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Fast Track From Undergraduate to Graduate

Did you know you can get a head start on your master’s degree with the Fast Track Program?

The Fast Track Program is designed to enable undergraduates to accumulate up to six credit hours of graduate coursework, to satisfy both the undergraduate and graduate degree requirements, while still pursuing their undergraduate degree. The coursework will enable an efficient graduate program transition with the potential for accelerated completion.

The Fast Track B.S. to M.S./M.A. Program is open to all students. It will create a cohesive and supportive learning community for a diverse range of student populations that will assist them in the attainment of a bachelor’s degree with the immediate transition into a master’s program.

Benefits of the Fast Track Program

  • Improves chances of getting into graduate school
  • Allows students to more quickly complete their undergraduate and graduate degrees
  • Creates a clear path for goals and helps guide other class choices
  • Allows undergraduate students to interact with graduate students and teachers to get a better feel for graduate school
  • Graduate coursework will be more intensive and allow Fast Track students to experience projects and assignments that align more closely with work projects in their chosen career path
  • Allows undergraduate students to have more hands-on experience

How Much Does the Fast Track Cost

Fast Track can save you around $500 per each three hour course that you take. Additionally, Curriculum and Instruction and Counseling and Psychology waive the GRE admission requirement, which saves you over $200 per test taken.

How Do I Get Started on Fast Track?

  1. Meet with an advisor to determine Fast Track program eligibility
  2. If you are eligible, your advisor will have you fill out a request for Fast Track Course Credit Form
  3. If you are accepted into the program, you will receive a Notice of Acceptance Form
  4. Bring the Notice of Acceptance Form to the college of Graduate Studies to be signed and processed.
  5. Bring the Notice of Acceptance Form to the Records and Registration Office for processing

Current Programs in the Fast Track Program

  • Business Administration
  • Chemistry
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Counseling & Psychology
  • Computer Science
  • Curriculum & Instruction
  • Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Professional Science Masters Environmental Informatics Concentration

10 Things Every Graduate Student Should Do This Summer

Congratulations! You’re continuing your path in higher education by earning an advanced degree–an accomplishment that less than 12% of the U.S. population achieves. Whether you’re pursuing a Master’s degree, or you’re in the long haul working towards a Doctorate degree, your experience will undoubtedly be different than undergrad.

For me, graduate school has been one of the most challenging experiences I’ve ever been through, but at the same time, one of the most rewarding accomplishments of my life. I’m certainly eager to be graduating in May 2014, but as I look back on my time at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University at Albany, I’m incredibly thankful for the things I’ve learned–not only professionally, but personally. I’d like to share with you some tips for those of you embarking on this journey!

Check out these 10 great tips for starting or continuing your graduate career:

1. Get to know the faculty

Graduate programs are the mecca of expert professionals in your field or industry. Colleges and universities really focus on having incredibly intelligent, influential, and experienced faculty and adjunct professors to train and teach the next generation of professionals in the field. Take some time to Google and research the faculty members in your program–even read some of their scholarly publications and research. Their work may inspire you to study specific topics, and you may even find a mentor or advisor to guide you through your career. Plus, they’ll be impressed if you know about their work!

2. Catch up on current events

Specialized advanced degrees are meant to prepare you and provide practical experience for a career. It wouldn’t be surprising, then, to find that your coursework will tie back to real issues, problems, and topics that are currently happening in your field. Start getting into the routine of checking the news every day–whether it’s online, on television, or even on Twitter–to brush up on current events that could have real implications in your career field.

3. Join a professional organization or association

Graduate school should be considered the beginning of your professional career, where you’ll be regarded as a specialist or scholar in your particular field. You’ll be exposed to a large network of other professionals and have access to tons of resources to help you excel in your career. Every profession has a related association or membership club that provides professionals and students with relevant tools. Some are free to join, but most have a membership fee. They are usually worth the cost though–just remember to join as a student in order to get a discount!

4. Subscribe to industry publications and newsletters

While you’re scoping out the right professional associations to join, add yourself to the mailing lists of other relevant websites and blogs to stay on top of industry trends, issues, and even potential job opportunities!

5. Work on your resume/CV and set up a LinkedIn page

Many graduate programs will require that you complete an internship or have relevant work experience in order to graduate. Most programs even have a “Resume Book” for employers to search for qualified candidates from the program. You’ll definitely want to have your resume included in this! Check with the career services office within your school or program to make sure that your resume or CV is formatted according to industry standards. You should also create a virtual resume through your LinkedIn profile – another resource that employers use to seek candidates.

