Speaker 1: Welcome back to Almost Dr. Harmless. If you're a subscriber, thanks for being back, and if you're new to the channel, thanks for checking it out. My name is Arielle and I'm a PhD student in clinical psychology. In this channel, I talk about my life as a graduate student in psychology and what I'm learning about the mental health profession. In today's video, I'm going to do a recap of my first week in grad school. Overall, I think the first week went really well. I had orientation, which was pretty straightforward, just an overview of the program, meeting people, meeting faculty, and that was not as nerve-wracking as I thought it was going to be. I was nervous to meet all these new people, and in the field of psychology, you don't have to get a master's before moving up to a PhD, so a lot of us are coming from undergrad, so we're not sure going in who has a master's, who has a BA or a BS, so there's a little bit of intimidation not knowing who your peers are or if you're at the same level as them. I have also had a few of my classes, but I haven't gone to all of them just yet because the quarter started in the middle of the week. So far, my classes are pretty cool. So in my first week of graduate school, the two main things that I've noticed that are different from undergrad versus graduate school are autonomy and accountability and applicability. The vibe is definitely different in graduate school. You get the sense that a lot more is expected of you and people aren't going to be on top of you. In graduate school, you're not getting tons and tons of assignments. You're probably getting one big paper and maybe one or two exams, and so you're expected to stay on track and prepare for all of those as you go along. Instead of in undergrad, you get small, incremental assignments leading up to a bigger project, and so you're motivated to do those small things because you're getting graded for it. In grad school, it's kind of all on you, so that's where the autonomy comes in and the accountability. You have to be held accountable for your own time management and your own prioritization, so that's something that's different. I think it'll be okay, but it's definitely something to adjust to. Secondly is applicability. This is my favorite thing that I've noticed about graduate school. So in undergrad, you needed to know X, Y, Z because it was going to be on the exam or you were going to get graded on a presentation or ultimately it ended up being about your grade and how well you performed in the class. In graduate school, when professors are explaining material, they're telling you this is important because it's going to come up with a client, and here's an example, and that's super exciting for me because finally it's like everything that you've learned thus far is being applied to real life, which is work with clients when you're a psychologist, and it's really cool to see that the things that I learned in the past and the things I'm learning now have a use and I don't just have to remember them for an exam and get a good grade. I have to learn them and understand them so that I can help other people. This is sort of what I've been waiting for. Professors are concerned with whether you'll be a competent clinician, but I'm excited and I'm looking forward to it because I know that it's for a bigger purpose. So overall, I would say my first week went pretty well. I don't want to get too excited or too comfortable because I know that there's going to be a lot of work and a lot expected from me, so I'm just trying to stay focused and stay organized right from the beginning because it's going to be different, but I'll check back and let you guys know how it's going. Next week I'll probably do a recap of week two, and by then I will have gone to all of my classes. By then I probably would have had to submit a few assignments, and so we'll just see how it goes. If you watched to the end, I just want to thank you for your time. Again, I'm almost Dr. Armos, and I'm here to inform you, inspire you, spark an interest in you, and hopefully entertain you, and I hope that you enjoyed this video. If you did, please like, comment, and subscribe to my channel, and check back next time.