A reason to GO to graduate school, you're surrounded by graduate students

I stumbled across a blog today via ProfHacker of The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School. The initial posting I went to go read, as my qualifying project has been on my mind this week, was Reason #60: "The Tyranny of the Dissertation." But I ended up at #50. You are surrounded by graduate students. I was taken aback by the comment "The professor responded without the slightest hesitation: 'There is nothing to be gained from the company of graduate students.'"Is this really the reality of graduate school? I do remember having very little interaction with my fellow Master's students. Once class ended, we all went our separate ways. Now I worked a full-time job while doing my Master's degree, so by the time class was over at 10 pm I was ready to call it a day. But in truth, there was no feeling of community, and as there were only 3 required classes I rarely saw the same people from semester to semester. I really was on my own as a graduate student. So as disconcerting as the isolation and unhappiness discussed in this blog is, it was a reality I shared during my Master's program.

Now jump ahead (a few years) to today. I am still fully employed (yeah!) and working on my doctorate via an online program. Initially I was concerned about the feeling of isolation, the lack of support, the inability to fully take advantage of seminars, session and support systems at the University of Florida that are available to traditional graduate students. There are still times I wish I could go to a lecture or session being given on campus, but I have discovered a community of scholars that has been anything but isolating. The cohort has matured over the last year (and grown smaller), and ironically it grew stronger after an interview project in our Qualitative Methods course. Once we shared our fears, hopes and concerns via this interview process we seemed to gel as a community. I may not recognize any of these individuals when we meet up again later this month, but I will have a good idea of who they are and where their academic interests lie. I truly feel that this cohort, that being surrounded by graduate students, is one of the greatest benefits of this program. Of course much of this has to do with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies (hmm education technology has enhanced my experience as a graduate student in Ed Tech). By taking advantage of the technologies available to us, the cohort has been able to create a student-centered learning community, one driven by our own needs. The tools are out there to transform issue #50 from a reason NOT to go to graduate school, to a reason you CAN go and complete graduate school.

I think we will see Web 2.0, especially the social media aspect, develop as a vital part of graduate education; not just to inform students and keep them up to date with coursework, but to create communities of support, both inside and outside of our academic life. As graduate students we have to take care of the whole of us, not just the academic, and that is why I want to be surrounded by graduate students.