How should newly admitted grad student prepare for grad school?

[mattlorig]

I graduated with a BS in physics last spring, and just finished the whole grad school application process. I now have from Dec. '04 - Sept. '05 to do what I want with my life, and I was thinking about how I should prepare myself to begin graduate school. I would particularly like to hear from current graduate students what the did (or more likely what they wish they had done) to prepare for graduate school Right now, I'm thinking of just studying EM, QM, and Statistical Mechanics on my own. I've only had one semester of each of these courses, and I think many undergraduate programs required two semesters of them.

Also, I'd like to know if graduate students were surprised by anything when they began graduate school...Really heavy course loads? Jump in difficulty from undergrad to grad courses? Any other advice would be welcomed.

[Jibola]

you are not the only one in this state of mind.I dont even have an idea of what to expect. Is the first meeting going to be with advisors.will there be any more interviews about our previous experiences or......whatever.My background is even in chemical enginering not that I'm coming from a pure Physics background. I'm in the dark here.Can anyone shed some light on this.Current/past grad students,kindly fill us in.keep us posted.Thnx.

[Ben Niehoff]

See if you can get some kind of job or internship and make some money. Money will be tight in grad school, so it helps if you can save something up for a rainy day. Also, I've noticed that people who have held a real job or two have a better time focusing in grad school, as they seem to have a better idea of why they are there. I have a few friends who have never been exposed to the real world, and they are consistently the most confused and discouraged.

[jtbell]

Assuming the original poster is still in grad school, he's probably in the middle of working on his dissertation right now. :wink:

[Ben Niehoff]

Damn you, thread necromancy! Foiled again!