Ask Dr. Ross
"Ask Dr. Ross" answers the important and nagging questions parents and potential college students raise about higher education. Topics include preparing for college, avoiding student debt, and secrets to good grades. Hosted by award-winning professor Catherine Ross, Ph.D., and student producer Ashley Worley, listeners can ask their own questions by emailing ADRquestions@gmail.com.
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Ask Dr. Ross
Is Graduate School Right For Me?
As an undergrad, it's easy to feel overwhelmed when considering the next phase of your education. After all, what is graduate school like? Why add more years of college? And - most importantly - how do you know if it's right for you?
In this episode, Dr. Ross and producer Michaela Murphy team up with current grad students to tackle these, and other, important questions. Join Psychology major Caitlyn Walker and English major Caroline Goodman in exploring the life of a grad student. Whether you're curious about balancing school, work, and personal schedules or want to know about navigating the transition into a Master's program, their stories offer valuable insights on the grad school experience.
Have more questions about graduate school? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Special thanks to Michaela Murphy, who produced and co-hosted season two's opening episodes. The show goes on because of you!
Note: "TJC" refers to Tyler Junior College, an undergraduate college near the University of Texas at Tyler.
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast. It's created to give you info to succeed at college. Our hosts are highly qualified. Dr Catherine Ross is a member of the University of Texas System's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She's also a popular professor of 19th century English literature. Ask Dr Ross is a community service of the University of Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited. This is the second season of Ask Dr Ross, a podcast sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences at UT Tyler. Our goal is to let the world out there know a little bit about what it's like to be in college, in undergrad or grad school. I'm here with my producer, Michaela Murphy. Michaela, would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 3:Hi, yes, my name is Michaela Murphy. I am a graduate student here at UT Tyler. This is my second year in the English Master's program.
Speaker 2:But you are also an instructor.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I am teaching English 1301 right now.
Speaker 2:And our topic today is graduate school. So we've invited our two guests and Michaela's double-timing it here with the job as both our producer but also a current graduate student. So I'd like to start by having you introduce yourself, caitlin, would you start please?
Speaker 4:Absolutely Well. Yeah, I'm Caitlin Walker and I am a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program here, and this will be my. It's my first year, so it's, yeah, the very beginning of it for me.
Speaker 5:Hi, my name is Caroline Goodson. Thank you for having us here today.
Speaker 2:I am a second-year grad student and I am in the English department and Michaela, since you're not only a producer, you're also a guest, would you like to reintroduce yourself?
Speaker 3:Yes, so, like I said, I am the producer, but I am also a student here at UT Tyler as well as an instructor.
Speaker 2:And you're in what year?
Speaker 3:The second year.
Speaker 2:Okay. So why don't you tell us a little bit about where you were in school, where you did your undergraduate degree? Why don't you tell us a little bit about where you were in school, where you did your undergraduate degree? And we'll just kind of go back and forth with each of you to kind of get a little bit more of a sense of the geography of this, and then we'll start talking about the experience.
Speaker 4:So I got my associates at TJC. As soon as I graduated from there, I came over here to UT Tyler and I got my bachelor's here, and after I graduated with my bachelor's, I came over and decided you know what I actually want to go and get my master's here as well Is Craig Cripp accredited, which is very important for anyone who does want to go into counseling.
Speaker 2:Slow down a minute. It's what accredited Craig.
Speaker 4:Cripp. It is the accreditation program for the counseling and it's very important because some schools are not accredited and anyways, it's supposed to be a certain stature in order to get that accreditation. And they have it here at UT Tyler and I knew that's a program that I wanted to be in. Ut Tyler had it. I was like, okay, I really want to do this program here at UT Tyler.
Speaker 2:Did you get your bachelor's degree in psychology and counseling?
Speaker 4:I did. I did get my bachelor's in psychology here.
Speaker 5:I actually started at TJC as well, and the funny story with that is that I went in with scholarships in the drama field. I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to, you know, go on Broadway and things like that. And I was like thinking about it more and more and I was like you know, that's going to be very hard to do. I was like, you know, I love English, I love being creative, I love writing. That was like my favorite pastime when I was in TJC. So I made the switch from theater. Then I went to art for some reason, just thought I'd dabble my toes in a little bit and then I finished with my just normal associate's degree at TJC and then I went into UT and that's where I kind of sort of fostered, you know, the English.
