Graduate School Woes

[Ahoythar]

Hey!

So I'm really new on here, but I was curious if anyone else is dealing with graduate school woes? Has anyone else been through it? 

 

I'm writing my Masters thesis at a university in Taiwan and I never realized how awfully isolating it would be. Not only is it hard to make friends in school because everyone else has a job/family/bf/gf/life, but the social life is non-existent. No one seems to care about anything other than their research papers. Not that I can blame them. It's the axe hanging over all of our heads and our advisers are holding it. This loneliness is all-consuming though.

It also sucks because I'm at home almost everyday writing and researching my paper. It makes me feel lazy and useless. It's not like I enjoy looking at the same paper everyday, but I have deadlines to meet.

I suppose the worst part of graduate school is the lack of purpose everyone feels. No one knows why they are there, no one is that passionate about their topic, no one knows what they are doing and no one knows what they will do with their Masters degree afterwards. Of course I'm speaking as a student who is in Taiwan, but I'm fairly sure the US is quite similar. 

 

Life gets better after grad school right? It gets more rewarding?

Have to ask because It's just been one of those days for me, ya know?

 

 

[The Swedish Ninja]

Short answer: Yes, it gets more rewarding ! The point (IMHO) of writing a thesis is to prove to future employers you have the ability to learn and process knowledge. I currently work in a different area from the one I studied, but I would´t have gotten the job if I previously hand´t studied. 

I hated writing my master thesis (but I wrote it with a friend, so it made it somewhat easier, but still, ohhh, loathed it ).

The best tip I can give you to cope with the friendship stuff is to do some activities outside Uni and try to find people with similar interests. Take a course in martial arts, Yoga, writing (ok, maybe not writing) etc, anything you fancy.

 

And when you have one of those days; Take a walk, a long walk in nature, it always keeps me calm and happy.

[Bearded_Dragon]

I did my post-graduate study in the UK and my MSc course was incredibly demanding, the research paper in particular. I'm currently working in a job that's kind of in the same scientific area as my thesis but a different focus, it also helped me discover that I don't want to do lab work for the rest of my life. The thing that helped me was knowing that it's not going to last forever. For me life definitely got better after grad school, and doing it was definitely worth it. 

 

Keep your chin up, take the Ninja's advice re: activities & long walks, and remember, it's not going to last forever. 

[Ahoythar]

Thanks guys! I feel better already!

 

Now that I think of it, I'm sure being halfway across the world from my family and best friends doesn't make this process any easier. Getting out there is harder too because I'm not a native Mandarin speaker so there's a language barrier keeping me from feeling as relaxed. My Chinese is pretty good though! Many people are afraid to approach me because as soon as they see I'm white they think they'll have to use English with me and I won't understand Chinese.

 

I have to say though, thank goodness Taiwanese people are super friendly. If it was anything like what I experienced in Japan I'd be out of here in a heartbeat.

 

Anyways, I'm getting this paper done and I'm finishing grad school! Better things await me out there in the world!

[MissMormie]

What worked really well for my motivation was to find a cubicle at the university to work in rather than in my own room. It set a clear difference between working and leisure times. Also, it's a place to at least talk to people at the coffee machine, or in the canteen. 

[maegs]

I'm doing a course-based masters, rather than a thesis, but I did move to a city where I only knew a few people. One thing I found really helped was finding activities to do outside of class in order to meet people - I joined the rugby team and have gone to a few meetings of the Ironsports club (aka the lifting-heavy-things club), although I wasn't able to keep up with that due to having lots of night classes. I also do some volunteer work that's related to my studies, and over the summer I'm joining a local rugby club and I'm also meeting people gradually through the people I already knew here. And like MissMormie said, if you make an effort to talk to the people you see around your space at the university, you might make some new friends

[Machete]

I just tell myself every day,