February 28, 2025 • 41 mins
As an undergrad, it's easy to feel overwhelmed when considering the next phase of your education. After all, what is graduate school like? Why add more years of college? And - most importantly - how do you know if it's right for you?
In this episode, Dr. Ross and producer Michaela Murphy team up with current grad students to tackle these, and other, important questions. Join Psychology major Caitlyn Walker and English major Caroline Goodman in exploring the life of a grad student. Whether you're curious about balancing school, work, and personal schedules or want to know about navigating the transition into a Master's program, their stories offer valuable insights on the grad school experience.
Have more questions about graduate school? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Special thanks to Michaela Murphy, who produced and co-hosted season two's opening episodes. The show goes on because of you!
Note: "TJC" refers to Tyler Junior College, an undergraduate college near the University of Texas at Tyler.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So I'm excited.
This is the second season ofAsk Dr Ross, a podcast sponsored
by the College of Arts andSciences at UT Tyler.
Our goal is to let the worldout there know a little bit
about what it's like to be incollege, in undergrad or grad
school.
I'm here with my producer,Michaela Murphy.
Michaela, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hi, yes, my name is Michaela Murphy.
I am a graduate student here atUT Tyler.
This is my second year in theEnglish Master's program.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
But you are also an instructor.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yes, so I am teaching English 1301 right now.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And our topic today is graduate school.
So we've invited our two guestsand Michaela's double-timing it
here with the job as both ourproducer but also a current
graduate student.
So I'd like to start by havingyou introduce yourself, caitlin,
would you start please?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Absolutely Well.
Yeah, I'm Caitlin Walker and Iam a graduate student in the
Clinical Mental HealthCounseling program here, and
this will be my.
It's my first year, so it's,yeah, the very beginning of it
for me.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Hi, my name is Caroline Goodson.
Thank you for having us heretoday.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I am a second-year grad student and I am in the
English department and Michaela,since you're not only a
producer, you're also a guest,would you like to reintroduce
yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yes, so, like I said, I am the producer, but I am
also a student here at UT Tyleras well as an instructor.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And you're in what year?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
The second year.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about where you were
in school, where you did yourundergraduate degree?
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about where you were in
school, where you did yourundergraduate degree?
And we'll just kind of go backand forth with each of you to
kind of get a little bit more ofa sense of the geography of
this, and then we'll starttalking about the experience.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
So I got my associates at TJC.
As soon as I graduated fromthere, I came over here to UT
Tyler and I got my bachelor'shere, and after I graduated with
my bachelor's, I came over anddecided you know what I actually
want to go and get my master'shere as well Is Craig Cripp
accredited, which is veryimportant for anyone who does
(02:35):
want to go into counseling.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Slow down a minute.
It's what accredited Craig.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Cripp.
It is the accreditation programfor the counseling and it's
very important because someschools are not accredited and
anyways, it's supposed to be acertain stature in order to get
that accreditation.
And they have it here at UTTyler and I knew that's a
program that I wanted to be in.
Ut Tyler had it.
I was like, okay, I really wantto do this program here at UT
Tyler.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Did you get your bachelor's degree in psychology
and counseling?
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I did.
I did get my bachelor's inpsychology here.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
I actually started at TJC as well, and the funny
story with that is that I wentin with scholarships in the
drama field.
I wanted to be an actor and Iwanted to, you know, go on
Broadway and things like that.
And I was like thinking aboutit more and more and I was like
you know, that's going to bevery hard to do.
I was like, you know, I loveEnglish, I love being creative,
(03:32):
I love writing.
That was like my favoritepastime when I was in TJC.
So I made the switch fromtheater.
Then I went to art for somereason, just thought I'd dabble
my toes in a little bit and thenI finished with my just normal
associate's degree at TJC andthen I went into UT and that's
where I kind of sort of fostered, you know, the English.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So you chose to be an English major once you switched
over here to the four-yearschool?
Yes, ma'am, is that the samecase with yours, caitlin?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
I actually got an associate's in psychology at TJC
.
It was actually after my firstsemester.
I came in not knowing what Iwanted, but then I did enter to
psychology and I absolutely Iloved it.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really did and decided to change my major
that's one of the things we weretalking with the freshmen about
the other day is it's soimportant to take those core
classes where you have a fewcourses in social sciences, in
the STEM field, in the arts,getting a little taste of all of
those?
That's probably why you thoughtabout doing art, because you
had a really great art classright.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
I did.
It was fantastic.
Derek White was.
He was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
So, moving into a field like English, everyone
always says well, what are yougoing to do with that?
Right, she's giving me the look.
Would someone like to describethe look?
It's like well, yeah, what areyou going to do with that?
And what was your answer topeople?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
I can't remember if it was my grandmother that said
something like that or not, butI was like English is such an
umbrella term for just.
You can do so much with it.
You could do like you can writevideo game script with English,
you can do online transcriptionwith English, you can like type
court documents with English.
You can go to law school,exactly.
Yeah, it's just huge.
(05:20):
There's so much there that youcan do with it that it's kind of
just.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You can basically like throw your name out there
and see where the lure sinksbasically, and in terms of
psychology, you could kind ofmake the same argument for that
too, couldn't you?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yes, ma'am, I've had plenty of people tell me that
it's a useless degree.
They think that a good careeris what makes you a lot of money
, in their opinion, and forpsychology and in mental health.
That's not quite the reality atthe moment.
It did make me take a moment toreassess everything, because
whenever you have so many voicestelling you that you're like,
oh my gosh, maybe I did make thewrong choice.
(05:57):
But after reevaluating it, I'mlike this is what I love and I
want to continue with it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, you know I think we'll circle back to the
issue of making money andgraduating with a degree, and
also, you know we do need totalk about debt and things like
that.
But one of the things you bothbrought up, which I think is a
really important thing for folksout there to hear, is that both
of you started out with anassociate's degree.
You weren't even sure.
A lot of folks who go off forassociate's degrees aren't even
(06:24):
sure that they're going to do afour-year degree.
They're not even sure that theycan or want to or can afford to
, and so the fact that both ofyou started in that way, I think
, is really significant forfolks to know that.
You discovered a passion whenyou were at TJC in the community
college.
You continued at the four-yearcollege and it kept on rolling.
(06:45):
And here you are, both of youdoing graduate school Now,
michaela, did you do TJC too?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes, so I guess we're all three in the same boat.
I did my associates at TJC, butbefore that I did a lot of my
hours for my associates in highschool.
So I did a lot of dual credit.
I had about 44 hours, I believe, already done 44 hours.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's almost a year and a half of school.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yes, so I only did a year at TJC and then I got my
associates when I was 19 or 20and then moved straight over to
UT Tyler the next semester.
But it was interesting becauseI came in in a January semester.
So it was a really weird timeof COVID, january, like it would
have been weird anyway comingin January, but then to come
(07:32):
during COVID as well, it was abizarre transition.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, you know, I think we probably ought to do
another episode sometime aboutTJC and UT Tyler and how those
two institutions have learned towork together.
When I first came to UT Tyler,it was the first year that we
had a four-year situation forstudents.
We were only taking upperdivision and graduate students
(07:57):
and folks at TJC were veryworried that we were going to
end up being a big problem witheach other, and I think that's
worked out.
Over 20 years I've been herenow to not be a problem.
My experience has mostly beenthat well, for one thing, a lot
of our students go and teach atTJC.
A lot of our students that comefrom TJC have done as well as
(08:19):
all three of you have, and soyay, hooray, more about that.
The next question would be Ithink both of you already said
you found something you lovedand you want to keep doing so.
Why did you think that UT Tylerwas a place?
Well, I know from you, caitlinbecause it had accreditation and
(08:40):
that was really, reallyimportant.
What about you, caroline?
Why did you pick UT Tyler?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
My mom actually went to UT Tyler and got her
bachelor's degree at UT Tyler.
She actually wants to come backand get her master's at some
point over.
I think it's either governmentor something social studies I
can't remember the exact termshe used, but yeah, she was the
one that was like let's get youinto UT Tyler because I like to
stay local for sure and there'sa lot of good stuff that has
(09:08):
come out of UT Tyler Like theprofessors are amazing and
they're just great, and I waslike let's do this.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
What about you, caitlin?
Was it a geographical decisionfor you, or was it you were just
so happy already here, youdidn't need to move?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
After graduating here .
Of course, I already knew thatI really enjoyed it here, but it
was a thing with family.
I had a lot of family andfriends here and it's where I
grew up.
So you know, roots run deep, Iguess, but I knew I wanted to
stay here.
I knew some people who wereactually already here and
introduced me, showed me aroundand, yeah, I fell in love with
(09:45):
it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Same thing for you, Michaela.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yes, so I grew up in the Tyler area and my mom also
went to UT Tyler, so, yes, so itwas pretty much a no-brainer
for me that this is such a goodschool.
