Preparing for Graduate School

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Gearing Up

After having spent a summer of leisure, reading great books, watching all those esoteric movies that you always claimed you didn't have time for, and generally enriching your intellectual life, the time will finally come to gear back up for the more structured rigors of graduate school. Sure, you'll miss all that free time, and your daily dose of Maury at lunch will be missed (is there any better topic for a mid-day talk show than that old Povich favorite, "Paternity Tests Revealed!"?), but the truth is that, after all that time on your own, you're probably ready to go back and continue along the path towards professional excellence and intellectual greatness.

But this is far easier than it sounds. How, after all, are you supposed to make that transition from the carefree days of summer to the highly structured and pressure-filled ones of the school year? Luckily, there are several strategies you can employ to make this transition easier. And if you follow them, you may even find yourself performing better in school than you did when you left it way back in the spring.

Slow And Steady Wins The Race
Ah, yes: The old fable of the tortoise and the hare. Personally, I like turtles in a nice soup with some sherry, and rabbits roasted with a nice drizzle of honey. But they also have great value when it comes to providing a lesson on how to most effectively transition back to that scholastic mindset.

First, however, a recap: There's a race between a tortoise and a hare, and it's a long race, and unsurprisingly (to make up a word) the tortoise starts off slowly but keeps up the pace and the hare starts off at a hopping speed that puts him well in front of the tortoise for the first, oh, let's say seven-eighths of the race, but then he gets tired, the hare, and starts to wheeze, and starts to cough, and eventually, he passes out like you did your first weekend as a freshman in college, but that's a different story, and the tortoise, which has been maintaining a slow and steady pace the entire time, comes across the unconscious hare a few hours later, but the tortoise isn't tired because he was confident in the ultimate utility of his steady progress, and eventually, he crosses the finish line ahead of the hare, who couldn't possibly do so in the unconscious state he's in, and the moral of the story is clear: Not only does the hare get caught by the passing-by chef and roasted with a drizzle of honey, which is good for us but bad for it, but the tortoise's slow and steady pace will win the race every time. The End.

So what does this have to do with your transition back to that scholastic state of mind? Just a little something called success: If you can begin preparing for school before it even begins - read a few of the books on the reading list, start thinking about topics for papers that you know will be assigned, prepare your first few class's worth of notes for that intro-level lab course you have to teach in the fall - the easier time you'll have doing slow, considerate, quality work once the school year begins. And as a result, you won't end up roasted with a drizzle honey.

In The Great Words of The Rock Band The Eagles...

"Take it easy, take it easy Don't let the sound of your own wheels Drive you crazy Lighten up while you still can Don't even try to understand Just find a place to make your stand And take it easy [Rollicking Guitar Solo Here]

Yes, before you even think of doing any of that stuff in the lyrics above, give yourself a break. People, like watches, cars, and boy bands, don't last forever. Eventually, everyone needs a break, and if they don't get one, their productivity and the quality of their work will suffer, eventually beginning its long and inevitable slide down that same slippery slope that has claimed the life of countless Swatches, Chevy Impalas, and all the members of New Kids On The Block.

So the key, then, is to give yourself a breather during which time you won't allow yourself to think about anything school-related. It may seem counterintuitive, but even a weekend of watching Maury (again, is there anything better than "Paternity Test Revealed?"!) or hiking the Appalachian Trail or hanging out on a beach and working on your end-of-summer burn will make all the difference in the world once it's time to begin the process of getting back into the school frame of mind. Remember, you're almost always better off spending a few days doing nothing even remotely productive if it will enhance the quality of your work once the school year (or pre-school tortoise-and-hare-inspired year) begins.

On Your Marks, Get Set...
Finally, once you've relaxed a bit, and once you've prepared yourself for the craziness of the school year, go at it with all the energy and passion you did your first term there. Remember, you're there to make the most of those few years spent in the presence of some of what are ostensibly the best minds in your field, and to become an expert in that field, and to prepare yourself for a career that is not only successful on its own terms, but that will also impact people in the wider world, as well. So, yes: You'd better work hard from the get-go. What would your mother say if she knew you weren't? What kind of child did she raise? Shame on you...

Well, maybe not. The truth is that most people are ready to jump back into the school year by the end of the summer. If you're the kind of person who has enrolled in grad school in the first place, then you're certainly the kind of person who enjoys the work on some level. So don't fight it: Give it your all, make the most of your time there, and prepare yourself for a brilliant future. It all starts now, even before the first day of classes.

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