Luxurious week ahead!

As Thanksgiving is closing up, the hardest four weeks thus far academically are over and week of no classes is ahead. It turns out your standards for luxury lower drastically after entering graduate school. Here are some luxuries that will make me happy during next week of down time:

1. Getting over 5 hours of sleep per night. (On a side note: lack of sleep really affects your memory. And this is why I will never have children. I would go insane with the lack of sleep.)
2. Finding time to go to the grocery store every week instead of twice a month.
3. Looking at your schedule and seeing that there are no insane spurts between buildings to get to class next semester. (I am hoping for this, fingers crossed)
4. Looking in the fridge and seeing that there is real food instead of stuff scavenged from on campus scientific meeting
5. Realizing there is no need to run for the bus since it is not leaving that early on holiday schedule
6. Going to a store that sells a good variety of products that are not food. Walmart, here I come!
7. Visiting the bank and post office like normal people instead of trying to find a way to do everything online as those places close when you are still normally in class.
8. Reading the magazines that have arrived to the house during the past month with out skipping paragraphs (even if they are bio technique magazines and commercials for food).

Alas....this is not a vacation week by any means. I still need to write one huge paper and four short ones. And prepare for finals. It is really true that graduate school in US is rough. Even if you are aware of it, nothing prepares you for the true impact. Luckily you are not the only one in this situation. When complaining about the lack of sleep and other time management issues you can see people nodding, "yes that is how we feel too".

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.

How to get to a graduate school in US

For me the first hurdle was to decide where I want to study. And I mean really, really WANT to study. "I want to live in New York" is not a good enough reason. This has to matter. You have to want it more than children (given that you want children at all), more than you want a comfy retirement (which you might not get), more than you want  to become a millionare (which you will definately not become anytime soon if you go to grad school). This is no backup plan. This is the wet dream of your academic mind.

One of the early steps in application process is to ensure good recommendations. My recommendations came from internships and work in US, Australia and Finland during the span of 4 years. Second thing is getting english proficiency test taken and aced. And reviewing excessively snobbish vocabulary for GRE (graduate record examination) with a side of math without calculator. Essays are also important. You sell your self to graduate school. Your pimp is not going to do it for you. Getting an interview is awesome. I prepared for it thoroughly. My interview was actually nice. The questions were not hard and they actually answered some of my questions about the school and program.

The e-mail I cheris for long time to come arrived a few days later. "YAY! I got in! To Virginia Tech!" This euphoria lasted for a day. Then I took a look at VISA requirements. Being married at this point is not a benefit. A month of stressing out and going through immigration law, VISA laws and personal assets should earn me a minor in immigration law. If I had wanted to study law, I would have gone to a damn law school. All is well that ends well. The VISA interview was fine. The thick stack of paper, trip to Helsinki (15 hours in train) and the two relatively large payments to cover necessary fees (MRV-fee and SEVIS-fee) did not go to waste. There is still no air-con at the waiting room of US consular office, but there you go. You can suffocate and melt in safety behind the armed guards.

Tie up all loose ends in home country....easier said than done since everything is closed for the summer. I am at the moment loosing my mind over vaccination records.