Hello! It's a rainy day in Baltimore today, and as I was walking the four blocks from the train to the school, I was taking time to remind myself what I like about school. (It's better to count your blessings than to complain about little things like rain). One thing I really like about our program is the diversity of the student body. Our classes are very small, like 4-8 people in a class, and my cohort alone consists of myself (from conservative Lancaster County, PA), a man originally from Nigeria, two women from South Korea, a woman born in the Phillipines, a woman from Brooklyn, and a woman from Virginia. The new cohort this year also includes a woman from the former Soviet Union, and a student from Israel recently graduated. So, think of the rich discussions we often have in our classes. Everyone has very different worldviews, yet we're all here for essentially the same purpose. Also, the friendliness of the students really makes my time here enjoyable. The "upper classmen" are always available to help the students in the newer cohort, and there is not the competition between students here that takes place at other schools. We're all in this together, and we're going to be professional colleagues and friends after we graduate, so why not work together. So...even on a rainy day, I am still happy to be exactly where I am. :)

Posted by Ann Buckwalter at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hello again! I was asked to talk a little bit about second year classes, so I'll do my best with that. The only required second year class is Research Practicum I in the fall and Research Practicum II in the spring. Other than that you take electives (I believe you need 5 electives to graduate). The research practicum provides an opportunity to work with your cohort on developing a study and takes the entire year. This semester so far we have chosen a topic, conducted a thorough review of the literature on our topic, developed a survey and selected a sample population, and now we're getting ready to pilot test our survey. Next semester we will distribute our survey to a large sample of people and each student will write an individual paper on our specific research questions related to our topic. Perhaps none of what I just said makes sense, but don't worry, this terminology becomes second nature by the end of the first year. I believe most practicum classes also end up publishing their work, so that's exciting.

My situation regarding electives is a bit different than other students since I am a transfer student. So, I took my electives at a different school, with the exception of a qualitative research class I'm taking this semester. I'm really enjoying this class, and I'm glad to fit it into my schedule. The research methods classes, statistics classes, and practicums all primarily focus on quantitative research methods, so this class provides a refreshingly different point of view. Most students here also take some teaching electives that are available in the School of Social Work, and some students take measurement classes, advanced statistics classes, or just other classes at different schools within the University of Maryland system, such as the School of Nursing or School of Pharmacy. There's many opportunities here to cater your coursework to your interests, so it's not a problem to get your courses completed here.

Please leave me a comment with further questions! Ann :)

Posted by Ann Buckwalter at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought I would return this week to my previous discussion on financial aid for doc students, specifically the GRAs. New doc students can apply for a Graduate Research Assistantship as part of their financial aid package, and they can request either a 10-hour or 20-hour GRA. Often the 20 hour GRA is actually two 10-hour GRAs, meaning you have two supervisors and you work for each of them 10 hours/week. There are many different GRAs available (I believe you can see a sample list on the UMB website). Incoming students rank their choices of GRAs, and the program director does her best to match students up with their preferred choices. A research assistant gets to do quite a variety of tasks, depending on the their GRA. Tasks may include doing literature searches for their supervisor's current projects, helping to write and publish journal articles, collecting data (i.e. interviewing) families in Baltimore, analyzing data, and the list goes on and on. Students typically meet with their supervisors about once a week, and many students can do some or even most of their work from home. Financially, the GRA covers full tuition for a 20-hour GRA and half tuition for a 10-hour GRA. It also covers your health insurance and pays you a stipend that is enough to cover my rent, car payment and most of my groceries each month. (I get student loans to cover the rest of my bills). If you have a 20-hour GRA, the school strongly recommends that you don't have another job because of the amount of time needed for full-time schoolwork and a GRA. I believe you're supposed to aim for 3 hours of study time per credit, on average, so for 9 credits you should allow around 27 hours for homework/studying each week. Add that to your 20-hour GRA and travel time (which is 10 additional hours/wk for me), and you can clearly see why you shouldn't work outside of school.

Feel free to leave me a comment if you have further questions on the GRAs or any other topic!

Ann :)

Posted by Ann Buckwalter at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)