So come summer I will be leaving my salaried job as a designer and returning to grad school. I’m very excited about this development and I’m looking forward to making the most of the experience. I had been on the fence for a while about whether or not it was a good idea. I knew it was something I wanted to do eventually (I would eventually like to be a college professor), but with things like leaving your job, it never seems like quite the right time. I decided to apply to a few places anyway, and I got accepted to one of my top schools and got offered a full scholarship, so now I’m fully on board.
So before I start the life of a poor grad student for a couple of years, while I still have a salary for a couple more months, I’d like to gather some stuff I might use or need. So if anyone has done the grad school thing before, what are some things you wish you would have had when you did it? A nice suit? A Cintiq of your very own?
I think the thing you need the most is the right attitude… and that comes free.
As someone who has attended grad school and loved it, I’d would suggest to not worry about what you might need at this time before you start. Save some money if you can. There will be enough opportunities to blow it on supplies, 3D prints, travel and so on once you are in the program.
I’d save the money and buy stuff as you see the need for it. Getting a Cintiq now might be a waste if you end up spending a lot of time in your school’s lab (which I would suggest you do, you can learn a lot from your peers).
I’ve always been better at handling heat than handling cold. Thirty below zero is just too much. The heat is uncomfortable and oppressive, but extreme cold taps into a more primal unpleasantness in my opinion. When it’s hot, I feel miserable and I look to get somewhere cool as soon as possible, but when it’s really really cold like it has been in the Midwest this winter, the moment you go outside a timer starts ticking away in your head that you’re just sure ends in dying frozen up against a tree somewhere.