What to Expect When You Enroll in a Graduate Program

With jobs becoming harder to find; school enrollments have increased. Individuals have decided to go back to school so they can add an advanced degree to their resume. Over the past few years online education has risen to a whole new level. Adults and young professionals alike are trying to sharpen their tool set and become more marketable to future employers. Many students have not been to school in a number of years. They may have completed their bachelor’s degree and started working full-time. It may have been over 20 years since they took a formal college course. This is not uncommon. Depending on what they have been doing, they may need a refresher course. One of the most common questions a returning non-traditional student has is “What does a graduate course entail?” They just do not know what to expect.

Graduate courses are no joke. There are a couple main skills one must have to be successful in a course. Time management is one of them. They have to know how to manage multiple tasks at the same time. They have to be able to set aside time each week to conduct research and write papers. This can sometimes be difficult when working full-time and spending time with family. Another skill is writing. Graduate programs consist of a lot of reading and writing assignments. Whether you are doing a Harvard case study or discussion board posting you will likely be writing in APA style formatting. Graduate programs are typically more researched based than taking exams and quizzes. The professors want you to be able to apply what you are learning in your day-to-day life.

When in a class, whether it’s online or in a classroom a student should expect term papers, quizzes, exams, case studies, and discussions. Papers are written in every graduate level class. They are typically on different industries or companies the class is focused on. They allow the students to do research, conduct a SWOT analysis, and make recommendations. Exams and quizzes are usually essay based. Students need to be able to retain the knowledge and apply it. Case studies are also very popular. It enables the students to work in teams and come up with solutions to help a company in a particular situation. Discussions are conducted either online or in a classroom and they allow students to communicate with each other and bounce ideas off each other.