7 things that I would like to know before entering the master / graduate school abroad

Now education abroad is more widespread than ever. Many professionals who want to build a successful career in their field, receive a bachelor's degree from a domestic university, and go to the magistracy or graduate school abroad.

We offer a translation of the article by Alan Henry, in which he writes about 7 things that he would like to know before entering the magistracy / graduate school.
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Hopefully, Alan's advice will push you to useful thoughts and help you draw the right conclusions. Go!

If you, after graduating from college and having received a bachelor's degree, decide to continue your education at the master's or postgraduate level, your life changes in many ways. Absolutely in all areas, even where it would not seem necessary, you need to behave in such a way as to differ from competitors in some way. Sounds familiar? Then we offer to get acquainted with some tips, to the understanding of which we come after receiving a degree.

Higher education (hereinafter, we will understand the magistracy / graduate school) often has the reputation of being the most difficult period in a student’s life. Many decide to continue their education after long attempts to achieve career success - often large companies require employees to have a master’s degree or work experience. As a rule, those who want to pursue a career in the academic field come to graduate school - the obtained scientific degree allows one to worthily realize oneself in the scientific field.

We offer some tips that we are aware of in the process and after studying in high school and which we hope will help you!

Get ready for a huge competition that you have not experienced before.



What surprised me most in high school the most was the fierce competition among my classmates and classmates. All this was much different from the situation in college, where the majority did not particularly strive for individual work. In high school, on the contrary, my classmates sought to do everything to surpass the rest - moreover, both in school and in social activities.

It is easy to understand why this is so. Reputation is very important for a graduate's future career, and it takes quite a long time to get you in the spotlight. It can be said that studying for a bachelor’s degree includes a diploma and a degree. If you decide to continue your education, then you need to prove to your future employer that you can and want to succeed. A high school student should acquire really important and useful knowledge and master the skills of communicating with people who may be useful to you in the future. Be active and try to stand out in a positive light, so that everyone you want to cooperate with in the future wants the same.

Of course, healthy friendly competition is great, but when the time comes to collaborate or work together in a team, the competition will be completely irrelevant. My classmates did not only compete with other groups, trying to beat them, there were serious disagreements between members of the same team when it came to choosing the leader of the group. Everyone wanted to be the person who would represent the work done by the whole team. When it came to routine work, for example, to summarize the data obtained from the study, interest, as a rule, disappeared.
To become a leader, act carefully and carefully, hone your communication skills with people.

Intellect is not as important as you think.



While you are in college, intelligence is highly valued. In high school and, in truth, after its completion, intelligence, of course, plays a certain role, but not the key one. This does not mean that you should not be smart - just remember that the knowledge that you have acquired to obtain a certain degree is not enough. You may not be the most intelligent and erudite, but you can be - in any case, you should be hardworking, confident and have communication skills. You are sure to meet people who are inferior in your mind, but possess the skills listed above at a higher level. And you know what? They will be able to achieve more than you, and this is a shame.

Manuel Ebert, author, writing for the site Medium, shared his thoughts on what he would like to know before entering high school. He really hit the mark:

While you are young, you spend a lot of time to wise up. In fact, an intelligent person who knows how to communicate with other people will be able to graduate from college and a high school without making any special work (although it will have to be built into physics).
Congratulations, you are lucky. Although, at the same time, you are completely unlucky. Because while you were able to finish school without making any effort to this, others were wasting their strength, trying to gain useful skills that they would probably need in the future: diligence, perseverance, and networking.

In our society, intelligence is taken to overestimate. When I tell people that I worked in neurology, often the first thing I hear is: “Wow, you must be very smart.” Of course, I am not a complete fool, but I know many people who are much more stupid than me, but have achieved great success in neurology.

Of course, high intelligence will open many doors for you. But you can not get a job only with his help. Diligence, punctuality, ability to build valuable connections - these are the qualities that are necessary not only for a software engineer, but also for representatives of all professions outside the bubble called “high school”.

The conclusion, of course, is to develop these qualities as early as possible - ideally, of course, even before entering higher education, but it is never too late to start. Often, self-confidence, perseverance, hard work and perseverance will help you achieve greater success than any other set of qualities. At the very least, they will give you the opportunity to talk with people who can really be impressed by your intellect - this is the secret.

Do everything to make useful connections: this is what you are here for.



Surely you have heard this advice before: attend as many side events as possible: go to seminars and lectures by invited specialists, attend non-obligatory classes, participate in trips with a group, join student communities, offer help to professors who need assistants. If you do all this, then achieve the main thing: meet new people, with whom you can later build valuable connections.

Finally, and this is perhaps the most important thing, you will make friends. Closer than those with whom you met in college. Now you are not only a much more mature person, but also a more goal-oriented person interested in a future successful career with more long-term goals. You already understand enough in life not to waste time on people who pull you down and empty emotionally (or financially). Learn from your mistakes while you are in college and do not allow them in the future - get close to the people who are really important to you at every stage of life.

One of the authors of Lifehacker, Thorin Klozowski, who also attended high school, told me the following:

Especially in the case of the humanities, higher education is more an opportunity to meet new people than to increase the level of knowledge. Therefore, make sure that you have time to get acquainted, communicate with different people, to establish contacts as much as possible with a large number of people. You can contact them during the implementation of your postgraduate projects, and they will do the same.

Do everything in your power: this applies to bachelors, but it seems to me that additional activities in high school play a much more significant role than during college.

