5 Useful Advices on Grad School

Sometime during the weekend, I came across a funny article - 6 Important Things Nobody Tells You About Grad School. Although Luke, the author, mentioned 6 things, it is really more like 5 points. Some of the points were not described in a well manner.

So, I am going to summarize it and further elaborate the points in a better fashion as shown below:

1. Research is Everything in Grad School - To get your degree in graduate school, you have to submit a thesis. Of course, this means you have to have good research result for your thesis. So, make sure you spend good amount of time on it.
2. Care about the Subject - If you do research just for the degree itself, then you are wasting your own time which can be better spend elsewhere. Also, pay as a graduate student isn't as good as real work. You are better off getting a real job.
3. Take Command of Your Research - When you are assigned your research project, don't expect your supervisor to guide you step by step through process. You need to think actively on how to solve problem. Also, don't expect grad school to be all nice. As Luke puts it - there will often be sh*t around.
4. Teach and Tutor - Try to get a chance to be a teaching assistant (TA) or a tutor. It will help you to communicate better, which will be useful in graduate school. It will also help you to better put thoughts together before speaking.
5. Strongly Consider Your Job - Don't just put all your focus into research and learning. Spend a good amount of time looking for possible jobs after graduation. From my personal experience, this is very important and it helped me to get a good job before even graduating!

Overall, these 5 advices are pretty common except the last two. Be sure to keep them in mind. From my experiences, these are pretty good advices from Luke!