There's really no reason to goout and get the same education a
thousand miles away to go outand get the same education a
thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And I think for at the MA level, where you get the
degree, is less important.
It has to be a good school.
It has to be a school where theteachers are good, where the
program is strong, where thelibrary or the resources are
available all of which are here,but it's not until you really
get the PhD level that anybodyeven really cares of.
Did you go to a name school?
Did you go to what we call aflagship?
(10:25):
In the state of Texas?
There are only two Austin UTAustin and that other one, texas
A&M.
So coming to local universitiesis a great thing.
Also, I'm betting it costs alot less money.
How many years does it take tofinish your degree?
We forgot to talk about that.
How long does it take to getyour MS in counseling?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
It's supposed to be two years and then one semester.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You want to talk in terms of hours.
Is that a 60-hour degree, a30-hour degree?
Yes, it is 60 hours A 60-hour.
Now the English MA is how manyhours?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
30 or 36.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
36.
Ours is about a year and asemester.
Yours is two years and asemester.
Yeah, I also do summers, solike you're full time for the
next two years, yeah yeah, yeah,that's true, and I will just
say this that the salaries inhigher education are better than
they are in secondary education.
(11:25):
They're not as great as being alawyer or a doctor, but they're
just fine, they're just plentyand they're really great
benefits.
So there's that too.
So are you living at home?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I am.
I live with my family.
My mom, my dad, my sister lovethem.
My sister actually just came toUT and she'll be doing her arts
degree.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, I love our art department.
I love just going in there andlooking to see what the students
are making and doing.
So you're living at home,Michaela.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Okay, mom and dad, or .
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yes, my mom and my dad.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Okay, what about you, Caroline?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
That's what I did.
I lived with my mom and then,when my husband and I got
married, we moved in together.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So I guess we kind of know why you applied to a
master's program.
Did you want to reaffirm?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Yeah, I did, because starting out I wanted to go the
route of becoming a professorand maybe going for a doctorate
degree.
I just think that the otherprograms that I've been looking
into, like you know video game,script writing and transcription
online and things like thatwhen you have a master's degree,
(12:35):
that puts you above the peoplewho just know how to play those
games and think it'd be fun tomake them.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So you saw it as a career move.
What about you, Caitlin?
Speaker 4 (12:47):
For me, in order to be an LPC and to have licensure,
you do need to have you know,your master's degree and you
have to meet certainrequirements.
So of course UT Tyler does havethat accreditation.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But how did you even know about all that, about LPCs
and things?
How did you learn that?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Whenever I did research on LPC licensed
professional counselor I was,you know, looking into a couple
different options and finally,when I did find LPC, I had to
think of the steps in order toget there.
Of course, once I finally aftermy associates, I'm like looking
at all the steps that I have toget in order to get licensure,
but it feels like a miles long.
(13:25):
But I looked up and it was likeOK, you need first bachelor's
degree, master's degree, you'regoing to get all of the national
testing done.
So I have to do two big testsat the very end After I graduate
(13:46):
.
I still have to be technicallyan associate and I still have to
get a lot of hours in order toeven be considered an actual LPC
.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Did your faculty, when you were an undergraduate
here, help you find all that out?
Or was it just your ownresearch?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
As far as classes and getting into graduate school, I
would say some of the peoplehere were definitely guiding me
in that direction.
I had some great professors whotold me how to get in the
graduate program and how to evenstart that process, because it
was so confusing at first.
Yeah, without them I don't knowhow I'd even be here at the
(14:18):
moment.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, and I think that's a big part of
undergraduate professors andthose of us who do the four-year
training as well as the six orlonger, is that we need to make
sure you all know what to expectand what the next hoops are.
What about you, Michaela, onthat?
Why did you decide it was timeto go for the master's degree?
I don't think you ever justquit.
You never quit studying, do you?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
No, ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit
school.
Ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit school.
I was doing my bachelor's herein the English department and I
felt like it would be you know,if I was accepted a good
transition straight into themaster's here.
It was the same professors, itwas similar topics, but at the
graduate level I looked on thewebsite because I was already
(15:02):
familiar with it as being astudent.
But then I also asked some ofmy professors.
I talked to our old chair, drWu, about where I should apply,
what I should potentially put inmy application or what would
look good, as well as what myopportunities would be with that
master's degree.
I talked to my faculty advisoralso about if a master's degree
would be necessary for what Iwanted to do in the future.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And what do you want to do?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I would like to be a professor.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And so my advice to both of you, because, caroline,
you mentioned that, although youmay end up becoming this
creator of games or whatever, ifyou don't do the creative route
, you'll go on to a PhD programat what we call a flagship, and
you'll want to look at UT,austin or A&M.
If you're going to stay inTexas, you can prepare for that,
(15:47):
and for you I don't know, I'mnot familiar.
What do you know about a PhDprogram?
If you were to go on to that?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, so for a PhD you can actually go a couple
different routes in psychology.
One of them is research,depending on you know, if you're
really interested in doing yourown studies and publishing, you
could definitely go that route.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I know, for example, one of your professors, Amy
Hayes, has done a lot ofresearch on, I think, depression
, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
They get to do research on stuff that are
really pressing issues forpeople today.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
And then let's say you wanted to be a psychiatrist.
Ah, like an MD.
Of course you would need to geton another path.
You have to go to med school.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
We happen to have one now, by the way, so I think
what we've established is thatthe master's degree can be a
stopping point and lead to allsorts of interesting careers,
which you all have all thoughtabout and are making some plans
for, but it could also, if youjust really get the bug and you
just can't stand to quit writingpapers and spending time in the
libraries, that off you go isan option as well.
(16:53):
So let's talk a little bitabout what's it really like,
though, to being graduate.
How's graduate school differentfrom being an undergrad?
Caroline?
I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
It's kind of weird to say it, but I feel like we have
more creative freedom.
In a way.
We're able to havecommunications with our
professors and saying, hey, thisis the project that we want to
work on, this is how we want todo it.
I feel like I'm adulting moreas a grad student.
You know, I used to just hatebeing an undergrad student.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know I used to just hate being an undergrad.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
What did you hate about being an undergrad?
I just felt like I didn't havea very good relationship with my
professors at that time when Iwas like, when I was a freshman,
you know, first coming in I waslike I don't know what's going
on, I don't know who to talk toand things like that.
And now I feel like therelationships that I have with
my professors now is absolutelyamazing and I feel like I can
come to them and talk to themabout anything and they're super
(17:48):
understanding and wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Since we already started in English, I'm going to
switch over to you, michaela,to say what could you amplify
what she said about yourclassroom experience?
And then we'll get to thepsychology program.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I would definitely agree that the
graduate program gives you morefreedom of what your assignments
are looking like.
So, specifically for me,wanting to be a professor, I
took that route with mycoursework and so I did my
practicum and that's how I'mable to teach 1301 while I'm
also still a student, becauseyou had to meet that 18 hour
(18:20):
milestone requirement before youcould even teach here.
Because you had to meet that18-hour milestone requirement
before you could even teach here.
So that was an option for meand that's the road I obviously
took.
But other people take more ofthe technology or AI route, not
necessarily teaching, if that'snot the path they're looking to
go towards after graduating.
So, yeah, it's very flexiblewith what you want to do and
(18:41):
what you do here to get to thatpoint.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And one thing you've also sort of emphasized here in
both of the comments you've madeis that there's lots of
different ways to be in highered.
You can be the creative, youcan be the scholar, you can be
the teacher, you can be theteaching scholar, depending on
the degree you end up with andwhere it's from.
Of course, you may not alwaysknow, until you get into it,
exactly what you like the mostLike.
Are you learning that you liketeaching?
(19:08):
Are you enjoying teaching thecomp class?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I am, I really am.
I think a lot of maybe gradprofessors are like oh, I don't
know if you'll like 1301 andfreshmen, but there's something
for everyone is what I think,and I really do like the
freshmen.
That may be because before Itaught these freshmen, I was
teaching seventh grade and mycertification is seventh through
(19:32):
12th grade in the Texaseducation system, so I was
already teaching younger ages ascompared to my professors, so
maybe that's a little bit of adifference, but yeah, I'm really
enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So you've been blossoming into the creative
side.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
You want to tell everybody a little bit about
what you're doing.
Well, for one of my projectsI'm doing a research, academic
research, over a video gamecalled Baldur's Gate 3, which is
absolutely amazing.
It's got a lot of mythologyAbsolutely amazing.
It's got a lot of mythology.
It has Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein in it.
It's got some William Blake init.
(20:10):
I think it's got some coolorigin in it too.
