Graduate School - How many of us are in it?

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Today was my first day of graduate classes (getting a Master's in Speech Language Pathology - interesting choice of career for someone like me!). I'm overwhelmed and panicking slightly about my upcoming thesis synopsis (due in less than a month for my Research Methods class).

Is anyone else here in graduate school?

me, almost done... PhD in December if I work my butt off the next few weeks!!

Does finishing a Master's in the 1990s count? I remember feeling overwhelmed when school started, and getting through it day by day, step by step.

TheCaityCat: Very interesting choice.

Stinkypuppy: Congrats on being so close to the doctorate.

Speech Language Pathology sounds really interesting, I wanted to do that briefly at one point, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it.

I just finished a master's degree in higher ed administration/counseling; I'm thinking of going back to grad school in the near future to do a JD or possibly working on a PhD in educational anthropology/adult literacy.

Chemistry/Neuroscience! Already have 1st masters, pursue PhD. I am the Lab Pet.

ebec11 & TheCaityCat: I didn't know you are, or potentially for ebec11, pursuing Speech Language Pathology - neat! If you would like, please visit the NV 'Special Silent Forum' in the Haven here on Wrong Planet, designed especially for those of us who are non-verbal/mute to whatever degree, like myself.

Another member, Saffy (Neurotypical) has posted there sometimes as well; she is your professional and very nice - interesting posts! Perhaps you could check out some of the NV Autists.

Good going Stinkypuppy...I know how intensive this is although our fields are different.

I got my masters. And I am going back to school for both a BA & BS... It will take me many years at 2 classes a term.

Hmm, I was anticipating getting a part-time or full-time job doing some teaching at the community college level to get some more teaching experience on my resume. Maybe in the future I would get a full-time position and possibly go more into university administration at some point. I also love the thought of providing some kind of academic counseling. Did you find the master's degree in higher ed admin/counseling useful? Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated!

Thanks everybody for the encouragement, and congrats to everybody in grad school!!

Well... I'm what most refer to as a "Student Affairs Administrator" and not an academic administrator; I've worked in residence life/housing, disability services, student conduct, and academic advising. I don't really know that the degree was all that useful in my daily work life during grad school (and I'm looking for a job post graduation); there were very few courses with knowledge I can anticipate applying daily in a real-world professional setting.

My job search has been frustrated by some rubbish (detailed here). There are a lot of people in the field that I would categorize as very bureaucratic in temperament, and I don't think that's necessarily a good thing for many people with ASDs, but that also varies by institution.

The course on student development theory was useful to an extent as it covered developmental psychology and learning theory for college students, but much of the literature and research on most of the best theories is sorely out-dated (1970's) and the texts used by most programs haven't been updated in a decade or more (the most common book for Student Development Theory classes doesn't incorporate Cross's recent revamp of his theory of Black identity) .

I also found the counseling theory/practice useful, especially as a person with an ASD. However, the interships and hands-on experience were more valuable than the degree.

That can be challenging, depending on your field/research interests, etc. If you're in a science, you'll have a much easier time. The humanities/literature/etc are over saturated with PhD grads (and people with MAs) and it can be harder to find full time or part time teaching positions in those fields.

The best advice I can give you there is to be very flexible with your location as far as the search goes. Do you have any publications? Those can be very important when it comes time to job search. Grant writing experience is good, too.

Yeah I'm in science (genetics) so hopefully it'll be a bit easier. Location is going to be a little tough because after 6 years of being on opposite coasts as my family, I realized how much I actually needed them so I'll be looking for a position near them, in the Seattle area. But I'll definitely remember to keep an open mind about Western WA in general. I have one manuscript currently undergoing revision, and not grant writing experience per se but experience writing research proposals.

Thanks very much for the advice!

I will be starting a PhD program in History next month.

ms in el eng and phd in physics so probably my advice is not relevant. heck, even i do not follow my advices.

At the ripe old age of 28, I'm starting my Masters next week. I'm in the middle of orientation and am already pretty exhausted lol. But I think this is because of all the talks and social gatherings involved, while actual class won't be 4 hours of mingling in a loud environment every single day. Although on the plus side, I'm picking up on the whole mingling and nonverbal type stuff fairly quickly. I'm at a fancy schmancy school among many Type A's and half the students in my entering class are MD's so I feel kind of dumb and intimidated sometimes, whereas in undergrad and high school I felt like I was definitely smarter than most of my classmates. On the other hand, everyone says I look really young, so maybe I should just lie and say I'm 20 so people would think I must be really smart to start grad school at 20 haha....

I tell myself that it's like a good play in baseball. It does not always work, for lot does depend on the other person. I can go a half way, maybe 60%, but the rest is up to the other person. And I am trying to add to my listening skills and my openness to appreciating others.

That said, I feel like I have had a good run of it lately. And I'd like to keep learning. So please, share with us some of your recent successes if you'd like.

*raises hand*

I'll be starting my PhD in October.

I design interactive systems and play with robots. My PhD will focus on human-machine and human-computer interaction.

When the human race is eventually enslaved by robot overlords... it was like that when I got there, I swear.