Written by Arvindh Kumar Chandran
Graduate school can be an overwhelming experience, especially for international students who now have to deal with an additional obstacle of living in a new and possibly, unfamiliar country. While nothing can parallel actual experience, people do try to do their best to prepare themselves for their upcoming transition into graduate school in a foreign. They find themselves asking others who have gone through the same experience in person or via social media. In addition, they also scour through the internet reading up blogs and random websites with any useful information. Sometimes they contact website or blog authors asking very specific questions. Though these resources do help in some way, they may sometimes create a false picture of how things might work. This in-turn leads to unwarranted worries and misrepresented facts. Through this article, I hope to alleviate some of these concerns by debunking “myths”.
MYTH 1 : Graduate school is comprised of only thesis/dissertation and research.
FACT : Graduate school can contain assignments, capstone projects, and discussions. You are also required to take very specific classes. This depends on your major, how it is structured and implemented.
MYTH 2 : You will never have a social life in graduate school.
FACT : Though it is true that grad school is full of taxing assignments, harsh thesis reviews, and sophisticated projects, it does not eat up all your time. You will still have time to refresh and explore. Starting a part-time job would enable you to make friends with your co-workers. Joining a club is a fun thing to do as well. Many hold meetings once a week and occasional socials; therefore, it should not be very hard to join in on the fun.
MYTH 3 : UC Irvine’s brand name will make the experience of getting a job/internship very easy.
FACT : Although UC Irvine is a reputed college in the US for many majors including Computer Science, Criminology, Sociology, Language, etc., it does not make it any easier to land a job or an internship. This depends on your profile, the connections you make, the professors you work with, and the referrals you use.
MYTH 4 : 3 courses per quarter sounds pretty easy compared to my undergrad days. I feel like I can take on more than 3.
FACT : Well, there is a reason as to why this limit is imposed on many students. Although the number of courses graduate students are required to take during the first couple of quarter do not sound like much, these classes can be quite difficult. They cover advanced concepts in more depth. The assignments requires one to spend a lot of time on them. I had a course that required a homework submission every week. Although there were only 5 problems in each problem set, each problem took 3 hours to solve.
MYTH 5 : One can just cram at the last moment to pass the class.
FACT : While courses back in other countries may have had weightage only for exams, it is not the case here. One needs to constantly put their best foot forward as assignments have equal weightage and can affect your grades directly.
MYTH 6 : Registering for difficult courses will not affect your internship/job search prospects.
FACT : While difficult courses offer you a rigorous learning experience and may help in cementing relevant concepts, it can also directly affect your internship/job search. An intensive and difficult course may not offer you time to look for internships/jobs and prepare for them. On the other hand, these courses will also equip you with great knowledge that you can use to impress your interviewers. It is all about the balancing of difficult and less difficult courses.
MYTH 7 : As a graduate student all the courses offered will be available to me at anytime.
FACT : While you as a graduate student will be eligible to attend all the courses offered, it will not always be possible to take the courses you want. There is a chance of it not offered in a particular quarter or it may not be offered by a particular professor. There will also be lots of demand for good courses and as a result they may get filled up quickly. One needs to plan ahead and register for your desired courses on time; otherwise, you may find yourself taking a class you do want to take. This can impact your grad studies as well because some courses act as pre-requisites. If you fail to take the necessary courses, then you may not be eligible for the subsequent courses.
MYTH 8: Irvine is in California, so it must be near to Silicon Valley and hence it will be easy for me to visit many companies.
FACT: Irvine is is in southern California. California is a big state and the San Francisco Bay area, where Silicon Valley is located, is in about 450 miles (724 km) north of the area. Commuting by car will take 6-7 hours.
Though there are other things to worry about like accommodation, food, commute, etc, it will all get settled up once you arrive here as you have all the resources and friends from Graduate School. I would also recommend reaching out to your seniors or your peer mentors for anymore queries or suggestions. Above are the major myths and by debunking them, I hope I have given an unbiased and a clearer picture of what to expect in Grad School.