Speaker 2:So you chose to be an English major once you switched over here to the four-year school? Yes, ma'am, is that the same case with yours, caitlin?
Speaker 4:I actually got an associate's in psychology at TJC. It was actually after my first semester. I came in not knowing what I wanted, but then I did enter to psychology and I absolutely I loved it.
Speaker 2:I really did and decided to change my major that's one of the things we were talking with the freshmen about the other day is it's so important to take those core classes where you have a few courses in social sciences, in the STEM field, in the arts, getting a little taste of all of those? That's probably why you thought about doing art, because you had a really great art class right.
Speaker 5:I did. It was fantastic. Derek White was. He was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:So, moving into a field like English, everyone always says well, what are you going to do with that? Right, she's giving me the look. Would someone like to describe the look? It's like well, yeah, what are you going to do with that? And what was your answer to people?
Speaker 5:I can't remember if it was my grandmother that said something like that or not, but I was like English is such an umbrella term for just. You can do so much with it. You could do like you can write video game script with English, you can do online transcription with English, you can like type court documents with English. You can go to law school, exactly. Yeah, it's just huge. There's so much there that you can do with it that it's kind of just.
Speaker 2:You can basically like throw your name out there and see where the lure sinks basically, and in terms of psychology, you could kind of make the same argument for that too, couldn't you?
Speaker 4:Yes, ma'am, I've had plenty of people tell me that it's a useless degree. They think that a good career is what makes you a lot of money, in their opinion, and for psychology and in mental health. That's not quite the reality at the moment. It did make me take a moment to reassess everything, because whenever you have so many voices telling you that you're like, oh my gosh, maybe I did make the wrong choice. But after reevaluating it, I'm like this is what I love and I want to continue with it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know I think we'll circle back to the issue of making money and graduating with a degree, and also, you know we do need to talk about debt and things like that. But one of the things you both brought up, which I think is a really important thing for folks out there to hear, is that both of you started out with an associate's degree. You weren't even sure. A lot of folks who go off for associate's degrees aren't even sure that they're going to do a four-year degree. They're not even sure that they can or want to or can afford to, and so the fact that both of you started in that way, I think, is really significant for folks to know that. You discovered a passion when you were at TJC in the community college. You continued at the four-year college and it kept on rolling. And here you are, both of you doing graduate school Now, michaela, did you do TJC too?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I guess we're all three in the same boat. I did my associates at TJC, but before that I did a lot of my hours for my associates in high school. So I did a lot of dual credit. I had about 44 hours, I believe, already done 44 hours.
Speaker 2:That's almost a year and a half of school.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I only did a year at TJC and then I got my associates when I was 19 or 20 and then moved straight over to UT Tyler the next semester. But it was interesting because I came in in a January semester. So it was a really weird time of COVID, january, like it would have been weird anyway coming in January, but then to come during COVID as well, it was a bizarre transition.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think we probably ought to do another episode sometime about TJC and UT Tyler and how those two institutions have learned to work together. When I first came to UT Tyler, it was the first year that we had a four-year situation for students. We were only taking upper division and graduate students and folks at TJC were very worried that we were going to end up being a big problem with each other, and I think that's worked out. Over 20 years I've been here now to not be a problem. My experience has mostly been that well, for one thing, a lot of our students go and teach at TJC. A lot of our students that come from TJC have done as well as all three of you have, and so yay, hooray, more about that.
Speaker 2:The next question would be I think both of you already said you found something you loved and you want to keep doing so. Why did you think that UT Tyler was a place? Well, I know from you, caitlin because it had accreditation and that was really, really important. What about you, caroline? Why did you pick UT Tyler?
Speaker 5:My mom actually went to UT Tyler and got her bachelor's degree at UT Tyler. She actually wants to come back and get her master's at some point over. I think it's either government or something social studies I can't remember the exact term she used, but yeah, she was the one that was like let's get you into UT Tyler because I like to stay local for sure and there's a lot of good stuff that has come out of UT Tyler Like the professors are amazing and they're just great, and I was like let's do this.
Speaker 2:What about you, caitlin? Was it a geographical decision for you, or was it you were just so happy already here, you didn't need to move?
