Surviving and Thriving as a Graduate or Professional Student at UC Berkeley

In the spirit of this publication being an interesting guide for advising new and continuing students, the following pages include some consultative input as to what some graduate students wish that they had known when they began their studies here. This is pretty much the same advice that the Berkeley Graduate has given scores of graduate students before you,and there have been few complaints so it will be said again almost verbatim.

Now a part of the system of regents, chancellors, provosts, deans, staff, professors, administrative assistants,and so on;as a graduate or professional student (perhaps as an instructor or researcher),you have become another cringing head of the great beast that is the University of California,and specifically Berkeley. Not all of these heads necessarily know what the others are doing,but each has the power to bite you if you aren’t mindful of policies. This awareness is a responsibility you have (to yourself) to ensure that you’re getting paid if you ought to be,fulfilling degree requirements, and generally thriving here while dealing with as little red tape as possible.

You also now have some powers:maybe they include control of some undergraduates’ grades; maybe they include the ability to really expand the body of knowledge in the field you’re in, maybe you’ll find yourself capable of adding volume to the nagging voice that turns student concern into university policy. In any case,just as the editors have had to resist the inappropriate impulse to subtitle pictures with captions such as “The International House:It’s not just for pancakes anymore”, you must do your best to be fair, responsible, and reasonable with your power.

As far as things you can feel comfortable taking advantage of,few people would reject the offer of extra storage space for a plethora of large digital files.If you’re leaning away from having a gmail account or the like, and would prefer to become part of a community,check out the Open Computing Facility (see www.OCF.berkeley.edu).Your free membership garners you 10 MB of email memory,120 MB of webspace, and access to a UNIX Shell Account where you can keep another 200 MB of files:all you have to do is fill out the membership forms. The OCF also cosponsers programs that can offer free chances to learn things you might not already know.

A less free (but still fiscally cromulent) membership could be in the Cal RecClub (see http://calbears.berkeley.edu/calrecclub/). While this involves paying the student membership fee (Only $10 per semester thanks to a great victory of student lobbying); you are paying for access to an assortment of facilities,programs,and classes that (once you are no longer a registered student here) otherwise cost over $48 per month. As far as cost-benefit analysis,while you are out $10 (and there is a distinct possibility that you might run into a student,peer,or labmate in an awkward state of undress or perspiratory dampitude), surely there will never be quite as cheap a time to invest in your physical and mental health.If you pay for water at your residence,you can think of it as an investment in a place where you can take a shower;and so,if you do nothing else with your membership,you've broken even at ~60 visits, less if you take longer showers. Additionally,(if you want to go down the “it’s an investment in my health”-path of justification,) fitness tends to correlate to wellness. Occasional exercise is less of an ordeal
than having to deal with the Tang Center: because,even with “insurance”, it is much safer to not be reliant on the university’s health services. As of earlier this year, a membership at this gym will actually also let you into any of the other UC gyms for free,so you can even exorcise your sweaty demons in other places.

You have 168 hours a week to do all sorts of things. Work hard,but recognize that the number of actual hours put into a task does not always have a 1:1 correlation with the caliber of work,nor the overall perceived productivity. Work smarter, don’t be afraid to ask for help,and read the rest of this publication.

Best wishes,
The Berkeley Graduate