As a graduate student at Princeton University in the, uh, French Language and Literature Department.
Uh, I’d like to speak more about my experience there.
Uh, typically what happens is I have about three seminars per semester.
Now a semester would be from let's say, uh, September to December.
That would be the first semester, fall semester.
And a second semester during the academic year would typically be from January to let's say, uh, May or so.
And during dur- during that time, you have_ during a seminar actually, what happens is there is quite a bit of interaction between the professors and the students.
Um, the professors encourage active participation, uh, on behalf on_ active participation_ the the professors encourage active participation in class.
You have to come prepared, you have to have done your reading, which is typically quite a bit of reading.
Uh, I would say.
For example, uh, many times I would have to come to seminars having read about four or five different books.
Each of which was, um, three hundred, four hundred pages long.
You must have_ do your reading, you must talk actively in class, be alert, uh, be prepared for, um, professors asking questions.
And there is also quite a bit of interaction with fellow students I would say.
Um, and, um, there is a lot of active dialogue back and forth, professors, students, etceteras.
And the seminars are typically about three hours long, and they occur once a week for each class.
And I would think that it’s pretty specialized.
I mean I received a Master's Degree in French Language and Literature from Princeton, in fact this past January.
And I majored in_ I specialized in nineteenth century French literature.
For that it was, uh, a two year program.
And, uh, it was very rigorous, extremely intensive.
And in addition to attending class regularly, in fact class was mandatory, you had to go to class and you_ unless you were absolutely sick.
You really had to be there.
It was pretty much like a job, I would say.
Not just school, but like a job.
You have to be there, you have to be punctual, prepared at all times.
And I also had to do teaching.
Teaching was a very important of the degree as a, as a matter of fact.
Teaching would generally be every day.
I had to teach one hour per day.
And I had to prepare about two hours for each hour that I taught.
I taught beginning French language courses.
For example i, I taught French one-oh-one and French one-oh-two.
Now I taught Princeton University undergraduates who were extremely bright and hardworking.
And I very much enjoyed my experience teaching.
Basically I taught the whole class from start to finish.
I prepared the lectures, I created the assignments.
I even helped design the syllabi.
It was quite a bit of responsibility, but it was actually an excellent teaching experience.
And it was, it was very invaluable in fact for me.
Uh, besides these, um, these requirements for teaching and for, uh, being in seminars, of course, you also had_ um, your active attendance in lectures, lectures were a very important part of the experience as well.
Generally the department had people come over from all over the world, very famous professors.
People who are at the top of their field, come over and give lectures about their work, about, um, their current research etcetera, and they would just talk about wh- their books, give book readings.
And, um, it was very important.
It was very essential to the learning process as well because we really needed_ you really need to, um, interact with other professors who were from other schools all over the world, to really know what’s going on in the field.
You see.
And I thought that that was, um, very invaluable actually to my, uh, learning experience.
Lectures were were pretty much mandatory, I mean it was sort of not stated that it was mandatory, but basically that meant that you had to be there, at all times, really.
And I really enjoyed my experience.
In fact I love French literature, it was fascinating and I enjoyed it because I got to specialize in a particular field, particular period.
And also with professors who, who though they were very busy were very involved with their students.
They would guide you not only academically, but also psycholog- psychologically to a certain extent.
And they were friends.
I mean you could talk with them, you could have a coffee, you could have lunch with them.
It was a very personal experience and it was very important, not only to get along well academically with everyone, but also I think socially.
You see it it was a small department.
Uh, I think my year there were about let's say six students.
And we all knew each other very well.
We required a lot of partici- participation and there was quite a lot of cooperation.
Especially cooperation I mean between the professors and students, and between the students as well.
And I think there wasn't as much cutthroat competition as there would be at other schools.
Because at Princeton, um, it was a small department and there were only a, a few students each year.
So I think it it just became very much like a family.
And I enjoyed that aspect very much.
And you also had the opportunity of course, to um, to li- meet people from other departments and to_ that is very important so that you can really get a perspective of pe- of, um, people who work in let’s say different fields.
For example English literature which is still closely related.
You need to interact with people from different departments to enhance your learning experience both academically and socially.
And all in all yes, I i did enjoy my experience.
However, it’s very different from i’d say college.
Extremely different in all the ways imagined.
The workload is extremely rigorous.
I mean I i’d say I worked extremely hard.
Uh, you ha- basically had one paper due per semester for each class.
And let's say one presentation per semester for each class as well.
And basically the, uh, paper counted for the whole grade.
Grades are not that important at_ it’s different from college.
The grades are important to get in of course.
But once you are in you are in.
And the grades take on less, less importance.
What is important however, is, uh, is the research.
How well you do research.
Your writing skills are extremely important.
Also your presentation.
Um, in terms of your um_ the impression you give the professors, not just the work you do.
But you've got to give them the impression that you are very bright.
And that you're going to be a future scholar I would say, is extremely essential.
And they are there to guide you.
Uh, I enjoyed my experience and, um, what I would recommend to anyone who is interested is that they seriously think about, what they want to do.
What field they want to pursue.
And also, um, how long they want to take doing it.
And getting a Master's for me was practical because afterwards you know getting a Master's, it’s only for two years.
Then I can go on and go work.
However Ph.
D.
Program which typically takes five years in my department_ people who get a Ph.
D.
Generally have a lot of problems getting jobs.
, Because once you have a Ph.
D.
You pretty much have to become a professor and right now in the field of French language and literature, it is extremely difficult to get a position.
Especially one that is tenured.
It is not necessarily true for every department, but at least in French language and literature it seems to be the case.
In fact the top students from my department, uh, actually even from Princeton it is difficult to find a job.
A tenure track position anywhere in the country right now.
So whoever pursues an advanced degree should think carefully about it.
Especially if that is a Ph.
D.
You should consider the, um, many requirements for one.
The length of time, uh, difficulty of getting a position and, um, see if that is what you want.
All I all, it was a tremendous learning experience academically, socially, psychologically.
And, um, graduate school was something that I didn't quite expect at the beginning, in terms of I i thought it would be much easier than actually turned out to be.
It is much much harder.
Much is demanded, much is expected and it really is a job more than school I would say.