The rite de passage (graduate school)

John Stevens (8859jstev@UMBSKY.CC.UMB.EDU)
Wed, 15 Mar 1995 14:54:51 EST

gently through the new blossoms. . . yeah, right. I have two questions for
the general population, both opinion queries about deciding if a school is
right for you or not. 1) How important do you think it is for someone to
have a "mentor" in grad school, i.e., someone who matches most of your
interests and in whose footsteps you might follow? It sounds to me like a bit
of an outdated concept in these postmodern days, but I'm curious. 2) I'm also
looking for people's impressions of graduate life: what did you like or dislike
about being a grad student, and what do you think of the experience as a learn-
ing process? Again, I'm curious because I'm looking at programs, etc., and
wondering what's right for me. I know what I want to do (basically) but I
want to hear other people's stories, to either settle my coalescing convictions
or to give me good space for questioning my assumptions. I'm also wondering
about the communal v. individual aspects of the grad experience, and the var-
ious levels of interpersonal interaction. Reply privately or over the list.

Thanks!

Best regards,


John H. Stevens
University of Massachusetts at Boston (and coming to a university near you!)
8859JSTEV@umbsky.cc.umb.edu