When things get tough in graduate school, a well-formed study group is a big help. The operative word is “well formed.” A badly organized study group will have little or no effect at all in your academic performance and the success of your group. Why are study groups so important, anyway? The promise of sharing and combining energies will provide a better way to learn. The teamwork will prepare you for future jobs, and the support group system gets you through graduate school.
Downsizing
As much as sharing and networking are important, chaos is the result of over-sized study groups. So, you should keep the numbers manageable. Also, you may sometimes ask your team members to tell you if they can’t make it a particular study session so that you can anticipate task reassignments.
Saying no to slackers
Study groups are for sharing and learning together. Having unproductive members defeats the purpose of putting ideas together. A study group cannot be a tutorial group for some people who are just there to listen and absorb what others are sharing. So, do your homework and come to the study group already prepared.
The question of leadership
For proper management, a leader must be assigned to oversee group study meetings. The leader can be an appointed president, or you can all take turns to be the leader of the study group.
Scheduling the meetings
Every member must benefit from the study group. So, if you are the assigned leader, make sure that meetings will be set at a schedule when everyone is free. Though the occasional absence cannot be completely eliminated, try to motivate your members to come in most of your meetings so that you get the most out of your study sessions.
Preparing an agenda
Even with the most willing of members, a meeting can end up chaotic if there is no prepared agenda. Prepare the topics you have to discuss instead of wasting meeting time with arguing about what topics to discuss.
Forming a group
If nobody has invited you to a study group yet, you can form your own. Do not wait for that invite; there are also others waiting for one. You can invite those who are not yet members of a study group.
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Honor societies are not formed to establish social status, but they are formed to celebrate the achievements and enrich the academic lives of its members. Though such societies may have Greek names, they are not equivalent to a fraternity or a sorority. An honor society’s goals go beyond partying and other social activities. Here are a few privileges enjoyed by members of honor societies.
Sense of accomplishment
Being merely invited to an honor society confirms your status as an achiever. So, you feel a sense of accomplishment when you are confirmed as an honor society member. It is a recognition of your past achievements and an opportunity to continue on the same stance.
Resume add-on
Being a member of an honor society helps you improve the weight of your resume. This is especially true if you have just graduated and are still planning to get a good-paying job. Though an honor society provides the additional benefit of not being involved in many time-consuming activities, you must still show some effort in contributing to the group. If not, the resume inclusion is quite empty and superficial.
Added educational information
Honor societies provide their members helpful information regarding the members’ majors. The members are able to make the most of their chosen degrees and of their possible careers after graduation. The interaction among members of the honor society lets one see the many options available to him or her after obtaining that graduate diploma.
Publication
Because honor societies aim to make people interested in different degrees, school papers per department are published. This is to psyche students up about their career choice or to encourage prospective students. Usually, these department ask for the help of honor societies in their publications. Thus, honor society members are able to hone their craft as writers for these publications.
Career advancement
Career and degree advisement provide society members with proper training in professionalism and ethics. This will help them do well after graduation through being able to shift comfortably from school to the working arena.
Networking
Membership in honor societies do not only link students within the same university. The students are also linked through a national network of colleagues. Not only are the members able to participate in their school’s learning community, but they also interact within a wider region as well.
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The path to achieving a doctorate degree, or PhD, may be filled with long hours doing paperwork and research inside dusty libraries, the confines of your own home, or in actual field scenarios. A PhD will also require several years of formal studies. Getting that PhD diploma may be tough, but for the true academic, the rewards are all worth it.
Career advancement
When you get a PhD, you will be offered many jobs in relation to your field. If you are already working, expect a promotion as soon as you get your doctorate degree. You will also be getting more prestigious offers from outside your present workplace.
Increased earnings
With the higher position comes the higher earnings. During your PhD studies, you are slowly building up your earning potential. After years of study, you will now feel the impact through a more bulky salary.
Higher learning
For passionate academicians, learning in itself is enough reward for their efforts. If you are the sort to truly care about discoveries in relation to your field, whether it is in the arts and humanities or in the pure and applied sciences, you are bound to be thrilled and excited with your daily academic pursuits. Also, your PhD gives you the credentials and respectability that will enable you to request for funding in order to conduct further research. You may be psyched to delve deeper into areas that few people have studied, whether it entails exploring the world through expeditions or poring through fragile texts of poetry.
The outlook and lifestyle
You do have to possess a certain disposition to be able to benefit fully from a PhD. If you are a serious learner, you will immediately fit into the world of graduate studies. You must have most of the following traits for you to make the most of studying for that doctorate degree:
- highly literate
- a self-starter and an independent worker
- persistent
- industrious and conscientious
- practical and tight with budget
- capable of enjoying intellectual activities
- have a love for learning and discovery
- willing to give up parties
If you have most, if not all, of the above traits, merely getting your PhD is a benefit.
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