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Graduate life

Student Help files (to be updated)

While college freshmen often get the most attention for the stresses they face in higher education, new graduate students face similar challenges in continuing their education at the Masters and doctoral level. Even when graduate students stay at their undergraduate university for their advanced program, there are plenty of issues that need to be addressed before, during, and after matriculation. The first important lesson for graduate students is to carefully weigh each aspect of graduate life, as their advanced degree programs will do more to enhance their professional well being than whatever they did as an undergraduate.
The first consideration for graduate students is how to pay for their continuing education. For many students, undergraduate degrees come with expensive, long term loan repayment that tempts quite a few into skipping graduate school and going into the workforce to start repayment. However, graduate students need to diversify their means of payment by taking on smaller loans, scholarships, fellowships, and student work.
As to loans, one of the best resources on the web for graduate student loans is Grad Loans (gradloans.com), which is a clearinghouse for information on graduate student scholarships, loans, and repayment information. This website is easy to navigate and graduate students can trace out their financial aid situation from the start of school through the repayment process on loans well after graduation. Graduate students need to consult with their graduate school or university student services or employment office as to student work, but spreading the net outside of on-campus work is often a good choice. For graduate students, part time work at a local library, office, or as a telemarketer are popular choices. Consulting web sites like Monster (monster .com) and Career Builder (careerbuilder.com) is often the best choice, with local newspapers another good choice. Students should consider future career opportunities along with financial need when hunting for part time work.
Another consideration for students is where to live. At larger state schools or large private colleges with graduate schools, Masters and doctoral students often are given the opportunity to live in graduate communities. These communities typically have four to five person apartments and try to bring together students of different disciplines to share frustrations and successes of graduate study. An example of such a community is at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (uwm.edu) , which has recently built an entire apartment complex for its growing population of graduate students. For those who want to break away from campus and have a home further away from their studies, consulting national apartment guides like Apartments.com (apartments .com) , house.info and Ebay’s For Rent (forrent.com) gives students an organized way of filtering out apartments that are too expensive or don’t have the amenities that they want. If a student has difficulty finding an apartment after all of this, the university will typically have housing listings and other means of connecting students to open apartments. As well, local newspapers and the online classifieds at CraigsList can provide another resource for those who want to hunt out a good housing bargain.
Finally, graduate students can stop worrying about getting to graduate school and start their rigorous academic career. The first thing graduate students need to learn is to organize themselves so that there is balance between work, school, and fun. One way to do this is to create a schedule on a dry erase board, with courses scheduled in one color, study time in another, and so on until a week or two has been planned out. The good thing about the dry erase board is that it allows a graduate student to erase tasks as they come along, giving a good psychological motivator to continue erasing things off the board until all tasks are done.

Students need to consider their health and well being as equal to their graduate work, which is a thought that many graduate students fail to take into consideration. Often, students can get discounted rates at community fitness centers like the YMCA (ymca .net) or Bally Fitness (ballyfitness .com) or even severely discounted rates at their university fitness center. Making time to work out is one important way to get rid of the tensions of graduate school while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Another way is to keep track of what you eat, making sure to maintain a balanced diet and avoiding the temptation to eat greasy, fatty cafeteria food and eat out at restaurants. These two steps exemplify a general outlook on graduate studies, which is that the few years you spend in advanced study are meant to build a fuller life. This cannot be done when a graduate student is getting sick constantly or is worried about their health due to poor diet.
One more consideration for graduate students during their years in advanced study is their right as students, employees of the university, and more. Many foreign students come to study at American universities and sometimes immigration laws and mishaps can cause great frustration by students with temporary visas in the United States. The Heller Immigration Law Group has provided a worksheet on frequently asked questions by foreign graduate students at hilglaw .com/articles/articles24.htm. For students who are graduate assistants or in other positions at the university, consulting student union representatives is probably the best first step in remedying grievances.
Finally, students need to think about the ever-important problem of health care. Graduate students can get a great overview of both short term and long term medical plans at Grad Insurance (gradinsurance .com). While long term insurance may be more expensive, especially with tight graduate student budgets, it may be a good investment considering the possibility of not finding a job with insurance or continuing on for a law or doctoral degree. Students should also consult their graduate school’s student services, because many universities and colleges offer discounted health care and health services to their students both on and off campus.
After graduation, graduate students still have many considerations even after such a momentous occasion. One is how they are going to repay their student loans, Freedom Point (thefreedompoint .com) able to assist with credit card and other loans with a manageable debt repayment system. Another consideration is whether or not a student wants to work at the university level or in private business. One good web site for higher education jobs is at HigherEd Jobs (higheredjobs .com), which features a breakdown of university positions by state and by academic field. Graduate students also need to feel comfortable networking, making connections during graduate school with their professors and professionals in their fields. These kinds of connections are invaluable in a tough market for those with advanced degrees.