So far, I think I've gained a great deal of knowledge from the five days that I've been at grad school, only three hours of which have I actually spent in class. SO the following will be a half retelling of my adventure so far and half a guide if you ever find yourself in my situation.
1: just showing up is half that battle. If you e-mail someone in housing and tell them that you are driving from Pennsylvania to Michigan (a 10 hour drive from where I was to where I was headed) and that you will need a place to live when you get there, they tend to frantically get you a place to live once you show up on there doorstep and they know you were serious.
2: if you are coming from a relatively small undergrad university into a university large enough to have multiple graduate programs, you'll most likely need a map and someone on the phone looking at an interactive online map to figure out where the hell you're supposed to be.
3: if you haven't been formally admitted yet (meaning your paperwork hasn't been completely processed) you won't have access to a few essential things, such as: the place you may be living. Sure, housing gave you a card that would theoretically let you in, but you, a person studying theory, will know that not all theories come together into practice as people might have planned. If you don't have access to you residence you most likely won't have access to your meal plan, which leads me to...
4: The most essential thing to pack should be a coffee pot. From a coffee pot you can make food that will keep you alive and upright until you get your meal plan fixed. By food I, of course, mean things like Ramen, tomato soup with cheese-its (grilled cheese without the frying pan), other assorted soups, rice (though it's a little crunchy), any canned food really. Just note that i recommend thoroughly washing your coffee pot between each "meal"! Also, what grad student would go to school without a coffee pot?!?
5: If your university is like mine they have given you $25 of FREE PRINTING! As a grad student, this will quickly be gone, but if you happen to sit down at a computer that someone has not logged off of and mistakenly start printing, assuming it is towards your balance, but you're not exactly sure how (truly it was a mistake) then you have even more free printing! Lesson learned for me and them: Always log off of the computer before you walk away!
6: If you arrive at school and its fairly warm out you might want to open your window. If it doesn't seem to push open, try sliding it. I know, simple, but it took a few days.
7: Networking is good. This might seem fairly obvious. If you think about it though everything about you is what people see and judge you from, down to what you wear. Who knows, wearing a shirt that has countless words/phrases for the word vagina, might lead to a job in the Women's Center *crosses fingers on that one*. Honestly I have had so many random chances to get jobs here since Monday. Be aware of what people say and how you respond.
8: Don't get too excited when the bookstore only has one $13 book listed for a class, especially if that class is something like Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (something you KNOW will not be covered in this small dinky book). This just means the prof probably has his own website with all the books you'll need...in my case 5 required and 6 more recommended (and yes, the one he had in the bookstore was on the recommended list).
9: Grad school is that time when all the major changes and different weird classes during undergrad will ALL come in handy! Just in my first reading from one class I have put to use knowledge from 3 undergrad classes, all of which are different majors!
10: Study groups are good. You will need them, you will cling to them, you will be amazed at how willing people are to form something that seemed so dorky in undergrad.
That's all for now...back to "learning"
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