2017 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Ibibia Dabipi

Larissa Sazama Author

11/07/2017 Added

19 Plays

Description

Dr. Ibibia Dabipi, Professor at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, presents on "Choosing a Graduate Program: Making a Short List". For more information, please visit http://matc.unl.edu/education/scholars-program2017.php.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.090]More or less, go through the format
[00:00:03.860]of a logistical approach to get to graduate school.
[00:00:09.696]Okay, so our outline is going to deal with
[00:00:12.099]a short introduction, your learning objective, outcomes,
[00:00:16.282]presentation, conclusion, as we've talked about before.
[00:00:20.531]So here's what we want to do.
[00:00:25.352]You have to have a true assessment of yourself.
[00:00:30.364]You have to be brutally honest with yourself,
[00:00:33.979]we all have different study skills.
[00:00:36.567]We all have different ways we do things.
[00:00:40.581]Some of us are early morning, some of us are late
[00:00:43.608]and some of us are rush.
[00:00:46.809]Rush never gets it done.
[00:00:51.149]Rush has a lot of cavities in it.
[00:00:54.558](audience laughs)
[00:00:57.066]And one of the things you want to recognize is,
[00:01:00.819]the more you rush in doing things,
[00:01:04.780]the more you find out what you left out.
[00:01:09.994]And it makes you look bad.
[00:01:14.857]I always tell students, you study a night before the test,
[00:01:19.487]you fail the test, you still think about the test,
[00:01:23.845]and after three days that's when you understand
[00:01:26.682]what you left or didn't understand.
[00:01:29.624]You learn, but it doesn't show.
[00:01:31.619]Okay, so make sure you understand your potential.
[00:01:37.577]Look into your circumstances, then that will give you
[00:01:41.885]the opportunity to assess exactly what you want to do
[00:01:48.008]and how you want to do it.
[00:01:53.115]It's a time to be very honest with yourself
[00:01:57.192]because once you identify your strengths,
[00:02:01.169]it is a lot easier for you to cope
[00:02:03.688]with whatever the circumstances will be.
[00:02:08.935]Don't pretend, look at yourself in the mirror.
[00:02:12.965]It will also aid you in making choices of the type
[00:02:17.461]of graduate schools you want to attend,
[00:02:20.361]because you know your strengths
[00:02:22.328]and your weaknesses better than anyone else.
[00:02:28.178]Determine the academic environment
[00:02:29.793]that optimizes your chances to succeed.
[00:02:35.307]This is where culture comes in.
[00:02:38.766]This is where understanding mentorship comes in.
[00:02:45.759]There are professors whose interest is simply research,
[00:02:51.663]and they deal with that productivity,
[00:02:55.499]and they do not have the time to corral you
[00:02:59.904]all the time to do what you're supposed to do.
[00:03:03.488]So if you're not a self-motivated, a go-getter,
[00:03:08.094]that is not an environment for you.
[00:03:12.003]Okay, that basically tells you
[00:03:14.221]that you will not succeed in that environment.
[00:03:17.154]Understand the culture of the university.
[00:03:24.545]Do they have representations of people
[00:03:28.211]that you can relate to, and have made the environment
[00:03:31.526]comfortable for you in order to be able to be successful?
[00:03:35.789]Do you see the kind of people that you can study with,
[00:03:39.338]who can share experiences with you to make
[00:03:42.626]that environment amicable to your studies?
[00:03:47.367]Studies is not just reading your books.
[00:03:51.040]You have the emotional component of it.
[00:03:54.565]You have the social component of it,
[00:03:57.185]you're ability to be what?
[00:03:59.296]Engaged in the community that you are in,
[00:04:02.117]that allows you to be most relaxed
[00:04:04.798]and opportuned to succeed.
[00:04:07.806]Okay, these are all factors.
[00:04:12.372]Preparing a competitive packet.
[00:04:14.635]We've talked about this previously
[00:04:16.673]but we'll put some more emphasis on this.
