interview of a grad student

While attending Peirce College you will encounter several individuals such as your classmates, staff members, faculty, alumni students, and your colleagues who are great resources for providing you with concrete information to assist you along your academic journey.

This project requires you to interview a member of the Graduate Student Association at Peirce College. The Graduate Student Association consists of all students enrolled in good standing in a Graduate Studies Program at Peirce College.  

Provide the following background information: Date of interview, Name of Interviewee, Occupation, College attended, and Graduate Studies Degree Program.

Questions:

1)      What general advice would you give me as a new graduate student at Peirce College? 

2)      How would you define a responsible student?

3)      Can you describe the events, activities, support services that you participated in and how they benefited you?

4)      What recommendations can you provide for balancing school, work, and personal life?

5)      Why is it so important for me to build relationships with my instructors, faculty advisor and other staff members throughout the college? 

6)      How have you been able to use your Graduate Studies coursework in your professional life?

7)      What steps do you recommend that I take in preparation for the Capstone Project?

8)      Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share?  

Answers below:

1) My advice to you as a new graduate student would be to learn time management.  Grad school is just not about writing papers, research takes a bit of time as well and there is a lot of reading and re-reading.  To add to this, LEARN APA citing!  Lastly, I will say that you will have to learn the word NO.  There will be personal events that you will have to skip because school will take top priority. 

2) A responsible student to me is one that attends class, whether it's online or on campus, engages in discussions, has good time management skills, and is able to work in groups as well as individually.

3) I have used Smarthinking for a paper in the past.  I use the Library resources each week, especially EBSCOhost for all my research.  I have attended one Boot Camp for my Capstone project and plan to attend another, as I get closer to completing my Capstone.  I have attended a few the Grad Open Houses and talk to potential students about my journey thus far.  I have also participated in a few of the GSA events held off campus.  I have also reached out to other grad students and members of the GSA for help when needed, they are a great source.  I am not sure I will use Smarthinking anymore but I will say I have enjoyed discussing my experience and attending the events as I have made new friends.  

4) I can't say it enough, time management!  This will help with balancing life, work, and school.  As I mentioned before, you will have to say no to personal things because of school, there will be many late nights, and there may be times when you will have to take a day off from work to do school work.  

5) Building relationships with the faculty and adviser's is very important.  They only want to see you do the best and since I have started, they all have been there to answer my questions almost immediately.  Advisers are great at figuring out your schedule as well especially when a class isn't offered, they work with you to see you straight to graduation.

6) I have been able to use what I've learned so far in my professional life every day.  Working in the customer service industry, I have been able to use EQ, ethics, leadership, etc.  I will say too that in the 5 classes I've been in, I have really used my past career as well.

7) Recommendations for your Capstone: (1) Know your topic and know it well.  (2) Do plenty of research, I'd say over research!  (3) Attend the boot camps, very informative.  (4) Don't be afraid to ask for help.  (5) Utilize the Peirce resources.  (5) I'll say it again, time management

8) Final thoughts...There will be some classes that aren't the most interesting and hard, but push through it!!!