some time before that to study. What I do in College is that I began studying about 2-3 weeks before the finals. During this time, I would compile a list of things that I have studied (not to mention some practice problems, whatever). By the time you finish studying, you will have an outline of things that you have studied. Use this outline to jolt your mind before the finals. Read each section of the outline, and see if you can remember what the important things are. If you can, then move to the next line in the outline. Go through the entire outline until you feel comfortable. The outline will allow you to go back to certain things if you forgot something.