Thorin focuses on the humanities, but I can say the same thing in the case of the natural sciences and business education. If you plan to continue education in high school, go to work in the laboratory and fight for authorship, or are going to go to a business school to study technology management, be prepared to constantly be in working mode. Try to find an approach to the people around you, cooperate with them, help them and do not hesitate to ask for help in return. Use every opportunity to meet and chat with as many people as possible.

Leave your comfort zone behind.



Leave your comfort zone behind. It can be difficult - in my case, it was really very difficult - but you should be prepared for this. No one will force you to go to lectures by invited experts or go to other cities to attend the conference and chat with interesting people. Nobody will insist that you go to study abroad or work for some time in another laboratory to share your experience and learn something new.
You can stay at home, lie on the beach and ignore all of the above activities simply because it’s easier.

Do not do this!

Such opportunities do not appear every day, and the later they appear, the more difficulties they cause. Try to embrace as much as possible and learn how to correctly allocate time. In your future career, you may not achieve what you want (or just be left out) if you do not work in the laboratory or do not attend this or that conference. If you want to achieve the maximum and therefore decided to continue education, you need to destroy your inner framework and begin to develop.

Learn from guest speakers and professors. Make contact with them. Many teachers are happy to communicate with future masters or graduate students and stay in touch even after graduation. If you have the opportunity to travel and observe the real experts in your field, do not miss this chance simply because "this week I have no mood to go somewhere." Subsequently, you will regret it.

Use the “poor student” stereotype to your advantage, even if you are not



Surely you are familiar with the stereotype of a poor high school student. Often this is true. However, even if you have something to feed yourself, and you do not have to eat instant noodles and frozen vegetables, it is sometimes better not to refute this stereotype. We are not saying that you need to stop enjoying a decent standard of living and tasty food, if you can afford it, however, the image of a neat and modest student who is content with a small one will serve you well later when they start receiving bills for loans and credits .

Even if you are so lucky that you can avoid paying the loan, you will be much happier if, while you are in high school, you correctly distribute your funds instead of collecting huge amounts of debts on student loans and cards, simply because you were life that could not afford. For example, I worked for several years in my alma mater full-time, at the same time receiving a degree, so I did not have to pay tuition (if you have the same opportunity, take advantage of it). However, in those years that I did not work, I managed to accumulate a certain amount of student loan debts. Many people believe that they will receive a high-paying job immediately after receiving a degree, and their debts or loans will immediately go into the past. So it can happen far from always (more on that later), so you shouldn’t pin up empty hopes. Proper distribution of funds will make your graduation much happier.

Store textbooks and find your field.



High school is an opportunity to find a sphere or a specific area in which you will specialize. Unlike undergraduate studies, in which you are given the most advanced education, in graduate and postgraduate studies you delve into some particular area and study it at a much higher level. Do not just go with the flow - take your time and choose what you are really interested. Ideally, this area should be related to your future career.

When you find your sphere, make contacts with as many people as possible. If you specialize in a specific topic, you will surely learn about where the best studies are conducted on this topic, and with whom at the university you can talk about your specialization. Talk to the experts in your field - offer to work in their laboratories or help with the study. Ask, maybe you can be useful in some projects - in general, express your interest. If they teach in your course, find out if you can become their assistant or help teach, for example, bachelors (if possible).

Keep your textbooks. I know that many of us after graduation want, first of all, to get rid of books. I agree with this desire only if we are talking about a bachelor degree. Textbooks remaining after graduate or postgraduate studies should be kept - they are usually highly specialized and often contain important information (and sometimes only) on a particular topic. You may never find the textbook on first-year mathematical analysis useful, but you will definitely find an application for business books that are on the same shelf with research on cross-national corporations and international law.

Do not build empty expectations



After you have finally received a master’s degree or candidate of science, you shouldn’t expect that at this very moment money, high position in society, etc. will fall on you from the sky, etc. Just that you have a new MBA graduate diploma is not at all means that immediately after graduation you will be taken to a high-paying job. In the case of the natural sciences, the fact that you have just received a degree simply means that you have to compete with all candidates who graduated in the same year for a place in the laboratory. To get a vacant position, will have to work hard.

If you have managed to establish useful contacts, the importance of which we mentioned earlier, the process is greatly simplified. Your business school colleagues may be familiar with the leaders of some companies, or they may decide to start their own business. The professors with whom you have worked may arrange for you in your laboratory or write recommendations that will help you get to work in a large institution. However, we should not expect that you will get everything without putting an effort into it - you need to work hard to get a good job.

Thorin advises:

Do not expect that while studying at the master's or postgraduate level, you just fall over what you want to achieve. Most humanitarian programs aim to teach and think in the right direction. If you decide to continue your education in order to independently undertake some kind of ambitious project or simply for the sake of self-satisfaction, you will be disappointed. Instead, you will end up learning with even more questions about the world around you, BUT you will at least be able to better understand and explain your path in it. It seems to me that in the case of graduate and postgraduate studies it is much more important to choose a school, an atmosphere and a suitable program, than in the case of a bachelor’s degree. Your overall view of the world and how and what you think about it will often depend on the program that you prefer, so choose the one that seems important and interesting to you.

Higher education includes not only education, but also work and the establishment of professional contacts. If you are going to graduate or graduate school next year, I hope these tips will be useful to you.

Studying in higher education can be exhausting, stressful and really difficult, and maybe even easier than getting a bachelor's degree - it all depends on what goals you set for yourself, what you strive for and what you want to achieve.

Successes!

PS If the topic of studying abroad is of interest to you, we can recommend articles on admission to a North American university or Magistracy in Germany .