6. Polish your professional side

Now that you want to be taken seriously as a professional, you’ll want to ditch your collegiate persona. Whether you were the campus jock, the popular sorority girl, or the fun-loving socialite in undergrad, you’ll want to update your Facebook page and even consider creating a more polished Twitter account. People in your new professional network will certainly Google you and inevitably find your social network profiles. Make sure those profiles speak well for you!

7. Network with your cohort

“Cohort.” Fancy, right? You’re in graduate school. You get to use words like this now.

For the next 2 to 7 years that you’ll spend in your graduate program, you’ll be surrounded by the same eager, ambitious, and tortured faces. You and your classmates will be going through #thestruggle together; studying for exams; working together on group projects; calculating what your weighted grade will be; and navigating the many challenges you’ll encounter in grad school. This is not the time to be shy. These folks will not only be your friends in school, but they’ll be long-term professional contacts whom you’ll keep in touch with long after graduation (or more!).

8. Get organized for next semester

Graduate school will not only demand your time and energy inside the classroom, it will take up your time outside of the classroom. You’ll want to take full advantage of guest lecture series, attend helpful workshops, travel to conferences, take on an assistantship with a faculty member, fulfill an internship or job requirement, join a student club or professional association… oh yea, and study! It’s best to get organized as early as possible. Get started with a day planner or calendar and use it diligently. There are also really helpful websites and mobile applications that can keep you organized when you’re on the move. My favorite apps to use are Evernote and Google Calendar!

9. Scout out your favorite study spot

Full disclosure: you may have already found out that graduate school is not like undergrad. In undergrad, it may have been easy for you to get by on last-minute studying, or you may have been able to talk your way out of a penalty on a late assignment. But graduate school shows no mercy. In fact, for a lot of programs, grades that are lower than a C are considered failing!

Take graduate school seriously; it’s not worth your money or time to slack here. You’ll want to get into a routine of studying regularly. Find a place where you’ll be able to concentrate on your work and not fall asleep. For some folks it’s at home, for others it’s a library. Or maybe it’s a nearby coffee shop with free wifi. Wherever it is, find it, and start calling it “home.”

10. Relax and enjoy the summertime

By enrolling in graduate school, you have already determined that a quality education is important to you. So be ready for the tough stuff. Once next semester starts, you may have to again sacrifice your social life and free time, but trust me, it’ll be well worth it. Before classes begin, find some time to enjoy the summer – take a trip, check out a summer concert, hang out with friends and family (before you put yourself in exile), and reward yourself for making it this far. You’ve signed up for another 2 to 7 years of schooling – something that most people wouldn’t even dare to accomplish!

5 Ways to Keep in Touch Over the Summer

Whether you’re traveling the world, working at summer camp or hanging out in your hometown, being separated from your best friends for three months gets old fast. Facebook and Snapchat are great for keeping up with each other’s shenanigans from a distance, but that can get stale after a while.

Mix it up with these five methods of communication.

Send a postcard
Whether you buy it at a destination gift shop or the gas station on the corner, your friends will be pleasantly surprised to receive snail mail from you. You can also make your own cards out of cardstock and print or draw pictures on them. Best of all, postcard stamps are only 34 cents!

Send other random objects
Speaking of snail mail, it’s good for more than postcards and envelopes. You can mail just about any self-contained item under 13 ounces with postage stamps! That includes pillows, potatoes, flip flops, coconuts, packaged treats, random hats and spatulas. Go crazy and surprise your friends!

Build a shared playlist
Some of the catchiest music of the year comes out during summer, which stinks if you usually listen to the latest tunes with your music-loving pals. During the summer, create a playlist with your friends of your favorite old and new songs so that you can jam together even from different places.

Share an online activity
The internet is a nearly-infinite source of bonding and entertainment; all you have to do is find something you like doing together. You can binge-watch the same Netflix series while Snapchatting back and forth, have a book club over Google Hangouts, play video games together, share a secret Pinterest board full of Ryan Gosling memes or test out new recipes while listening to the same indie playlists or stand up comedians on Youtube. It will give you something to talk about when school starts back up and might be the foundation for your new favorite hobby.

Set a goal
Summer break is a great time to build a new habit and try the things you’ve been putting off. Just because your friends are far away doesn’t mean that you have to go it alone! Whether you’re trying to improve your mile time, learn to crochet or lose weight, invite your friends to strive for success with you. They’ll make great accountability partners, and it will give you an excuse to pester them keep in touch!

The summer holiday will be over before you know it, and the gang will be back together complaining about homework and longing for freedom. Enjoy the break with your friends, whether they’re down the hall or across the globe.

