Engaging postgraduate studies on part-time basis is indeed a daunting task. It is definitely not impossible as many successful candidates have gone through it, me included. However, candidate and prospects must be aware that such journey will have its ups and downs, and the level of preparedness, recovering from the rise and falls, makes a person capable of pursuing the journey or otherwise. Every candidate will go through these few stages during their quest as shown below:
Postgraduate Roller Coaster
Stage I: Fully Loaded
During this stage, candidates are eager and fully charged to take on the challenges. Bear in mind that, when you are signing up for the program, the marketers will convince you that it will be a smooth sail. So, you sign up without asking the basic questions as I have described. The time spent during this stage varies between individuals.
Stage II: Confusion
During this stage, candidate will discover the realities of postgraduate studies, and to some, the part-time program posed as a worst nightmare. Juggling priorities and commitments is taking a toll on oneself. Candidates will be asking themselves why they got into this and for those who were unsure of their purpose, will seek out answers from colleagues, classmates and anyone that pass by. Candidates are trying to rationalise, justify their reasons for doing this. The truth, candidates are trying to pacify themselves for letting themselves into the journey.
Checkpoint: Point of No Return
This is the ‘make or break’ check point that every candidate will pass through. Passing this point will lead the candidate into stage III.
Stage III: Hopefuls and Hopeless
A. State of Stability: There exist candidates that are so clear of their goals with high level of motivation, usually intrinsically driven, will continue the journey in a stable state of body and soul. Mind you, these are rare species, hard to come by and far apart. Only a handful that can be categorised as such and these are the potential candidates that will grab the ‘best student award’ and giving valedictorian speeches during the graduation ceremony.
B. State of Normality: There will be others who despite the fall, rises up to the challenge and continue the journey. Despite the ups and downs, they manage to find sources of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic), to pursue their goals. This is the usual, normal pathway that has been taken by many candidates that passes through my office.
C. State of Hopelessness: There will also be candidates, who could not justify, rationalise and pacify themselves, will dive straight into the State of Hopelessness. They simply gave up on the effort! During this state, everyone but self, is put to blame for not helping. Instead of looking inwards for own inadequacies and incapability to pursue, colleges, faculties, lecturers, classmates, family members, friends and foes will be blamed for causing him/her to give up. This sort of mindset clearly indicates that such candidate is not ready for any postgraduate learning and more so LIFE!
I remeber reading elsewhere that :
nice blog,maybe we can work together
Thank you…
work together?
Why not..?
Cheers