[00:04:22.134]If you identify your strengths and weaknesses,
[00:04:26.866]and you go and search for schools that will adapt
[00:04:30.483]to this congruence that you're looking for,
[00:04:34.125]before you even start putting you application together,
[00:04:37.547]your first assignment is to visit that school,
[00:04:41.052]see what is out there, see how it matches
[00:04:43.931]with you because then it influences
[00:04:46.293]how quickly you want to do your packet.
[00:04:51.723]If you just say I'm going to grad school,
[00:04:53.604]I'm gonna apply to 10 schools and you start
[00:04:56.071]putting in all your applications to those schools,
[00:04:59.711]it doesn't really address a competitive approach
[00:05:03.973]because you really don't know exactly what it takes
[00:05:07.730]to succeed in that environment.
[00:05:11.988]All right, so that is key.
[00:05:17.075]Understand GRE scores.
[00:05:19.291]We talked about GREs.
[00:05:23.175]You have to understand those scores from the perspective
[00:05:27.435]of the school that you're trying to apply.
[00:05:31.956]Not just the cut off values.
[00:05:34.655]The cut off is the minimum.
[00:05:40.363]If you're applying for scholarships,
[00:05:45.827]and you apply and you are in at the minimum,
[00:05:50.113]where is your reference, at the bottom.
[00:05:53.252]So everybody else is on top.
[00:05:55.959]What is your realistic approach to obtaining anything?
[00:06:00.406]Zero, none.
[00:06:03.485]Do you see that?
[00:06:05.712]Don't aim at the bottom, so you must
[00:06:07.650]understand what those scores mean.
[00:06:10.390]Review the graduate admission process.
[00:06:14.948]It's like taking a test.
[00:06:18.722]I like to read all the questions, take two or three minutes.
[00:06:24.297]If it's a five problem exam, I want to spend
[00:06:27.480]the first five minutes reading all the questions.
[00:06:30.996]And why is that important to me?
[00:06:33.792]I start with the easiest one to me, it gives me confidence.
[00:06:38.183]I don't just say this is number one,
[00:06:39.669]let me start with number one, no.
[00:06:41.165]I read all the problems and by the time
[00:06:43.806]I start with the easier one,
[00:06:45.721]my brain is simmering on the other ones that I've read,
[00:06:49.436]so there is a process to that madness
[00:06:51.795]and you begin to see, so you review
[00:06:53.720]the graduate admission process.
[00:06:58.980]By elimination, you can look at the things
[00:07:01.077]you know you're very qualified for, that you can do easily
[00:07:05.113]and you can begin to see there's ones
[00:07:06.842]that will take you time and begin
[00:07:09.408]to approach those areas, like recommendations.
[00:07:16.019]Like the deadlines to admit all those things,
[00:07:18.650]to make sure that by the time that packet is put together,
[00:07:23.465]you are confident that you are going to make progress.
[00:07:29.798]All right.
[00:07:35.274]I think you can see that I'm ahead of myself.
[00:07:38.054]So you can match your, that meets your best needs,
[00:07:42.016]we've talked about that.
[00:07:43.321]You can at the same time, assess the nature
[00:07:47.401]of the chosen environment, I've talked about that.
[00:07:50.169]One key thing that most people miss,
[00:07:53.579]is that when you get into a department
[00:07:57.144]at graduate school and you meet with the faculty,
[00:08:00.971]you meet with an individual,
[00:08:02.646]you talk about the different research areas and so forth,
[00:08:06.370]there is an inherent learning process,
[00:08:11.039]something that life teaches you,
[00:08:14.223]that is understanding how well they work
[00:08:17.779]with their colleagues as they talk about
[00:08:20.224]their research areas at the places you're to visit.
[00:08:24.154]If you visit a school's website,
[00:08:27.347]you identify the research area you are interested in,
[00:08:30.767]you talk to that professor.
[00:08:33.929]Why is this important?
[00:08:36.228]If you're doing a research, and you're doing a thesis,
[00:08:40.908]you're gonna have a committee.
[00:08:44.871]A committee deals with assessing your work
[00:08:50.486]and agreeing to allow you to graduate.
