by Adele Scheele
- Transition from student to professional mode. You are done being a passive student taking any assignment. You have to focus on a career path that ignites you.
- Turn your professors into mentors. Look for those you admire and take advantage of the office hours that they offer. They expect you to come see them, ask questions, follow up with ideas, and develop your interests.
- Use papers, theses, and dissertations to create your career. Gone are the quick and dirty days of college when you chose a topic from a list to complete an assignment without worrying about whether it interested you or not. Graduate school provides a critical time for creating a career through the careful choice of topics for these assignments.
- Make time to connect with other students in your program. You will find that their support, both emotional and intellectual, will help you get through even the toughest programs.
- Get involved with significant people on campus. In addition to professors and other students, advisors, administrative staff, and guest speakers are important people to get to know.
- Take the risk of "linking." Connecting with others is a vital career skill, one that will make you feel uncomfortable and sometimes even terrified. Often we avoid approaching those who could be of great help to us out of fear of being seen as a fool or fraud.
Down 32.7% from 2011.
Down 38.9% from 2010.
