First Impressions of Graduate School
By Jessica Maes
I’ve been planning on attending graduate school for several years. I love learning, and for many years dreamed of applying to the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at Penn College of Liberal & Professional Studies. When the time was right for me to apply to programs, the MAPP program had shifted to a 100% virtual model and the original low residency model had been part of the allure for me (it appears the program is returning to some in person meetings next year). This, coupled with the whopping price tag (it’s Ivy League, after all!) motivated me to research other options.
I landed in the Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology program at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and could not be more pleased with the decision. Positive psychology is a concept within sport psychology, and I am chosing to focus on ‘performance’ more than ‘sport’, which feels very practical to me as I continue to forge a professional trail in life.
This is my first time in graduate school and I obtained my undergraduate degree almost 30 (!) years ago so I feel like I had to be extra brave as I hopped on the bus to head out to campus for my first day of school. Here are 10 “first impressions” I’ve had since starting graduate school (in no particular order):
People “in the biz” call graduate school “grad school”. I went into this process calling it “getting my masters”, and I quickly discovered no one says that.
I am one of the oldest students on campus during the day. I have done zero actual research on this, but I can count on one hand the people I have seen on campus who look to be over age 45 and are not an employee.
There are hidden fees in higher education. Students at UWGB get a free city bus pass and this is how I choose to travel to campus much of the time. The first time I planned to drive, I looked up the process for parking on campus and realized that I was automatically charged $100 for a first semester parking permit. By the time I realized it was too late to opt out.
Technology has made school easier. I took a couple of undergraduate classes last year to test if I could still “do school” and I realized this then, and it holds true now. Learning has become more “knowing where to find information” rather than memorization of facts. I’m grateful for this because it’s a philosophy that works better with my learning style.
Professors and staff on campus want you to succeed. In my experience, if you show up, follow directions, and genuinely give your best effort, your professors and the staff across campus will support you and your learning in any way that they can.
Refer to every course syllabus and the assignment rubrics often. There are a lot of moving parts when you are a full time student so it’s challenging, at least for me, to keep all of the expectation on any given day straight. I review a class syllabus and a rubric nearly every day and it’s helped me stay on top of everything and put forth high quality work.
Note taking is a must – figure out what works for you. I type my notes on my laptop and have come to love this method of note taking. Many of my classmates take handwritten notes in a notebook, and some then type them later so they are processing the information twice.
Attending class is a must. My classes meet once a week and I can’t imagine how I would catch up if I missed one 3-hour lecture. I do have classmates who are also collegiate athletes and sometimes miss class to travel for their sport so it is doable, but missing class is more an exception than the norm.
Spend your time wisely. There are in the classroom commitments, outside the classroom commitments (homework), work, spending time with family, and hopefully spending time on self-care. The days fill up very quickly so guard your time wisely so you can get everything done and not burn out.
Time flies. I’m already midway through the semester and it seems like we just kicked off the semester yesterday. When you’re “in it” each and every week it sometimes doesn’t feel like time is flying, but it really is.
Jessica is a first-year master’s student in the Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology program at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside and is currently a Writing Tutor at The Learning Center at UWGB. She is also certified as a grant writer from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and from Learn Grant Writing. Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.