Time Management Tips for Graduate Students

All academics, graduate students, and faculty alike struggle with the challenge of managing their time. New graduate students are often amazed at how much there is to do each day: classes, research, study groups, meetings with professors, reading, writing, and attempts at a social life.  Many students believe that it will get better after they graduate, but, unfortunately, most people report being even busier as new professors, researchers, and professionals.

With so much to do and so little time, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But don’t let stress and deadlines overtake your life.

How to Avoid Burnout

My best advice for avoiding burnout and getting bogged down is to keep track of your time: Record your days and maintain daily progress towards your goals. The simple term for this is “time management.”  Many people dislike this term, but, call it what you will, managing yourself is essential to your success in grad school. Learn how to manage your time with these tips for time management.

Use a Calendar System

By now, you probably use a calendar to keep track of weekly appointments and meetings. Grad school requires taking a long-term perspective on time. Use a yearly, monthly, and weekly calendar.

  • Year Scale. It’s difficult to keep track of today and remember what needs to be done in 6 months. Long term deadlines for financial aid, conference submission, and grant proposals creep up quickly! Don’t find yourself surprised to realize that your comprehensive exams are in a few weeks. Plan at least 2 years ahead with a yearly calendar, divided into months. Add all long term deadlines on this calendar.
  • Month Scale. Your monthly calendar should include all paper deadlines, test dates, and appointments so that you can plan ahead. Add self-imposed deadlines for completing long-term projects like papers.
  • Week Scale. Most academic planners use a weekly scale of measurement. Your weekly calendar includes your day-to-day appointments and deadlines. Have a study group on Thursday afternoon? Record it here. Carry your weekly calendar everywhere.

 

Use a To-Do List

Your to-do list will keep you moving towards your goals on a daily basis. Take 10 minutes every night and make a to-do list for the next day. Look at your calendar for the next couple of weeks to remember tasks that need to be planned in advance: searching for literature for that term paper,  buying and sending birthday cards, and preparing submissions to conferences and grants. Your to-do list is your friend; never leave home without it.

  • Prioritize your to-do list. Rank each item by importance and attack your list accordingly so that you don’t waste time on non-essential tasks.
  • Schedule time to work on classes and research each day, even if it is just a few 20-minute blocks. Think you can’t get much done in 20 minutes? You’d be surprised. What’s more important is that the material will stay fresh in your mind, enabling you to reflect on it at unexpected times (like on your ride to school or walk to the library).
  • Be flexible. Allow time for interruptions and distractions. Aim to plan just 50 percent or less of your time so that you’ll have the flexibility to handle unexpected interruptions. When you’re distracted by a new task or something that you need to remember, write it down and get back to work. Don’t let a flight of ideas keep you from completing the task at hand. When you’re interrupted by others or seemingly urgent tasks, ask yourself, “What is the most important thing I can do right now? What’s most urgent?” Use your answer to plan your time and get back on track.

Time management doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Use these simple techniques to get things done your way.

Feedback for Continuation – Keep Doing the Right Things

“How am I doing?” Too often grad students have no idea how to answer this question. Am I doing well? Am I doing what I should be doing?

Most of the time, it is hard to be sure. We go through the day without much feedback. When we do get feedback, it usually emphasizes what is wrong. We learn what we should change and do differently.

But it is equally important to get feedback about what is going well. What should NOT change. What should continue. I call this “feedback for continuation.”

Feedback for continuation is rare. Silence usually means that things are going ok.

But you wonder.

Does silence mean that no one has the time or inclination to offer feedback for change? Does silence mean that no one has noticed you at all?

These questions are particularly gnawing when you are new. When you are doing most things for the first time. The need for feedback for continuation is especially great during the first years of graduate school. (If you think that you are the only one who feels this way, you are not. This is a form of “Pluralistic Ignorance.”)

What Is Feedback for Continuation?

Cobblestones

Feedback for continuation tells you that you are on the right path

You may think of feedback being either “positive” or “negative.” I prefer thinking of “feedback for continuation” and “feedback for change,” because these terms focus attention on the outcome that the input intends to elicit. The behavior should continue or change.

Feedback for continuation—when it is done well—is specific and detailed. It tells the recipient exactly what they did well, and tells them why.

It goes beyond general affirmations like “great job,” “awesome,” or “you are doing fine.”

Feedback for continuation is crucial because it:

  • Tells you that you are on the right track. Your confidence goes up and your anxiety decreases.
  • Specifically describes positive and desirable behaviors so that they can be repeated.
  • Tells you why that behavior is desirable to that you can generalize and adapt to other situations.
  • Takes some of the mystery and guess work out of grad school.

Here are two basic scripts for Feedback for Continuation with examples:

“Thank you for [describe behavior] because [reason why this is helpful to others].”

