Marymount

Take advantage of all that the campus has to offer. Marymount, for instance, extends all kinds of services to graduate students—the Learning Resource Center (LRC), counseling, study abroad, multimedia services, etc.

Connect with other students juggling home/work/school. Some universities have graduate student associations that facilitate peer support and lobby on students’ behalf.

Build relationships with your professors. The University of Washington offers good practice guidelines.

Befriend your librarians. They can make your life as a researcher so much easier. Universities often have institutional subscriptions to online bibliographic management programs—at Marymount, RefWorks—that save useful citations for multiple bibliographies.

Prepare for your career as intensely as you prepared for graduate school. Hone your writing and presentation skills. Learn how to organize your work and your time. Seek out opportunities

Pat yourself on the back now and then. You are on your way to becoming one of the roughly 10 percent of Americans who hold a graduate or professional degree.