First taste of Graduate School at Virginia Tech

Differences between Virginia Tech and the Finnish university system are actually striking. The first week before classes reading assignments were already given. And yes, you actually read the book instead of the notes.  It was stressed that a lot is expected from students from day one. And they actually have great confidence that students will rise to the occasion.

The university has a honor code that has to be followed at all times. It entails academic integrity and overall moral rules to be followed by all students and staff. It is enforced by a student body based honor court, which handles all cases of suspected cheating and other actions breaking the code like plagiarism. This is unheard of in Finnish university system, although plagiarism has been scanned and there is a moral code followed.

The situation on graduate students is similar to Finnish system. We are part of the staff and student body, as we have teaching obligations and course requirements. However we are not thrown to the wolves in teaching front. There was a two day course for new graduate teaching assistants before classes started and followup classes involving teaching in academia through out the semester. This ensures better starting point for teaching. This has started to emerge in Finland too, due to its obvious benefits.

The extra source of stress for graduate students at Virginia Tech is to remain in good academic standing. This in practice means keeping at least B average (3 out of 4 on scale 1-4). This is a challenge due to courses being very demanding and research work being pushed on top of it. This is why time management is considered to be the most challenging part of graduate school.

The time management part is certainly proving to be an every day challenge with multiple assignments and exam dates piling up. The day I have to think of what to do is still to come. Graduate school is not only about demands on you though. It has already given me the chance to learn from amazing people on top of their fields. This includes the legendary Noel Krieg, one of the editors for Bergey's Manual of Systemic Bacteriology (and he has a bacterial species named after him). I am challenged constantly to do better and think faster and dig deeper. Encouragement and feedback are part of the teaching here all the time and it makes a huge difference in motivating me.

In words of Dr. McNabb: "You get out of this what you put into it". And I am planning to give this all I can.