Life of a Graduate Student

23 April 2014

I came to the realization the other day that I have never dedicated a post to my student life.
Yes, I mention school and dissertation stuff from time to time, but I have never sat down to tell y'all about my day to day life as a graduate student. 
So here we go!

The biggest misconception about being a graduate student is you have a lot of free time
Yes, I only have class twice a week.
Yes, I spend a lot of time on the internet.
No, I do not have all that much free time.
As a history masters student, I spend most of my free time reading, writing, or researching. If I'm not volunteering at the museum, I usually wake up and head straight to a cafe (it's so much easier to concentrate with food and coffee in your belly). On a typical day, I'll spend about 3-4 hours sitting in a cafe reading or writing.

So what am I reading or writing? At the moment I'm writing two 5,000 word essays and preparing for a dissertation presentation. I try to force myself to write everyday, even if it's crap. Editing will come later. As far as reading goes, I've buried myself under a ridiculous amount of books on Henry VII (my dissertation topic). Seriously, I know this guy better than I know myself at this point.

Once term is over (May 19th), I will be spending the entire summer writing my dissertation. It sounds like plenty of time, but it's not. I'll be spending most of my time either researching in archives or reading secondary literature.

Moral of this post?
There aren't enough hours in the day.


Happy Wednesday!
xoxo

7 comments:

  1. I work with master students so I know just how much "free time" you guys have. So much reading, researching and writing! Best of luck :)

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  2. This gave me chills thinking about doing my dissertation all over again. When you hand it in the world becomes brighter! x

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  3. Ahhh...you feel my pain! I hope the papers and dissertation presentation goes well!

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  4. Oh I know the feeling - I was a Sociology MA student back in the day and I had about 8 hours of seminars during the week - what sucked was that they were all at 4-6pm and I felt that the library was my second home by the end of it!

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  5. May 19th is a good day! Term is over & it's my bday ;)

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  6. As a fellow lover of History (English history especially, though I rather like Henry VIII rather than his father) I salute you. Your posts make me happy :)

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  7. Good luck with your dissertation! I had a medieval Europe concentration in undergrad. I considered pursuing a masters, but I'm far too lazy for all that research. I don't even know you and I'm very proud of you!

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