But it's really cool that I cantake, you know, a creative
aspect to my education and beable to go on that route and do
stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, yeah, you're doing stuff, you're not just
reading what other people do.
And that, I think, is the greatfreedom now is that you all get
to do that.
So how about psychology?
How is that different?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I think one of the things that's different for me
is there's a lot more community,I think, because whenever
you're in undergraduate you'rein a bunch of different classes
with like 70 different peopleand it was a bit of a shock
whenever I came to this smalllittle classroom and there's 10
people and I have a cohort, so Iam with these people almost
(20:55):
throughout the entire program.
So you really get to just havethis community of this group of
people that you're going throughthe same thing with and the
same professors.
I have them in many of myclasses.
I have them're going throughthe same thing with and the same
professors.
I have them in many of myclasses.
I have them multiple timesthroughout the entire year.
So I think what's really niceis that I get to know these
people and I get to have themand build relationships with
(21:15):
them throughout the course ofthe graduate program.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Well, and one of the things everybody will tell you
and I know you all would agreewith me is that learning is a
social experience, and anybodywho thinks that you can just
learn by staying home and doingonline stuff has probably missed
out on some really greatlearning.
So what are some of the issuesyou've experienced about getting
into grad school or staying ingrad school or meeting hours, or
(21:43):
what are some of the thingsthat are challenges that you
want to warn people about?
You want to start for us,caitlin.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Sure, I think one of the difficulties that me and
like my cohort and the peoplethat I've met in the program,
have is balancing school andlife.
Of course people have jobs,some of them have kids Plus
you're in a full-time program.
Like that is a commitment andbalancing them it can be a real
(22:13):
challenge.
And while you're doing that youhave to take care of yourself
as things change too, because Imean there are different classes
and different programs so youhave to change your work
schedule.
But I think it's reallynavigating that and figuring out
a way to make what's workingfor you and what's best for you.
Do you have a full-time job?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
right now I have part-time Part-time.
How many hours is part-time?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Around 20 hours part-time.
So it's an after-school program.
So whenever the kids get out ofschool they actually come to us
school program.
So whenever the kids get out ofschool, they actually come to
us.
And of course it's for theparents, you know, who can't yet
pick up their kids, and we getto take them and do stuff with
them.
So we do their homework, wehave a snack, we get to do some
playtime too.
They've been in school all dayand you think they want to do
(22:55):
homework?
No, and we get to have thattime with the kids.
We also do feed them dinner.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And are you seeing already ways that your
psychological training isstarting to serve you as you do
this job with children?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Absolutely so.
My preferred demographic iscurrently with children and even
in the school environment, sowhenever I leave I do probably
want to end up working as a LPCin the school setting probably
kindergarten through about highschool and of course I've
already worked in a coupleschools, so that's of course,
very helpful, also with youngkids.
(23:32):
I think emotional regulationhas also been a big one with us.
I've worked at Andy Woods andBullard Primary as well as in
Brownsboro, so I've met a lot ofdifferent kids in a lot of
different environments and ithas been really helpful in to
the future.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, I would think that would be really powerful.
Well, Caroline, what about you?
Do you have a job right now.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It's kind of a job I do content creation on YouTube,
kind of reviewing video gamesand talking about their scripts
and things like that, findingthe plot holes in some games,
and you're paid for this.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I'm bound to be.
Well, you're also building up aresume, aren't you?
Kind of a little bit like whatyou're doing with the schools?
Although that's not technicallyas a therapist, it's still
experience, and for you,experience as well.
It's kind of unusual, I think,for most grad students, like you
said in your program, do havejobs or families, or both right,
(24:27):
and you've got more than onejob, don't you?
You better tell everybody howmuch you're doing right now,
because I don't know how you'rekeeping up with it and I keep
worrying I'm going to lose you.
But please don't quit being myproducer.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yes, so I, yeah, I have a lot of positions.
I won't necessarily call themjobs.
I have a lot of positions here.
I am your producer, I'mobviously a student, I teach my
1301 class, I am the director ofthe digital design studio, I am
also the president of thecreative writing club, and I'm
sure the list goes on, but Ican't think of more right now.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Now, some of those are free choice.
Right, you didn't have to agreeto be my producer and you
didn't have to agree to be thepresident of the creative
writing course.
But now is the teaching jobpaid.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
It is yes.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay, good, I had to work the whole time.
I was in grad school doing thesame thing, teaching a lower
division class, and it's justthe reality of grad school
usually.
If you have the luxury of nothaving to work at least half
time, that's great, but it'spretty much a normal thing Now.
Another thing we need to talkabout, though, is some of our
(25:36):
programs are online, some areface-to-face, some are hybrid.
What's going on with all that?
Now let's start with you,caitlin, with the psychology
program.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Yes, so mine is completely face-to-face.
You're coming up here, you know, multiple times a week for
three hours, Like you did as anundergrad, right?
Yes, it is completelyface-to-face, which can be hard
with scheduling sometimes.
I would say one of the thingsabout online is sometimes you
know you don't have to drive allthe way to UT Tyler, come to
(26:06):
class.
You're there for three hours.
But, with that being said, I doenjoy it.
I get to see my classmates andI get to see my professors and
with that you build, I think,greater relationships than
probably you would online.
So, while it can be difficultto navigate, along with
everything else, I think it'salso a blessing.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
How far do you have to drive to come to campus?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Almost an hour.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh, wow, yeah.
What about you, caroline?
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I like the freedom of being able to choose between
online, because I know a bunchof our classmates that have you
know jobs during the day andthey can only make during online
classes, and I think that'sreally awesome that if our time
allots it, we can do in-personclass or online, and personally
I like in-person better becauseI feel like you can bounce ideas
(26:54):
off of people more, you cantalk to the professors more.
Online it kind of just dependson what you're feeling If you
learn better face-to-face or youlearn better going at your own
pace on a class.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
How have you experienced the online classes?
Are they entirely asynchronousor semi-synchronous?
I think the beginning graduateclass.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
I think it was 5300, was asynchronous, I think is
what it was.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Meaning you just never met with the teacher or
the classmates.
It was all online.
And what did you experience?
What was delivered to you inthose online classes?
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I had a very hard time with that class.
You know, with face-to-faceyou'd say you're working on a
project and it's all typed out,the instructions are all typed
out, but you know, if you're inclass you're saying can you
reiterate that for me, can yousay that a little differently
for me?
Whereas here it's like okay, Igot to send an email, got to
wait for the response, got tohope that I can interpret the
(27:55):
email correctly in order to domy project correctly.
It's kind of it was notlectures, no, ma'am, it was just
typed out, so it was reallybook learning on your own.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Here's the schedule, here's what you read.
So that's sort of the one endof an online class.
There's not even lectures, okay, not even tape lectures.
Have there been other kinds,michaela?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I would say primarily here at least.
It's usually asynchronous.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The online class I'm in right now is asynchronous,
and I don't think I've been inanother version, here at least
and the other thing, too, isthat grad students have the
choice to take entirelyasynchronous or hybrid or
face-to-face.
The one thing I would alwayswarn people about is, when you
get ready to apply to a program,find out what's available to
you, because, like you said,there's a lot more freedom, so
you have to know how you learn,and then you have to be able to
plug yourself into programs thatwork for you.
(28:50):
Have your online classes beenjust as Caroline described them,
too, or if you had anybody inbetween?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
No, I have not had any taped lectures for my
graduate school.
For undergrad, yes, some of mysummer classes were taped,
especially electives.
One of my professors does do aweekly audio so we can listen to
her for about 10 minutes, butthat's as much as we get for
verbal communication besides,like emailing, obviously, I
(29:17):
would agree that in person is alot easier to connect with your
classmates as well as yourprofessors.
But one thing we talked aboutearlier was a lot of the
in-person classes here alsomerged with 4,000 level classes,
so that's an interestingdynamic as well there, which
(29:38):
personally I somewhat likebecause, being a teacher and
potentially teaching that level,it's interesting to see where
I'm at versus where they're atand how the teacher
differentiates with them.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That is an interesting opportunity.
The truth is is that graduateprograms are always smaller,
intentionally so, and so inorder to make sure we have
enough students in classrooms towork.
Sometimes we do do that.
Now, when you have classes,your classes are all
face-to-face.
Do you have lecturesface-to-face?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yes, all of the lectures are face-to-face, so
every single class.
Our professor like bless them,but they have to talk for just
about three hours and I can'timagine how they do it.
But they do it well.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So you sit there and listen to them talk for three
hours in class.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Some of them do have interactive elements and we do
get like a five to ten minutebreak, which is oh so much
needed, but yeah, they do get todo have those interactive
elements.