[00:08:53.306]That's the easiest way I can put it to you.
[00:08:56.446]It's not about your passing or doing grade work,
[00:08:59.127]it's about allowing you to go.
[00:09:01.649]And if there's conflict among two of your team members,
[00:09:07.792]when one says yes, the other automatically says no.
[00:09:13.489]Guess who is caught in-between?
[00:09:16.183]We have an African proverb for that,
[00:09:18.455]when two elephants fight, the ground suffers.
[00:09:23.260]Elephants, when they fight, the ground suffers, okay?
[00:09:27.327]So if you're caught up in-between that,
[00:09:30.423]you have a big problem, you're never graduating,
[00:09:32.950]not on the fault of your own.
[00:09:35.218]So you need to understand that the faculty and the mentors
[00:09:41.085]that you're dealing with are always very good
[00:09:44.051]at loving each other, working together with each other,
[00:09:47.731]and looking out for your best interests.
[00:09:53.137]There are going to be challenges.
[00:09:56.268]Some of this can come from your background.
[00:10:00.409]All right, you may need past job prerequisites.
[00:10:05.561]Be prepared to meet that challenge.
[00:10:08.836]This is where your resourcefulness, your dedication,
[00:10:15.742]makes it a must, because you have assessed your potential,
[00:10:21.214]you know what it takes for you to get there.
[00:10:27.969]Okay, we've talked about the knowledge
[00:10:29.426]of the importance of GRE.
[00:10:30.860]So understand the components of your graduate packet.
[00:10:35.417]I've talked about that, I'm not gonna over labor the point
[00:10:38.133]as we go through this.
[00:10:41.493]The time and financial resources
[00:10:43.185]that you need are important.
[00:10:44.536]We've talked about all the things that you're going to do,
[00:10:48.209]there is no one single path to graduate school.
[00:10:54.131]Assuming you are first generation graduates from college,
[00:11:01.389]your priorities may be different.
[00:11:03.530]The most important thing to you, at that immaterial time
[00:11:07.588]would be to go to work.
[00:11:11.533]You want to make money, you want to care of your family.
[00:11:14.863]You're looking at all the expenses that your parents,
[00:11:17.943]so far have had to give you,
[00:11:19.398]you're looking at the debt you have.
[00:11:21.612]But at the same time, you're motivated
[00:11:23.098]to go into grad school.
[00:11:25.118]Your option would not necessarily mean that
[00:11:27.479]you have to go to grad school.
[00:11:29.434]You could be working and your company
[00:11:31.852]paying for your grad school, that's an option.
[00:11:38.423]If the company's going to pay for grad school,
[00:11:42.093]and you're making money,
[00:11:46.157]is there anything lost in going through grad school?
[00:11:50.143]You are meeting both requirements.
[00:11:52.541]But it is more difficult doing that.
[00:11:55.255]Because there are responsibilities at work
[00:11:57.030]that you have to meet and you must maintain,
[00:12:00.577]and at the same time maintaining
[00:12:01.928]the grades for them to pay, what?
[00:12:04.848]The tuition for you to get that.
[00:12:07.494]So you have play that game
[00:12:10.508]and understand the financial resources that you will need.
[00:12:16.921]Ensure that the investment will
[00:12:18.283]advance your career in the desired direction.
[00:12:22.186]In most cases, when you're coming out of college,
[00:12:27.002]you have not taken time to look through
[00:12:29.350]the spectrum of all what you can do with yourself.
[00:12:35.042]Sometimes it's very narrow, but if you get involved
[00:12:39.391]and you get into the industry,
[00:12:41.596]you begin to see opportunities.
[00:12:43.331]Or if you come to the university and visit
[00:12:45.754]and so like you're doing now,
[00:12:48.068]by the time you're out in these two days,
[00:12:50.305]you see different areas of research that may attract you
[00:12:53.977]to understand that, when they talk about transportation,
[00:12:56.814]it encompasses all aspects of engineering,
[00:13:00.124]business, and so forth.
