Tag: academics

Get What You Pay For


It never fails that you finish school, whether it’s high school, college, or grad school, and feel like you missed out on some key pieces of the education puzzle. You arrive at your first job after graduating only to find that the boss is asking you to do something you never learned in school. You start to feel cheated because some fundamentals of doing journalism were left out of your education. How could this have happened?! This article from the Atlantic gets a survey from Journalism professionals about things that were left out of their grad school education, but would have been very useful.

While the article focuses specifically on Journalism school, I think it can help any grad school student to think about the things they aren’t seeing in the courses they are taking, but that they are seeing in the professional world of their field of study. If you don’t see those things in your courses it may be time to speak up in class or schedule more office hours with your professor,  so that you can talk about what you think you should be learning in addition to what is being studied. If there is one thing I am realizing about grad school it’s that a lot of it is self-directed. As much as I like my hand to be held, I am realizing this isn’t going to happen in graduate school. So if you don’t see something, say something.

11 Foods That Make You Smarter

Let’s face it, we can use all the help we can get.  Have you ever had one of those days where all you can manage to shove down the gullet is a microwave dinner, a few cups of coffee and maybe a candy bar?  We all know that eating crappy makes us feel crappy and that includes how our brains function.  Want to keep it operating at peak performance?  Here are 11 foods that promise to help with that essential brain power.

Making the Decision is the Hardest Part

Most of us probably agonized over the decision of whether or not to go to Grad School. I think I spent about 3 or 4 years seriously considering it as I watched all of my friends make up their minds, ultimately unable to do so myself. Would it be the right decision? Would I make a mistake? I found comfort in this article from The New Yorker and this advice from Dear Sugar that point to the idea that making any decision is the right decision. You will never know what is right or wrong until you make a decision and stick with it. Yes, there will always be a life that is unlived by making a particular decision, but the limbo of not making a decision will probably be even less satisfying. At least that is what I took from them. Will I drop out? Like every option, it does cross mind, but for now I am comfortable with the fact that I made the choice to go to Grad School.