Graduate students give advice first day of Mass Comm Week

By Lauren Welch

Mass Communication graduate students offered a helpful insight on what it’s like to be a graduate student at Texas State University during the “Why Go to Grad School?” Mass Comm Week panel Monday, Oct. 21.

Each of the five current graduate students, Katie Dudley, Derrick Holland, Cody Herring, Sherry Klein, and Nick Erskine, gave examples of their experiences pertaining to the graduate program.

Graduate students Sherry Klein and Nick Erskine describe why they chose Texas State for their graduate program. Photo By: Lauren Welch

At the start of the panel, each of the panelists introduced themselves, gave background information, then discussed why they chose Texas State as the place to do their graduate studies. Holland adamantly confessed his admiration for the Texas State faculty. Having done his undergraduate studies at Texas State, he was eager to continue on to graduate school and experience firsthand what he called a faculty that is, “If not the best, one of the best in the country.”

Next, they took questions from the audience. The panelists were asked about the competitiveness of the market, to which Erskine answered, “Keep your options open and be really relentless.” Also discussed was what they thought personally is the most difficult aspect of graduate school and what their words of wisdom to potential graduate students are. “Keep an open mind. You never know what you could fall into,” Klein said pertaining to the latter. “Be prepared for rejection because it’s going to happen.”

Mindy Green, a senior PR major in attendance, said that she is, “definitely applying now.” Green said she enjoyed hearing how exactly the graduate classes are different from undergraduate classes.

Another student in attendance, senior Iris Fulton, agreed with Green, saying, “It was nice to hear from actual students who are going through the process now and getting their honest opinions and insights on the program, as opposed to hearing it from a counselor or professor.”

Texas State Mass Comm Week ends Friday, Oct. 25.

Author Credit: Lauren Welch is a Mass Communication senior at Texas State University.

Contact at: lw1346@txstate.edu