Speaker 4:After graduating here. Of course, I already knew that I really enjoyed it here, but it was a thing with family. I had a lot of family and friends here and it's where I grew up. So you know, roots run deep, I guess, but I knew I wanted to stay here. I knew some people who were actually already here and introduced me, showed me around and, yeah, I fell in love with it.
Speaker 2:Same thing for you, Michaela.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I grew up in the Tyler area and my mom also went to UT Tyler, so, yes, so it was pretty much a no-brainer for me that this is such a good school. There's really no reason to go out and get the same education a thousand miles away to go out and get the same education a thousand miles away.
Speaker 2:And I think for at the MA level, where you get the degree, is less important. It has to be a good school. It has to be a school where the teachers are good, where the program is strong, where the library or the resources are available all of which are here, but it's not until you really get the PhD level that anybody even really cares of. Did you go to a name school? Did you go to what we call a flagship? In the state of Texas? There are only two Austin UT Austin and that other one, texas A&M. So coming to local universities is a great thing. Also, I'm betting it costs a lot less money. How many years does it take to finish your degree? We forgot to talk about that. How long does it take to get your MS in counseling?
Speaker 4:It's supposed to be two years and then one semester.
Speaker 2:You want to talk in terms of hours. Is that a 60-hour degree, a 30-hour degree? Yes, it is 60 hours A 60-hour. Now the English MA is how many hours?
Speaker 3:30 or 36.
Speaker 2:36. Ours is about a year and a semester. Yours is two years and a semester. Yeah, I also do summers, so like you're full time for the next two years, yeah yeah, yeah, that's true, and I will just say this that the salaries in higher education are better than they are in secondary education. They're not as great as being a lawyer or a doctor, but they're just fine, they're just plenty and they're really great benefits. So there's that too. So are you living at home?
Speaker 4:I am. I live with my family. My mom, my dad, my sister love them. My sister actually just came to UT and she'll be doing her arts degree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love our art department. I love just going in there and looking to see what the students are making and doing. So you're living at home, Michaela.
Speaker 3:Yes, I am.
Speaker 2:Okay, mom and dad, or.
Speaker 3:Yes, my mom and my dad.
Speaker 2:Okay, what about you, Caroline?
Speaker 5:That's what I did. I lived with my mom and then, when my husband and I got married, we moved in together.
Speaker 2:So I guess we kind of know why you applied to a master's program. Did you want to reaffirm?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I did, because starting out I wanted to go the route of becoming a professor and maybe going for a doctorate degree. I just think that the other programs that I've been looking into, like you know video game, script writing and transcription online and things like that when you have a master's degree, that puts you above the people who just know how to play those games and think it'd be fun to make them.
Speaker 2:So you saw it as a career move. What about you, Caitlin?
Speaker 4:For me, in order to be an LPC and to have licensure, you do need to have you know, your master's degree and you have to meet certain requirements. So of course UT Tyler does have that accreditation.
Speaker 2:But how did you even know about all that, about LPCs and things? How did you learn that?
Speaker 4:Whenever I did research on LPC licensed professional counselor I was, you know, looking into a couple different options and finally, when I did find LPC, I had to think of the steps in order to get there. Of course, once I finally after my associates, I'm like looking at all the steps that I have to get in order to get licensure, but it feels like a miles long. But I looked up and it was like OK, you need first bachelor's degree, master's degree, you're going to get all of the national testing done. So I have to do two big tests at the very end After I graduate. I still have to be technically an associate and I still have to get a lot of hours in order to even be considered an actual LPC.
Speaker 2:Did your faculty, when you were an undergraduate here, help you find all that out? Or was it just your own research?
Speaker 4:As far as classes and getting into graduate school, I would say some of the people here were definitely guiding me in that direction. I had some great professors who told me how to get in the graduate program and how to even start that process, because it was so confusing at first. Yeah, without them I don't know how I'd even be here at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's a big part of undergraduate professors and those of us who do the four-year training as well as the six or longer, is that we need to make sure you all know what to expect and what the next hoops are. What about you, Michaela, on that? Why did you decide it was time to go for the master's degree? I don't think you ever just quit. You never quit studying, do you?