“Thank you for organizing the dinner with grad students for the prospective postdoc to our lab. The candid conversation will help that person decide whether this is a lab she wants to join. When we hire people who fit in with our culture, we are more productive scientists.”

“You did well when you [describe behavior] because [reason why this is helpful for the student’s own development].”

“You wrote an excellent literature review. What made it excellent was that you didn’t just summarize what each article said, but you found common themes and noted where there were contradictions. This is a skill that you will use over and over as a researcher and scholar.”

You can see that there are two parts:

  • What: Describe the behavior in detailed and concrete language. Unpack general adjectives like “good” or “effective.”
  • Why: Explain the positive impact of the behavior. Provide the rationale for thinking that this is behavior that should be continued. The “Why” details a particular positive impact for the team, the person giving the feedback, or the recipient.

In grad school and academia it is not customary to give feedback for continuation. Probably because it is assumed that expectations are clear. Not true! Unfortunately, expectations are rarely stated explicitly. University of Kansas professor, Bruce Hayes, observes that students crave more feedback. Barbara Lovitts’ research, published in Making the Implicit Explicit, showed that expectations about dissertations was rarely explicit.

Solicit Feedback for Continuation

IMG_2955You can ask for feedback for continuation directly. Try these questions:

“I am not sure that I am spending my time wisely. Can you tell me some things that I am doing that I should be sure to continue? Can you explain why these are helpful things to do?”

“I want to be a contributing member of the lab. Since I am new, I am learning how to do that. What are some things that I am doing that are making a positive contribution? Why are those actions helpful to the lab?”

You can pair your requests for feedback for continuation, with requests for feedback for change. This signals that you are ready to improve. By pairing the requests, you indicate that you are a learner. You want to keep what is good and change what could be improved.

Many universities provide structured opportunities for graduate students to get feedback from their advisors. These take the form of annual progress reports and required conversations. Some examples are at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Missouri, the University of Michigan, Stanford University’s biosciences programs (Biosciences students and advisors are required to meet every year. The forms are tailored for students in year 1, year 2, and years 3-5.) Even if your department doesn’t have this requirement, you can ask your advisor to meet with you to discuss an individual development plan (MyIDP is excellent) or a progress report you have written (Stanford has a customizable Annual Doctoral Student Degree and Career Progress Meeting Worksheet).

Don’t Deflect

When positive feedback is given, it is often dismissed. Too often, the recipient deflects the praise and won’t accept it. “It was nothing.” “Others deserve the credit.” “I didn’t do much.” When you refuse to hear and accept that you are doing well, you deter the giver from giving positive feedback in the future

Practice accepting feedback for continuation, when you get it. Simply say, “Thank you.” Even if you didn’t ask for it. Embrace the praise you earn. Listen hard and learn from it. Feeling like you don’t deserve praise is a feature of the Imposter Syndrome.

Provide Feedback for Continuation

Fist BumpDevelop the habit of giving feedback for continuation.

You can provide feedback for continuation to all of your professional connections. Just as you can build connections in three directions, you can provide feedback for continuation to your peers, those who are following you, and even to those who mentor you.

  • Those you mentor and supervise:
    • Undergraduate research assistants
    • Graduate students who are new in your programs
  • Peers:
    • Lab mates
    • Members of your doctoral cohort
    • Team members on group projects
  • Your mentors and supervisors:
    • Your advisor (surprise!)
    • Research or teaching assistantships supervisors
    • Your boss
    • Instructor for a class you are taking

Providing feedback for continuation to those who mentor you is a way of getting the mentoring you need. For example, suppose you drafted a fellowship application and your advisor provided detailed written feedback. Helpful feedback. The kind of feedback you want to get more of while you are a student.

Does your advisor know? Suppose you say “thank you for the feedback.” Can your advisor determine what kinds of feedback are helpful to you?

Use the two-part formula: Specifically describe what was helpful and explain why.

“Thank you for the feedback on my application. It was particularly helpful to me when you suggested alternate wording for describing my research project. This helped me to learn how to sound confident but not boastful. I also saw how to make the project sound important. These models are ones that I will be able to use in the future. You are making me a more successful student.”

 

Feedback for continuation is underrated and underused. Build it into your repertoire: ask for it and give it. With less time spent wondering whether you are doing the right things, you will be more successful.

How to Prioritize Self-Care During Finals Week

Oh my goodness, one thing I don’t miss about being in college and graduate school is this time of year. Finals is a time that will make or break you as a student. So many final tests are worth a big chunk of your final grade and you have a million end of the semester projects due. While this time can be stressful, it’s important to prioritize self-care during this time as well. I wanted to share my best tips on how to prioritize taking care of yourself during this time.

