 As a graduate student, you really are focused on your studies as a career. It's not just something you're doing to get a bachelor's or to please your family. If you choose to do a graduate degree, you're doing it because it's something that means something to you. I love that I can study exactly what I want to study and what I'm passionate about and I don't have to worry about other course requirements and fields that I'm not particularly interested in and I really can just focus on what I'm interested in. I went to a small, syruply black liberal arts school and it was all women. So if you just look at everything I just listed compared to University of Michigan, it's almost a polar opposite. Once I got here, I just thought, oh wow, I have all this stuff at my fingertips I didn't have before. As an undergraduate student transitioning into graduate school in the same institution, my initial expectations were that things would be pretty much the same, although I was pleasantly surprised to find that graduate school really allowed me to get to know the department and the institution on a much more intimate level. I think when we're undergrad, there's a tendency to not think, so to think of teachers as kind of passing on this information to you whereas in graduate school, while they're still teaching you, they are in some ways also prepping you to be ready to be a colleague of theirs. Gradual school requires a little more balance in terms of the work you do, whereas in undergrad, you may have studying and recreation. In graduate school, you're going to have studying because you have classes that are requirements for your degree, but you're also going to have requirements for your work, for your research. With graduate school, typically the answers aren't known, that's your job, that's why we do research. You have to learn your material, become an expert of your field, but at the same time you should start thinking about how you can contribute to this field. You are an independent learner completely. You still take classes for the first couple of years, but generally you're researching, you're investigating, you're reading on your own, you're really in charge of your education. I sure would have known how much my life was about to change. I think that it would have been helpful to have a better, more accurate expectation of what the time commitment would be for graduate school. Graduate school is kind of an all-encompassing, all-consuming thing, and it would have been better to have a better expectation of that. Life in graduate school can be quite challenging, you get a lot of assignments, and you have to be up-to-date on all these assignments, you have courses, and at the same time you also have to carry on your research work. There are so many, I mean, amazing, brilliant people here. I guess that seems pretty intuitive, but I just didn't realize I would be surrounded by so many people who are just incredibly bright and incredibly knowledgeable in their fields, and that makes for a great atmosphere of collaboration. You really have the capabilities to do whatever you want when you get here. The disguise the limit, and especially if it's in terms of research, you can go talk to any professors, any students, and get involved with any project that you find interesting. You're not limited by what you've done before, by what your background is, and your undergraduate experiences. One thing which I wish I knew about graduate school before coming to Michigan was how much space or how much room you get to do the things that you like doing. Traditionally in an undergraduate program, you're not used to having that sort of latitude in the things that you are interested in, so I wish I knew that I could plan these things on my own accord, of course with some inputs from my advisor and my peers. Something that I wish I would have known, which is very important for me, is what classes to take in the fall, and you have to get that information from your fellow grad students, because that's going to make your first experience here very important. One piece of advice I would give to a prospective graduate student is to take the advantage of all the opportunities you have here, whether academic, social, career, the university has so many resources, and it's unfortunate to miss out on them. I would advise all prospective students to really do their homework. You know, you're not only looking at the doctoral programs or the graduate programs themselves, but you're looking at the university as a whole, you're looking at the town. Really make sure that the program feels like a good fit, the town feels like a good fit for you, because it makes a big difference in the long run. If I could give one piece of advice to a prospective graduate student, I would tell them to research, not just the faculty that are at the school or potential faculty that they could work with, but also research the community, research the graduate school, the resources. This is the place where you're going to be living for the next five, six, seven, eight, who knows how many years of your life, so you want to make sure that you can form a community. Reach out to potential advisors now, email them, read some of their papers, and then, you know, get a discussion going. You have to make sure that you know who you're going to work with before you come, and make sure that the person that you want to work with is the kind of person that you actually can work with. Remind yourself that everyone is as nervous as you are, even if they might not look it on the outside. So to remember that everyone is feeling excited about being at graduate school, but is also nervous about this new part of their life. We're all here, we're on different tracks, where we all have different destinies and different things that we're set out to do, and the quickest way to failure is to compare yourself to someone else. Just make sure you're doing your personal best, and that's really all that matters. Research carefully and have a good idea of what you want to study. You'll be studying it for a very long time, and so you want to make sure you enjoy it, and you know the questions you want to ask, and you just have a thirst for knowledge. It's important to have that end goal in mind, like what you want to do with your PhD, why you're getting a PhD, and that's a personal thing to have, but it's important to be able to answer that question for yourself. Try and make the most of your time in Michigan. There are plenty of resources, a lot of really interesting and exciting intelligent people to communicate with, to have good conversations with, and do something good for the society and for yourselves. Be positive, stay open-minded, and be an enthusiastic learner. Have fun and enjoy yourself. This is the only time in your life you really get to focus on what you're really interested in, what you're really passionate about, and I would say, like, don't waste too much time worrying about everything. You can really just enjoy what you're doing. It's a great experience.