Speaker 3:No, ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit school. Ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit school. I was doing my bachelor's here in the English department and I felt like it would be you know, if I was accepted a good transition straight into the master's here. It was the same professors, it was similar topics, but at the graduate level I looked on the website because I was already familiar with it as being a student. But then I also asked some of my professors. I talked to our old chair, dr Wu, about where I should apply, what I should potentially put in my application or what would look good, as well as what my opportunities would be with that master's degree. I talked to my faculty advisor also about if a master's degree would be necessary for what I wanted to do in the future.
Speaker 2:And what do you want to do?
Speaker 3:I would like to be a professor.
Speaker 2:And so my advice to both of you, because, caroline, you mentioned that, although you may end up becoming this creator of games or whatever, if you don't do the creative route, you'll go on to a PhD program at what we call a flagship, and you'll want to look at UT, austin or A&M. If you're going to stay in Texas, you can prepare for that, and for you I don't know, I'm not familiar. What do you know about a PhD program? If you were to go on to that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so for a PhD you can actually go a couple different routes in psychology. One of them is research, depending on you know, if you're really interested in doing your own studies and publishing, you could definitely go that route.
Speaker 2:I know, for example, one of your professors, Amy Hayes, has done a lot of research on, I think, depression, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:They get to do research on stuff that are really pressing issues for people today.
Speaker 4:And then let's say you wanted to be a psychiatrist. Ah, like an MD. Of course you would need to get on another path. You have to go to med school.
Speaker 2:We happen to have one now, by the way, so I think what we've established is that the master's degree can be a stopping point and lead to all sorts of interesting careers, which you all have all thought about and are making some plans for, but it could also, if you just really get the bug and you just can't stand to quit writing papers and spending time in the libraries, that off you go is an option as well. So let's talk a little bit about what's it really like, though, to being graduate. How's graduate school different from being an undergrad? Caroline? I'll start with you.
Speaker 5:It's kind of weird to say it, but I feel like we have more creative freedom. In a way. We're able to have communications with our professors and saying, hey, this is the project that we want to work on, this is how we want to do it. I feel like I'm adulting more as a grad student. You know, I used to just hate being an undergrad student.
Speaker 2:You know I used to just hate being an undergrad.
Speaker 5:What did you hate about being an undergrad? I just felt like I didn't have a very good relationship with my professors at that time when I was like, when I was a freshman, you know, first coming in I was like I don't know what's going on, I don't know who to talk to and things like that. And now I feel like the relationships that I have with my professors now is absolutely amazing and I feel like I can come to them and talk to them about anything and they're super understanding and wonderful.
Speaker 2:Since we already started in English, I'm going to switch over to you, michaela, to say what could you amplify what she said about your classroom experience? And then we'll get to the psychology program.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would definitely agree that the graduate program gives you more freedom of what your assignments are looking like. So, specifically for me, wanting to be a professor, I took that route with my coursework and so I did my practicum and that's how I'm able to teach 1301 while I'm also still a student, because you had to meet that 18 hour milestone requirement before you could even teach here. Because you had to meet that 18-hour milestone requirement before you could even teach here. So that was an option for me and that's the road I obviously took. But other people take more of the technology or AI route, not necessarily teaching, if that's not the path they're looking to go towards after graduating. So, yeah, it's very flexible with what you want to do and what you do here to get to that point.
Speaker 2:And one thing you've also sort of emphasized here in both of the comments you've made is that there's lots of different ways to be in higher ed. You can be the creative, you can be the scholar, you can be the teacher, you can be the teaching scholar, depending on the degree you end up with and where it's from. Of course, you may not always know, until you get into it, exactly what you like the most Like. Are you learning that you like teaching? Are you enjoying teaching the comp class?
Speaker 3:I am, I really am. I think a lot of maybe grad professors are like oh, I don't know if you'll like 1301 and freshmen, but there's something for everyone is what I think, and I really do like the freshmen. That may be because before I taught these freshmen, I was teaching seventh grade and my certification is seventh through 12th grade in the Texas education system, so I was already teaching younger ages as compared to my professors, so maybe that's a little bit of a difference, but yeah, I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2:So you've been blossoming into the creative side.
