While we think that everyone should study abroad, we definitely think that the benefits are there for graduate students. It is by far the most cost effective option, and given that federal loans work to cover all costs in many cases, it is accessible for the vast majority of students.
However, it is hard to imagine what a week in a life of a grad student actually looks like. After all, chances are that many people in the US equate being a grad student with a lot of work. While there is plenty of work for graduate students abroad, it isn’t busy work. Instead, the focus is on your education.
Therefore, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a look at the life of a typical graduate student. Here’s what it might look like for someone who is studying in London.
Monday
You wake up and go to the gym. After working out, you shower and make your way to your internship across town by 9 am; the Tube makes your commute only 30 minutes. It’s a paid internship, which is a much more common occurrence overseas, and you’re done by 3 pm, so you miss the afternoon rush.
You have an hour or so before meeting your friends after their classes for dinner, so you hang around Russell Square, within walking distance of no fewer than four graduate schools, and go to the British Museum. After dinner, you take the bus home and take a couple of hours to read the assigned articles for tomorrow.
Tuesday
Today is your first day of classes for the week. You have a graduate seminar at 9:30 am, so you review your notes on the bus. You arrive a few minutes early and go over the readings with your friends, which consist of three or four journal articles. After an hour of discussions, you have coffee while preparing for your next class, a language class. Two hours after that, at 1 pm, you grab a quick bite to eat from the refectory (the campus cafeteria) before going on to your last class, a lecture, which ends at 4 pm.
Afterwards, you have a job at the student gym that lets you work the door. It’s not tough work, but it subsidizes your travel habit, and since you’re headed out of town this weekend, it’s a good thing. You eat a quick dinner from a nearby restaurant before going to the pub with friends at 9 pm.
Wednesday
Other than a language lab, you don’t have much in the way of formal classes today. However, Wednesday is your designated “get it done” day. After going to the gym and heading to your internship, which you leave at 2 pm, and head straight for campus. Your university, like many others, has study areas especially for graduate students, so you settle in for a couple of hours of reading before packing for the weekend.
Thursday
Carryon in tow, you make your way to campus for your 10 am class. It’s a two hour seminar and is intense, but you’re passionate about the subject. As soon as you’re out of class, you head to the gym to swipe cards and sneak a workout in before catching a train at 5 pm to Paris. As a student, tickets are dirt cheap.
Your Eurostar train (no one calls it the Chunnel any more) arrives in Paris Gard du Nord a bit after 8 pm local time, giving you plenty of time to catch the metro to your hotel.
Friday
Just because you’re in Paris doesn’t mean you’re on vacation. The company that you’re interning with has an office in Paris, so you have the perfect chance to network with people there. Luckily, they speak English. You meet them for coffee in the morning and find that you’ve got a lot in common; they mention that their friends are going out tonight and ask if you want to join them.
However, that’s still some hours away. In the meantime, you head to the Louvre (thanks Paris Museum Pass, which lets you skip the line) to check out some of the lesser known exhibits, then head back close to your hotel to the Place de la Contrascarpe, an idyllic Parisian neighborhood not far from a number of universities. After a few hours of people watching, your phone buzzes; your colleague has invited you out to dinner with their friends.
Saturday
Last night was a whirlwind, with Parisian nightlife proving to be everything it was rumored to be and more. Luckily, there are bakeries within a few steps of your hotel, so with coffee and pain au chocolat in hand, you’re ready for the rest of the day.
Paris is famous for its markets, so you make today all about them. With the cheap metro, it’s easy to go from one edge of the city to the other. Tired from a day of shopping, you return to a cafe near your hotel and sit down with your readings for the week. Parisian cafe culture means that it is perfectly acceptable for you to linger over a cup of coffee, as long as there isn’t a crowd.
You take a long stroll around the Seine at twilight and return to the hotel, ready for your Sunday morning departure.
Sunday
The Eurostar leaves Gard du Nord at 9:30 am, putting you back in London at a bit after 10:30 local time. Luckily, your flat is only a few steps away from London St. Pancras, so you make your way back. You go grocery shopping when you return, then meet some friends to go to a new exhibit at the National Gallery. Like the British Museum, it is free to visit. After a late lunch in Covent Garden, you head back to your flat, ready to take on another week.