What have your experiences with graduate school been like?

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I'm getting close to finishing my master's degree(2/2.5 years done). It's been a very troubling and turbulent experience, more than normal. At least all the stress hasn't given me psychotic episode (I think I'm in the clear for developing schizophrenia like two of my grandparents ).

I got into my program a couple of weeks before the semester started. A funding opportunity opened up at the last minute in the form of a teaching assistantship outside of our department. The field research project I was brought onto never panned out. The field second research project I was migrated onto also didn't pan out. My current laboratory project that is panning out is actually half of a PhD project that another student abandoned due to stress/poor relationship with my graduate adviser. I've managed to avoid the same fate somehow though our relationship hasn't been completely rosy. I haven't made any friendships with other grad students. I almost did with the PhD student that dropped out and I still feel terrible about taking over their project. Graduate school feels like a hostage situation. I've wanted to quit a lot. My wife and our kitties have been good motivation to persist. COVID has made the experience better. I've been working mostly alone all summer on site since my research was deemed essential . Everyone will be coming back this fall though, great idea . Can't wait to be done with it this winter.

What have your experiences been like?

My grad school was online. I really liked that environment as it just let me focus on my work. No group work either. It was hard, but I went back at an old age, so was very prepared to do the work. It was well worth completing. Don't underestimate the graduate degree.

My experiences in graduate school were not the best. I will never visit those places again due to my bad memories. My masters program was fair, but I faced extensive bullying from my main PhD advisor. He ended up being forced off of my defense committee after I proved that he had blankly violated graduate school rules. He did not receive tenure because of his very unprofessional behavior, which he blamed on me. I am forever blacklisted at a certain national lab because of his pull there.

I also had to leave a different research group because a post doc there was contaminating my reactions. She would not stop after being confronted and the advisor backed her up. In the end, she screwed over the advisor by not declaring she was pregnant (she was not at risk to be fired, but it is a safety issue) until it was too late to get another worker to do the lab work for her. She wanted all the credit and would not allow anyone else to work on her part of the project. This major delay cost the advisor a million dollar grant. If only he would have listened to me earlier about her behavior. I am on speaking terms with that former advisor, so there is no ill will there. He now realizes that I was trying to help.

Mixed experiences for me. Some of it was pretty amazing (especially towards the end), almost like the prime of my life, but...other times were really stressful and a struggle. I definitely had some ups and downs. The school work itself was not overly challenging for me, mostly I enjoyed it and stayed on top of it (I got an A in every single class). But having to work at the same time sometimes became a lot. The bigger issues were: 1) teaching, and the problems that came with that, namely some students, parents, and other teachers criticizing me, 2) relationship with my GF who was living 2-3 hours away, and I could only see on the weekends...would miss her often, and sometimes we would argue as well, but it was like this amazing high when I'd make it through another week and get to see her, then hard to say goodbye, 3) drinking too much and some issues related to that...namely becoming dependent on alcohol to have a good time and having difficulty limiting myself, 4) dealing with roommate conflicts and trying to find a good living situation, etc., I had at least one really crazy roommate who freaked out at me and made me feel really uncomfortable and I had to move...but then I found the most amazing house to live in with cool roommates, so that was nice. I definitely made some friends and had some good times, and some tough times...but felt satisfied when it was over.

I have written many articles. Mainly on teaching topics, advice to students on effective learning, etc. I am very glad that I worked alone on my master's work. I had no problems with materials and research, since I did not need to discuss this with other colleagues. I successfully defended my job and received my master's degree. In general, I was satisfied.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. It helps to read what others have or not gone through.

My university may be switching to all online in the coming weeks. Hard to say, undergrads flouted the mask rules move in weekend with a bunch of parties. I hope that doesn't affect my ability to go to campus. I get to keep my office to myself, that was a whole thing. I moved out for a week only to move back in. Used to share it with a postdoc but he went on to better things in January. I live in a high risk COVID household.

2/6 thesis chapters written. Just working on edits. On to the next chapter.

My relationship with my grad adviser is okay for now. Video conferencing has improved our relationship. Something about face to face and being able to screen share results makes communication way easier. Removes direct eye contact since the camera and the screen are in different locations.

I actually had more trouble once I finished school. I was able to hold it together while in school, but was really bad at planning the next step of my life. So I didn't really know how to connect my academic life with my broader, professional life story. I didn't really follow through on making a career out of my studies the way I expected I would've going into it. My goal had been that I'd get a job as a teacher, but then felt discouraged by my teaching experiences in grad school. I didn't feel like it had prepared me to enter the workforce as a teacher and I kind of hit a rut and stalled. I was a rather exceptional student, but didn't know what to do with myself after graduation. I actually was trying to find a job about as far from my field as I could, I think I was kind of overwhelmed by the whole experience.

Really struggling with it today tbh. Executive function has been better. Got an online class this evening. Treading water.

I only have a Master's degree, which I earned in the decade prior to this one.

"Experiences with graduate school" depends heavily on your program and level - an M.A. student in history is obviously not going to have the same experiences as a PhD in Biochem. The latter is trying to pursue a personal interest and/or tick a career box, while the latter is a dedicated researcher.

wrt social life - I can't speak to PhD students, but if you're in a terminal Master's program, it's basically, in my experience, your Bachelor's 2.0. I was a little intimidated by the length of assignments at first (seeing papers go from a required 10 pages to a required 20-30 pages and having to read 300+ pages a week per class is a huge adjustment) but ultimately I was able to manage my time well enough that I could still lead an undergrad-like lifestyle of hanging out with the gamers in our university's student lounge/cafe/computer center chatting and holding conversations on random topics. I was able to spend time at the gym to go swimming and was able to do leisure reading in the library. On rare occasions I was able to go to parties with classmates and make 3 a.m. trips to the pubs and fast food restaurants near campus.

All in all, my Master's degree was probably the most relaxed period in my life just due to the large amount of unstructured time I had. This obviously won't be the same for everyone, but it's really the only experience I've had where no one ever spun my autism diagnosis or non-"neurotypical" tendencies into a huge issue.

Masters Defense is scheduled for the week of Jan 18-22. So close to end. Can finally be free of academia. One chapter left to write still.

Also the one job opening I had an inside contact for emailed me today letting me know that filling the position is on hold due to COVID.

FUUUUUCCCCCC**********!

Lately I seem to keep getting important good news and bad news on the same days. Maybe they're all Monday's.