Start Working On Finals Studying Early

Working on finals early is not a straight up self-care tip, but it is vital. The sooner you start studying for your final exams, the better. If you are thinking about procrastinating, do not do that. I know that is easier said than done, but as students, we often make things more difficult than they need to be.

I will tell you this: procrastination won’t make things easier. It won’t make you a better student to spend so many hours in the library that you burst into tears because you just want to sleep but can’t. Your diploma won’t mean more than mine just because you had to take an illegal prescription drug to stay awake to study at night. Waiting to study and then over-studying won’t make you more prepared. We have to stop thinking about these poor study habits as a rite of passage and instead as a dumb behavior.

So, start working on your tests and papers earlier. Even if you aren’t sure what will be on the test, go back to your notes and start studying them. If it’s a cumulative exam, see what you struggled with in the past and plan to tackle those ideas more now that you have a firm grasp on the class. Refresh your memory on topics you did well on in the past, just in case.

You may not know exactly how your professor will set up the final, but you can think back to what you made on past tests and understand how those tests were laid out. In April I shared my foolproof strategies for understanding your test trends. Go through that post so that you can understand where you should focus your attention for finals week so you can study more efficiently.

Schedule Big Pockets Of Down-Time

I know, I am asking you to schedule big breaks during finals week and the time leading up to it. That may not sound very smart to you, but I promise I have a reasoning.

Only taking short breaks just won’t cut the mustard when it comes to finals week (although we are about to chat about those too!) You need to take your mental health seriously and to do that, you must give yourself considerable time away from your work.

Obviously, you don’t want your entire finals week study time to be full of huge breaks, but don’t be afraid to take a couple of hours each day to yourself. Watch a movie, read a book, go to dinner with a friend, and live your life a bit. Look forward to those big breaks that you have.

Be Present

When you take those big breaks, I need you to be in the moment. Don’t think about all the work that’s on your to-do list or the test that you are sure you will fail. What’s the point in taking your big break if all you do is worry about the work you could be doing?

This Sense Of Being Present Goes Both Ways.

Not only should you be present during your breaks, but you should also be present while you are studying. So many students don’t get things accomplished when they are studying because they aren’t focusing. Instead, they are thinking about dinner or thinking about the boy in their class or the shopping they want to do. Studying takes so much longer when you don’t focus on the task at hand. Cut out your multi-tasking and tune out social media updates. When you are studying you are studying.

This is where the Pomodoro Technique comes in.

Take Small Breaks By Using The Pomodoro Technique

If you have been following the blog for a while, you know that in the past few years I have fallen in love with the Pomodoro Technique. I loved it so much I even wrote an entire blog post singing its praises. This technique is the only thing that keeps me productive, personally, and I love it for that.

I honestly wish I knew about the technique when I was in college. I think I would have been 10x more productive had I been using this method of focusing. I often get distracted, but the Pomodoro technique helps me stay focused by giving me dedicated time to slack off, check social media, and romp around my room.

I use the Focus Keeper app to help me stay productive. I recently upgraded to the paid version of Focus Keeper which was around $1.99 for a lifetime. I love the premium version because I can change a lot of aspects of my Pomodoro experience. For example, while I am working I have my app play rain sounds, when I am on my short breaks it plays Beyonce’s Formation, and then when I am on my long break it is completely silent which helps me take a quick power nap or eat a quick snack while watching a YouTube video.

When you use the Pomodoro technique, it is imperative that you have something to do. I suggest creating a quick to-do list of tasks that you need to get done before you start your first timed session. The technique only works if you do, but if you take it seriously and do what it tells you to do, you can make some major moves during your sessions.

Skip The All-Nighters And Create Better Sleep Habits

As I stated earlier, all-nighters and other dangerous finals week habits shouldn’t be a rite of passage. These types of activities are dangerous for you and your body, and they shouldn’t be praised.

It is crucial that you take rest seriously during this time of year because a well-rested body will tackle the day so much better than a sleepy one will. You will get more done, be more quick-witted throughout the day, and be able to think more critically about tests you are taking.  Yes, you may miss out on a few hours of studying by going to bed, but you will be way more mentally sharp due to the hours of sleep you didn’t miss.

I am hopeful that if you start studying earlier and if you utilize the Pomodoro technique you will be able to study more effectively and efficiently without the need to pull all-nighters in college (or at least not as many all-nighters in college.)

Think About What Pain You Are Willing To Endure For Your Goals

I am currently reading a great book by Mark Manson called The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck. In this book, Mark states, “What determines success isn’t, ‘what do you want to enjoy?’ The relevant question is, ‘What pain do you want to sustain?’ The path to happiness is a path full of shit-heaps and shame.”

