Essay on Becoming a Successful Graduate Student

Becoming a successful graduate student means learning how to reprioritize life in general, being open to learning many new things, and working towards a goal. When deciding to enter graduate school at Franklin University, the biggest adjustment came in the form of life style change. Gone are the days of arriving home from work and casually doing the things one would do from day-to-day to maintain life. The weekends that used to be spent unwinding from a tough week, and recharging the batteries for a new week, now serve to finish assignments and fulfill responsibilities geared towards meeting due dates.

As a student who works full time in a busy law firm, it is expected that working under pressure and managing deadlines should come naturally. It does not. Working under pressure and juggling deadlines for a living was a learning process itself. In order to keep the job, receive compensation, and maintain a lifestyle, the learning process went quickly and successfully. Generally speaking, this writer has experienced many occasions where she performs better under pressure. Clearly this is not the ideal manner to approach graduate school and all of the extra pressure that it brings, however, it may prove useful when both work and school deadlines coincide.

In addition to adjusting to a new life schedule and learning to not procrastinate, the graduate student will begin a new kind of writing which involves many new challenges. Performing research using scholarly resources, evaluating those resources for usefulness and reliability, and organizing thoughts into research papers are among a few of the key tools for being successful as a graduate student.

The mere entry into a graduate program means a new goal has been set. As Donahue states, “Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good.” The sacrifices one experiences as a graduate student will be worth it when they have learned to adjust their life style, become a well trained researcher, writer and presenter, and achieved a goal that they set for themselves (n.d.).

References

Donohue, G. (n.d.). Goal setting: Powerful written goals written in 7 easy steps! Retrieved May 18, 2008, from
http://www.topachievement.com/goalsetting.html