Question for Graduate Students

[perrik]

My favorite website these days is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL), which has handy guides to both APA and MLA style. Different disciplines use different styles, so don't worry about learning MLA or Chicago if your grad field uses APA!

The amount of time required by graduate study really depends on the requirements of the specific class. My program is a professional master's which includes a lot of group work on real-world projects with actual clients. In theory you can expect to need 2-4 hours per credit per week to devote to classwork; some weeks are light and others have me chained to the laptop with a Skype headset welded onto my ears for hours.

Grad classes require a higher level of critical thinking than undergrad classes do. If you're familiar with Bloom's cognitive taxonomy, undergraduate study is knowledge and comprehension with some application. Graduate study focuses on application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Preparing for an ECE or upper-level DSST is not comparable to taking a graduate-level class. The exams require knowledge and comprehension (albeit a ton of it), with a slight bit of application. However, the skills you learn by studying on your own for exams are very useful for grad school! As you prep for the tough exams, you develop into a self-directed learner accustomed to seeking out resources and answers on your own. From what I hear from professors, that puts you well ahead of the average traditional-age undergrad! You might even find that knowledge learned for an exam is great background info for some of your grad work. Things I learned for the organizational behavior, supervision, and foundations of education DSSTs have cropped up in my grad classes; I've used bits of Civil War history and English literature for creating analogies to business situations.

As for work load and family obligations, it depends on the demands of the class, the demands of your job, and the needs of your family. I've been taking two project-intensive core classes per semester since I started the program. I had been working 30 hours a week, but realized that I couldn't do both and thankfully had the luxury to choose school instead of work. Most of the students in my program are taking one course per semester, or take a core class plus a less intense elective, so they can continue working. On the other hand, there's my partner in the program with whom I've worked since the first semester. He works full time, has a family, is a military reservist, and still takes two classes a semester (core + elective). You have to be very disciplined to do that!

The best thing to do is consult with your advisor or the program director so you better understand the time requirements of your overall program and your course plan. When in doubt, start with just one class and keep track of your time use and stress level.

Try to make friends with at least one classmate! Online programs put you at a disadvantage because you can't meet up at the Starbucks after class to discuss today's new theories. In my first semester, I worked with two classmates on a project, and we continued meeting and chatting on Yahoo Messenger and Skype after the project ended. We've since assimilated two more classmates into our chat group. We're not all taking the same classes anymore, but we're all speaking the same "language". It's comforting. At end-of-semester crunch time, we'll get onto Messenger and keep each other company while working on papers. It's like a study party without the shared pizza.