[00:13:03.037]And it might even redirect your thought process from
[00:13:06.032]what you think you want to be to
[00:13:07.890]what now you want to become.
[00:13:10.572]Understand that.
[00:13:13.900]Look within to determine where you are
[00:13:18.452]and your proposed destination.
[00:13:20.536]Which means you have to establish a roadmap.
[00:13:26.292]What does a roadmap do for you?
[00:13:28.397]It's like benchmarks.
[00:13:31.410]In so and so number of years or two years
[00:13:34.143]or two semesters from now, here is where I want to be.
[00:13:37.952]That is always an iterative process.
[00:13:41.481]You have to revisit it, see whether you've done it right,
[00:13:46.516]have you achieved it?
[00:13:48.610]Did you excel?
[00:13:49.806]What are the shortcomings?
[00:13:51.429]And how do you improve?
[00:13:53.859]It's a lifecycle.
[00:13:58.239]Analyze your strengths, weaknesses,
[00:14:00.155]financial situation, and the social situation.
[00:14:04.786]I'm gonna emphasize the social part more than the rest
[00:14:07.903]because we've talked about the rest.
[00:14:10.484]The social part also deals with your emotions.
[00:14:14.053]If you're not emotionally stable, I don't care
[00:14:17.753]how smart you are, you will never concentrate.
[00:14:23.063]And if you don't concentrate,
[00:14:26.818]I don't care how well they know you,
[00:14:29.791]whatever you do is what they are going to judge you by.
[00:14:33.474]Let's give you a few life examples.
[00:14:36.863]Hundred meter races, well-prepared athletes.
[00:14:42.366]They stumble on the way, or they had a cramp.
[00:14:46.320]They could've won, they should've won, but they didn't.
[00:14:53.317]Were they ever remembered after the race?
[00:14:56.269]Never, okay, keep that in mind.
[00:14:58.835]It's a lifecycle, so you need to know that social aspect.
[00:15:05.235]I was very smart, I went to graduate school, I should
[00:15:09.117]have graduated, I could have graduated, but I didn't.
[00:15:14.301]Make sure that that social aspect, the emotional aspect
[00:15:17.895]of life is something that you balance and control
[00:15:22.929]to deal with your success, because that is an integral part
[00:15:26.194]of your graduate process.
[00:15:29.826]In understanding your potential, we've talked about this.
[00:15:33.281]Set short-term and long-term goals,
[00:15:35.663]and focus on achieving them,
[00:15:37.269]that's what benchmarks do.
[00:15:44.727]All of this form the basis of your decision process.
[00:15:48.628]Whether to do online, traditional graduate school,
[00:15:50.906]or go through what you would do when you are going through
[00:15:52.174]industry and all that stuff, okay?
[00:16:05.765]Look at the different institutions,
[00:16:07.862]and the benefits each of them will provide you.
[00:16:11.573]Identify specific schools that have degree programs
[00:16:14.468]and specializations in the area of your interest.
[00:16:26.837]This is the question everybody has been asking.
[00:16:29.085]When is the time right?
[00:16:31.550]The time is right when you have actually determined
[00:16:37.093]exactly what it is that you want to do,
[00:16:39.368]which school you want to apply to,
[00:16:41.980]and how you want to achieve that.
[00:16:45.837]It could be the first semester of your junior year.
[00:16:50.266]There are those that are so well motivated
[00:16:52.275]that they know two or three semesters ahead of time
[00:16:54.705]what they want to do.
[00:16:56.703]Then you go back to those sites, pick up the information
[00:16:59.788]that you need, start your application.
[00:17:05.444]What is the best way to know whether
[00:17:07.369]you are going to be successful or not?
[00:17:10.289]You know the robocalls.
[00:17:12.651]They call you all the time.
[00:17:14.545]Become a pest, that's what they call being proactive.
[00:17:21.073]Become a pest, you call the professor or the program head,
[00:17:27.586]ask too many questions, what happens when you keep
[00:17:31.237]calling and calling and calling?
[00:17:32.657]They remember your name, they remember your voice.