You know involve the class andwe have group projects, so
sometimes we'll take even, like,maybe the leftover class time
and we'll get into our groupsand, you know, just go about our
project and help each other.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Well, I think listeners can understand then
that you have to be reallyserious about this stuff if
you're going to sit there forthree hours and talk about it,
or sit there on a Zoom class foran hour and listen to that,
because it does take a lot offocus, it takes a lot of
dedication.
I will add this when I was ingrad school, I remember the
first couple of PhD classes Iwent to.
I kept waiting for theprofessor to lecture and guess
(31:10):
what?
They don't.
They rarely.
In grad school, it's mostly youdoing the self-teaching, and
they would say, okay, now hereis my bibliography, or here are
the seven theories or the threetheories that we're going to
look at this year.
Here are the main writers.
And so a lot of grad school isself-education, and I remember
(31:31):
being kind of annoyed about thatat first, because I'd been out
of college for a while and Iwanted to sit back and have
somebody talk to me and teach me, and I said, oh, I have to sit
forward and I have to do a lotmore of the active learning.
Is that what you all haveexperienced as well?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
I would say, yes, I mean we'll come to the class and
have like a class discussion onwhat we've read and things like
that.
But it's very self like.
You got to keep your headstraight and narrow and you got
to, you know, make all thereadings.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I think that that's another piece of the truth about
grad studies.
It is different from undergrad.
It's greater freedom, but it'salso greater responsibility Not
as many quizzes and tests, butbigger stakes.
Caitlin's going.
Oh yes, you want to tell them alittle bit about that.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Oh yeah.
So whenever I first came intothe semester and I saw like
almost nothing in my first month, I'm like, what do you mean?
I have no assignments foralmost a month, like, and this
is terrifying, what am I missing?
But it's a bunch of bigprojects and sometimes they have
to give you that amount of timein order to do it by pretty
much the end of the semester.
So almost everything is duequite a bit later.
So to have that like almostmoment of like things are
(32:40):
missing, because in undergradyou almost you have things
weekly.
So it was totally eye-opening.
Whenever I came in I'm like, ohokay, everything's almost due
at the end.
You have to make sure that youare on it, like you have so much
done at a certain time so youcan have it at the very end.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, procrastinators do not do well in grad school
because the level of depth issuch that you cannot catch up
quickly.
You have to be working all thetime.
On Friday we were talking tofreshmen.
Remember one of the things thatsurprised them most about being
a freshman?
And on Friday we were talkingto freshmen.
Remember one of the things thatsurprised them most about being
a freshman they had so muchwork to do compared to high
school.
We have so much work to do.
We have to keep up with it andsuddenly the big switch in grad
(33:19):
school is I have so much work todo, but it's of a different
layer of responsibility.
So when we pull back up, we'vejust spent about 45 minutes
talking to somebody about gradschool.
What is something we haven'ttalked about that you want to be
sure folks out there in ourlistening audience might want to
know, or need to know, abouteither grad school, whether it's
(33:39):
in English or in psychology orjust grad school in general, UT
Tyler in particular.
I'll start with you, Michaela,and we'll walk around the room.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
I'm honestly going to say something similar to what I
said with the freshmen, andthat's find your resources,
because it's true for freshmen,but it's also true for graduate
students, especially for someonewho maybe didn't go to UT Tyler
or the university that they'restarting at for their master's
and it's a new campus to them,so it's almost like they're a
freshman right.
(34:10):
Find the resources that are oncampus for you.
Obviously, your professors aregoing to be your biggest
resource, but also the libraryis your second biggest resource,
but there's so many otheravenues of resources available
to you for free.
Primarily, if not all, of themare free.
A lot of people don't use themenough because they're not sure
(34:34):
how to, or they think it's notgoing to help them as much as
they think, and it really issomething that is worth looking
into and getting involved with.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
So what are some of the things you're thinking of
that are available resourcesthat maybe people didn't realize
were at a university that theycan benefit from.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
A lot of universities have a writing center, so
that's the first one I think of.
I think many graduate studentsmight think oh well, you know, I
did fine writing in mybachelor's, so maybe I don't
need to go to the writing centerbecause I made it this far.
But there's always things youcan improve on.
I'm not trying to like raisemyself up here, but I'm teaching
a class and even so, I stillwant to go to the Writing Center
(35:14):
and get help, because there'sstill things I'm learning
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I send my grad students to the Writing Center.
I go to the Writing Center.
Sometimes you want to tell themwhat people at the Writing
Center do.
Maybe folks might not know that.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Sure, so you can go in and make an appointment with
tutors in the Writing Center andessentially they will help you
to go through your assignment orpaper or whatever it is that
you bring in and help you tokind of elevate what you've
already written.
They're not necessarily goingto go through and edit every
single little thing comma youknow punctuation but they are
going to help you go throughyour paper and look at the
(35:48):
prompt and say how can we makethis better?
You go through your paper andlook at the prompt and say how
can we make this better?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, a lot of times a student gets started on a
project and they get way drift,drift, drift, drift, drift away
from what the assignment was forand the writing center tutors
will say well, but now theprompt says do this and you're
doing that, and that's a bighelp.
What besides the writing center?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I would also say career success.
That's a big thing.
I know that they push forundergrads because a lot of
people don't take the steptowards a master's and so they
want to make sure they'regetting those jobs after their
bachelor's.
But even so, once you finishyour master's and you're looking
for a job, or once you finishyour PhD and you're looking for
a job, the career success isalways going to be helpful to
(36:29):
you, no matter what stage ofcollege you're at, and even if
you're trying to find a jobwhile you're in college or an
internship, they can help youwith that.
Specifically, here at UT Tyler,they also have career success
coaches as well as a careersuccess closet, so if you need
clothes for a job interview, youcan get those there, as well as
if you want help with yourresume or cover letter or being
(36:53):
mock interviewed for somethingthat's coming up, then those
coaches will be there to helpyou one-on-one.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's really really good advice.
Yeah, what about you, caitlin?
Speaker 4 (37:10):
stressful time in a stressful environment to go
through.
I would say just be gentle withyourself, because those who
decided to go into a master'sprogram, they decided because
they're dedicated to it andyou're going to put a lot of
time and money into it andyou're going to want to do well.
But, with that being said, Ithink you do want to try your
best, but don't put too muchpressure on yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Spoken like a true fledgling LPC, right?
I'm really glad you broughtthat up, and I will add this
that most professors want tomake sure that you have mental
health, that we're watching that.
And one thing you said aboutfreedom, caroline we're also
more flexible with graduatestudents, especially if they're
(37:51):
carrying a job and children, orboth, along with their program,
and so it's nice to know that.
Well, yes, you want to excel,you want to do the very best you
can.
We're also going to be there tohelp you, caroline.
Your turn.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
I would say definitely make a calendar for
yourself.
Stick sticky notes all overyour monitor or wherever you do
your homework and say I'm goingto do this assignment by 8
o'clock tonight and stick tothat, because that is the best
way you can stay up to date onstuff.
Snowballing and it startssnowballing, but as long as you
(38:31):
have a calendar that is linedout I line mine out to the t,
like everything, like do this byfour o'clock, do this by 4 30
for sure calendar.
Do a google drive of all yourassignments you have to do and
have it like ping in your pocketevery now and then be like, oh,
I need to do that, because Ihave the worst habit of
forgetting that I have anassignment due and then it's due
and I'm like okay, I got tostay up till 3 am to do this.
(38:53):
I would also say get in contactwith your professors.
You can reach out to yourprofessors.
Make sure you've got like agood relationship with them.
My little brother actually wentto grad school and I told him.
I said you need to make sure tointroduce yourself to all your
professors.
Harness a really goodrelationship with them, because
to me that's the most importantthing you can have.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Well, one of the most important things is you have to
have letters of recommendation.
And who else but these folksyou know, and that's a life
skill too, I mean, you'll needletters of recommendation all
the way down the line.
I'm getting ready to come upfor a big promotion and I have
to have letters ofrecommendation.
Even I do so making sure thatyou have developed the kind of
(39:35):
social skills, upward anddownward and sideways, to be
able to get along withcolleagues, get along with
superiors, employers, but alsogetting along with the folks
that may end up being youremployees.
Those are really great skillsto have.
I think.
We all think that it's probablygoing to help you get into your
(39:55):
chosen career, maybe a littlebit more directly than yours,
caitlin, because of the degreesand the certifications and the
tests.
Caroline's going to have towork a little harder at finding
a niche for her creative work,you finding teaching jobs, but
it sounds to me like all threeof you know where you're heading
.
Well, thank you so much.
(40:16):
I hope that you all will comeback and tell us when you get
ready to graduate.
But I would add this that allthree of you are talking about
careers that are going to feedand service people.
They are careers of service and, in terms of feeding the
imagination for you, caroline,your creative work, for the two
(40:38):
of you who want to be counselorsand teachers, the service
element of what you all havechosen to do you know what Percy
Shelley said about havingimagination.
