College and Graduate School: How Are They Different?

Lindsay Martinez 

I graduated from college a little over three years ago and I am now in the second year of completing my master’s degree at Texas A&M. One of the things that I’ve been asked a lot by younger family and friends over the last year is: “What is grad school like compared to college?”

One distinction is that in graduate school, the student community is very diverse in terms of experience. There are students from a wide variety of work and educational backgrounds, some are coming straight from their college degree, while others have already had a full-time career, provide for a family, and are now back at school for a graduate degree. Almost everyone I went to college with came straight from high school. The few students who worked or traveled for a year before college definitely seemed more mature, more worldly. In
graduate school, I really enjoy and appreciate being in classes with older students who have a lot of work experience or already work a full-time job. These students who are putting in the work to take classes and invest in themselves are often able to share their knowledge and real-life experiences in the class settings. It’s also quite helpful to learn about what kinds of careers that people in your department currently work in. 

Along with becoming older and wiser, graduate students also become much better teammates. In the spring semester, I had a really positive experience working on a group project with fellow graduate students in master’s and doctoral programs. In the group project, my classmates and I were tasked with looking into a coastal ecosystem restoration project in Texas for a course on coastal processes. In college, I sometimes dreaded group projects. Some group mates would be difficult to get in touch with, some would procrastinate or not do their part of the project, some would inadvertently sabotage the group presentation, and some would just
have lower standards than I did. For my grad school project though, everybody communicated well, did their part, and ultimately put together a really nice project. I really enjoyed working with motivated and reliable grad school classmates. 

There are other differences between college and graduate school too, but the thing that I really notice the most is not a difference in the way that school works, but rather in the way that I work. As I have explained to others, by the time you are in graduate school, you probably know how to work smarter and more efficiently than you did in college. I know how to get through my class readings in a timely manner. I know that if I have a question or problem with something, I might as well just reach right out to an instructor rather than let time pass while I’m debating whether or not to ask. And now that I am splitting my time between classwork and work for my thesis
project, I see that there is plenty of time in the week to get through classes, assignments, and studying. I used to be a full-time college student taking four or sometimes five classes, but now three graduate classes only require half of my work time, and the rest is saved for my project. I think that age, college, and some work experience together really teach you how to work smarter and manage your schedule. 

Now, I treat my school and project work as a full-time day job. I find that I can get my work done during the workday. I do not need to spend evenings or weekends doing homework and making up for the time I spent napping or taking extended lunches like I did in college!

The one thing that I have found challenging in graduate school is adjusting my attitude about my work/study schedule. In college, if I was able to finish classwork early or had an easy week, I felt like I should be celebrating. I’d get out to do something fun with friends or just take some time to relax. I was certainly happy about any opportunity to have a break in work and get more free time. In graduate school however, if I finish everything I need to get done before the end of the working day, I somehow feel like I am cheating. I am working and studying under a paid fellowship program, so shouldn’t I be keeping busy for all hours of the workday? I no longer get so excited about some free time, but rather, for example, ask myself what more I could be doing to work ahead in classes or make more progress on my thesis. 

Nevertheless, one of my goals for this semester will be to use some of the time that I save to work on blogging about my experiences at Texas A&M.