Work load
Hello all!
I’m entering grad school in a few weeks and I’m trying to get a picture of the workload compared to my undergrad experience. For the Fall, I will be taking 8 classes, 15 credits. I’m in classes 3 days out of the week, with 2 of those days being clinical because we receive a patient in the first semester. I will be TAing 20 hours a week and babysitting 7 hours a week.
My academic journey hasn't been typical. I switched into SLP the second half of my junior year. I wanted to graduate on time, so I took a lot of extra classes. During my undergrad, I was in classes 5 days a week taking three different 18-credit semesters, two years of summer classes, and winter classes this year. I used to work at a coffee shop 20 hours a week while in school and I babysat for 7 hours a week. I took classes such as anatomy, hearing science, phonetics, and observations in th same semester. (Side note: I also took a gap year after my sophomore year and worked as a full-time infant/toddler teacher at 20 years old.. I am 23 currently)
I feel overall that I strained myself a lot in my undergrad. Between supporting myself financially and emotionally through school, my father unexpectedly passing away in March of this year (my mom hasn't been in my life since I was 5), and just the struggle of an 18-credit workload, it was difficult. I got through it though, ended with a 3.7 GPA and, I got into grad school. Do people feel as though this is comparable to the workload I will be enduring during grad school?
I mention this because in conversations with my professors, I've brought up that I feel prepared as a result of my past semester workloads and they pretty much shut me down and said it's going to be much more difficult. I could get that opinion if for the last four years I did the minimum 12-15 credits a semester and didn't have a job, but that wasn't my reality and they know that. I also feel like working as a full-time teacher so young gave me a different perspective on professionalism, collaboration, and time management.