Education

Why (and how) do we teach history?

November, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

One of my responsibilities as a postdoc at the University of Saskatchewan is to teach one course per year. This isn’t entirely new to me. I TAed for a dozen years, and was the instructor of record for a course last year at the University of California. But I’m still pretty junior in terms of running my own classes.

In anticipation of teaching a course in twentieth-century European history this coming term, I’m thinking about how I want to structure the course, organize themes, and what I want to impart to my students. Essentially, the purpose of the course will affect its structure. But what is the purpose of the course? Why do we teach history? And how does this affect our delivery?

These are questions I’ve struggled with throughout graduate school, and now beyond. I want to nurture in my students an engagement and passion with the subjects and themes that have drawn me to history: the power of lived experience, the importance of minority positions to broader social concerns, and the possibility of positive change. But is that all I want my students to take from my classes? No.

What’s perhaps even more important, I believe, are the skills they can learn in a history class. Students learn to critically engage with sources by asking questions about who created them and for what purposes. They also learn how to communicate effectively, strengthening their oral communication skills in seminar situations, and honing their written communication skills in essays and exams. Students also build their critical thinking skills as they are asked to evaluate historical situations, events, and individuals’ motivations. They need to grapple with understanding the forces of change and continuity, and the competing interests which direct them.

So this brings me back to the class I’m planning. If I want students to take best advantage of my course to gain and improve their skills, how can I best facilitate that?

I’m very ambivalent about the lecture model of education. Part of this is because I have so little experience giving lectures, but also because I believe it too easily allows students to remain passive rather than active learners. That isn’t to say that lectures don’t have a role in education, allowing students the opportunity to gain insights and direction from experts in a particular field. And we’ve all certainly had excellent lectures from whom we’ve gained a lot. But I think they are limited in what they can offer most students.

I believe strongly in the seminar model, which I’ve used very successfully in my past teaching experience. My students learned a great deal from close reading and discussion of sources and documents—and so did I. That course, however, included only about a dozen students, an ideal number for engaged and active learning. In January, I’ll be teaching more than 50, far too many to sit around one table.

So my solution is to hybridize, creating a combination of lecture and seminar opportunities. Since we will meet three times a week, I’m planning to devote two days to lectures, which will frame the material, establish common background, and create a base upon which we can further explore particular themes. Fridays, then, will be turned over to self-directed groups who will discuss pre-circulated questions based on primary and secondary readings related to that week’s lectures. There is no way to engage all 50 students at once in a seminar, so groups will comprise 6-8 students, and a rotating group leader who will facilitate conversation. I will circulate, observe, answer questions, and interject only as needed.

I’m excited about this model: a compromise which allows me to work effectively with 50+ students, but which also creates and environment where each one has to engage with sources and communicate his or her thoughts. Since I truly believe that the benefit derived from studying history isn’t always about the content, but rather about the skills we teach students, this model seems a stronger method to achieve that.

But I’m curious to hear how others have handled these medium sized courses that are too large to be true seminars, but small enough to offer some opportunity to go beyond traditional lectures to promote active and engaged learning. What have you done? What has succeeded, and what has failed?

This post was originally published at History Compass Exchanges on
5 November 2010.

A Postdoc’s Life: Can you publish too much?

October, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

I’ve written before on the issue of publishing, and whether graduate students should actively publish their work. Consensus would seem to show that yes, they should, so long as they do so strategically and effectively without compromising the timely completion of their own degrees.

But what about postdocs? We’ve already finished our degrees. We don’t necessarily have a concrete deliverable (dissertation) expected of us at the conclusion of our contracts. What should postdocs consider when thinking about publishing more articles, or even a monograph?

This is a concern of mine for several reasons right now. I have two peer-reviewed articles already in print, another that is forthcoming, and I am thinking about submitting a fourth. At the same time, I want to start thinking about whipping my manuscript into shape to get that all-important first book out there. I’ve been soliciting advice on both these issues for some time, and have been given a great deal to think about, and to balance, as I try to navigate my postdoctoral path.

The first issue is actually not unlike that encountered by graduate students. If you are spending all your time churning out articles, reviews, and other writing, you might not leave yourself time to revise your manuscript. Now, of course this varies from discipline to discipline depending on the relative importance of articles and monographs, but in history, a book counts for a lot. And if you never get to it, or you end up giving away all your chapters as articles, you are potentially jeopardizing future opportunities that a book might offer.

