Realistic expectations?

[JoRaven]

Right after I got married almost 2 years ago, I began going to school full-time in addition to working a full-time, salaried job that requires a decent amount of road travel. (20-30k miles/yr) I have maintained an extremely high GPA (not bragging, just trying to give some perspective), and have had a lot of success in my job. I have gotten really, really good at time management and organization, and by the time I graduate in December I will have completed 3.5 years of undergrad work in 2 years.

I am hoping that this will have prepared me for what grad school will be like. Is that delusional? How much time every week can I expect to be involved in school-related activities? I hear people say it's like a full-time job, but are we talking a 40hr full-time job, or more like 60 or 70 hours? What about those who get teaching assistantships their first year? How does the workload progress over the course of a doctoral program? Does it get easier or harder as time goes on?

I feel like I will be pretty well-prepared financially. My husband and I have been getting our finances in order for the last couple of years, and when I enter grad school (barring some catastrophic financial event) we will have no debt other than a couple of student loans and a mortgage, a decent chunk of change in the savings, and no car payments (unless god-forbid my car dies or something and I have to get a new one). I know this is kind of nosy, but how are people's financial situations going into grad school? How many of you are finding yourselves actually paying tuition as opposed to having tuition waived and fellowships/assistantships? Have any of you gone from a two-income household to one, and how did you find it?

And also, (I should probably start a new thread for this one, but oh well), for those of you who are married - have you thought about starting a family while in grad school? I keep reading on various message boards that grad school can be the perfect time to do it because of flexibility. In talking about it with my husband, we're thinking of aiming that at my second year. Any thoughts or opinions on that?

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[Ollie123]

Time management is an unbelievably valuable skill and will serve you well in graduate school. Indeed I'd make the case its the most important part - much of what is expected of you isn't necessarily difficult, its just juggling 30000 different tasks on any given day that makes things hard Of course, there ARE challenging components - advanced stats and neuroscience can get rough at times, and everyone has a few things they struggle with (what kind of fun would it be if that wasn't the case?).

I know a select few folks who manage to pull off 40-50 hour weeks but they're the exceptions not the rule. I consider it a good week if I can manage 60. Alot of it also depends on your career goals though - I'm shooting for tenure-track at a major research university so I need to demonstrate a lot more research productivity than someone who isn't as concerned about how research intensive an institution they end up at. I could certainly do less without feeling like I'm slacking off or feel like a bad student, but I don't want to

My financial situation was okay - I had a fair bit saved up from when I was working, but I'm also single. Living off my stipend alone is tight, but not impossible. I don't eat lobster every night, but I don't eat ramen every night either Generally speaking, most schools will offer tuition waiver and a stipend unless you apply to professional schools. Generally speaking, if your goal is research/academia (I think that's what you said in the other thread?), any school that will be good for that purpose will probably offer a waiver and stipend - its typically the professional schools that do not.

Can't really comment on starting a family since I have intentions of doing so, though I think you might want to wait til a bit later than 2nd year. You'll likely still be in classes at that time. From what I hear the workload is pretty consistent throughout but you have more flexibility with when and where you work later on. In other words, you may still be putting in 60 hours a week as a 4th year, but more of that time can be spent at home reading and writing, etc. whereas your first 2 years more of that time will be spent in classes and other campus-related activities.

 

[deleted176373]

I will have completed 3.5 years of undergrad work in 2 years.

Like you I completed my undergrad in 2 years. If you can do that, grad school won't be too unbearable. It's not quite as hard as grad school, but it's reasonably close in some ways.

I hear people say it's like a full-time job, but are we talking a 40hr full-time job, or more like 60 or 70 hours? What about those who get teaching assistantships their first year? How does the workload progress over the course of a doctoral program? Does it get easier or harder as time goes on?

I feel like this is really very program dependent.

I know this is kind of nosy, but how are people's financial situations going into grad school?

Married, she makes more than I do. I get paid a significant salary to go to graduate school. However she is planning on quitting and going to Law school at either Georgetown or GWU. At which point we will be scraping by for 3 years because Georgetown will cost $40,000 a year. We plan to tap deeply into our savings to do this.

How many of you are finding yourselves actually paying tuition as opposed to having tuition waived and fellowships/assistantships? Have any of you gone from a two-income household to one, and how did you find it?

Just the opposite, no tuition and now getting paid. As an undergraduate I ran about $20k in tuition and expenses.

And also, (I should probably start a new thread for this one, but oh well), for those of you who are married - have you thought about starting a family while in grad school?

We thought about it, but now she wants to go to law school. We have one woman who just had her first child in her 1st quarter in the program. She's busy but seems to be doing well in the program.

I do think that aiming for birth shortly after qualifying exams is a pretty optimal time to start a family, It will be a challenge, no doubt!!!

Good Luck

Mark