Stoking and preserving andenhancing the imagination of our
citizenry is the greatestservice of all too.
So I see all three of you asgetting ready to take some
really fine jobs of citizenship,and I'm grateful to know you so
(41:03):
well.
That was pretty interesting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 6 (41:07):
Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
adrquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley W Wortleysigning off.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Bye-bye.
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So I'm excited.
This is the second season ofAsk Dr Ross, a podcast sponsored
by the College of Arts andSciences at UT Tyler.
Our goal is to let the worldout there know a little bit
about what it's like to be incollege, in undergrad or grad
school.
I'm here with my producer,Michaela Murphy.
Michaela, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hi, yes, my name is Michaela Murphy.
I am a graduate student here atUT Tyler.
This is my second year in theEnglish Master's program.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
But you are also an instructor.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yes, so I am teaching English 1301 right now.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And our topic today is graduate school.
So we've invited our two guestsand Michaela's double-timing it
here with the job as both ourproducer but also a current
graduate student.
So I'd like to start by havingyou introduce yourself, caitlin,
would you start please?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Absolutely Well.
Yeah, I'm Caitlin Walker and Iam a graduate student in the
Clinical Mental HealthCounseling program here, and
this will be my.
It's my first year, so it's,yeah, the very beginning of it
for me.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Hi, my name is Caroline Goodson.
Thank you for having us heretoday.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I am a second-year grad student and I am in the
English department and Michaela,since you're not only a
producer, you're also a guest,would you like to reintroduce
yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yes, so, like I said, I am the producer, but I am
also a student here at UT Tyleras well as an instructor.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And you're in what year?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
The second year.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about where you were
in school, where you did yourundergraduate degree?
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about where you were in
school, where you did yourundergraduate degree?
And we'll just kind of go backand forth with each of you to
kind of get a little bit more ofa sense of the geography of
this, and then we'll starttalking about the experience.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
So I got my associates at TJC.
As soon as I graduated fromthere, I came over here to UT
Tyler and I got my bachelor'shere, and after I graduated with
my bachelor's, I came over anddecided you know what I actually
want to go and get my master'shere as well Is Craig Cripp
accredited, which is veryimportant for anyone who does
(02:35):
want to go into counseling.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Slow down a minute.
It's what accredited Craig.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Cripp.
It is the accreditation programfor the counseling and it's
very important because someschools are not accredited and
anyways, it's supposed to be acertain stature in order to get
that accreditation.
And they have it here at UTTyler and I knew that's a
program that I wanted to be in.
Ut Tyler had it.
I was like, okay, I really wantto do this program here at UT
Tyler.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Did you get your bachelor's degree in psychology
and counseling?
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I did.
I did get my bachelor's inpsychology here.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
I actually started at TJC as well, and the funny
story with that is that I wentin with scholarships in the
drama field.
I wanted to be an actor and Iwanted to, you know, go on
Broadway and things like that.
And I was like thinking aboutit more and more and I was like
you know, that's going to bevery hard to do.
I was like, you know, I loveEnglish, I love being creative,
(03:32):
I love writing.
That was like my favoritepastime when I was in TJC.
So I made the switch fromtheater.
Then I went to art for somereason, just thought I'd dabble
my toes in a little bit and thenI finished with my just normal
associate's degree at TJC andthen I went into UT and that's
where I kind of sort of fostered, you know, the English.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So you chose to be an English major once you switched
over here to the four-yearschool?
Yes, ma'am, is that the samecase with yours, caitlin?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
I actually got an associate's in psychology at TJC
.
It was actually after my firstsemester.
I came in not knowing what Iwanted, but then I did enter to
psychology and I absolutely Iloved it.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really did and decided to change my major
that's one of the things we weretalking with the freshmen about
the other day is it's soimportant to take those core
classes where you have a fewcourses in social sciences, in
the STEM field, in the arts,getting a little taste of all of
those?
That's probably why you thoughtabout doing art, because you
had a really great art classright.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
I did.
It was fantastic.
Derek White was.
He was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
So, moving into a field like English, everyone
always says well, what are yougoing to do with that?
Right, she's giving me the look.
Would someone like to describethe look?
It's like well, yeah, what areyou going to do with that?
And what was your answer topeople?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
I can't remember if it was my grandmother that said
something like that or not, butI was like English is such an
umbrella term for just.
You can do so much with it.
You could do like you can writevideo game script with English,
you can do online transcriptionwith English, you can like type
court documents with English.
You can go to law school,exactly.
Yeah, it's just huge.
(05:20):
There's so much there that youcan do with it that it's kind of
just.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You can basically like throw your name out there
and see where the lure sinksbasically, and in terms of
psychology, you could kind ofmake the same argument for that
too, couldn't you?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yes, ma'am, I've had plenty of people tell me that
it's a useless degree.
They think that a good careeris what makes you a lot of money
, in their opinion, and forpsychology and in mental health.
That's not quite the reality atthe moment.
It did make me take a moment toreassess everything, because
whenever you have so many voicestelling you that you're like,
oh my gosh, maybe I did make thewrong choice.
(05:57):
But after reevaluating it, I'mlike this is what I love and I
want to continue with it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, you know I think we'll circle back to the
issue of making money andgraduating with a degree, and
also, you know we do need totalk about debt and things like
that.
But one of the things you bothbrought up, which I think is a
really important thing for folksout there to hear, is that both
of you started out with anassociate's degree.
You weren't even sure.
A lot of folks who go off forassociate's degrees aren't even
(06:24):
sure that they're going to do afour-year degree.
They're not even sure that theycan or want to or can afford to
, and so the fact that both ofyou started in that way, I think
, is really significant forfolks to know that.
You discovered a passion whenyou were at TJC in the community
college.
You continued at the four-yearcollege and it kept on rolling.
(06:45):
And here you are, both of youdoing graduate school Now,
michaela, did you do TJC too?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes, so I guess we're all three in the same boat.
I did my associates at TJC, butbefore that I did a lot of my
hours for my associates in highschool.
So I did a lot of dual credit.
I had about 44 hours, I believe, already done 44 hours.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's almost a year and a half of school.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yes, so I only did a year at TJC and then I got my
associates when I was 19 or 20and then moved straight over to
UT Tyler the next semester.
But it was interesting becauseI came in in a January semester.
So it was a really weird timeof COVID, january, like it would
have been weird anyway comingin January, but then to come
(07:32):
during COVID as well, it was abizarre transition.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, you know, I think we probably ought to do
another episode sometime aboutTJC and UT Tyler and how those
two institutions have learned towork together.
When I first came to UT Tyler,it was the first year that we
had a four-year situation forstudents.
We were only taking upperdivision and graduate students
(07:57):
and folks at TJC were veryworried that we were going to
end up being a big problem witheach other, and I think that's
worked out.
Over 20 years I've been herenow to not be a problem.
My experience has mostly beenthat well, for one thing, a lot
of our students go and teach atTJC.
A lot of our students that comefrom TJC have done as well as
(08:19):
all three of you have, and soyay, hooray, more about that.
The next question would be Ithink both of you already said
you found something you lovedand you want to keep doing so.
Why did you think that UT Tylerwas a place?
Well, I know from you, caitlinbecause it had accreditation and
(08:40):
that was really, reallyimportant.
What about you, caroline?
Why did you pick UT Tyler?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
My mom actually went to UT Tyler and got her
bachelor's degree at UT Tyler.
She actually wants to come backand get her master's at some
point over.
I think it's either governmentor something social studies I
can't remember the exact termshe used, but yeah, she was the
one that was like let's get youinto UT Tyler because I like to
stay local for sure and there'sa lot of good stuff that has
(09:08):
come out of UT Tyler Like theprofessors are amazing and
they're just great, and I waslike let's do this.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
What about you, caitlin?
Was it a geographical decisionfor you, or was it you were just
so happy already here, youdidn't need to move?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
After graduating here .
Of course, I already knew thatI really enjoyed it here, but it
was a thing with family.
I had a lot of family andfriends here and it's where I
grew up.
So you know, roots run deep, Iguess, but I knew I wanted to
stay here.
I knew some people who wereactually already here and
introduced me, showed me aroundand, yeah, I fell in love with
(09:45):
it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Same thing for you, Michaela.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yes, so I grew up in the Tyler area and my mom also
went to UT Tyler, so, yes, so itwas pretty much a no-brainer
for me that this is such a goodschool.
There's really no reason to goout and get the same education a
thousand miles away to go outand get the same education a
thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And I think for at the MA level, where you get the
degree, is less important.
It has to be a good school.
It has to be a school where theteachers are good, where the
program is strong, where thelibrary or the resources are
available all of which are here,but it's not until you really
get the PhD level that anybodyeven really cares of.