The other issue, the one that caught me more off guard, is timing. When should you seek to get a book contract? When should you aim for your book to be published? (Remember of course that from submission to publication we’re still talking in terms of years of lag time and continued revision and preparation).

I was advised by one professor to seek out a book contract as soon as I could. It would make me more competitive for future postdocs and that golden dream, the tenure track assistant professorship. But, she warned, once I had the contract, linger on it and negotiate as much time as I could before final submission and publication. The danger, she advised, was having a book in print before getting that first job. Disrupting the natural order of things in this way could have multiple effects.

Of course a book, particularly a successful one, is a great boost to one’s professional credibility and could increase chances of landing that job. But, it could also backfire, she worried, advancing one too far down a career trajectory without yet even having a career. If a book is a common requirement for tenure, she warned, having a book in print before getting even a first job could disrupt the normal hiring process.

Similarly, another professor at another institution warned me to avoid publishing my monograph too soon. He worried that, depending on the institution where I might be hired, the requirements for tenure would only count from the time I would be hired. Pre-employment publications could help me land the job, but might not be counted toward advancement and promotion once hired, effectively necessitating the speedy production of a second monograph in short order!

So, here I am enjoying the first months of my first postdoc. I don’t know whether this will be followed by another postdoc, an academic job, or paths I haven’t yet fully considered. But I am considering writing my book proposal and starting down the path toward its future publication. For those of you in this position, or those who have lived through it, what have you been advised? What are your plans? Are you anxious about publishing too much, or too soon?

This post was originally published at History Compass Exchanges on
25 October 2010.

Why The Graduate Secretary Should Be Your New BFF

September, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

There are few people more important to your life in graduate school than the graduate secretary of your department.

This person is more important than most of your professors, more important than your boyfriend or girlfriend, more important than your mother!

The graduate secretary can mean the difference between a successful and happy graduate school experience, and one riddled with trials and tribulations where you just don’t know what to do or where to turn.

Building a strong relationship now with the graduate secretary will benefit your studies, your stress level, and your degree.

In many departments, the graduate secretary, especially if s/he has years of experience, is a font of institutional knowledge. This person knows when you should apply for fellowships, when the department hires TAs, where students have found other funding opportunities, as well as the proper procedure for completing graduate exams, filing theses, and managing your committee.

The graduate secretary is an institutional guru.

In my department at the University of California, our graduate secretary had more than 30 years of experience and acquired knowledge about the ins and outs of departmental and university policy. She knew more than most professors and upper administrators about how to get things done effectively and efficiently. She also knew how to get things done in a way that would most help students.

When I needed the right form, I went to her. When I needed advice on how to time my program and plan my courses, I went to her. And when I ran into funding problems, I went to her. She solved every one of these issues.

She is also a warm, kind, and generous person who did everything she could to make graduate school a less stressful and more enjoyable experience.

Even before you arrive at grad school, you will already be in contact with the graduate secretary. Very likely, this is the person to whom you sent yourapplication for admission, scholarship applications, and who will organize TA duties and office space. The graduate secretary will know all about you even before you’ve arrived in town.

So, when you do arrive in town, this is one of the first campus visits you must make. Just show up with a smile, a hello, and quick thanks for help already received. It is fundamentally important that you know who your graduate secretary is so that you are comfortable contacting him or her when the need arises.

Building a strong relationship now with the graduate secretary will benefit your studies, your stress level, and your degree. It may also foster one of the most important relationships at grad school, and leave you with a friendship that goes even beyond your degree.

This post was originally published at TalentEgg on 28 September 2010.

Head of the (middle) class?

September, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

The Guardian reported today on the fear that the humanities were becoming increasingly gentrified. Reports in Britain show students from lower-income backgrounds avoiding programs like history and philosophy in favour of career-oriented studies. Why?

The study shows a fascinating, and terrifying, situation. Not only are low-income students systemically barred from higher education and advanced degrees on account of their economic resources. But we are simultaneously creating a culture around the humanities where the lowest income students are unable to take same the risk as their more affluent colleagues to pursue degrees in history and other humanities disciplines.

