Article August 27, 2007 Issue

LIFE-LESSONS AT GRADUATE SCHOOL

BY INGE SCHMIDT

I HAD WHAT WAS, to me, the perfect undergraduate experience. As a student at a small, liberal arts college for women, each day I enjoyed a beautiful campus, challenging classes, and time spent with a group of friends who became like family. On more than one occasion during senior year, my friends and I sat around the dinner table jokingly devising plans to fail our courses so that we could spend another year together.

Our goodbyes at the end of May were teary, but bitter-sweet. As much as I'd loved my senior year, I knew it was time for new adventures. I'd been accepted into an ivy-league PhD program in my field of study, and would have the opportunity to work with well-respected faculty and graduate students who were known for being serious scholars.

But as I began my first year of graduate school the following fall, I began to miss my friends from college and constantly compare this new school to my undergraduate experience—and it wasn't measuring up. This outlook, coupled with the fact that I felt intimidated by extremely intelligent faculty members and graduate students, caused me to become withdrawn. In college, I'd never hesitated to participate in class and socialize with peers and advisors. Now, I held back from speaking up, second-guessed myself when I did, and felt awkward in social situations. On top of it all, while fellow graduate students spent weekends with their spouses and children or at local bars or parties, I spent time at home—alone.

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