Grad School Part 2

Okay folks, part two as promised.

Part of my follow-up post acceptance was to tour campus and meet some faculty to make sure it would be a good fit and could work for what I needed and wanted to accomplish. After working with schools here, I was conscious that secondary school grading systems are vastly different from the A-F grading system used in the States. One of my top questions was what to expect in grading systems in order to mentally adjust so I could understand feedback from professors. I was pleased to be told the University uses an A, B, C, D system just like the US. Whew, I was thinking!

Well, classes begin, first assignments are completed, and subsequent grades are received. Not awful I was thinking at this point, but certainly not as well as I had hoped to do. However, I felt I had a reasonable idea of where I was at and could focus on improving for the next round of assignments. They came and went, and I was still feeling as if I should be doing better, but was unsure how to best focus improvement efforts. I therefore sought assistance from a professor who had been particularly transparent about her open-door policy.

When I explained that I was a bit disappointed in my grades and requested some constructive feedback for how I might improve for remaining assignments (as all course had only 3-4 assignments worth the total grade), she looked a bit confused and said advised that she did not feel I had hardly anything to improve on. I thought this was odd but moved on thinking I would simply have to put in more time reading, revising, etc.

When we reached about week 10 out of 12, I began looking at what was required for this term in order to be eligible to continue with the Master’s study next year. As a part of that, a minimum GPA was required. After a quick calculation on a 4.0 grading scale based on the grade percentages I had received thus far, I had a near melt-down when the figure I arrived at was notably below the required GPA.

I think it is reasonable to say that by this point I was feeling quite worn down and a bit stressed due to the high workload of 5 courses in addition to the number of hours I was working, as well as trying to finalize plans for our trip to America that was at that point only two weeks away. However, something just did not feel right so I decided to keep digging. Lo and behold, I stumbled on the University’s grading scale. Was that ever the find of a lifetime! I discovered that while I had been looking at percentages and thinking, from my American background, that I was receiving the equivalent of a C or a very low B, I was in fact receiving nearly all A grades. Turns out the, 80-100 % all falls within the A grade range. Relieved does not even begin to describe how I felt! But it did teach me to ask a few more questions before assuming that “the same system” is truly the same.

Part 3 I will share some details of how this term has gone J

Grad School part 1

About two years ago, I decided it was time to think about furthering my education. After much debating, researching, and one failed application, I settled on the University of Auckland to pursue a Master's in Music: Musicology degree. Getting a focus back to academic writing in order to complete the application requirements took some doing but I managed it, submitting things in the midst of the Mary Poppins show last year. Due to everything else going on at the same, once the application was in it became a bit of out-of-sight-out-of-mind. It was, consequently, a nice surprise when I got an acceptance letter from the University.

My acceptance was not yet to begin the Master's program, but I was advised if I spent this year completing a post-grad certificate in Musicology, I would then be eligible to begin the Master's work next year. The end result of much questioning was that I had to complete 5 lecture courses this year, plus two small research projects.

So.....off I go to Auckland! Five years ago when I moved to New Zealand I landed in Auckland and only lasted about 3 days before feeling I'd had enough of the big city and decided to head South to what would (at the time unknown to me) become my new home.
From the end of February until 31 May, I lived in Auckland and put myself through the mentally draining task of taking 5 university courses while working mostly full-time. The trade-off was the University agreed I could move back to New Plymouth to complete the research projects from home (yay!).

So....what was it like to go back to school in a foreign country as an adult?

Well. Where do I begin?

It was not so bad, in retrospect. But there were some curve balls, and I certainly felt out of my league in some ways.
First, I had to re-adjust to university speak, academic writing, and research practices. I have done it all before, but it had been awhile.
Second, figuring out how to get around campus, and who you needed to know, and where the best study spots were. This took a bit of doing, and I was thankful to make a good friend who was truly a blessing in keeping me sane and taking me under her wing to navigate school life.

I had thought that after living in New Zealand for so long, I would have figured out all the important slang/jargon/odd phrases, etc. But I quickly learned that university life in New Zealand has its own version of this. In fact, something I found most interesting was the implied understanding, or lack thereof, in professors' expectations depending on where they were from. I had one English professor, two Kiwi professors, and one American professors. I found when given assignments or feedback from the American professor, I knew exactly what was intended. I found with the others, it was not always so clear, and yet my Kiwi classmates were experiencing the opposite. I did find, however, that when it comes to presentations, I had that nailed, and rumour around campus has it that Americans students tend to excel in this area due to American university expectations (go us!).

More to come, but so you don't get bored I will give you this in stages :)
Check back in a few days for the curveball that caused me the most pain!