The study upon which the article was based spoke to enrollments and class issues in the UK, but it felt familiar even to me despite having been raised and educated to MA level in Canada and then to the PhD in the United States. The article’s discussion of working-class students’ fear of studies that might not lead in any obvious direction spoke to my own educational history.

I loved the humanities, and excelled in them throughout secondary school. But what could I do with an English degree or a History degree? With that in mind I found a compromise: I would study languages (German) and business for an international management degree. This worked for a time. I enjoyed studying German, and learning to communicate in another language opened up conceptual worlds to me I hadn’t imagined. But it was a still a compromise. The enjoyment I derived from studying German balanced against the loathing I felt for most of my business courses.

In the end I dropped out of business school to undertake studies in History. But even then, after two further years of study, I still feared I’d never find employment with the material I enjoyed, and so I left the humanities and returned to business. After many more flip flops and combined degrees I ended up completing degree requirements in all three areas: German, History, and Management. But History won as I soon went on to an MA. But some of the same concerns and struggles followed me there, as they have with other working-class colleagues who went on to graduate studies in History.

In Britain, the Guardian reports, the question of class and education is particularly significant because tuition rates are widely expected to be increased dramatically over the next few years. Increased tuition rates will, naturally, be felt strongest by those least able to pay them. And even if student funding sources are expanded, this does little to overcome what appears to be a mental obstacle preventing non-elite students from seeing the humanities as a viable option.

But what about North America where tuition rates are already on the rise? What about my former institution, the University of California, where tuition rates are growing astronomically to help offset the system-wide financial disaster? Under these kinds of circumstances, how do we maintain access for all to humanities studies?

But it’s not really about access. Grants, scholarships, and loans can be expanded for the lowest income students, after all. How do we actually convince them that the humanities are in fact a viable option, that they offer career paths, that they contribute more than ideals. And then, how do we create an academy where we can mean it, and believe it ourselves?

This post originally appeared at History Compass Exchanges on
27 September 2010.

It’s a Postdoc’s Life

September, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

I’ve landed! I’m a Saskatooner, no, scratch that. I’m a Saskatoonian. Hmmm, not sure about that one either. I don’t know yet what we call ourselves here. But I’ve got an apartment and a local café. I know where to buy wine (critical) and how to find my office (essential). No more the uncertainty or instability of an unemployed academic for me. No thank you! I’m now officially a postdoctoral fellow in History at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. The “Paris of the Prairies”…my Lonely Planet guide tells me.

Blogging has taken a back seat for a couple weeks in favour finding an apartment, buying furniture, and getting to know my department. But now I’m back with a new focus on post-doctoral life, projects, and survival.

The first thing I’ve discovered as a postdoc is that you have to hit the ground running. The term only started a few days ago, but already I’m on track to give the first talk at the department’s research seminar in a few weeks. I’ve also been brought on as the Saskatchewan organizer of a yearly bi-university, multi-provincial graduate history conference. This in addition to giving a paper in Montreal next month, and submitting a journal article in November. No rest for the wicked!

The second thing is that no one knows quite where the postdoc fits in the academic pecking order, or what benefits the postdoc can derive from this unsure status. And of course it varies from department to department, university to university. With apologies to Britney Spears for the paraphrasing: I’m not a girl grad student, not yet a woman professor. So, neither student nor faculty, I’m still working on finding out who to ask for conference funding, or how much of my extended healthcare is covered.

But after 6 months of uncertainty and break from academia, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m thrilled to be back in an environment I know and thrive in, with kind and generous faculty support, and welcoming colleagues who have already made me feel at home in Saskatoon.

And Wikipedia tells me that I’m actually a Saskatonian now.

This post was originally published at History Compass Exchanges on
9 September 2010.

How To Find A Super Supervisor For Graduate School

August, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

Once you get to grad school, the choice of primary academic supervisor to guide your research and writing is critical to your success.

Students who lack a supportive supervisor often fail to thrive, while those with strong supervision and support have an undeniable advantage.

Very often for a master’s degree, but certainly for a PhD, you will need to contact your potential supervisor, or interesting professors, long before you even apply to grad school.

Your supervisor will be your intellectual mentor, your first access point for issues and problems at grad school, and hopefully your biggest cheerleader (and reference writer) once you’ve completed your studies.

