please list all of the ways that graduate school is different than undergraduate school

You get to only take the classes that you want or that are actually related to your major. I.e., no having to take lame economics classes if you are interested in engineering.

They usually pay you to be there if you're a science grad student.

Flexible (but busy) schedule

1. You'll be expected to act like an adult and a professional.

2. Considerably fewer of your peers will be interested in stories of your drinking prowess. (See point 1 above.)

3. You'll be expected to do more than what's required and to work on projects entirely of your own devising, simply because you're interested in the subject matter.

4. Depending on the field of study and your previous preparation, you may find yourself attending multiple formal classes each day, or only a few per week; but in any case, the important stuff will all take place outside of class.

The teachers are the best in their field. No more throwing assistant professors or TAs at you.

So much more classwork is self-directed. I spent close to 30 hours a week in a computer lab learning or writing programs for modeling software.

In undergrad, you can get away with sleeping in class, being late, turning in homework late, whatever kind of nonsense you've done for years. In grad school, you're an adult and are expected to act like it.

Everyone who's in grad school is there for a reason.

You actually have to work hard-immensely hard.

You must demonstrate your contributions to the field.

You will be compared to the best and brightest in your field.

You must be self driven to finish your studies/thesis

At least in engineering grad school, the students were a lot different. In undergrad, you could count on 10-20% of the students who either couldn't handle the material or didn't care. Usually there was another 20% who were just hanging on. That made the curve a lot more manageable.

In grad school, everyone was there because they wanted to be and wanted to get the most out of it. Many or most of them were paying their own way. Many or most were somewhat older and more mature. So everyone did the reading and everyone took the assignments seriously.

Of course, the grading was a lot easier, so that shifted it back the other way.

I learned as much from my cohort in grad school as I did from my professors.

Grad school is the process of creating peers: on paper you will be the academic equal of your professors when you complete your degree program. This is an unnatural process -- up to this point all of your professors, teachers and mentors followed a parental model. Look out -- danger ahead.

In actuality you will not be their equal, but leave that aside for a moment.

Undergrad education is egalitarian; graduate education is subjective. Expect to be called out for who you are as much as the work you do. Expect favorites to be played. Expect your fellow students to exhibit the best and worst behavior. Creating peers is unnatural.

I was subjected to some vicious treatment at the hands of the head of my program for no other reason than he felt I needed it. I stuck through it and got my degree.

YMMV

apples and oranges. and so much better.

I think it depends on the field of study and the school itself. I find my grad program to be fairly laid-back compared to the hard sciences, but still far more demanding than undergrad. Mostly, in the humanities, it gives you the opportunity to really find your niche and focus on that. This depends, of course, on your ability to actually focus and get stuff done. In undergrad there is usually someone there to get on you about it, but in grad school you definitely need your own ambition and dedication to get everything done in a reasonable time.

It is hard, and in my particular field doesn't guarantee any kind of job, but it's awesome.

A lot more reading and papers, guess it depends on the major. All my classes were 7-10 at night and met once a week. I never had a ta or grader other than my professors. A lot of my classmates were part time and had jobs. The big thing is classes are a lot more work, expect to spend 10-15 hours a week on each class outside of class. Time management is essential.

I found the work easier. Part of that is the difference in the two schools, part of that is that at the Graduate level, I was taking only classes that interested me, and part was that in grad school I was older and more prepared.

You're a loser who can't get a job in your field in the real world. Oh wait, that the same as undergrad too.

Dennis Reynolds 2.0 wrote:

You're a loser who can't get a job in your field in the real world. Oh wait, that the same as undergrad too.

Bitter? Grad school dropout?

They way you posed the question precludes any meaningful answers. It depends a lot on the field of study, the schools, and whether you (and most of your grad school classmates) are full or part-time students.

In graduate school you are more apt to use the grammatically correct 'different from'.

Depending on programs and academic institutions and research advisers, I'm sure others' experiences will vary. I have a PhD in chemistry. Grad school was a tough job, felt nothing like undergrad. I had to TA at least 20 inconvenient hours a week several of the first semesters, and took a handful of borderline impossible classes at the same time -- I think in the first semester I averaged maybe 4 hours of sleep a night. Around that I tried to get some research done -- thank goodness for the summer term -- and work on my original research proposal to get ready for the oral comprehensive exam which was no joke. After passing that, as an official PhD candidate, all I did was research. I spent all week in the lab. My adviser expected us to be there when she was there, so it was minimum 8-to-5 every day, usually a 40+ hour week. It didn't really feel like school anymore at that point. I got a stipend for it, but it was only just enough to live on.

10 years later, working in industry after a few years of post-doc, all that struggling to keep my nose above water and produce results for my degree was worth it. But I've never had to work so hard in my life as I did those 4.5 years in grad school.

assigned 300+ pages of reading the first day of one class - to be completed in two days. Kind of an eye opener. .... cant remember other assignments out of the gates - but for 3 other classes - about 50 pages the first week. Of course I remember every word. It did approximate (toned down) the difference in expectations.

Plenty of assistant profs teach grad courses. Nothing wrong with that.

If there are labs, you might have a PhD student teaching those sections.

Narrower focus and that should make it more interesting for each class. far larger percentage of people WANT to be in that class to so less BS.

In both master's programs I finished I had a better and more peer-peer relationship with my profs. Played on the college's softball team with several of them in fact. On second one, I was older and closer in age to several profs. Those are good long term relationships to have.

Classes seemed easier than in undergrad. Probably because they were interesting and relevant to your field.

Assuming you are doing a thesis/dissertation type degree in the sciences, the class work pales in comparison to the research and writing that is required. I think this is the biggest misconception that people have.

Our advisor expects that we work about 60hrs per week on school and research. Which I didn't always do but is required to finish a a masters in 2 years or 3-4 years for a PhD. You may work much more that 60hrs at times. I have pulled 3 or 4 all nighters setting up big experiments in the lab.

You will learn a lot but I'm not sure it will help me get a better job. Sad but true.

Depending on your advisor you will have to be almost entirely self directed (no deadlines, etc.). So if you want to finish you will have to make it happen. No one is holding your hand.

thinkin about grad school wrote:

how is getting a masters different than getting a bachelors

how are the students different

do the teachers respect you more

does it require going to several classes each day like getting a bachelors does

anything else different

thanx in advance

It was both harder and easier than undergrad. The workload was probably more difficult but it seemed easier because classes were all more or less relevant to the program.

Students are more focused.

Fewer classes than undergrad. As an undergrad I usually took 13 to 16 credits of classes a semester (usually four courses), but as a grad it was one to three classes. If you're a TA, then you're real busy because you are juggling teaching and grading, along with your own classes. And that the same time doing some research or background work (literature reviews, logistics etc.).

I took graduate classes at four institutions, and interacted with top people in the field at two of those. Yes, they treat you with respect, although you are also expected to behave as a professional, but there will be some individual differences among profs (like any job). Interestingly I also went to a lower tier school, and there they did not treat you as well. The quality of students was not as high (although there were some who would succeed anywhere), and I felt some professors went out their way to put down-disregard-and sometimes denigrate students. That's why it is vital for you to visit the school first, talk to as many faculty and students as possible. Just like being recruited for a college running program. You want to make sure that you will fit in.