Did you go to a name school?
Did you go to what we call aflagship?
(10:25):
In the state of Texas?
There are only two Austin UTAustin and that other one, texas
A&M.
So coming to local universitiesis a great thing.
Also, I'm betting it costs alot less money.
How many years does it take tofinish your degree?
We forgot to talk about that.
How long does it take to getyour MS in counseling?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
It's supposed to be two years and then one semester.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You want to talk in terms of hours.
Is that a 60-hour degree, a30-hour degree?
Yes, it is 60 hours A 60-hour.
Now the English MA is how manyhours?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
30 or 36.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
36.
Ours is about a year and asemester.
Yours is two years and asemester.
Yeah, I also do summers, solike you're full time for the
next two years, yeah yeah, yeah,that's true, and I will just
say this that the salaries inhigher education are better than
they are in secondary education.
(11:25):
They're not as great as being alawyer or a doctor, but they're
just fine, they're just plentyand they're really great
benefits.
So there's that too.
So are you living at home?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I am.
I live with my family.
My mom, my dad, my sister lovethem.
My sister actually just came toUT and she'll be doing her arts
degree.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, I love our art department.
I love just going in there andlooking to see what the students
are making and doing.
So you're living at home,Michaela.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Okay, mom and dad, or .
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yes, my mom and my dad.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Okay, what about you, Caroline?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
That's what I did.
I lived with my mom and then,when my husband and I got
married, we moved in together.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So I guess we kind of know why you applied to a
master's program.
Did you want to reaffirm?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Yeah, I did, because starting out I wanted to go the
route of becoming a professorand maybe going for a doctorate
degree.
I just think that the otherprograms that I've been looking
into, like you know video game,script writing and transcription
online and things like thatwhen you have a master's degree,
(12:35):
that puts you above the peoplewho just know how to play those
games and think it'd be fun tomake them.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So you saw it as a career move.
What about you, Caitlin?
Speaker 4 (12:47):
For me, in order to be an LPC and to have licensure,
you do need to have you know,your master's degree and you
have to meet certainrequirements.
So of course UT Tyler does havethat accreditation.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But how did you even know about all that, about LPCs
and things?
How did you learn that?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Whenever I did research on LPC licensed
professional counselor I was,you know, looking into a couple
different options and finally,when I did find LPC, I had to
think of the steps in order toget there.
Of course, once I finally aftermy associates, I'm like looking
at all the steps that I have toget in order to get licensure,
but it feels like a miles long.
(13:25):
But I looked up and it was likeOK, you need first bachelor's
degree, master's degree, you'regoing to get all of the national
testing done.
So I have to do two big testsat the very end After I graduate
(13:46):
.
I still have to be technicallyan associate and I still have to
get a lot of hours in order toeven be considered an actual LPC
.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Did your faculty, when you were an undergraduate
here, help you find all that out?
Or was it just your ownresearch?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
As far as classes and getting into graduate school, I
would say some of the peoplehere were definitely guiding me
in that direction.
I had some great professors whotold me how to get in the
graduate program and how to evenstart that process, because it
was so confusing at first.
Yeah, without them I don't knowhow I'd even be here at the
(14:18):
moment.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, and I think that's a big part of
undergraduate professors andthose of us who do the four-year
training as well as the six orlonger, is that we need to make
sure you all know what to expectand what the next hoops are.
What about you, Michaela, onthat?
Why did you decide it was timeto go for the master's degree?
I don't think you ever justquit.
You never quit studying, do you?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
No, ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit
school.
Ever since I was five years old, I haven't quit school.
I was doing my bachelor's herein the English department and I
felt like it would be you know,if I was accepted a good
transition straight into themaster's here.
It was the same professors, itwas similar topics, but at the
graduate level I looked on thewebsite because I was already
(15:02):
familiar with it as being astudent.
But then I also asked some ofmy professors.
I talked to our old chair, drWu, about where I should apply,
what I should potentially put inmy application or what would
look good, as well as what myopportunities would be with that
master's degree.
I talked to my faculty advisoralso about if a master's degree
would be necessary for what Iwanted to do in the future.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And what do you want to do?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I would like to be a professor.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And so my advice to both of you, because, caroline,
you mentioned that, although youmay end up becoming this
creator of games or whatever, ifyou don't do the creative route
, you'll go on to a PhD programat what we call a flagship, and
you'll want to look at UT,austin or A&M.
If you're going to stay inTexas, you can prepare for that,
(15:47):
and for you I don't know, I'mnot familiar.
What do you know about a PhDprogram?
If you were to go on to that?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, so for a PhD you can actually go a couple
different routes in psychology.
One of them is research,depending on you know, if you're
really interested in doing yourown studies and publishing, you
could definitely go that route.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I know, for example, one of your professors, Amy
Hayes, has done a lot ofresearch on, I think, depression
, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
They get to do research on stuff that are
really pressing issues forpeople today.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
And then let's say you wanted to be a psychiatrist.
Ah, like an MD.
Of course you would need to geton another path.
You have to go to med school.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
We happen to have one now, by the way, so I think
what we've established is thatthe master's degree can be a
stopping point and lead to allsorts of interesting careers,
which you all have all thoughtabout and are making some plans
for, but it could also, if youjust really get the bug and you
just can't stand to quit writingpapers and spending time in the
libraries, that off you go isan option as well.
(16:53):
So let's talk a little bitabout what's it really like,
though, to being graduate.
How's graduate school differentfrom being an undergrad?
Caroline?
I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
It's kind of weird to say it, but I feel like we have
more creative freedom.
In a way.
We're able to havecommunications with our
professors and saying, hey, thisis the project that we want to
work on, this is how we want todo it.
I feel like I'm adulting moreas a grad student.
You know, I used to just hatebeing an undergrad student.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know I used to just hate being an undergrad.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
What did you hate about being an undergrad?
I just felt like I didn't havea very good relationship with my
professors at that time when Iwas like, when I was a freshman,
you know, first coming in I waslike I don't know what's going
on, I don't know who to talk toand things like that.
And now I feel like therelationships that I have with
my professors now is absolutelyamazing and I feel like I can
come to them and talk to themabout anything and they're super
(17:48):
understanding and wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Since we already started in English, I'm going to
switch over to you, michaela,to say what could you amplify
what she said about yourclassroom experience?
And then we'll get to thepsychology program.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I would definitely agree that the
graduate program gives you morefreedom of what your assignments
are looking like.
So, specifically for me,wanting to be a professor, I
took that route with mycoursework and so I did my
practicum and that's how I'mable to teach 1301 while I'm
also still a student, becauseyou had to meet that 18 hour
(18:20):
milestone requirement before youcould even teach here.
Because you had to meet that18-hour milestone requirement
before you could even teach here.
So that was an option for meand that's the road I obviously
took.
But other people take more ofthe technology or AI route, not
necessarily teaching, if that'snot the path they're looking to
go towards after graduating.
So, yeah, it's very flexiblewith what you want to do and
(18:41):
what you do here to get to thatpoint.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And one thing you've also sort of emphasized here in
both of the comments you've madeis that there's lots of
different ways to be in highered.
You can be the creative, youcan be the scholar, you can be
the teacher, you can be theteaching scholar, depending on
the degree you end up with andwhere it's from.
Of course, you may not alwaysknow, until you get into it,
exactly what you like the mostLike.
Are you learning that you liketeaching?
(19:08):
Are you enjoying teaching thecomp class?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I am, I really am.
I think a lot of maybe gradprofessors are like oh, I don't
know if you'll like 1301 andfreshmen, but there's something
for everyone is what I think,and I really do like the
freshmen.
That may be because before Itaught these freshmen, I was
teaching seventh grade and mycertification is seventh through
(19:32):
12th grade in the Texaseducation system, so I was
already teaching younger ages ascompared to my professors, so
maybe that's a little bit of adifference, but yeah, I'm really
enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So you've been blossoming into the creative
side.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
You want to tell everybody a little bit about
what you're doing.
Well, for one of my projectsI'm doing a research, academic
research, over a video gamecalled Baldur's Gate 3, which is
absolutely amazing.
It's got a lot of mythologyAbsolutely amazing.
It's got a lot of mythology.
It has Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein in it.
It's got some William Blake init.
(20:10):
I think it's got some coolorigin in it too.
But it's really cool that I cantake, you know, a creative
aspect to my education and beable to go on that route and do
stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, yeah, you're doing stuff, you're not just
reading what other people do.
And that, I think, is the greatfreedom now is that you all get
to do that.
So how about psychology?
How is that different?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I think one of the things that's different for me
is there's a lot more community,I think, because whenever
you're in undergraduate you'rein a bunch of different classes
with like 70 different peopleand it was a bit of a shock
whenever I came to this smalllittle classroom and there's 10
people and I have a cohort, so Iam with these people almost
(20:55):
throughout the entire program.