Finding that super supervisor, however, requires pro-activity, research, planning, and strategy.

Very often for a master’s degree but certainly for a PhD you will need to contact your potential supervisor, or interesting professors, long before you even apply to grad school.

Establish email contact early and, if possible, meet him or her to discuss your goals at grad school and your research interests. Find common areas of interest and places where your work might overlap. Your supervisor will ideally also be a great networking and work contact throughout your graduate studies.

When I was in the process of selecting PhD programs, I learned that the professor I was most interested in working with was attending a conference in Portland, Oregon. I was living in Vancouver.

So, I contacted her, set up a meeting, and drove to Portland to have breakfast with her. It solidified my interest in working with her, and proved to her I was dedicated and proactive. I ended up working with her for five great years at the University of California.

I was fortunate in both my masters and PhD to have amazing supervisors. But I have friends who left programs because of bad fits with supervisors, or had to change to other, more supportive professors mid-program.

Avoid this situation by planning early and making strong connections. Changing supervisors, while not uncommon, can be disruptive to both your degree and your confidence.

But if you discover that you just can’t work with your supervisor, don’t be afraid to discuss it with colleagues or other trusted professors. Keep the conversation professional, but open a dialogue about other options if necessary.

Ultimately, you are in control of your own success, and pro-actively choosing the right people to work with is your responsibility. Finding a super supervisor will set you up for a super grad school experience as well.

This post was originally published at TalentEgg on 31 August 2010.

How To Decide Whether To Stay At Home Or Go Abroad For Grad School

August, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

You might not have gone far from home for your undergraduate studies. Perhaps you only went as far as the nearest major city.

Or, like me, just to your local hometown university.

Is a degree abroad with experts in the field worth the added expense and challenges? Sometimes it is.

But for grad school, it’s almost inevitable that you will have to consider universities away from home. But what if away from home is also away from your home country?

After completing undergraduate studies at home in Alberta, I applied to study abroad for both my master’s and my PhD. A number of factors influenced my decision to remain in Canada for my master’s, but go away to California for my PhD.

Moving to another country for grad school is an enormous change and commitment. How do you decide whether to stay at home or go abroad?

Program of study

Finding the right program, or even just a school that offers your program, can take you to places you never imagined you’d live. The program might only be offered at some institutions, and those universities might be a province away, or even a country away.

Sometimes you have to weigh the strength of a program, and prestige of professors there, in your decision. Is a degree abroad with experts in the field worth the added expense and challenges? Sometimes it is.

I could have completed degrees in history anywhere, but for my doctorate I wanted to work with a world leader in my field. She was based in Santa Barbara, California, so I learned more about the program there and ultimately ended up working with her for five years.

Cost of living

Many countries have very different costs of living than Canada. Sometimes this can be advantageous to Canadians studying abroad, and other times, it can create a more costly situation, making it impossible to study there. Despite being accepted to leading U.K. universities, I was unable to attend because of the prohibitively high cost of living, even after securing funds to cover tuition and fees.

But the cost of living isn’t always consistent. Different cities and regions of countries have widely varying costs of living. I couldn’t afford to study in London, but might have been able to afford other, less expensive cities. And when I went on to do my PhD in Santa Barbara, the cost of rent was astronomical compared to what a friend paid who completed her PhD in North Carolina.

Tuition and fees

It is important to know that tuition and fees are set at different levels for domestic and foreign students. These costs can be as much as double or more for foreign students wanting to study abroad. These extra costs influence the decision to study abroad. But so too can differing funding structures in other countries.

When I applied to study the U.K., I was offered almost no financial support, scholarships, or funding. But when I applied to PhD programs in the United States, my acceptance to the university came with a multi-year funding package that covered my tuition and fees, health care (critical to have when studying abroad!), as well as wages as a teaching assistant. This funding and work package was the deciding factor in being able to complete my education in the U.S.

Going abroad for graduate school could be a great decision, especially if it is made with adequate planning and careful preparation. Never be afraid to contact departments and professors, wherever they are, to ask about the program, the people, and the policies of your potential university.

This post was originally published at TalentEgg on 17 August 2010.

Does ‘Publish or Perish’ apply to graduate students?

August, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

Publish or perish has become a truism in academia where the pressure is always on to write the next article, get a contract for the next book, or edit a journal issue. But what about graduate students? Do they face the same pressure to publish or perish? Or do they perish if they publish…without planning?

The reasons to publish are obvious: to increase your academic profile, to put your work before your peers, to network with other scholars, and most of all to make yourself more competitive in this dire academic job market. Anything to set you apart from the hundreds of other under-employed scholars is critical.

But are there also dangers in publishing as a grad student?

Preparing an article for publication can help marshal your thoughts, offer new insights for your work, and motivate you to achieve deadlines that can also be applied to your dissertation. But it can also distract you away from your most important task as a graduate student – writing your thesis or dissertation. If writing articles and reviews allows you to procrastinate and avoid your primary task as a graduate student, they are more harmful than helpful. If your degree goes long, it costs both time and money that could be devoted to other tasks. And if you fail to proceed toward completion of your dissertation in a timely manner, it can be a black mark against you in scholarship competitions, and with postdoc and job committees evaluating you before completing your degree.

Another concern grad students must consider when publishing is the quality of the work they put out there. Your first publications will follow you for some time. It will be a matter of record, and you might not want your earliest work and ideas to define you too soon. I would tend to discount this argument, particularly if you publish in respected, peer-reviewed journals. These publications will vet your work with experts in your field who can give invaluable insights to shape your work and make it stronger. Used effectively, this not only gives you the opportunity to publish a superior article, but affords you the chance to make your dissertation even stronger as well.

In a related concern, one which has been expressed to me, is that committees are more willing to forgive errors or points they disagree with in a dissertation or manuscript under revision. If, however, they find fault with material in a published article, they are more likely to hold on to these criticisms and weigh them against you in postdoc and job determinations. Of course, strong publications position will position you well for the job market. As L.L. Wynn pragmatically noted at the Culture Matters blog:

When hiring committees are trying to narrow down a large pool into a short list, they’ve got to pick between a lot of bright young graduates with highly rated dissertations, enthusiastic referees, and clever ideas. So what distinguishes candidates?  Often it comes down to bean-counting – grants, awards, publications. Publications really make you stand out, especially if you’re very junior.

Finally, as philosophy professor Gualtiero Piccinni has pointed out on a “Brains” blog post on graduate publishing, “Students should be aware that where they publish is at least as important as whether they do, especially if they aspire to a job in a research institution.” A well-written and researched article in a respected peer-reviewed journal will be worth more than a more quickly turned out piece in an online graduate journal. This isn’t to say that other or non-traditional publications are not valuable. But before publishing anything, you will need to consider how this publication will position you for your future aspirations and activities.

Ultimately, as long as it is well-placed, and doesn’t distract you from completing your degree, effective and planned publishing as a graduate student can only benefit you.

This post was originally published at History Compass Exchanges on
12 August 2010.

Getting Ready For Grad School: Grades, Exams And Application Deadlines

August, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

Even though the Fall 2010 term hasn’t even started, it’s already time to start thinking ahead about admissions in 2011.

A year in advance might seem early. But in addition to advancing your education, grad school is also about research and networking. And that starts in the application process.

Even if your program has a late final application deadline, be sure to apply early for programs you are most interested in to ensure your best chances at acceptance and other benefits.

You need to research universities and network with potential supervisors. You need to start planning for exams, taking those last courses, and double-checking deadlines.

Two areas prospective grad students worry most about are their grades and when to apply.

Grades

If you are thinking of grad school, as a rule of thumb your grades should fall in the B range for most master’s programs, and at least a high B for doctoral programs. Of course higher grades demonstrating excellence in your undergrad studies will weigh in your favour.

At the same time, however, in more competitive programs, higher grades, co-curricular activities, demonstrated research or discipline-specific skills, and involvement in your department are all strengths you will want to cultivate.

Many people worry about whether or not their grades are sufficient to gain entrance to grad school. While it’s true that high grades will help, they aren’t the only factor, and blemishes on a transcript can be overlooked with supportive letters of recommendation, a strong personal statement, or a good connection with a potential supervisor.

For example, if you’ve got great grades and are applying to graduate history program, as I did, but have a C in statistics, as I had, it is unlikely to hold you back.