Speaker 5:You want to tell everybody a little bit about what you're doing. Well, for one of my projects I'm doing a research, academic research, over a video game called Baldur's Gate 3, which is absolutely amazing. It's got a lot of mythology Absolutely amazing. It's got a lot of mythology. It has Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in it. It's got some William Blake in it. I think it's got some cool origin in it too. But it's really cool that I can take, you know, a creative aspect to my education and be able to go on that route and do stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're doing stuff, you're not just reading what other people do. And that, I think, is the great freedom now is that you all get to do that. So how about psychology? How is that different?
Speaker 4:I think one of the things that's different for me is there's a lot more community, I think, because whenever you're in undergraduate you're in a bunch of different classes with like 70 different people and it was a bit of a shock whenever I came to this small little classroom and there's 10 people and I have a cohort, so I am with these people almost throughout the entire program. So you really get to just have this community of this group of people that you're going through the same thing with and the same professors. I have them in many of my classes. I have them're going through the same thing with and the same professors. I have them in many of my classes. I have them multiple times throughout the entire year. So I think what's really nice is that I get to know these people and I get to have them and build relationships with them throughout the course of the graduate program.
Speaker 2:Well, and one of the things everybody will tell you and I know you all would agree with me is that learning is a social experience, and anybody who thinks that you can just learn by staying home and doing online stuff has probably missed out on some really great learning. So what are some of the issues you've experienced about getting into grad school or staying in grad school or meeting hours, or what are some of the things that are challenges that you want to warn people about? You want to start for us, caitlin.
Speaker 4:Sure, I think one of the difficulties that me and like my cohort and the people that I've met in the program, have is balancing school and life. Of course people have jobs, some of them have kids Plus you're in a full-time program. Like that is a commitment and balancing them it can be a real challenge. And while you're doing that you have to take care of yourself as things change too, because I mean there are different classes and different programs so you have to change your work schedule. But I think it's really navigating that and figuring out a way to make what's working for you and what's best for you. Do you have a full-time job?
Speaker 2:right now I have part-time Part-time. How many hours is part-time?
Speaker 4:Around 20 hours part-time. So it's an after-school program. So whenever the kids get out of school they actually come to us school program. So whenever the kids get out of school, they actually come to us. And of course it's for the parents, you know, who can't yet pick up their kids, and we get to take them and do stuff with them. So we do their homework, we have a snack, we get to do some playtime too. They've been in school all day and you think they want to do homework? No, and we get to have that time with the kids. We also do feed them dinner.
Speaker 2:And are you seeing already ways that your psychological training is starting to serve you as you do this job with children?
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. My preferred demographic is currently with children and even in the school environment, so whenever I leave I do probably want to end up working as a LPC in the school setting probably kindergarten through about high school and of course I've already worked in a couple schools, so that's of course, very helpful, also with young kids. I think emotional regulation has also been a big one with us. I've worked at Andy Woods and Bullard Primary as well as in Brownsboro, so I've met a lot of different kids in a lot of different environments and it has been really helpful in to the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would think that would be really powerful. Well, Caroline, what about you? Do you have a job right now.
Speaker 5:It's kind of a job I do content creation on YouTube, kind of reviewing video games and talking about their scripts and things like that, finding the plot holes in some games, and you're paid for this.
Speaker 2:I'm bound to be. Well, you're also building up a resume, aren't you? Kind of a little bit like what you're doing with the schools? Although that's not technically as a therapist, it's still experience, and for you, experience as well. It's kind of unusual, I think, for most grad students, like you said in your program, do have jobs or families, or both right, and you've got more than one job, don't you? You better tell everybody how much you're doing right now, because I don't know how you're keeping up with it and I keep worrying I'm going to lose you. But please don't quit being my producer.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I, yeah, I have a lot of positions. I won't necessarily call them jobs. I have a lot of positions here. I am your producer, I'm obviously a student, I teach my 1301 class, I am the director of the digital design studio, I am also the president of the creative writing club, and I'm sure the list goes on, but I can't think of more right now.
Speaker 2:Now, some of those are free choice. Right, you didn't have to agree to be my producer and you didn't have to agree to be the president of the creative writing course. But now is the teaching job paid.
