Being in Graduate School as an International Student
November 1, 2018
by Goeun
Time flies and it’s already halfway through the first semester. 10 weeks has been already passed and I’ll introduce what I did by month.
August
This month was the time that I finally set up everything for graduate school as an international student and started my new journey in the Post-Professional Master’s Program. I had orientation from USC and our division, registered courses, had PPV (passport verification), got my student ID, etc.
Fall semester started on August 20, then we had the white coat ceremony on the same week, which let us feel that we really started. At the end of this month, Dr. Blanche, our program director and professor of clinical occupational therapy, invited all post-professional students, Dr. Park, Dr. Cermak, and Dr. Gray to her house, which is near a beautiful beach and we had BBQ party and had a wonderful time.
The White Coat Ceremony made us feel that we really started the Master’s program
The Post-Professional students went to Dr. Blanche’s house and had a BBQ party together
September
While August was kind of like a warm-up month, September was the month that we really started academics, getting used to all the readings, exams, and assignments. Because English is not my first language, it was tough for me to understand and keep up with the lectures at the beginning, but thanks to Global Initiatives, we have a study hall that provides academic support to international students. More than that, we had dinner with Dr. Cermak at a Chinese restaurant which was awesome and fun.
We took a picture when we had dinner with Dr. Cermak in the Chinese restaurant
October
Since we’re getting more into the semester, it was time to think about the next semester. We’re taking 5 required courses and 1 elective course. However, unlike this semester, we’ll mostly take elective courses in the Spring semester, so we had to think about what to take. Also, we had a wonderful dinner with Dr. Cermak in an Indian restaurant, this time with Dr. Blanche, Dr. Ochi, and Dr. Vigen. In addition, on October 25-28, OTAC was held in Pasadena. It was a great opportunity to attend the conference as an OT student and learn more about it.
We took a picture when we had dinner with Dr. Cermak at an Indian restaurant after finishing one of our big projects
This was my journey as a post-professional student so far. It was not easy but so great that I could learn and have those experiences. I’m excited about the rest of this semester as well as the next semester and hope everything goes well!
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