[00:17:36.812]If you're too irritating and they hear your voice
[00:17:38.768]they say take a message.
[00:17:41.764]But if you're very interesting, they see you as somebody
[00:17:46.278]that they're now keen to bring in.
[00:17:48.950]You may have some shortcomings in other areas,
[00:17:51.954]but that will be overlooked.
[00:17:53.335]Why?
[00:17:54.482]Because you have been very persistent.
[00:17:56.520]You have demonstrated interest.
[00:18:00.452]You have demonstrated interest.
[00:18:02.127]But if you are a passive person, and you submit it,
[00:18:06.844]you wait for time, you wait for everything to take place
[00:18:10.504]and whether you get it or not.
[00:18:12.617]What are your chances of success?
[00:18:15.138]Not very good.
[00:18:19.334]Not very good.
[00:18:22.955]Internships.
[00:18:25.701]Internships are a very good way of identifying precisely
[00:18:32.192]what it is that you want to know.
[00:18:35.695]There is no bad internship, you know that?
[00:18:40.622]There is no bad internship.
[00:18:42.936]Even if you come back and say this is not what I want to do,
[00:18:46.838]it eliminates the path that you don't want to take,
[00:18:50.008]and narrows your efforts to where you want to go.
[00:18:54.990]There is experience gained in every process.
[00:18:59.805]So while at the beginning you thought that area may be
[00:19:03.336]something of interest of you, having gone into it,
[00:19:07.282]given that approach, you now know that is not what you need.
[00:19:14.105]In the process, you may go in for one thing,
[00:19:20.067]and come back with a renewed interest to either better
[00:19:23.517]understand it, or make that your career choice.
[00:19:29.302]But once that decision is made, you see, you are now what?
[00:19:33.108]Focused, and that focal length is what drives your goals
[00:19:39.244]and objectives, and it will become your passion,
[00:19:43.083]and that it when you succeed.
[00:19:48.024]Ask yourself the following questions.
[00:19:50.893]Does the structure of this program
[00:19:52.473]fit my personal academic style?
[00:19:59.628]We just started with how you studied and all those things,
[00:20:02.299]does it fit my style?
[00:20:04.329]If it doesn't fit your style,
[00:20:06.026]your chances of success are slim.
[00:20:09.433]You want to make sure that is something
[00:20:12.127]you take into account.
[00:20:14.102]It's a good self-analysis of what happens.
[00:20:21.191]Are my study skills appropriate to
[00:20:24.707]the chosen program's level of difficulty?
[00:20:29.729]That's where the last-minute reading,
[00:20:32.456]the last minute thing doesn't help.
[00:20:38.744]If you read beyond what the professor assigned you,
[00:20:41.700]and you go to his office and ask more questions
[00:20:44.932]and inquire beyond that, guess what?
[00:20:48.554]He may give you something else to do,
[00:20:51.018]to enhance that knowledge, while at the back of his mind
[00:20:55.082]he is distinguishing you from the rest
[00:20:56.893]of the students in the class.
[00:21:00.160]And if you come back and he sees that,
[00:21:02.688]not only did you do what he asked you to do,
[00:21:06.160]you even came up with something new,
[00:21:09.126]even if you never had a scholarship or assistantship
[00:21:12.114]at the time, guess what he's gonna do?
[00:21:14.816]He's gonna give you something, because you are proactive.
[00:21:19.080]Think about those things.
[00:21:22.063]The level of social skills and self-confidence
[00:21:24.603]appropriate to succeed in that program?
[00:21:27.516]I've beaten that to death, so.
[00:21:29.991]Is my intellectual development advanced enough
[00:21:32.323]to succeed in that program?
[00:21:36.036]This is where your self-confidence comes in.
[00:21:38.864]And this is why I keep talking about
[00:21:40.517]understanding yourself.
[00:21:43.077]If you had a true assessment of yourself,
[00:21:45.803]you know your strengths and weaknesses,
[00:21:47.622]you know exactly what you need to do
[00:21:49.700]to make you succeed in that program.