Speaker 3:It is yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, I had to work the whole time. I was in grad school doing the same thing, teaching a lower division class, and it's just the reality of grad school usually. If you have the luxury of not having to work at least half time, that's great, but it's pretty much a normal thing Now. Another thing we need to talk about, though, is some of our programs are online, some are face-to-face, some are hybrid. What's going on with all that? Now let's start with you, caitlin, with the psychology program.
Speaker 4:Yes, so mine is completely face-to-face. You're coming up here, you know, multiple times a week for three hours, Like you did as an undergrad, right? Yes, it is completely face-to-face, which can be hard with scheduling sometimes. I would say one of the things about online is sometimes you know you don't have to drive all the way to UT Tyler, come to class. You're there for three hours. But, with that being said, I do enjoy it. I get to see my classmates and I get to see my professors and with that you build, I think, greater relationships than probably you would online. So, while it can be difficult to navigate, along with everything else, I think it's also a blessing.
Speaker 2:How far do you have to drive to come to campus?
Speaker 4:Almost an hour.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah. What about you, caroline?
Speaker 5:I like the freedom of being able to choose between online, because I know a bunch of our classmates that have you know jobs during the day and they can only make during online classes, and I think that's really awesome that if our time allots it, we can do in-person class or online, and personally I like in-person better because I feel like you can bounce ideas off of people more, you can talk to the professors more. Online it kind of just depends on what you're feeling If you learn better face-to-face or you learn better going at your own pace on a class.
Speaker 2:How have you experienced the online classes? Are they entirely asynchronous or semi-synchronous? I think the beginning graduate class.
Speaker 5:I think it was 5300, was asynchronous, I think is what it was.
Speaker 2:Meaning you just never met with the teacher or the classmates. It was all online. And what did you experience? What was delivered to you in those online classes?
Speaker 5:I had a very hard time with that class. You know, with face-to-face you'd say you're working on a project and it's all typed out, the instructions are all typed out, but you know, if you're in class you're saying can you reiterate that for me, can you say that a little differently for me? Whereas here it's like okay, I got to send an email, got to wait for the response, got to hope that I can interpret the email correctly in order to do my project correctly. It's kind of it was not lectures, no, ma'am, it was just typed out, so it was really book learning on your own.
Speaker 2:Here's the schedule, here's what you read. So that's sort of the one end of an online class. There's not even lectures, okay, not even tape lectures. Have there been other kinds, michaela?
Speaker 3:I would say primarily here at least. It's usually asynchronous.
Speaker 2:The online class I'm in right now is asynchronous, and I don't think I've been in another version, here at least and the other thing, too, is that grad students have the choice to take entirely asynchronous or hybrid or face-to-face. The one thing I would always warn people about is, when you get ready to apply to a program, find out what's available to you, because, like you said, there's a lot more freedom, so you have to know how you learn, and then you have to be able to plug yourself into programs that work for you. Have your online classes been just as Caroline described them, too, or if you had anybody in between?
Speaker 3:No, I have not had any taped lectures for my graduate school. For undergrad, yes, some of my summer classes were taped, especially electives. One of my professors does do a weekly audio so we can listen to her for about 10 minutes, but that's as much as we get for verbal communication besides, like emailing, obviously, I would agree that in person is a lot easier to connect with your classmates as well as your professors. But one thing we talked about earlier was a lot of the in-person classes here also merged with 4,000 level classes, so that's an interesting dynamic as well there, which personally I somewhat like because, being a teacher and potentially teaching that level, it's interesting to see where I'm at versus where they're at and how the teacher differentiates with them.
Speaker 2:That is an interesting opportunity. The truth is is that graduate programs are always smaller, intentionally so, and so in order to make sure we have enough students in classrooms to work. Sometimes we do do that. Now, when you have classes, your classes are all face-to-face. Do you have lectures face-to-face?
Speaker 4:Yes, all of the lectures are face-to-face, so every single class. Our professor like bless them, but they have to talk for just about three hours and I can't imagine how they do it. But they do it well.
Speaker 2:So you sit there and listen to them talk for three hours in class.
Speaker 4:Some of them do have interactive elements and we do get like a five to ten minute break, which is oh so much needed, but yeah, they do get to do have those interactive elements. You know involve the class and we have group projects, so sometimes we'll take even, like, maybe the leftover class time and we'll get into our groups and, you know, just go about our project and help each other.