So you really get to just havethis community of this group of
people that you're going throughthe same thing with and the
same professors.
I have them in many of myclasses.
I have them're going throughthe same thing with and the same
professors.
I have them in many of myclasses.
I have them multiple timesthroughout the entire year.
So I think what's really niceis that I get to know these
people and I get to have themand build relationships with
(21:15):
them throughout the course ofthe graduate program.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Well, and one of the things everybody will tell you
and I know you all would agreewith me is that learning is a
social experience, and anybodywho thinks that you can just
learn by staying home and doingonline stuff has probably missed
out on some really greatlearning.
So what are some of the issuesyou've experienced about getting
into grad school or staying ingrad school or meeting hours, or
(21:43):
what are some of the thingsthat are challenges that you
want to warn people about?
You want to start for us,caitlin.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Sure, I think one of the difficulties that me and
like my cohort and the peoplethat I've met in the program,
have is balancing school andlife.
Of course people have jobs,some of them have kids Plus
you're in a full-time program.
Like that is a commitment andbalancing them it can be a real
(22:13):
challenge.
And while you're doing that youhave to take care of yourself
as things change too, because Imean there are different classes
and different programs so youhave to change your work
schedule.
But I think it's reallynavigating that and figuring out
a way to make what's workingfor you and what's best for you.
Do you have a full-time job?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
right now I have part-time Part-time.
How many hours is part-time?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Around 20 hours part-time.
So it's an after-school program.
So whenever the kids get out ofschool they actually come to us
school program.
So whenever the kids get out ofschool, they actually come to
us.
And of course it's for theparents, you know, who can't yet
pick up their kids, and we getto take them and do stuff with
them.
So we do their homework, wehave a snack, we get to do some
playtime too.
They've been in school all dayand you think they want to do
(22:55):
homework?
No, and we get to have thattime with the kids.
We also do feed them dinner.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And are you seeing already ways that your
psychological training isstarting to serve you as you do
this job with children?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Absolutely so.
My preferred demographic iscurrently with children and even
in the school environment, sowhenever I leave I do probably
want to end up working as a LPCin the school setting probably
kindergarten through about highschool and of course I've
already worked in a coupleschools, so that's of course,
very helpful, also with youngkids.
(23:32):
I think emotional regulationhas also been a big one with us.
I've worked at Andy Woods andBullard Primary as well as in
Brownsboro, so I've met a lot ofdifferent kids in a lot of
different environments and ithas been really helpful in to
the future.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, I would think that would be really powerful.
Well, Caroline, what about you?
Do you have a job right now.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It's kind of a job I do content creation on YouTube,
kind of reviewing video gamesand talking about their scripts
and things like that, findingthe plot holes in some games,
and you're paid for this.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I'm bound to be.
Well, you're also building up aresume, aren't you?
Kind of a little bit like whatyou're doing with the schools?
Although that's not technicallyas a therapist, it's still
experience, and for you,experience as well.
It's kind of unusual, I think,for most grad students, like you
said in your program, do havejobs or families, or both right,
(24:27):
and you've got more than onejob, don't you?
You better tell everybody howmuch you're doing right now,
because I don't know how you'rekeeping up with it and I keep
worrying I'm going to lose you.
But please don't quit being myproducer.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yes, so I, yeah, I have a lot of positions.
I won't necessarily call themjobs.
I have a lot of positions here.
I am your producer, I'mobviously a student, I teach my
1301 class, I am the director ofthe digital design studio, I am
also the president of thecreative writing club, and I'm
sure the list goes on, but Ican't think of more right now.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Now, some of those are free choice.
Right, you didn't have to agreeto be my producer and you
didn't have to agree to be thepresident of the creative
writing course.
But now is the teaching jobpaid.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
It is yes.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay, good, I had to work the whole time.
I was in grad school doing thesame thing, teaching a lower
division class, and it's justthe reality of grad school
usually.
If you have the luxury of nothaving to work at least half
time, that's great, but it'spretty much a normal thing Now.
Another thing we need to talkabout, though, is some of our
(25:36):
programs are online, some areface-to-face, some are hybrid.
What's going on with all that?
Now let's start with you,caitlin, with the psychology
program.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Yes, so mine is completely face-to-face.
You're coming up here, you know, multiple times a week for
three hours, Like you did as anundergrad, right?
Yes, it is completelyface-to-face, which can be hard
with scheduling sometimes.
I would say one of the thingsabout online is sometimes you
know you don't have to drive allthe way to UT Tyler, come to
(26:06):
class.
You're there for three hours.
But, with that being said, I doenjoy it.
I get to see my classmates andI get to see my professors and
with that you build, I think,greater relationships than
probably you would online.
So, while it can be difficultto navigate, along with
everything else, I think it'salso a blessing.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
How far do you have to drive to come to campus?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Almost an hour.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh, wow, yeah.
What about you, caroline?
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I like the freedom of being able to choose between
online, because I know a bunchof our classmates that have you
know jobs during the day andthey can only make during online
classes, and I think that'sreally awesome that if our time
allots it, we can do in-personclass or online, and personally
I like in-person better becauseI feel like you can bounce ideas
(26:54):
off of people more, you cantalk to the professors more.
Online it kind of just dependson what you're feeling If you
learn better face-to-face or youlearn better going at your own
pace on a class.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
How have you experienced the online classes?
Are they entirely asynchronousor semi-synchronous?
I think the beginning graduateclass.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
I think it was 5300, was asynchronous, I think is
what it was.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Meaning you just never met with the teacher or
the classmates.
It was all online.
And what did you experience?
What was delivered to you inthose online classes?
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I had a very hard time with that class.
You know, with face-to-faceyou'd say you're working on a
project and it's all typed out,the instructions are all typed
out, but you know, if you're inclass you're saying can you
reiterate that for me, can yousay that a little differently
for me?
Whereas here it's like okay, Igot to send an email, got to
wait for the response, got tohope that I can interpret the
(27:55):
email correctly in order to domy project correctly.
It's kind of it was notlectures, no, ma'am, it was just
typed out, so it was reallybook learning on your own.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Here's the schedule, here's what you read.
So that's sort of the one endof an online class.
There's not even lectures, okay, not even tape lectures.
Have there been other kinds,michaela?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I would say primarily here at least.
It's usually asynchronous.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The online class I'm in right now is asynchronous,
and I don't think I've been inanother version, here at least
and the other thing, too, isthat grad students have the
choice to take entirelyasynchronous or hybrid or
face-to-face.
The one thing I would alwayswarn people about is, when you
get ready to apply to a program,find out what's available to
you, because, like you said,there's a lot more freedom, so
you have to know how you learn,and then you have to be able to
plug yourself into programs thatwork for you.
(28:50):
Have your online classes beenjust as Caroline described them,
too, or if you had anybody inbetween?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
No, I have not had any taped lectures for my
graduate school.
For undergrad, yes, some of mysummer classes were taped,
especially electives.
One of my professors does do aweekly audio so we can listen to
her for about 10 minutes, butthat's as much as we get for
verbal communication besides,like emailing, obviously, I
(29:17):
would agree that in person is alot easier to connect with your
classmates as well as yourprofessors.
But one thing we talked aboutearlier was a lot of the
in-person classes here alsomerged with 4,000 level classes,
so that's an interestingdynamic as well there, which
(29:38):
personally I somewhat likebecause, being a teacher and
potentially teaching that level,it's interesting to see where
I'm at versus where they're atand how the teacher
differentiates with them.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That is an interesting opportunity.
The truth is is that graduateprograms are always smaller,
intentionally so, and so inorder to make sure we have
enough students in classrooms towork.
Sometimes we do do that.
Now, when you have classes,your classes are all
face-to-face.
Do you have lecturesface-to-face?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yes, all of the lectures are face-to-face, so
every single class.
Our professor like bless them,but they have to talk for just
about three hours and I can'timagine how they do it.
But they do it well.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So you sit there and listen to them talk for three
hours in class.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Some of them do have interactive elements and we do
get like a five to ten minutebreak, which is oh so much
needed, but yeah, they do get todo have those interactive
elements.
You know involve the class andwe have group projects, so
sometimes we'll take even, like,maybe the leftover class time
and we'll get into our groupsand, you know, just go about our
project and help each other.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Well, I think listeners can understand then
that you have to be reallyserious about this stuff if
you're going to sit there forthree hours and talk about it,
or sit there on a Zoom class foran hour and listen to that,
because it does take a lot offocus, it takes a lot of
dedication.
I will add this when I was ingrad school, I remember the
first couple of PhD classes Iwent to.
I kept waiting for theprofessor to lecture and guess
(31:10):
what?
