Advice for First Year Students

Our new first year students started classes this week. The second years are excited to welcome them. Here is some advice from students who were recently in their shoes.

Graduate school is a lot of work. It’s stressful, overwhelming, and takes time away from other aspects of life. Everybody takes it at their own pace. It can be easy to compare yourself to others and feel like you’re not doing enough, but 'enough’ is relative. It can also be easy to feed into other people’s anxieties, especially when you spend so much time together. If you need to split off from the group and do your own thing for a while, that’s cool. Sometimes you only have enough capacity to deal with just your own anxiety. The bottom line is: the work will get done. The things will be learned. Everything will be fine. You’ll be fine.

Self-care is incredibly important!  During grad school, you learn a lot and do a lot in a very short amount of time. However you study/learn best is your choice, but make sure that you are still nurturing the other parts of you that make you happy, whether that be a workout routine, cooking/ baking, a weekly podcast, you name it.  If it’s your thing, you will feel so much better having made time to do it.  It’s okay not to attend every optional lecture, conference, and happy hour if it’s not going to fit into your schedule.

The most surprising challenge of the first year was the urge to compare myself to my classmates. In undergrad, I never had a small group of people in all of my classes, and rarely had more than one class at a time with a good friend. There are so many things to be working on, it’s easy to panic when someone mentions an assignment you haven’t started yet. Try to remember that everyone does things in a different order at different times. You were successful in undergrad, so you know which strategies work for you. Remember that your classmates have a wide diversity of experiences; use that to your advantage by helping each other. Finally, make a conscious effort to set aside time for doing things unrelated to school. There is always something more you could be working on, but everybody needs a break. Good luck!

Don’t forget who you are.  You are unique, smart, and worthy of being here in your own right.  Everyone has different backgrounds, different interests, and different things they find stressful, whether that’s school, moving to a new city, or any other thing life will throw at you.  There are so many resources for you to help you along the way, like your classmates, the second years, Robin and Andrea, and the greater Pitt community as a whole. As stressful as grad school can get, don’t let it take away all the reasons you came here! Stay humble, try your best, and use everything you’re given to make yourself a better genetic counselor.  So much of what we do is based on our ability to connect with others, so let your personality and excitement shine through everyday.

Welcome to Pitt! Remember that your time here is what you make of it. There’s obviously information and skills that you will need to learn before you graduate, but you’re ultimately in control of your own experience over these next two years. If there’s a specific aspect of genetics that you’re interested in learning more about, or a certain experience that you’re interested in, make sure to ask and voice that interest! The knowledge and experiences that you take with you when you graduate and start your career will be directly related to the effort you put in during your time in the program.

You've done it! Congrats on being accepted to Pitt to pursue a degree in genetic counseling - in my opinion, it's a pretty great degree. You've put in the work so far, don't stop now. Take in as much as you can and have fun!

Be confident! Instead of beating yourself up remember that you are here for a reason. Everyone starts from square one, even the most experienced counselors. You will all do amazing!

-The Class of 2020