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Graduate Column: Graduate Student Goals

Sandra Elien

The semester has come to a close. Have you had time to go over what you wanted to achieve this semester? Have you met your goals? Well, one can only imagine the number of objectives we’ve set out to accomplish. But, how successful are we in achieving these aspirations?

Graduate students, as well as others, are relieved that the semester is over. Some might agree that most graduate students’ goals consist of maintaining a well-balanced work ethic in order to stay on top of school work and extracurricular activities. In spite of these general assumptions as to the aspirations, the Pioneer took a look at what graduate students on campus had to say. Daniel Lindenmeier, who is pursuing a Master in Business Administration degree, said that one of his goals this semester was to “keep [up] with my classes while working for IT and balancing between the two.” Although this seems like a practical goal, do you think he met it? Lindenmeier affirmed that, “I would definitely say so it worked out well.” Lindenmeier also added that this semester, “[I wanted] to keep up with current events in the business field since I graduated with a B.S. in Information Technology.” Has he met that objective? “I definitely feel like I met that goal with a lot of help from professors here.” This semester, Lindenmeier also had other tangible goals, such as “keep[ing] myself organized.” Like his other goals, Lindenmeier believes that he “did a lot better in that too.”

Other graduate students have laid out different objectives to be accomplished this semester. For example, Tristan Barsky, a student pursuing a Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Research in Psychology, said that “orienting myself to the university” was a primary goal. Barsky added, “I’m from Montreal, and I never lived in New York.” Does he think he has achieved his goal? “Yeah, I think so. [It was] easy to get through because it’s all centralized in one campus.” Another goal Barsky shared was that he wanted  “to meet academic expectations of a doctoral program, since I went directly for my doctorate after my [undergrad].” With regard to his progress in meeting that goal, Barsky said, “I’ve been pretty successful in completing coursework and doing everything effectively.”

Other graduate students agree that excelling in school is a priority. Gabe Jiang, an Accounting major at the Master’s level, said that his major this semester was to “get a higher grade point average because my grades were not good last semester.” On assessing whether he achieved his goal, Jiang stated, “I think I did a better job this semester, and I also found a part-time job.” Kaiqi Wu, another graduate student studying Management Engineering asserted that this semester, he “wanted to finish his thesis” after going through repeated revisions. Has he met his goal? Wu said, “not yet…I hope so.” As can be seen, setting personal goals allow individuals to find themselves and are important for time management. In need of a more balance life? Get a fresh start next semester! The choice is yours.

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