They don't.
They rarely.
In grad school, it's mostly youdoing the self-teaching, and
they would say, okay, now hereis my bibliography, or here are
the seven theories or the threetheories that we're going to
look at this year.
Here are the main writers.
And so a lot of grad school isself-education, and I remember
(31:31):
being kind of annoyed about thatat first, because I'd been out
of college for a while and Iwanted to sit back and have
somebody talk to me and teach me, and I said, oh, I have to sit
forward and I have to do a lotmore of the active learning.
Is that what you all haveexperienced as well?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
I would say, yes, I mean we'll come to the class and
have like a class discussion onwhat we've read and things like
that.
But it's very self like.
You got to keep your headstraight and narrow and you got
to, you know, make all thereadings.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I think that that's another piece of the truth about
grad studies.
It is different from undergrad.
It's greater freedom, but it'salso greater responsibility Not
as many quizzes and tests, butbigger stakes.
Caitlin's going.
Oh yes, you want to tell them alittle bit about that.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Oh yeah.
So whenever I first came intothe semester and I saw like
almost nothing in my first month, I'm like, what do you mean?
I have no assignments foralmost a month, like, and this
is terrifying, what am I missing?
But it's a bunch of bigprojects and sometimes they have
to give you that amount of timein order to do it by pretty
much the end of the semester.
So almost everything is duequite a bit later.
So to have that like almostmoment of like things are
(32:40):
missing, because in undergradyou almost you have things
weekly.
So it was totally eye-opening.
Whenever I came in I'm like, ohokay, everything's almost due
at the end.
You have to make sure that youare on it, like you have so much
done at a certain time so youcan have it at the very end.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, procrastinators do not do well in grad school
because the level of depth issuch that you cannot catch up
quickly.
You have to be working all thetime.
On Friday we were talking tofreshmen.
Remember one of the things thatsurprised them most about being
a freshman?
And on Friday we were talkingto freshmen.
Remember one of the things thatsurprised them most about being
a freshman they had so muchwork to do compared to high
school.
We have so much work to do.
We have to keep up with it andsuddenly the big switch in grad
(33:19):
school is I have so much work todo, but it's of a different
layer of responsibility.
So when we pull back up, we'vejust spent about 45 minutes
talking to somebody about gradschool.
What is something we haven'ttalked about that you want to be
sure folks out there in ourlistening audience might want to
know, or need to know, abouteither grad school, whether it's
(33:39):
in English or in psychology orjust grad school in general, UT
Tyler in particular.
I'll start with you, Michaela,and we'll walk around the room.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
I'm honestly going to say something similar to what I
said with the freshmen, andthat's find your resources,
because it's true for freshmen,but it's also true for graduate
students, especially for someonewho maybe didn't go to UT Tyler
or the university that they'restarting at for their master's
and it's a new campus to them,so it's almost like they're a
freshman right.
(34:10):
Find the resources that are oncampus for you.
Obviously, your professors aregoing to be your biggest
resource, but also the libraryis your second biggest resource,
but there's so many otheravenues of resources available
to you for free.
Primarily, if not all, of themare free.
A lot of people don't use themenough because they're not sure
(34:34):
how to, or they think it's notgoing to help them as much as
they think, and it really issomething that is worth looking
into and getting involved with.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
So what are some of the things you're thinking of
that are available resourcesthat maybe people didn't realize
were at a university that theycan benefit from.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
A lot of universities have a writing center, so
that's the first one I think of.
I think many graduate studentsmight think oh well, you know, I
did fine writing in mybachelor's, so maybe I don't
need to go to the writing centerbecause I made it this far.
But there's always things youcan improve on.
I'm not trying to like raisemyself up here, but I'm teaching
a class and even so, I stillwant to go to the Writing Center
(35:14):
and get help, because there'sstill things I'm learning
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I send my grad students to the Writing Center.
I go to the Writing Center.
Sometimes you want to tell themwhat people at the Writing
Center do.
Maybe folks might not know that.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Sure, so you can go in and make an appointment with
tutors in the Writing Center andessentially they will help you
to go through your assignment orpaper or whatever it is that
you bring in and help you tokind of elevate what you've
already written.
They're not necessarily goingto go through and edit every
single little thing comma youknow punctuation but they are
going to help you go throughyour paper and look at the
(35:48):
prompt and say how can we makethis better?
You go through your paper andlook at the prompt and say how
can we make this better?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, a lot of times a student gets started on a
project and they get way drift,drift, drift, drift, drift away
from what the assignment was forand the writing center tutors
will say well, but now theprompt says do this and you're
doing that, and that's a bighelp.
What besides the writing center?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I would also say career success.
That's a big thing.
I know that they push forundergrads because a lot of
people don't take the steptowards a master's and so they
want to make sure they'regetting those jobs after their
bachelor's.
But even so, once you finishyour master's and you're looking
for a job, or once you finishyour PhD and you're looking for
a job, the career success isalways going to be helpful to
(36:29):
you, no matter what stage ofcollege you're at, and even if
you're trying to find a jobwhile you're in college or an
internship, they can help youwith that.
Specifically, here at UT Tyler,they also have career success
coaches as well as a careersuccess closet, so if you need
clothes for a job interview, youcan get those there, as well as
if you want help with yourresume or cover letter or being
(36:53):
mock interviewed for somethingthat's coming up, then those
coaches will be there to helpyou one-on-one.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's really really good advice.
Yeah, what about you, caitlin?
Speaker 4 (37:10):
stressful time in a stressful environment to go
through.
I would say just be gentle withyourself, because those who
decided to go into a master'sprogram, they decided because
they're dedicated to it andyou're going to put a lot of
time and money into it andyou're going to want to do well.
But, with that being said, Ithink you do want to try your
best, but don't put too muchpressure on yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Spoken like a true fledgling LPC, right?
I'm really glad you broughtthat up, and I will add this
that most professors want tomake sure that you have mental
health, that we're watching that.
And one thing you said aboutfreedom, caroline we're also
more flexible with graduatestudents, especially if they're
(37:51):
carrying a job and children, orboth, along with their program,
and so it's nice to know that.
Well, yes, you want to excel,you want to do the very best you
can.
We're also going to be there tohelp you, caroline.
Your turn.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
I would say definitely make a calendar for
yourself.
Stick sticky notes all overyour monitor or wherever you do
your homework and say I'm goingto do this assignment by 8
o'clock tonight and stick tothat, because that is the best
way you can stay up to date onstuff.
Snowballing and it startssnowballing, but as long as you
(38:31):
have a calendar that is linedout I line mine out to the t,
like everything, like do this byfour o'clock, do this by 4 30
for sure calendar.
Do a google drive of all yourassignments you have to do and
have it like ping in your pocketevery now and then be like, oh,
I need to do that, because Ihave the worst habit of
forgetting that I have anassignment due and then it's due
and I'm like okay, I got tostay up till 3 am to do this.
(38:53):
I would also say get in contactwith your professors.
You can reach out to yourprofessors.
Make sure you've got like agood relationship with them.
My little brother actually wentto grad school and I told him.
I said you need to make sure tointroduce yourself to all your
professors.
Harness a really goodrelationship with them, because
to me that's the most importantthing you can have.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Well, one of the most important things is you have to
have letters of recommendation.
And who else but these folksyou know, and that's a life
skill too, I mean, you'll needletters of recommendation all
the way down the line.
I'm getting ready to come upfor a big promotion and I have
to have letters ofrecommendation.
Even I do so making sure thatyou have developed the kind of
(39:35):
social skills, upward anddownward and sideways, to be
able to get along withcolleagues, get along with
superiors, employers, but alsogetting along with the folks
that may end up being youremployees.
Those are really great skillsto have.
I think.
We all think that it's probablygoing to help you get into your
(39:55):
chosen career, maybe a littlebit more directly than yours,
caitlin, because of the degreesand the certifications and the
tests.
Caroline's going to have towork a little harder at finding
a niche for her creative work,you finding teaching jobs, but
it sounds to me like all threeof you know where you're heading
.
Well, thank you so much.
(40:16):
I hope that you all will comeback and tell us when you get
ready to graduate.
But I would add this that allthree of you are talking about
careers that are going to feedand service people.
They are careers of service and, in terms of feeding the
imagination for you, caroline,your creative work, for the two
(40:38):
of you who want to be counselorsand teachers, the service
element of what you all havechosen to do you know what Percy
Shelley said about havingimagination.
Stoking and preserving andenhancing the imagination of our
citizenry is the greatestservice of all too.
So I see all three of you asgetting ready to take some
really fine jobs of citizenship,and I'm grateful to know you so
(41:03):
well.
That was pretty interesting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 6 (41:07):
Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
adrquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley W Wortleysigning off.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Bye-bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!