68: What To Do The Summer Before Starting Grad School

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Welcome, everyone. Today I have a short episode for you on what to do the summer before starting grad school. I decided to record on this topic because I've heard from several of you who have been listening to my podcast, following along, taking some of my advice, and thankfully have been getting into graduate school, decided where to go. Now you're getting ready to start in the fall, and you're wondering what to do in the summer.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I know that the summer before starting graduate school can be anxiety inducing. In many ways, you're wondering what you can do to prep. Sometimes, as you get closer to starting your graduate program, during that period, you may be experiencing some anxiety. Maybe imposter syndrome is starting to increase. As you get closer and closer to that date, you're worried that maybe you're not ready. Maybe you don't know enough. And you're wondering what it is that you should be doing or what you can do to cram and learn as much as possible to be as prepared as you can be for the fall. Well, take it from someone who has lived through that experience, and who has witnessed other people walk through that journey over and over again, as much as you want to prepare for graduate school, there's only so much that you can do.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'm going to share a couple of things that I think might be helpful for the summer. It really is up to you how you want to use your time. But I'll start with the thing that I think is the most important, at least for me. The most important thing that you can do this summer- if you're not going to do anything else, you should do this one thing. And it is to take a break. Yes, that's right. It's not go do this internship, go work, go do all these readings. It really is take a break. Rest. You will not have an opportunity like this for a while, especially if you are in a PhD program- you got admitted into a PhD program. You've just made a commitment to be undergoing schooling for the next four, six, eight, sometimes even ten years. Some programs can take a while. This is a huge commitment that you've made, and you're not going to have a break like this for quite a while.

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So if there's anything that you can do to help yourself out, it's to take a break. What does that mean? That means put your schooling on pause for now. Don't worry about that. Spend time with yourself. Spend time with loved ones/ Spend time with friends, with family. Take naps. Sleep. Go outdoors. Enjoy time off. It can feel weird to take time off and to not have something to do. You may feel guilty doing that. You may feel awkward and uncomfortable if you've never really had an opportunity like this, to not do something at all times.

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Instead, think about, what can I do to nourish myself, to replenish myself, to rest? That way, when you do start your graduate program in the fall, you're starting it feeling refreshed and ready to start something new. You're not starting feeling exhausted and burnt out and depleted. You want to start under good terms. So that's the most important thing. Take a break.

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Now, another thing that I think is up there in terms of importance is also to get your finances in order, and possibly if you can, to work and save money. Why do I say this? Because even if you are one of the lucky ones that got full funding for graduate school, graduate school doesn't pay a lot. In fact, you will be on the borderline of the poverty line even with full funding, because of that limited amount of funding that institutions of higher ed offer. Even under the best of circumstances, you're not going to be making a lot of money and odds are things are going to be tight for you.

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So how can you put yourself in a better situation and and plan to have some backup funding, emergency funds? You know, make sure that you're not too stressed over your finances. You can do that by saving money. I've seen some students who have picked up side hustles over the summer. They found ways to monetize their hobbies. I know some folks who will pick up enough ride sharing or buying groceries for people. And they'll do that enough that they save up so that they don't even need funding to TA, because they've done it so much that they've got that money saved in their bank account so that they're good to go for the next quarter or semester. I've also seen folks who have sold things like T shirts, or mugs, or stickers, or whatever it is- digital products. They found ways to use a skill of theirs, information that they know, to monetize it, to save up money so that they will be okay in the fall and in the coming year- academic year.

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While you're at it, if you're going to be thinking about getting your finances in order, if you're gonna be considering maybe getting a part time job, or picking up a side hustle or two and saving your money, go ahead and create a budget. This, I know is not easy. It's easier said than done. But a lot of folks don't- especially if you're first gen, you come from a working class background. A lot of times you're just not accustomed to creating a budget. So create a budget. Anticipate what your monthly expenses are going to be like in graduate school, and plan for that. If things are very tight, then think about, what am I going to do so that it's not as tight?