This passage is a MAJOR truth bomb, y’all.

You can spend all your life trying to balance self-care and taking care of yourself during finals week and any other week of school. Yes, taking time for yourself is important, but at the end of the day, a break here or there to watch a movie is only going to be a small solace during finals week. Taking more breaks during finals week won’t be the answer to all your problems. So, when you take these breaks, be smart about it.

Smart breaks will help keep you refreshed during finals week, but finals week itself isn’t a unicorn and rainbows factory. Getting through all of this will make you become a better student, and it will help you prepare for life later. How you prepare for and react to finals week will have an impact on how you continue to respond to finals week and other life issues.

I hope that the article I shared today will make you think about how you can see finals week in a different light. More than anything, I hope that you will learn how to tackle finals week head on. I also hope that I get across the point that finals week is hard, and it is hard for a reason.

Once you get through this week, though, Winter Break will be here, and you can prepare to do the same thing next spring. Over time, though, this all becomes easier for you. You will get better at managing your time during finals week and prioritizing your self-care during finals week. This gets better, but you must focus and get through the current rough patch.

Conclusion

Finals week is soon approaching, and I have the utmost confidence in your ability to succeed. I hope that this article will help you consider what you are willing to do to get to what you want in life. Finals week is an obstacle, but if you have your goal in mind, it shouldn’t be an issue. Focus on being in tune with yourself and getting stuff done because with that focus comes a great reward.

Summer is Coming

I get nostalgic as summer arrives each year; I remember neglecting my homework to go play outside, so excited for the lawn sprinkler. And when school was finally over, well, life just couldn’t get better. In my rose-colored memory, my summers looked a lot like The Sandlot and Troop Beverly Hills (I neither played baseball nor scouted, but I have an active imagination). Even now, I feel a sense of freedom and exultation when I roll down the windows as I drive or play some of my favorite summery music or –gasp!—read a book for fun.

Summer can be a sort of academic playground. You can devote your time to concentrated research and writing. You can give that new pedagogical practice a try. You can revise your seminar papers into publishable articles, or prep for exams, or collect data. Without exception, summers have been the most formative and transformative seasons of my academic career. I do my best reading, my best thinking, and my best writing in the summertime.

But with summer’s allure—sunshine! beach! unstructured time!—it can be a challenge to stick to a research program or stay disciplined in your writing. Here are five strategies that I recommend from my two years of productive summer research.

1.    Write a manifesto. What do you hope to learn through your research? What are your goals, as a scholar and a professional? What do you want this research program to do for you? How does this fit into your big-picture career goals? Manifesto writing can be a powerful process of self-authorship. It will help you to stay focused not only on what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it. And when the beach calls, it’s important to remember what’s driving you. Want an example? Graduate students might appreciate The Expert Enough Manifesto; any of these others provide a useful template.

2.    Develop objectives. What will you have accomplished by the summer’s end? By the end of August, what will you have completed? Be specific, and be realistic. You may want to complete an annotated bibliography, putting the emphasis on your reading. You may want to complete a draft of a proposal, or a draft of an article. If a manifesto is about what you hope to learn, objectives are about what you hope to do.

3.    Make a syllabus. Don’t just make a reading list; make a syllabus. That is, divide your reading the way that you would assign it in a class. Group like texts, pair primary and secondary sources strategically, arrange texts to be in dialog with one another, and consider big themes as they relate to your research objectives. And most importantly: schedule. Plan specific dates, detailing when you’ll read what. This will help you stay on track, and keep you from being overwhelmed by the huge stack of books you’ve just checked out of the library.

On this front, I’d also suggest working with your advisor, if you feel comfortable doing so. For each of my summer research plans, I constructed a “wish list” syllabus; my advisor helped me whittle it down and made suggestions. Particularly early on in your graduate career, this can be an exceptionally useful way to read widely in your field.

4.    Write daily. This is especially important if you develop a reading-heavy summer plan. My first summer in graduate school, I blogged with a colleague. We took turns writing each week, and commented on each other’s work. It was great to have some accountability, and I look back on those blog posts often to track my intellectual progress and develop those ideas. My second summer, I was on my own, and my regular writing practice fell by the wayside in favor of reading voraciously. While working on comprehensive exams, I realized the error of my ways. Even if you only write a 500-word recap of what you did each day, you need to capture your ideas. Write them down, and set them aside. At the end of the summer, read through your notes. See how your thinking changed and developed. You might discover something new in your old notes, or think about old ideas in new ways.

