I'm thinking of dropping out of grad school because the pace of learning is too slow.

The sad thing is, in about 50 years you might start doin' some thinkin' on your own and by then you'll realize there are only two certainties in life. One, don't do that. Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda' picked up for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library.

If grad school is too slow paced for you try med school. We cover in 2 weeks what undergraduate kids cover in 4 months.

What are you studying?

Sounds like you weren't even smart enough to pick an appropriate major.

I worked 35 hrs/week and went full time to grad school -- and had a 4.0. I was also drunk 3-5 nights per week. I graduated in four semesters (fall, spring, summer, fall). Done.

If it's so slow and easy, find something else to do with your time while staying in school, get the degree, and move on with your life.

To put it another way, you CAN be in grad school AND sweep floors for $11/hr, if you have any time management skills at all.

Why not engage in doing actual research then instead of sitting around...that's what grad school is about?

What is this, business school? If so, I can sympathize/empathize with being locked into an academic schedule. But even there, you can (and should) do plenty of stuff on your own: take advantage of the resources available--among them your professors--and get going on doing something interesting (that might even have a benefit to you after graduation).

Otherwise: in most fields, graduate school is a time to explore and develop your own interests. I realize a lot of your time (this year) is being spent in required activities; but the fact that they're so unchallenging means that there should still be a lot of time available to you, outside of classes. Use it! What's to keep you from continuing to learn on your own--which, in many disciplines, is exactly what grad-school professors expect of you anyway?

U should totally drop out. Then you can amaze your new coworkers with tales of how you were too dern smart fer th' grad school.

[Full disclosure: when I was in grad school for my coaching degree, I had a 20hr/wk TAship that paid the bills, plus I was coaching 40-60hr/wk on the side. As a result I welcomed a slow and undemanding pace in my actual classwork; but if your main interest was the classwork itself, I could see how that would be frustrating.]

YOU should be setting the pace of your own learning in graduate school. Maybe you're not as bright as you think you are. In any case, you sound like a pompous, self-important twit. You'll likely be sweeping floors irrespective of whether you earn a graduate degree.

go above and beyond and do extra research to learn everything about the topics you cover and not the bare minimum. dont limit yourself to what you are being taught

kgpremed12 wrote:

If grad school is too slow paced for you try med school. We cover in 2 weeks what undergraduate kids cover in 4 months.

Med school? Now that's funny.

Science for dummies.

Physics for dummies.

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Ole Timer wrote:

I worked 35 hrs/week and went full time to grad school -- and had a 4.0. I was also drunk 3-5 nights per week. I graduated in four semesters (fall, spring, summer, fall). Done.

If it's so slow and easy, find something else to do with your time while staying in school, get the degree, and move on with your life.

To put it another way, you CAN be in grad school AND sweep floors for $11/hr, if you have any time management skills at all.

I said the pace of learning is too slow, but I guess I forgot to say that that doesn't mean I have spare time. My particular program is set up to require about 60-70hrs/week, so there's not really much free time to do meaningful things. This is why I'm so displeased: the program is highly consumptive of my time but doesn't actually give me any useful skills or knowledge, and I could be making much better use of my time if I was not in the program. It'd be like if you were required to sit through 12hr meetings every day where nothing meaningful was discussed, and you COULD NOT work on other things during meeting times. This particular program is a joke, I've come to realize, so I would like to transfer to some other program that is not.

Curious, how happy were you as an undergraduate?

gifted and talented wrote:

I am required to take a number of classes which consist of writing long papers, doing group projects, having group discussions, even going on all day field trips. I have reason to believe I am significantly above almost everyone else in the program, and I see the classes as a waste of my time. Indeed, I was studying things myself before I started grad school and was learning MUCH more than I am in grad school. I hate it. I hate it for a number of other reasons, but I honestly would rather be sweeping floors for $11/hr right now and studying on my own than doing what I'm currently doing. That seems like a kind of silly reason to drop out of grad school though. Or is it?

Conundrum wrote:

Curious, how happy were you as an undergraduate?

gifted and talented wrote:

I am required to take a number of classes which consist of writing long papers, doing group projects, having group discussions, even going on all day field trips. I have reason to believe I am significantly above almost everyone else in the program, and I see the classes as a waste of my time. Indeed, I was studying things myself before I started grad school and was learning MUCH more than I am in grad school. I hate it. I hate it for a number of other reasons, but I honestly would rather be sweeping floors for $11/hr right now and studying on my own than doing what I'm currently doing. That seems like a kind of silly reason to drop out of grad school though. Or is it?

I actually really liked undergrad. I was in a good program at a decent school. I was at a lower educational and intellectual level then, so each class provided me with something new. I also double majored in two hard sciences and minored in a social science, and it was fun for me to relate, apply, and interconnect the different ideas, theories, principles, etc between the various fields. I also had ample free time, so I was able to study things on my own. For example, I took a human physiology class, and since I loved physiology, I read both the regular textbook for the class and Boron and Boron's "Medical Physiology" textbook since it was about twice as long and detailed. I took Animal Behavior and got interested in that, so I read a few textbooks on behavioral endocrinology, evolutionary psychology, some books by E.O. Wilson, etc. Now in grad school the material is at such a low level and so boring I am not benefiting from it much at all, and the workload they have placed on me between the classes I'm require to take, meetings and talks I am required to attend, and the job I'm required to do, disallows me to spend time learning on my own like I did in undergrad. If I had more time or the stuff they had me do was actually worthwhile, things would be a lot different.

lolololol

lease wrote:

What is this, business school? If so, I can sympathize/empathize with being locked into an academic schedule. But even there, you can (and should) do plenty of stuff on your own: take advantage of the resources available--among them your professors--and get going on doing something interesting (that might even have a benefit to you after graduation).

Otherwise: in most fields, graduate school is a time to explore and develop your own interests. I realize a lot of your time (this year) is being spent in required activities; but the fact that they're so unchallenging means that there should still be a lot of time available to you, outside of classes. Use it! What's to keep you from continuing to learn on your own--which, in many disciplines, is exactly what grad-school professors expect of you anyway?

I also felt like the people in my undergraduate programs were far more intelligent and thoughtful than those in my current grad program (my current program is a field of study related to but different from my undergraduate disciplines), so group discussions were much more enjoyable.

lol!

did you forget to change your name when you were replying to yourself?

Ok good answer. Its is your program. Now another really big question. What's the payoff after you finish your program? Career placement high? Will sticking out the program be worth the payoff of the degree.By the way, I was much more cognitively stimulated as an undergrad than I was in graduate school. It took the hardest course as an undergraduate. But as you say, the work load was actually higher in grad school. The payoff was worth it though to me.

Generally, the people who do the best in science classes in college go on to med school. The 3.0-3.3 kids apply to grad school, dentistry, pharmacy, etc. The less than 3.0 students become teachers. I took 5 physics classes, aced all of them.

Recognizer of Hilarity wrote:

kgpremed12 wrote:

If grad school is too slow paced for you try med school. We cover in 2 weeks what undergraduate kids cover in 4 months.

Med school? Now that's funny.

Science for dummies.

Physics for dummies.

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.

.