The Truth About Grad School

So since my life has recently consisted of school above all else these past few weeks, I wanted to reflect on my grad school experience thus far. And since semester one is basically completed (minus exams), I thought it was appropriate timing. There have been many things that I expected, but much more that I didn't. To start, the professors have extremely high expectations for masters students. This is something I assumed would be the case, but Occupational Therapy has an overwhelming grey-area. Looking back on my undergrad in Psychology, it was mostly black and white; things were very clear-cut with regards to assignments, papers, tests etc. You always knew what was expected of you and how to go about it, only because profs told you the exact page numbers of textbooks to study and had lectures laid out point-by-point. Masters profs are ridiculously vague, simply because they want students to pull things from all different angles that provide new and diverse perspectives. OT is a pretty new profession compared to most others, and the teachers don't have a ton of info to work with. This makes it extremely difficult for students to see things clearly! I'm sure it's hard to for you to understand what I'm talking about because you're not in my shoes, but just believe me!! We recently had a celebration for the end of first semester classes, and there was complete consensus about what I just mentioned. It did not involve the fact that we'd all had quite a few drinks already, in fact this just exaggerated the actuality that we are still in the dark about numerous things. It actually quite worries us for second semester because we can only expect courses to get harder. There is little direction when it comes to assignments, and our marks reflect this. Not to say we've done horribly, but my grades in my undergrad were much better. I can presume this was because I was spoon-fed by professors, but also a result of my substantial interest in the subject matter. Psychology is still my bread and water, but Occupational Therapy feeds greatly from Psyc so I'm somewhat in my comfort zone. We'll see how I feel once I've completed my first practicum though, which is just over five weeks away! Still haven't received my placement location, but hoping it's not out of the Sydney Metropolitan area. Wouldn't look forward to paying for an apartment out of town for two weeks on top of our current apartment. As much as I'd like to be placed in a vacation destination like some students from Group A, saving rent money is more important. Not sure if I've already mentioned that Australian rent is really expensive, with the only positive aspect being the inclusion of utilities (which you can commonly find in Canada anyway). I think I've done enough venting for one night, but if anybody is considering grad school and has some questions feel free to ask me. I'm more than willing to provide info to those interested in doing post-grad or studying abroad! Cheers Canada :)

A photo of the Bondi seaside salt-water pool just because this post was wordy...

And if you haven't seen my photos of the amazing Vivid Sydney at the Opera House, check out my instagram or facebook page for a preview!