I did my bachelors in India from an A-grade college affiliated to Nagpur University. It was four years of school but I am not sure I utilized to the full. Maybe it was not meant to be. I sat for exams on 5 papers a semester and did learn new things but I never got the feeling that I am being challenged or am sacrificing.
This bring me to two things which made grad school very different for me. I was challenged to the limit & had to make sacrifices all the way.
I think challenges are important in every field and thus in the academic field too. The feeling of being pushed to the point where you wanted to give up but then holding on to finally come up with the goods is very special. I had experienced it in sport, in personal life and in professional life before. But being challenged again and again in academics and being able to come up on top day in and day out was something different and satisfying.
To get through grad school successfully there is one thing I couldn't avoid doing. Making sacrifices! Whether personal life or professional life, I had luckily learnt to make sacrifices. The good thing about sacrifices is that it brings you closer to whatever you sacrifice. In grad school it is important that academics remains your main purpose and these acts of sacrifice lets you keep your head together.
Grad school tests your determination, your persistence and interest. Time management and inter-personal skills have been very useful assets through tough times. My ability to take stress and make critical decisions during the critical junctures proved to be of vital importance.
Has it been tough, yes it has! Its been as tough as I had expected life to be professionally. I has been a race but a race which was fun to run and now that the finish line is in sight I feel like the race could go on .. and on .. and on ... and I will be able to conquer it all ...