[00:21:57.743]What qualities do the professor possess
[00:22:00.861]that would make them to be good advisors?
[00:22:03.766]This one is a tricky one.
[00:22:09.079]They have many students to advise.
[00:22:13.857]When you go to grad school, a professor may have
[00:22:17.469]five Masters students, three or four Ph.D. students,
[00:22:19.559]each of whom will what, require his time.
[00:22:27.826]And those research topics are different,
[00:22:32.422]so in those different angles, you have to be able
[00:22:35.637]to understand how to choose a good advisor.
[00:22:40.079]A good advisor, in my estimation, is one who listens
[00:22:43.915]to your problem that you want to solve
[00:22:46.185]because you come with a proposal.
[00:22:49.416]If it is in their research area, and they are interested
[00:22:52.700]in that topic, and they will tell you
[00:22:54.563]what they are doing in their lab, that is related to that,
[00:22:58.756]then they will pay you attention.
[00:23:00.712]But if it's something that is outside
[00:23:02.351]their environment of research, learn from the beginning
[00:23:06.909]that they are not gonna pay you too much attention.
[00:23:09.135]Because, not because they don't want to,
[00:23:12.121]because you're outside their domain,
[00:23:14.784]and that relationship will not be very good.
[00:23:19.524]Because the rest of the onus is upon you to produce,
[00:23:22.991]and make it be the case.
[00:23:24.402]So that is what it means by understanding that.
[00:23:28.235]You have to know how to relate to them.
[00:23:35.349]Do I have a good knowledge of my strengths and weaknesses,
[00:23:37.755]we've talked about that.
[00:23:41.235]Here is the one that I am always
[00:23:44.368]very, very passionate about.
[00:23:46.924]Most people are admitted straight into Ph.D. programs.
[00:23:51.135]They may have done enough work to have earned a Masters,
[00:23:55.070]but if they don't get their Ph.D.,
[00:23:56.669]they're still with a bachelor's degree,
[00:24:00.517]there is no in-between.
[00:24:03.811]You have to understand your strengths.
[00:24:05.765]And if you are in that type of a program,
[00:24:09.418]make sure that there is an outlet for you to get a Masters
[00:24:15.530]after you have done that if you are not finishing a Ph.D.
[00:24:20.050]Life happens, so let's keep that in mind.
[00:24:27.024]Know your limitations and plan for alternatives.
[00:24:30.706]Understand the options available to you as it relates
[00:24:33.899]to course variety and the number of professors
[00:24:36.574]in the area of your interests, this is critical.
[00:24:39.370]The number of professors in the area of your interest.
[00:24:42.615]If you go to a school where there is only one professor
[00:24:46.016]in the area of your interest, guess what?
[00:24:51.059]If you fall out with him, you have to go to another school.
[00:24:56.764]It's just that simple.
[00:25:00.128]And the other part of this is,
[00:25:03.844]your horizon of understanding in that area
[00:25:09.496]is limited to one person, beyond what you do.
[00:25:13.904]You want to have more than one person in that area,
[00:25:17.296]so that you will be able to balance out
[00:25:20.114]just as we're all different, with different backgrounds.
[00:25:24.391]Our thought processes are also different.
[00:25:28.877]Our thought processes are also different,
[00:25:32.403]and the prism from which we look at things
[00:25:36.445]are also related with our background.
[00:25:38.716]So if they have more than one person in that area,
[00:25:42.494]that will be the case, and you will benefit more
[00:25:45.002]from that than being stuck with one professor.
[00:25:51.483]Understand your degree plan, most of you
[00:25:54.049]don't even do it at an undergrad.
[00:25:57.817]Well this is the key to your success,
[00:26:00.563]this is the key to whether you graduate in four years,
[00:26:03.801]six years, two years, or one and half years, in grad school.
[00:26:10.023]Because once you understand your degree plan,
[00:26:13.313]and you look at your courses, and you identify
[00:26:16.379]your cavities, you have a realistic approach
[00:26:20.467]as to when you should graduate, what it takes,
[00:26:23.879]and how you should go there.
