<p>Basically, I want to know how difficult grad school is and whether or not Im being reasonable about my view on grad school. I want to go to grad school in aero. engineering (MS, not PhD) for career reasons and because Im interested in the stuff. However, I hear horror stories about grad students working relentlessly, putting in 75+ hrs per week, living off coffee, and having no time for hobbies or a personal life. These are just stories I hear. </p>
<p>Those horror stories are in direct conflict with my preferred lifestyle. Im all for working hard but within reason, and Im wondering if Im cut out for grad studies. I train and compete in triathlons, which involves free time for working out 6 days per week. I like to go out every weekend and hang out with either my friends or family (not frat style parties but an enjoyable night out with some drinks). I usually like to participate in some sort of club for a break and to meet new people. I prefer to get at least 5-6 hours of sleep. </p>
<p>So my questions are:
Are grad students routinely overworked and get no sleep? Do they have a life outside of classes/research? Do they spend so much time in the lab that they become both miserable and socially inept? Surely these stories a outliers or just completely false. </p>
<p>I ask this because I do not want to compromise my routine lifestyle or relationships for something as trivial as grad school. I was able to get a 3.6 GPA and live the way I wanted in my undergrad (although there were times I was very busy) but grad school is a whole different ball game. I was admitted to a top-5 program five months ago and accepted the offer, but ultimately deferred my admission offer for 1 year for the reasons above.</p>
<p>Grad students, like any other group of people, are tremendously varied in the way they approach their work. It’s true that many grad students work very hard, and that something has to go, whether it’s sleep or a personal life or whatever. But certainly not everyone has this experience, not to mention that everybody has busy times and less-busy times, so there may be a few months where you’re dying, but at other times your work may be more balanced.</p>
<p>How hard you work in grad school depends partly on how hard you want to work, and what outcomes you want from your time in graduate school. If you want to be the top student in your class, and to have your pick of top jobs on graduation, you will probably need to work harder than if your goal is just to graduate at some point. </p>
<p>Personally, my feeling is that if you don’t want to take graduate school seriously, you shouldn’t go. Why bother to spend the time at all if you think it’s trivial, and that it’s a lower priority to you than sleeping and working out?</p>
<p>I don’t think he seems to be saying it’s a lower priority than sleeping and working out, just that he has activities he enjoys and doesn’t want to have to give up on them.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’d have to ditch anything you enjoy entirely while you’re in grad school. I have a number of friends that run marathons, and they are able to find the time to get in exercise every day. It’s all about time management and being able to set goals for yourself. If you choose to spend your downtime exercising, then you’ll probably be fine. If you want to have downtime to exercise, watch TV, play games, drink, sleep 10 hours a night, and commute an hour each way…then you might have some issues.</p>
<p>I don’t think they really expect you to work in the lab for 75+hrs a week. When you arrive for your classes each day, you are pretty much expected to spend the entire day at the university (so bring your lunch). Between going to classes, studying, doing research, holding office hours, and TAing labs, you can easily spend 60 a week doing that. The other 15hrs (or so) are mostly spent reading papers, doing more research, grading lab reports. I think that this is doable. In my department 60hrs is pretty much expected. But if you manage your time correctly, you can find ways to save time. You can get alot done on Saturday and Sunday.</p>
<p>I should mention the friends I had that didn’t focus 100% on classes were PhD students, where, for the most part, your GPA doesn’t matter. As a MS student you should really be putting classes first, and, assuming you’re able to stick to a schedule and keep up with your work, you should have time for other things. There will be times, though, where you get behind and need to sacrifice the things you love for school.</p>
<p>I’m a doctoral student who has made a personal decision to not let my work cut into my personal life too much. That doesn’t mean I don’t work hard, but it means that I pursue my personal interests in conjunction with my work. I get 6-8 hours of sleep per night (unless I have a deadline looming); I work out regularly and hang out with my friends (not every weekend, but many); I work in residential life and am pursuing volunteer opportunities in my community. I am an NSF fellow and have a first-authored paper out in a journal that’s well-known in my field, so it’s not like I’m completely slacking.</p>
<p>Mind you this personal decision was made AFTER I had finished my coursework. The other thing is that you are interested in an MS, which is different. There aren’t as many pressures there. I didn’t know too many master’s students working 75+ hours per week unless they also worked full-time. Most of my master’s friends hang out and have fun (as a matter of fact, the majority of my friends are master’s students because they are much more relaxed).</p>
<p>I will say that those stories you hear are NOT outliers. Most of my doctoral student friends, and many MS friends, are overworked, get little sleep, and live on coffee. Some have a life outside of school, some have a minimal one, and some have none. I don’t know anyone I would consider completely socially inept, though, but I do know plenty of students who go through bouts of misery.</p>
<p>I think expecting to go out every weekend is unreasonable in a graduate program, but joining 1-2 clubs, getting enough sleep and going out sometimes is not.</p>
<p>And scalupchem, there are certainly some advisors who DO expect you to work 75 hours in the lab. You must select your advisors carefully.</p>
<p>My understanding is summed up in the skeptically asked question: why should relationships and sleep conflict with graduate school? They can, sure, but why in principle should they? </p>
<p>If you are heading for an MS, I see no reason why any of this is a concern - MS should not be terrifically different in demands from undergrad. </p>
<p>If you’re sleeping poorly, you might not even perform at your best. I don’t think there’s much of an advantage to routinely sleeping poorly in my area. You might even get less done every day by far than if you slept pretty well. When doing a PhD, if you choose advisers wisely, you’ll be rewarded with a better experience. Their style and expectations should match up with you. </p>
<p>Without a question, working at a PhD will start to creep into your thoughts a lot of the day. Career goals are important to consider. If the extra time would really drastically improve your performance for the long term, you should put it in. If it will just squeeze an extra drop out of you and will drain you in the long term, you’ll lose the game which is a lot about endurance, having fresh ideas and the tenacity to bring at least some of them to some fruitful output.</p>
I would agree, and it’s also true of my medical school friends, and my law school/lawyer friends, etc. If you want to have a good career in a field that’s full of smart people, you either put in the work, or you decide it’s not worth it and do something else.</p>
<p>I’m just puzzled, because I’m married to an aerospace engineer, and I know his co-workers and former co-workers and former classmates. And you don’t need a master’s to get a great, nicely-paying job as an aerospace engineer for a good company. You can get a job, work for a couple of years, and then if you decide you need a master’s for advancement, the company will often pay for you to get your master’s part-time, or you can decide to do a coursework-only online master’s if you just want the credential. A top-school master’s might make you more competitive for a high-paying job at a top company, but those kinds of jobs are just as life-draining as grad school – 75+ hour weeks (and 100+ hour weeks if you’re close to a deadline), frequent travel, little sleep.</p>
<p>My husband, who doesn’t have a master’s (he doesn’t think it’s worth it), works just as hard as I do, and so do his co-workers. But if you don’t want that lifestyle, and you just want to put in the nine-to-five at some less-competitive company, you don’t need a top-school master’s.</p>
<p>I’m a marathoner. I’ve let a few other things slide like tv but training for marathons allows me to have a non-academic goal in my life. And it’s kept me sane. And won my adviser’s admiration. You will soon discover the most important things to you as you begin allowing coursework/grad school take over your life. As a tri, you should already understand the importance of time management to have a successful training schedule.</p>