Speaker 2:Well, I think listeners can understand then that you have to be really serious about this stuff if you're going to sit there for three hours and talk about it, or sit there on a Zoom class for an hour and listen to that, because it does take a lot of focus, it takes a lot of dedication. I will add this when I was in grad school, I remember the first couple of PhD classes I went to. I kept waiting for the professor to lecture and guess what? They don't. They rarely.
Speaker 2:In grad school, it's mostly you doing the self-teaching, and they would say, okay, now here is my bibliography, or here are the seven theories or the three theories that we're going to look at this year. Here are the main writers. And so a lot of grad school is self-education, and I remember being kind of annoyed about that at first, because I'd been out of college for a while and I wanted to sit back and have somebody talk to me and teach me, and I said, oh, I have to sit forward and I have to do a lot more of the active learning. Is that what you all have experienced as well?
Speaker 5:I would say, yes, I mean we'll come to the class and have like a class discussion on what we've read and things like that. But it's very self like. You got to keep your head straight and narrow and you got to, you know, make all the readings.
Speaker 2:I think that that's another piece of the truth about grad studies. It is different from undergrad. It's greater freedom, but it's also greater responsibility Not as many quizzes and tests, but bigger stakes. Caitlin's going. Oh yes, you want to tell them a little bit about that.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah. So whenever I first came into the semester and I saw like almost nothing in my first month, I'm like, what do you mean? I have no assignments for almost a month, like, and this is terrifying, what am I missing? But it's a bunch of big projects and sometimes they have to give you that amount of time in order to do it by pretty much the end of the semester. So almost everything is due quite a bit later. So to have that like almost moment of like things are missing, because in undergrad you almost you have things weekly. So it was totally eye-opening. Whenever I came in I'm like, oh okay, everything's almost due at the end. You have to make sure that you are on it, like you have so much done at a certain time so you can have it at the very end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, procrastinators do not do well in grad school because the level of depth is such that you cannot catch up quickly. You have to be working all the time. On Friday we were talking to freshmen. Remember one of the things that surprised them most about being a freshman? And on Friday we were talking to freshmen. Remember one of the things that surprised them most about being a freshman they had so much work to do compared to high school. We have so much work to do. We have to keep up with it and suddenly the big switch in grad school is I have so much work to do, but it's of a different layer of responsibility. So when we pull back up, we've just spent about 45 minutes talking to somebody about grad school. What is something we haven't talked about that you want to be sure folks out there in our listening audience might want to know, or need to know, about either grad school, whether it's in English or in psychology or just grad school in general, UT Tyler in particular. I'll start with you, Michaela, and we'll walk around the room.
Speaker 3:I'm honestly going to say something similar to what I said with the freshmen, and that's find your resources, because it's true for freshmen, but it's also true for graduate students, especially for someone who maybe didn't go to UT Tyler or the university that they're starting at for their master's and it's a new campus to them, so it's almost like they're a freshman right. Find the resources that are on campus for you. Obviously, your professors are going to be your biggest resource, but also the library is your second biggest resource, but there's so many other avenues of resources available to you for free. Primarily, if not all, of them are free. A lot of people don't use them enough because they're not sure how to, or they think it's not going to help them as much as they think, and it really is something that is worth looking into and getting involved with.
Speaker 2:So what are some of the things you're thinking of that are available resources that maybe people didn't realize were at a university that they can benefit from.
Speaker 3:A lot of universities have a writing center, so that's the first one I think of. I think many graduate students might think oh well, you know, I did fine writing in my bachelor's, so maybe I don't need to go to the writing center because I made it this far. But there's always things you can improve on. I'm not trying to like raise myself up here, but I'm teaching a class and even so, I still want to go to the Writing Center and get help, because there's still things I'm learning Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I send my grad students to the Writing Center. I go to the Writing Center. Sometimes you want to tell them what people at the Writing Center do. Maybe folks might not know that.
Speaker 3:Sure, so you can go in and make an appointment with tutors in the Writing Center and essentially they will help you to go through your assignment or paper or whatever it is that you bring in and help you to kind of elevate what you've already written. They're not necessarily going to go through and edit every single little thing comma you know punctuation but they are going to help you go through your paper and look at the prompt and say how can we make this better? You go through your paper and look at the prompt and say how can we make this better?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times a student gets started on a project and they get way drift, drift, drift, drift, drift away from what the assignment was for and the writing center tutors will say well, but now the prompt says do this and you're doing that, and that's a big help. What besides the writing center?
