Academic progression
It's been a month now since the new semester started and it still feels nowhere like a gruelling graduate study is underway. Contrasted with the same time or rather the whole of last semester, the intensity is inexplicably missing. That is not to say that the amount of work put in has gone down. Homeworks are still being submitted on time and papers are being read et al, but somehow I don't feel, for the want of a better term, "on my toes" enough. The whole of last semester was filled with hunting around for a humble campus job, getting legalities of living in the US sorted out and lots of stuff that came in the way of academics. Of course, add to that a tiny question of where the next tuition fee check was going to come from...
Well, a certain sense of financial security was bestowed upon me by way of a graduate assistantship. Other more pressing matters like a summer internship hunt coupled with a gradual advance towards a thesis topic decision have replaced the aforementioned petty matters, but none of all this has yet contributed towards adding to the pressure that graduate study is so infamous for.
Oddly enough, this state is somewhere close to a half-baked version of the state of 'maaazzzz' that one found oneself in during the final year of undergraduate study (examples being 0% attendance, single page journal write ups and what not :)). It is odd, because that was India of course, your home, a single life with a decent paying job in hand... you know, stuff that should make you totally relaxed about goings-on in life. There is nothing like that here, and yet a single semester's experience has changed the outlook towards grad studies considerably. It is as if I now 'know' what it takes to get through semesters here (which I am sure is not the case) and only hope that it isn't the demonically scheduled midterms (right after the spring break) which will severely shatter this illusion.
I am quite interested in knowing (for a reality check of sorts) whether my fellow graduate student friends have experienced anything similar or am I losing my way here?
Well, a certain sense of financial security was bestowed upon me by way of a graduate assistantship. Other more pressing matters like a summer internship hunt coupled with a gradual advance towards a thesis topic decision have replaced the aforementioned petty matters, but none of all this has yet contributed towards adding to the pressure that graduate study is so infamous for.
Oddly enough, this state is somewhere close to a half-baked version of the state of 'maaazzzz' that one found oneself in during the final year of undergraduate study (examples being 0% attendance, single page journal write ups and what not :)). It is odd, because that was India of course, your home, a single life with a decent paying job in hand... you know, stuff that should make you totally relaxed about goings-on in life. There is nothing like that here, and yet a single semester's experience has changed the outlook towards grad studies considerably. It is as if I now 'know' what it takes to get through semesters here (which I am sure is not the case) and only hope that it isn't the demonically scheduled midterms (right after the spring break) which will severely shatter this illusion.
I am quite interested in knowing (for a reality check of sorts) whether my fellow graduate student friends have experienced anything similar or am I losing my way here?
posted by Atul at
9:03 PM
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