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Am I going to pick up extra side jobs in between the quarters or the semesters, during the summers? And save up so that during the year, I'm not as tight with money? What can you do to plan for that after looking at your budget and the numbers? How much are you going to pay for rent? How much are you going to pay for groceries? How much are you going to pay for utilities? How much are you going to pay for other personal expenses that come up for you?

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Then also along the lines of getting your finances in order- this is still on number two- is learning about financial literacy? I know that I mentioned this during last week's episode. What was last week's episode on? It was on student loans. I said if there's anything that I can offer in terms of advice- one thing that I wish I would have done when I was younger was learning more about financial literacy, right away in undergrad and in my early years of graduate school. I didn't. I was always afraid, and I allowed that fear to get in the way of me facing it and learning about it. So do yourself a favor and learn a little bit, just a little bit about financial literacy now. Trust me, you will thank me later.

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What else can you do in the summer? Some things I've seen people do over the summer, are picking up internships or participating in summer programs. This really depends on you, it's really up to you. I know earlier, I said don't do much. Just rest, focus on resting, relaxing in the summer. But if you know that it's gonna be really hard for you to rest and relax. You're gonna be anxious either way, and maybe you're better off getting involved in some sort of summer program. Then go ahead and apply for those. Sometimes there are internships, or summer programs that are affiliated with the grad school that you're going to go to. I've seen some graduate programs that offer summer transitional programs for students so that they can get acquainted with the campus and with the department before they arrive or before they start school in the fall. So there's that.

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There are also internships that are outside or external to your graduate school, that are just summer internships where you can gain more research experience or work experience and get paid to do that. So you're checking off two things at once. You're getting experience and you're getting paid. That's another option. Again, only if you feel that you would benefit and it wouldn't completely deplete you to do it in the summer before you start grad school. Go ahead and try out an internship or a summer program. Sometimes they're not even that long. They may be four or six weeks, and you could still have a long break after that is done.

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Another important thing to do the summer before starting graduate school- and you're gonna get it done whether you like it or not, but the sooner, the better I would say. That is sorting out your housing situation. Why do you want to do that early? You want to do that early, especially if you're considering staying in graduate student housing. If you're going to stay in graduate student housing, a lot of those housing opportunities have applications and sometimes they have waitlists. If you don't apply early, you'll be at the bottom of the waitlist and you may not get a spot. Or if you do get a spot, it may not be right away.

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I remember, I didn't apply for graduate housing right away, because I wasn't aware about graduate student housing. When I finally did apply, I was added to a waitlist, and I got off the waitlist in the middle of fall quarter. I was already living in a different place and then all of a sudden, in the middle of the quarter- I think it must have been end of October- I had to move. And moving in the middle of classes was very stressful. If I could do it all over again- I wish I would have found that earlier and would have applied earlier. So if you're considering graduate housing- and a lot of you may consider it because it tends to be more affordable than other housing options in the area- then go ahead and apply early.

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If you're not planning to live on campus, or even in anything that's affiliated with the university where you would need to apply early, then go ahead and apply or try to get a lease in a month, a month and a half, two months before the date that you're trying to move in. It really depends on the landlords in the area. Sometimes folks are willing to have you sign a lease early. Sometimes they want you to sign a lease a month or even a few weeks before you move. But definitely sort out your housing situation. That's very important. And think about that. Do I want to live on campus, off campus, close to campus, farther away? Will I be living with roommates? Will I be living by myself? What about transportation? Do I need a car to get by? Is there public transit available?

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All these things you want to sort out early. That way, you're not stressed out at the beginning of the term, of the quarter or semester, wishing that you had done that research earlier. All right, a couple more things- and these are just extra things. Again, you don't have to do them. It's not that big of a deal. But it may help to just do these things in the summer. The next thing I'm going to mention is reading. By reading, I mean reading for fun.