[00:26:27.798]See that?
[00:26:29.307]If you don't do that, you've not prepared yourself
[00:26:32.394]for grad school, or anything.
[00:26:37.209]That is key.
[00:26:40.869]It will identify the additional requirements
[00:26:44.076]that you will need before starting your program.
[00:26:47.215]Or,
[00:26:50.513]if you think through the whole process
[00:26:54.465]and you understand that you've met all those things,
[00:26:56.640]but you have a different area of interest as well,
[00:26:59.531]there are courses that will aid you that you want to take,
[00:27:03.295]in order to allow you to make sure that
[00:27:04.917]that becomes a reality for you.
[00:27:08.402]Examine if the structure fits your study style.
[00:27:12.332]Improve your writing skills, as this is expected of you.
[00:27:18.136]You will deal with this in communications tomorrow.
[00:27:23.087]But this is the only thing about communication
[00:27:28.318]that I'm going to make you live with,
[00:27:30.205]if you don't remember anything else.
[00:27:33.160]There is what you say or write, there is what it means,
[00:27:37.652]and what others understand it to be.
[00:27:40.136]And those three are not the same.
[00:27:45.644]Want you to remember this, when you say something,
[00:27:48.882]or write something, there is what you mean,
[00:27:54.458]there is what it means,
[00:27:56.361]and there is what others understand it to be.
[00:27:58.661]And those three are not the same.
[00:28:04.547]When they match, there is harmony.
[00:28:10.162]When they're not, there is discord,
[00:28:13.315]and that discord could be very detrimental.
[00:28:16.827]So, improve your writing skills,
[00:28:18.681]think through what you are saying,
[00:28:20.676]abstract yourself from it when you write it
[00:28:23.125]and that is where your personal statement
[00:28:24.730]and all those things that are crucial,
[00:28:26.868]see if you understand it to mean
[00:28:30.309]exactly what you thought you were saying.
[00:28:33.245]If not, refine it and get it
[00:28:36.034]to that point where you begin to understand yourself.
[00:28:42.367]Write a successful statement, I alluded to that when Yohan
[00:28:46.779]took my time so I'm not going to speak about that.
[00:28:49.811](audience laughs)
[00:28:52.328]Be very clear about your goals, and how this specific
[00:28:56.321]program you're applying to best will place you
[00:29:00.370]to achieve them.
[00:29:02.014]This is when you have done your critical thinking.
[00:29:06.724]This is when you have done your critical thinking.
[00:29:07.901]You are going to a program.
[00:29:08.734]Even if you are going to look for job,
[00:29:17.040]understand the culture of the company,
[00:29:20.787]and when you're going for an interview,
[00:29:22.730]you're not going to tell them you need a job,
[00:29:25.266]you're going there to tell them how
[00:29:27.745]you'll best fit the company profile,
[00:29:31.673]and what you bring to the company.
[00:29:34.940]Here, you're looking at what?
[00:29:37.759]The program, okay so this is what I've found
[00:29:41.106]from your program, these are the professors I have seen
[00:29:43.905]that are in the area of my interest, what they're doing,
[00:29:46.992]this is what I bring to the table
[00:29:48.448]and see how this will aid me to succeed.
[00:29:51.641]That is a much better and powerful way of selling yourself
[00:29:55.406]and making them understand that you truly put some thought
[00:30:00.161]into your application and what you're trying to do,
[00:30:02.429]rather than saying I need to be in this school
[00:30:04.892]because you have a good program,
[00:30:07.358]I'm going to graduate and get a job.
[00:30:09.571]Who will pay too much attention to that?
[00:30:13.729]Address the anticipated impacts of your research
[00:30:17.216]on the field of relevance to you.
[00:30:20.213]This is not rocket science,
[00:30:23.691]this is how you feel, what you perceive
[00:30:27.570]to be where you are heading, and the relevance to you.
[00:30:34.641]It's not a research paper that you're going to publish,
[00:30:38.397]it's not the one that gives you
[00:30:39.660]too many references and all that.