Standardized examinations

For some programs you will also need to plan, research, and prepare for standardized examinations.

Because an A might not mean the same thing between universities, departments, or even individual professors, standardized exams offer a way for universities to evaluate and compare candidates. While they may be flawed, they are still used extensively to evaluate potential graduate students. So, if you have other blemishes on your record, be sure to study up and excel on these exams if you take them.

If you are interested in medical school, you’ll need to prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). For law school, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and business school, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).

And if you want to study in the US, you’ll likely need to prepare the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

These exams are not available at all locations, and may not be available all year round. If you need to take any of these, be sure to plan in advance, both for preparation, and to book the exam.

Application deadlines

Deadlines for submitting grad school applications are generally in the late fall and winter. Be sure, however, to note the deadline of your particular program, as different programs will have different deadlines, even at the same university.

At the University of Toronto, for example, the 2010 application deadline forphilosophy is January 7, linguistics is January 15, and geology February 1.

Some departments have room for flexibility. Also at the U of T, theimmunology program suggests that applications be filed by January 15 for September admissions. This is to ensure full eligibility for entrance awards, other scholarships, and prioritization for supervisor choice.

The final deadline, however, is June 1. But applying as late as that in any program risks not finding space, funding or supervision.

So, even if your program has a late final application deadline, be sure to apply early for programs you are most interested in to ensure your best chances at acceptance and other benefits.

And long before you even apply, email potential supervisors with whom you would like to work. This step isn’t critical in all fields. But very often your supervisor will ideally become your primary contact, your intellectual mentor, and your biggest promoter in the department.

Contacting professors in the planning stages of your graduate studies will pay off for years if you end up working with a strong and supportive supervisor.

This post was originally published at TalentEgg on 11 August 2010.

On The Personal Factors That Can Affect Success In Grad School

August, 2010 · By Justin Bengry

Academic advisors might warn students about heavier workloads, research expectations, and the increased competitiveness of grad school, but the personal upheaval is largely unspoken of.

Success in grad school is determined not only by academic achievement but by personal factors as well.

Along with practical advice on the ins and outs of grad school, prospective graduate students need to know the personal challenges they will face when pursuing advanced degrees.

Anyone who can get into grad school likely has the intellectual skills to succeed. But learning how to negotiate the new pressures on your personal life in grad school is an equally important skill.

So, along with practical advice on the ins and outs of grad school, prospective graduate students need to know the personal challenges they will face when pursuing advanced degrees.

Many graduate students, even at the masters level, have to undertake research trips or participate in conferences that take them away from home. Lasting anywhere from a weekend to a year, such trips are an amazing opportunity but can also be incredibly disruptive personally. While these trips can be expensive and lonely, they are also intellectually rewarding and exciting opportunities to travel.

Relationships can suffer from the enormous time commitments and potential travel requirements for success in grad school as well. For the lucky, partners might be able to join you at conferences and research trips. But for most, the time spent away on lengthy research trips poses a significant challenge to stable relationships.

Relationships are affected by more than just travel commitments at grad school. A graduate program will require more time, more personal investment, and more focus than undergraduate studies.

It’s not just school. You have to treat it like a full-time job. And this job requires lots of overtime! Balancing this enormous commitment with a relationship is hard. To do so successfully, you’ll need to prioritize and also limit the time you spend on your education. You’ll also need to identify and devote specific days and times to your relationship. Without planning, both will suffer.

Also, plan for the unexpected.

I moved to London, England, in February 2007, to undertake only a few months of research for my degree. In the end, I ended up staying more than two years!This move abroad took me away from my family and my friends, and even my professors, but it helped me to become an expert in my field and also build a relationship with a partner in England.

As in my own experiences, you will find that relationships, travel, research and finding the finances to manage these all become important considerations when thinking about going to grad school. They continue to be factors you need to consider throughout your studies as well.

Grad school offers amazing opportunities to advance your education, gain important credentials, develop professional contacts, and sometimes even to travel. It is, however, an enormous commitment in terms of time and money, and the decision to embark upon grad school should be made only after extensive research and advice.

The advice and experiences you’ll find here are a great place to start, but be sure to talk to professors, academic advisors, and career counsellors as you consider or prepare for graduate school.

This post was originally published at TalentEgg on 4 August 2010.