I am smart and quick on the uptake, but at heart I'm a laidback kind of guy who likes to procrastinate and enjoy life. I'm the kind of guy who can write a decent term paper overnight and doesn't see the point of doing more work than necessary. I get excellent grades but this is more due to being intelligent, NOT hard work.
Is going to grad school a good idea? If I do, should I choose a prof with my type of mentality? Would a workaholic prof be a really bad idea?
2007-03-02 13:44:09 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
I also abhor the idea of working on weekends. I'm the type of guy who doesn't like mixing work/school and home life. I don't mind putting in extra time now and then as long as it is on weekdays and not too frequent.
2007-03-02 13:48:25 · update #1
Good question. I also made excellent grades as an undergrad using procrastination and my astoundingly good BS skills in addition to my natural intelligence. Then I went to grad school and tried that; didn't work so well. Not sure you'd be able to find a prof with your type of mentality at a grad level. They actually expect work sometimes. It sucked, but I'm currently working on my 3rd post-grad degree.
and p.s.--you may not can write a 100 page paper overnight, but I did a 20-pager in 8 hours one day and got an A- on it.
2007-03-02 13:53:58 · answer #1 · answered by ckmclements 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I suggest you work for a few years and see if you still feel like it later. Grad school is much harder than undergrad programs in most cases. My experience has been that there is at least double the amount of work per class, a lot more oral presentations, a lot more lengthy papers, lots of research to read and understand. My friend, however, said hers wasn't that bad. My program was so tough they encouraged students not to take more than 6 hours a semester, 9 at the most- and only 9 if you don't have a job. Many aren't quite that rigorous, but they're pretty darned close.
I went back to school years later and did a grad program nothing like what I originally went to school for. I suspect the reason you don't feel like working hard is that you haven't found a program that really excites you.
A workaholic prof would be a very bad idea unless you're really, really excited about the subject and are willing to bust it for the next few years. Any graduate advisor worth his salt will expect lots of work out of his grad students. They take a limited number of grad students a year so they know what you're accomplishing as you go.
2007-03-02 22:10:30 · answer #2 · answered by Behaviorist 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, grad school probably isn't for you. You can't write a hundred-page research paper overnight, and I don't know any grad students who can take the weekend off and still keep the mandatory 3.0 gpa needed to not get kicked out.
I'm currently in grad school, and I haven't even slept through a night in two weeks. But you're research probably won't call you up in the middle of the night and make you work on it. Literally - I get text messages from satellites with problems.
2007-03-02 21:51:18 · answer #3 · answered by eri 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Grad school is worth it! That MA/MS/MBA will make you more attractive to employers and more competitive in the marketplace. It also gives you the option of teaching at the college level -- something I have done most of my life. You will never find a better, more rewarding life than that.
Choose professors who inspire and challenge. Workaholic profs are probably not your best choice unless they inspire and challenge.
2007-03-02 22:09:58 · answer #4 · answered by Tom 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