[00:30:42.102]No, you are looking at yourself and saying,
[00:30:44.495]if I do this, I can help this, okay,
[00:30:49.760]take it from the point of safety,
[00:30:52.432]what impact do you think your research is going to provide?
[00:30:55.553]And what exactly do see this bringing to people?
[00:31:03.624]If you have significant research experience,
[00:31:06.806]your statement of purpose should demonstrate your abilities.
[00:31:13.793]This is where you talk about your internships,
[00:31:18.955]if you've published with your undergraduate faculty,
[00:31:24.298]if you've talked to different professors
[00:31:27.369]and you worked with them, and you have discovered something.
[00:31:31.505]It lays the foundation to tell the school, the department
[00:31:35.234]that you have the tools, you have the background,
[00:31:39.804]to jump into research and be successful.
[00:31:43.172]And maybe, with this the first semester you're coming,
[00:31:46.780]the professor is saying okay we're beginning you
[00:31:49.082]on this research part, let's get this done
[00:31:52.181]and make it happen.
[00:31:55.954]I've already talked about your letter or recommendation,
[00:31:58.883]they should be personal, specific to what you have done,
[00:32:05.041]and be a good character witness for you in all senses.
[00:32:10.067]Because it demonstrates what you know.
[00:32:15.839]The most effective one from a faculty member
[00:32:18.927]who knows your work and can describe
[00:32:20.911]your performance relative to your classmates.
[00:32:26.117]Because there is context in what is being said here.
[00:32:34.510]I've talked about that already.
[00:32:37.626]We've talked about importance of this, so I'm gonna skip
[00:32:40.027]this part for the element of time, but let's do this.
[00:32:46.039]I want to give you, you can go do this,
[00:32:50.599]this is that chart that I want to leave you with.
[00:32:54.145]In everything you do in life,
[00:32:58.770]you have choices and decisions to make.
[00:33:05.751]You have choices and decisions to make.
[00:33:10.167]Look through what you are trying to do,
[00:33:13.014]your academic and professional environment.
[00:33:18.485]If you don't have, you want to make a decision
[00:33:20.878]between full-time, do you want to be a full-time student.
[00:33:27.489]Remember all of those things that I talked about.
[00:33:30.236]All the parameters that come
[00:33:31.601]into your decision to make them.
[00:33:33.813]If it is no, that you don't want it to be a full-time,
[00:33:37.538]get your company to pay for you.
[00:33:38.983]Some of it could be online, and you can do it.
[00:33:42.675]I had a student who graduated from my school,
[00:33:47.832]he worked for Sikorski, he did his Masters
[00:33:52.262]in systems engineering at USC,
[00:33:57.354]worked in Connecticut, and had his Masters doing it online.
[00:34:03.909]The company paid for it.
[00:34:06.152]Now he's making a lot of money.
[00:34:07.858]He's left that company, they wanted him back,
[00:34:10.514]he's asking for more money.
[00:34:13.223]If the environment for you is such
[00:34:15.306]that you can go full-time,
[00:34:17.668]in both cases you want to go back
[00:34:20.185]and look at the requirements for those things
[00:34:21.984]your degree requirements go through this process.
[00:34:27.151]Full-time, fine funding opportunities,
[00:34:30.800]deal with your research, prepare to meet the challenges,
[00:34:36.415]strive to succeed.
[00:34:39.577]Less than full-time, assess issues,
[00:34:46.984]you want to deal with lack of face-to-face,
[00:34:49.134]when you're a number, you are less remembered.
[00:34:56.807]So remember that pest, persistence in communication
[00:34:58.187]we call it one persistent system.
[00:34:59.020]So you have to constantly troubleshoot it,
[00:34:59.853]and then the faculty will never forget you.
[00:35:15.579]I hope it made an impression on you
[00:35:17.382]in your decision process.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Tags:
ntc
matc
nebraska transportation center
mid-america transportation center
matc scholars program
scholars program
graduate school
ibibia dabipi
university of maryland-eastern shore
umes

Comments

0 Comments

2017 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Ibibia Dabipi

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments