Before I started the program, I talked to three different alumni for their tips and suggestions. Although these may sound very obvious, here's their suggestions which I've implemented for myself to various degrees this year (although to be honest, many of these are also “do as I say, not as I do” type things!):
1. Exercise
2. If you don't exercise, try to at least change your lifestyle a bit – walk to school, take the stairs at FIMS, walk downtown instead of taking the bus sometimes.
3. Eat healthy and regularly
4. You won't always eat healthy or regularly so start taking multi-vitamins.
5. Get eight hours of sleep, preferably in order. (I recommend either gravol or melatonin as a sleep aid.)
6. You won't get regular sleep so take naps when you can.
7. Classes are only three hours a day but get used to working eight plus hours per day and/or on the weekends to keep up.
8. Do whatever works to not allow yourself to get stressed about working this much and this intensely – meditate, start a window garden, volunteer, participate in extracurricular activities, do something outside of school.
9. Use both a day timer and a four-month wall calendar to keep track of assignments, presentations, critiques, summaries, worksheets, proposals, plans, and poster sessions you'll be asked to do.
10. Focus on the assignments and if you don't have time, don't do all the readings – it's all but impossible to do both.
Comments 8
It amazes me how quickly you learn number 10!!!
I debated whether to put that on the list as it's sort of…negative? We're in a grad program and should want to do all the work including all the readings. But I have to be honest – every alum I talked to said “don't do the readings”, all the upper level students I talked to said “don't do the readings”, Student Council members at the pizza party said “don't do the readings” so it's pretty hard to fight that battle.
I don't know how to fix this – I've got a post percolating on “Reading Library School” with some ideas on what/how you can read to still get useful, relevant information, even without doing all the assigned readings.
In addition to #4, I suggest having a supply of cold remedies always on hand. In particular, anything that wards off colds when you feel them coming on and just can't afford to get sick. ColdFX is pricey but works surprisingly well (it's basically just concentrated doses of Ginseng). Echinacea isn't scientifically proven, but if it works for you, keep some around. And if you're not sure which vitamins to take, the whole B family is good for stress, and C is good for warding off the scurvy when you run out of funds to buy fresh produce and have to resort to Kraft Dinner.
Ooooh. That's another survival tip: stock up on food while you can, before you drink all your OSAP away!
And, um, complaining and venting may not be the healthiest way to deal with stress … but it works. Your MLIS classmates are a support system – use 'em.
A fully stocked medicine cabinet is a must – Tylenol. Advil, ColdFX, Dristan, etc. I honestly am amazed that I have not gotten sick this year – usually I get sick once or twice per year. I don't know if it's the Ontario climate, the fact that I put a couple of these ideas into practice (first time I've taken multi-vitamins in my life) or just willing myself to *not* get sick knowing how much it would devastate me in terms of keeping up at school.
Hmm, I wonder if the Wellington Dark they sell at the Grad Club has healing properties? I mean Guinness' slogan used to be “Guinness – for your health”
Or maybe since it's grad school the assumption is that you'll figure out what's important on your own. I always figured if it was required or sounded interesting it was probably worth my time to read the introduction and conclusion at the bare minimum.
Well, presumably everything professors assign you to read *should* be important, right? And again, I wonder about the schizophrenic nature of this program sometimes – it's a grad program and they should trust you with a *lot* of decisions that they don't.
I've asked professors if I could slightly modify an assignment to better fit what I was interested in (“Can I look at book buying in public libraries instead of academic libraries?”) and been told no (I've also had professors who allowed me this flexibility.) I've also literally had to beg to be excused from classes – even if it was for another learning opportunity such as attending a lecture or something. (I've heard of other students having similar experiences.)
I guess another point that ties into my earlier comment is if they want us to figure out what's important in terms of readings, my answer would often be – articles and books you find on your own that aren't even on the reading list!
Yeah, I never understood that. A learning opportunity is a learning opportunity. And sometimes the scheduling is bad. I always thought the strict attendance policy was odd. It's grad school not grade school.
Well, I understand and am fine with the 100% attendance policy since it means we don't have final exams (which would be *much* worse.) But within that policy, they do allow for up to two excused absences for illness or job interviews or whatever. So why not for a great learning opportunity?
I raised this issue at my exit interview earlier this week and was told that it's an insult to the professor to miss a class like this. I said that the class I missed was one (of the many here – another problem if you ask me) where students were teaching their fellow students via presentations.
When I did ask the prof for permission to leave, she said “your colleagues will miss your support” but when I asked one of the two groups who presented that week for their powerpoint slides, the student said “I didn't even notice you were gone!”
Another student at the exit interviews also defended my point saying that you have to think in terms of singular learning opportunities versus a regularly schedule class, which, although important, is part of a continuum where the student missing the class presumably has a pretty good idea about what they missed from the syllabus and can get notes from a fellow student (or even the powerpoint slides from the instructor.) They can discuss what they missed with fellow students and so on.
Attending a one-time lecture is exactly that – a one-time opportunity. I made a judgement call that the lecture I attended would be more valuable than the class I missed. I think I made the right call!