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You will be tempted to try to get a reading list and to try to check out books and read as much as you can on the topic of interest that you're pursuing in grad school. You're thinking, I need to read X, Y, and Z. Follow the work of all these scholars, and read all these theories and learn about the foundational work in XY and Z. Because again, this is that impostor syndrome of I don't know enough. They're gonna figure out that they made a mistake, that I wasn't supposed to be in this program. Everybody else knows more than me. That's not necessarily true.

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It feels that way, because there's not a lot of first gen folks in graduate school. You'll find once you enter grad school, you're like, oh, wow. A lot of people in grad school have parents who are academics, or who went to grad school, or who have professional careers. And so you will feel like you stick out and in the end, like you don't belong. But no. You don't have to try to cram as much as you can the summer before graduate school.

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In fact, it may not even be that helpful. I tried to do that, and I don't know that I retained a lot of the information that I read that summer before starting grad school. But when I say reading, I mean read for fun. Ask yourself, when was the last time that you read a book for fun? If you recently graduated from college, you may not remember. I know I didn't. As an English major, that was what was ironic to me, is that all I did was read. And all I did was read novels in undergrad. You know, just reading the works of others, but I couldn't remember the last time that I read something for fun.

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Why do I say to read for fun? Because like I said earlier, about the resting, about relaxing, you will not have an opportunity to read for fun for a while. And if you do do it in grad school, you're going to have to be very intentional about it, because there's going to be a lot of things that are going to pull you away from trying to read for fun. So go ahead and read for fun so that you can remind yourself, what are your actual interests. Outside of just academics, what do you like? Enjoy yourself, have a good time. I'm giving you permission to do that.

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Next up, another thing that might be helpful is to use the summer to socialize, to meet colleagues, to meet your cohort mates, to get together online, or in person if you're close by. If you're close to the graduate school you're going to be going to or if you're planning on moving in early, definitely start to build community. It's never too soon to build community.

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If there's one thing that I have personally regretted in my own past, it's that. It's not putting myself out there enough, it's not building communities soon enough. And you won't regret the relationships and the bonds that you form with the individuals that you will run into in your graduate school trajectory. Some of these people are going to be in your lives for a long time, or for the rest of your life. They may become lifelong friends. So go ahead and put yourself out there. Start networking and building community with the folks in your grad program, or at the institution you will be going to.

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Then one other thing- and this is not a requirement, but it may be helpful. Of course, I have to say this because of my personality, and the fact that I love to get organized. So what am I going to tell you to do? Get organized in the summer. Use this extra time. Again, you're gonna have this time, that you're not gonna feel like you're gonna have in graduate school. Time to do whatever you want. What's one thing that people always kind of put to the side? It's the tidying and the organizing.

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Why not use this as a as an opportunity to clean up your email inbox, to declutter your desktop? To learn about tools- learn about project management tools, calendaring tools, planners, or anything that will help you kind of enhance your efficiency, or help you get organized and stay on track with your goals. Maybe even think about setting your own goals. It's the mid part of the year. Just like a lot of folks will take some time at the beginning of the year in January to set intentions, the six month mark is also a great time.

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June, July, is a great time to reassess those goals, or to develop new goals for the rest of the six months of this year. Or you could think about it not based on the Gregorian New Year. But you could think about it based on the academic calendar and set your goals based on that, based on August, September whenever your start date is for grad school. Start to develop, identify your goals and figure out a plan for how you're going to start to execute them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's all I wanted to say about my thoughts on what you should do the summer before you start graduate school. Again, it's completely up to you. When it comes to the summer before grad school, less is more, You don't want to do too much. You don't want to start graduate school completely overextended and burnt out. You want to start in good terms. Focus on resting. If you can, save up your money. Get your finances sorted out. Figure out your housing. But other than that, everything else is up to you. Whatever is gonna help you feel your best when you start grad school, that's what you should do. I hope you found this helpful and I will talk to you all next time.