5.    Stay organized. My favorite way to organize the many tasks on my plate is by using a Gantt chart. I like this one from GanttProject. Gantt charts allow you to strategize and prioritize your tasks based on time ranges (“must be completed by…”) and help you to track your progress. I find that prioritizing my work in this manner helps me focus on what needs my attention now and what can wait. And at 5:00, when all I want to do is ride my bike to my favorite bar and drink a summer beer, it’s nice to realize that I can wait to work on those edits.

OK, one more: #6: rest. Yes, do research over the summer. Build your summers in to your five-year plan as productive, active times. But make sure that you take the time to recuperate after a stressful semester. Rest up, so that you’ll be ready to face a new academic year clear-eyed.

The patterns that we set and develop as young scholars will be patterns that we carry with us throughout our academic careers. Consider your summers training in self-discipline: the discipline to work when it’s time to work, the discipline to play when it’s time to play, and the discipline to know the difference.

3 Steps to Making Lifelong Learning a Natural Habit

Many individuals live in the idea that once they leave the four corners of their school with their college diploma on hand, there’s no longer need to invest on continued learning. This is not true. Life- long learning is vital and there are scientific facts to prove it.

What you have learned in college is no longer suffice to essentially prove what you can actually do but what you are willing or able to learn. Also, ongoing demographic changes have put momentum into this development and demand for skilled individuals is ultimately high to be complied or met by ordinary college graduates alone. Nowadays, most companies are reliant on innovative and extensive academic knowledge brewed by tones of college homework more than before. This knowledge can be acquired through providing continued education to individuals.

An important education concept was explained by Professor Sylvia Heuchemer. She explained that we are now faced with technological and scientific progress with an increasingly rapid cycle of innovation. This therefor requires individuals to keep their expertise, skills and knowledge up to date.

Knowing this, it is just fair to say that learning should be a continued process and even you completed your college degree, need to learn more in order to master your skills, get a high paying job and more.

If you take time to look on most successful individuals, even these people still have passion for continuous learning and are committed to deepening their knowledge and understanding the world constantly. If you wanted to make lifelong learning a natural habit, there are ways to help you.

How to Make Lifelong Learning a Natural Habit-Suggested Ways to Follow

You do not really need to execute lots of ways to make learning a natural habit because just these 3 ways can help you do so:

1. Figure Out What You Really Wanted to Know

Having this overall love and passion for learning is actually wonderful however, if you wanted to channel this love and passion, you must develop some particular thoughts about the things that you wanted to focus on. If you do not have goals, you will surely end up with shallow understanding of many different important subjects. By determining personal passion and the desired outcomes, one can really chart learning path for themselves. It is highly essential to realize that your focus can significantly change over time. Lifelong learning is a natural habit that you must cultivate for it gives shape to directions of your learning.

2. Make Learning a Part of Your Schedule

Another step to make lifelong learning a natural habit is making an effort to carve out energy and time for everyday learning. This means that you need to make learning a part of your schedule as much as possible. Time block does not really need to be that huge; even 15-20 minutes of reading or writing can be great. You then need to decide what you need to do, when to do it and where you are going to do it. Put that particular period on calendar then stick to it. Remember that most successful individuals in the world make lifelong learning a great priority.

3. Never  Stop Learning

Putting effort to learn is not enough, you should not stop learning instead. Continue the passion and the drive to learn. You need to accept and then enjoy that learning and believe that learning never ends. There are always things that you wanted to learn more and there are those skills and experiences that you wanted to improve. When learners accept the fact that their learning journey is not yet over completely, they become more motivated to push through and continue learning and gaining knowledge every day.

There are many good reasons to never stop learning. As you are actively seeking to learn new things, you become happier. Several studies revealed that the more ambitious individuals have become especially in the goals they set, they become happier. And as they decide on their own goals, their happiness does not become reliant on others.

If one continues to learn, he or she becomes irreplaceable. If you are fine with the knowledge you accumulate during your college years, then you’re limited by your contributions. If you learn more, you will be able to build, create, develop and more making you irreplaceable.

These are actually just a few of the many ways to make lifelong learning a habit. If you take time to search, you will discover more ways to help you become the better version of who you are.

These steps are what you need to take in order to make lifelong learning a natural habit. By incorporating these steps in your life, you can certainly establish this good habit that can benefit you in many ways for a lifetime.

Handwritten vs. Typed Note-Taking

Handwritten Versus Typed Note-taking

Laptop computers make note-taking convenient and efficient, but can they also be a hindrance to students?

A recent study found that students who took notes with paper and pen outperformed their classmates who used laptop computers to take notes on the same material, suggesting that teachers and lecturers should encourage their students to turn off their electronic portable devices and jot down notes the old fashioned way.

