The months leading up to a student’s entrance into grad school are packed with emotion. Some may be filled with excited anticipation, others nervous about what’s to come, and a happy few radiate confidence. If you resonate with the first two but prefer the latter, these tips from The Station State College can help prepare you to smoothly and confidently make the transition to grad school.
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Manage Time Wisely
Between attending classes, reading research studies, and planning a thesis, grad students are often pressed for time. Accordingly, utilizing time management tools and skills will become crucial to succeeding in grad school. Eliminate the anxiety of creeping deadlines with the use of calendars and to-do lists. Use monthly and weekly calendars to record due-dates and appointments — as well as self-imposed deadlines for progress on projects, such as a thesis or dissertation. Also, make daily to-do lists with set schedules for when to wake up, leave for class, and study. However, we encourage you not to plan every minute of every day, as leaving time for inevitable interruptions will significantly decrease stress.
Student residents of our Penn State apartments save on time by avoiding lengthy commutes thanks to our convenient location only minutes from the PSU campus.
Make Connections
In graduate school, students will be working alongside the up and coming greatest minds in their fields — their peers! Connect with classmates as soon as possible. If you’re a resident of our PSU apartments, organize a meeting with classmates in one of our private study rooms. Participating in study groups is vital to grad school success. Networking will pay off in the long run as everyone graduates and seeks job opportunities. Not to mention, maintaining a healthy social life with like-minded individuals can provide student’s much-needed stress-relief.
Likewise, don’t hesitate to connect with professors. There is a wealth of in-depth knowledge and advice to be gained from professors, as they were once grad students themselves. Knowing when to seek assistance can make all the difference between failure and success in grad school.
Stay Organized
Without a functional and personalized organization system, grad students may find themselves buried in a mountain of documents. Now’s the time to get organized. Develop a file naming convention that works for you and stick to it. Set up folders that divide relevant documents by subject and comb through those folders regularly, purging files that are no longer essential. Also, back up everything! Programs such as Google Drive are free and will keep those manuscripts you poured hours of your time into stored snugly in the cloud — safe and sound should something unpropitious happen to your computer.
On the other hand, students who prefer old-fashioned hard copies of documents should be sure to come up with a similar filing system. Perhaps invest in a filing cabinet to make things easier. However, be sure to have a scanner that can make electronic copies handy as well.
Research Independently
A graduate student’s education and success will largely depend on their initiative. Sure, grad students have professor-imposed deadlines and assignments. Still, they’ll soon discover their continued education will be much more independent. Scholars are expected to perform independent research and present fresh new ideas. Ultimately, culminating in a grad student’s dissertation.
Go ahead and start performing independent research now. Look over course syllabi, purchase and read textbooks in advance, become familiar with field-specific terminology, and even seek scholarly articles on topics related to courses. The change may feel strange at first but give it time. A grad student’s education rests purely in their own hands. Learning to absorb knowledge by oneself will become a vital skill.
Practice Self-Care
Now’s the time for students to establish a functional and personalized self-care routine. Graduate school will be stressful, and the average scholar will be expected to manage rigorous workloads daily. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to remember this is all for good reason. After all, diamonds are only formed after weathering extreme pressure. Alleviate stress by exercising daily, eating healthy, and — most importantly — getting a good night’s sleep.
Residents of our off campus apartments have access to a multitude of stress-relieving, luxurious amenities. Feel like strengthening that mind-body connection? Step into our yoga studio. Want to take a study-break and soak up some sun? Take a dip in our resort-style pool. Whatever helps you to reduce stress, find time to do it. That big brain is going to be hard at work — be sure to let it relax and recharge every once in a while.