Speaker 3:I would also say career success. That's a big thing. I know that they push for undergrads because a lot of people don't take the step towards a master's and so they want to make sure they're getting those jobs after their bachelor's. But even so, once you finish your master's and you're looking for a job, or once you finish your PhD and you're looking for a job, the career success is always going to be helpful to you, no matter what stage of college you're at, and even if you're trying to find a job while you're in college or an internship, they can help you with that. Specifically, here at UT Tyler, they also have career success coaches as well as a career success closet, so if you need clothes for a job interview, you can get those there, as well as if you want help with your resume or cover letter or being mock interviewed for something that's coming up, then those coaches will be there to help you one-on-one.
Speaker 2:That's really really good advice. Yeah, what about you, caitlin?
Speaker 4:stressful time in a stressful environment to go through. I would say just be gentle with yourself, because those who decided to go into a master's program, they decided because they're dedicated to it and you're going to put a lot of time and money into it and you're going to want to do well. But, with that being said, I think you do want to try your best, but don't put too much pressure on yourself.
Speaker 2:Spoken like a true fledgling LPC, right? I'm really glad you brought that up, and I will add this that most professors want to make sure that you have mental health, that we're watching that. And one thing you said about freedom, caroline we're also more flexible with graduate students, especially if they're carrying a job and children, or both, along with their program, and so it's nice to know that. Well, yes, you want to excel, you want to do the very best you can. We're also going to be there to help you, caroline. Your turn.
Speaker 5:I would say definitely make a calendar for yourself. Stick sticky notes all over your monitor or wherever you do your homework and say I'm going to do this assignment by 8 o'clock tonight and stick to that, because that is the best way you can stay up to date on stuff. Snowballing and it starts snowballing, but as long as you have a calendar that is lined out I line mine out to the t, like everything, like do this by four o'clock, do this by 4 30 for sure calendar. Do a google drive of all your assignments you have to do and have it like ping in your pocket every now and then be like, oh, I need to do that, because I have the worst habit of forgetting that I have an assignment due and then it's due and I'm like okay, I got to stay up till 3 am to do this.
Speaker 5:I would also say get in contact with your professors. You can reach out to your professors. Make sure you've got like a good relationship with them. My little brother actually went to grad school and I told him. I said you need to make sure to introduce yourself to all your professors. Harness a really good relationship with them, because to me that's the most important thing you can have.
Speaker 2:Well, one of the most important things is you have to have letters of recommendation. And who else but these folks you know, and that's a life skill too, I mean, you'll need letters of recommendation all the way down the line. I'm getting ready to come up for a big promotion and I have to have letters of recommendation. Even I do so making sure that you have developed the kind of social skills, upward and downward and sideways, to be able to get along with colleagues, get along with superiors, employers, but also getting along with the folks that may end up being your employees. Those are really great skills to have. I think.
Speaker 2:We all think that it's probably going to help you get into your chosen career, maybe a little bit more directly than yours, caitlin, because of the degrees and the certifications and the tests. Caroline's going to have to work a little harder at finding a niche for her creative work, you finding teaching jobs, but it sounds to me like all three of you know where you're heading. Well, thank you so much. I hope that you all will come back and tell us when you get ready to graduate. But I would add this that all three of you are talking about careers that are going to feed and service people. They are careers of service and, in terms of feeding the imagination for you, caroline, your creative work, for the two of you who want to be counselors and teachers, the service element of what you all have chosen to do you know what Percy Shelley said about having imagination. Stoking and preserving and enhancing the imagination of our citizenry is the greatest service of all too. So I see all three of you as getting ready to take some really fine jobs of citizenship, and I'm grateful to know you so well.
Speaker 2:That was pretty interesting. I enjoyed that. I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 6:Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast. Thank you so much for listening in with us today, and if you have questions about college life or any of the topics that we were talking about today, please send us your questions to adrquestions at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you. In the meanwhile, we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you very much. This is Ashley W Wortley signing off.
Speaker 4:Bye-bye.