While some students equipped with a pen or pencil may like to doodle on their note pages, research indicates that taking notes the hi-tech way is actully more distracting. Modern electronics makes it easy to tune out the lecture and class discussions.

A study titled “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking,” published in Psychological Science, tested which method better affects learning.

Researchers Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California Los Angeles found that note-taking falls into two categories: generative, which is summarizing, paraphrasing, or concept mapping information; and non-generative, which is copying information verbatim.

This sets a foundation to the researchers’ proposition. One function of taking notes is the process of retaining what is learned by encoding the information. A second function is that taking notes creates a storage process that can be looked at later to reinforce what was encoded. The dilemma is the interplay between fast typing, which captures maximum word flow, or selectively compressing key ideas while writing by hand, which is a slower and more incomplete capture method.

Drawing Conclusions

Mueller and Oppenheimer conducted three controlled tests to measure student performance with notes that were typed versus handwritten. They found that the students using laptops took significantly more notes than those using paper and pen. Students using both note-taking methods remembered facts such as dates equally well. But laptop users did significantly worse in answering follow-up questions based on conceptual application of the information presented.

The researchers got similar results in a second note-taking test that nudged laptop users to avoid writing things down verbatim. The laptop users could not overcome the instinct to capture information presented verbatim. In fact, laptop note-takers did progressively worse the more words they copied verbatim.

The third research segment tested the concept of externally storing and reviewing notes to improve retention of learned information. The researchers allowed students to review their notes in between the lecture and test.

The premise was that students who reviewed their typed notes would be able to benefit from the more extensive notes than their handwriting classmates had to study. That premise failed. The students taking notes by hand continued to outperform the laptop note-takers.

This evidence suggests that longhand notes may also provide better external storage as well as superior encoding functions, Mueller and Oppenheimer concluded.

This research might also place more prominence on using electronic note-taking devices that rely on stylus input rather than keyboard typing. The researchers suggested that it is unreasonable to expect students to fully shun modern devices in favor of old-fashioned paper and pen. But an electronic tablet with a stylus might overcome the gap Mueller and Oppenheimer found between notebooks and laptops.

Tips for College Students Living at Home

Not everyone goes away to college. If you have decided to continue your education locally, you may also choose to remain living at home in order to save money. But, now that you are a college student, is this living arrangement going to work? After all, you are an adult now, and want to live by your own rules. But, since you will still be living in your parents’ home, they will likely expect you to live by their rules. The trick is for both sides to be able to make some compromises. Here are eight tips that will help you make living at home work.

  • Discuss Expectations 
    You will expect your parents to treat you as an adult and not as a child, and they expect you to be respectful of their house rules. What chores are everyone expected to do? Do they expect you to pay any bills? Do you expect them to start giving you more privacy? Make sure that everyone knows where they stand with this living arrangement.
  • Discuss Visitors
    It is important to discuss visitors. Do you plan to have people in regularly to study or visit? Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, and want them to be able to spend the night? The rules are different now that you are an adult and in college, but this doesn’t mean that your parents are going to be comfortable. Discuss it with them before you invite anyone over.
  • Discuss Rent 
    If you expect to be treated like an adult, you need to behave like one, and this means paying rent. This can be quite beneficial to you, because you would be considered a tenant, which means that you have a lot more say as to when you come and go, what you eat, who you hang around with, etc.
  • Save Your Money
    One of the main reasons why you chose to live at home while attending college is to save money. “So, start saving your money. If you are working at a part-time job while going to school, this is a great time to start saving for the future (or have money to pay off student loan debt later on),” suggests an expert from Flipping Houses 101.
  • Find a Quiet Space
    Now that you are paying rent, you may want to ask about having more space. Your bedroom likely isn’t the best place for studying. If there is another room in the house that isn’t being used, such as a spare bedroom or a rec room, as if you can turn a corner of it into your own personal study area.
  • Talk about Curfews 
    You will need to talk about curfews, which should now be a thing of the past. While you are still living at home, you are no longer a high school student, and you need to have rules that you can actually live with. For instance, you may no longer need a curfew, but you can agree to let your parents know if you are going to be coming home late, out of consideration.
  • Join Clubs and Teams 
    One of the biggest problems with living at home is that you may be less likely to take part in school activities, because you aren’t living on campus. You can still get that full college experience, even if you are living at home. Be sure to find clubs, teams, activities, etc. that you are interested in, and sign up. This will also keep you from being at home all the time.
  • Work on Family Relationships 
    It can be difficult for adult children to live with their parents. You may not always agree with the way they run the home, and they may not always agree with your lifestyle. You need to take time to work on family relationships. Encourage open dialogues, schedule family activities, etc. in order to get along well and remain close.
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