Hi everyone, it's Pavla and welcome to another student vlog. In this video, I will reflect on
my year at LSE and I will share with you what they don't tell you about a master's programme
at LSE. In other words, this is what I found to be the most challenging part about the experience.
Before I get started, I want you to think about what you may already know about LSE. For me,
it was the high standards of learning, professors and faculty members who are at the forefront of
their fields, and a global and largely successful alumni network. So with these things in mind, I
thought that this programme is definitely going to be academically challenging. And yes, it really,
really was, but what I actually found to be the most difficult part about my experience at LSE was
managing my time while I was doing my master's. From my experience, time management might be the
thing that can make or break you. And I'm not here to scare you or anything, but I hope that
sharing with you what grad school was really like realistically will help you be better prepared for
your time at LSE. But before we go any further, let me just note that again this is based off
of my own experience with my own programme. Things may be similar or different with the
other programmes, and of course it also depends on your own academic and personal lifestyle. Alright,
so let's first talk about the academic workload. So I had to do three courses for each of my two
terms at LSE, plus a dissertation prep course in the second term. And three courses per term may
not sound like much and to be honest I thought it sounded too little when I first started. But
looking back at my first term at LSE, just so I could give you guys some specific details,
I had seven and a half hours of lectures and seminars spread throughout the week. That's
two to three hours for each course per week spent with your lecturer or seminar leader and with your
peers. But actually most of my time was spent for preparation and in self-study. I look back at the
first few weeks so I can show you guys just how much reading I had to do and it was about 100 to
200 pages a week for all three courses. On top of that, because my program is in Gender and Media,
sometimes I had to watch some additional videos, maybe even an entire film. And,
in fact, in my second term I did a film theory class, so on top of doing just my readings, I also
had to watch an entire film each week. So this is just to give you an idea of the most basic work I
had to do for my courses. There are other things that you may want to consider such as additional
time for doing further readings and research, some outside the classroom discussions or study
group with your peers, and also attending office hours with faculty members. And of course while
you're at LSE, outside from your own programme, you may want to participate in other academic
or extracurricular activities. These are largely optional but I found that students did tend to do
at least one of these. I'll just give you a few of my examples. So for me I felt like I needed
to improve my writing, so I participated in a weekly hour-long academic writing seminar. Again,
this is optional but it is available to you at LSE if you feel like you need help with this. There
are also department or school-wide events such as social activities, networking, career events,
guest lectures, and so much more that are quite beneficial to you. So I do highly suggest trying
to attend some of these. It is definitely a big part of LSE culture. So let's say that this may
add an hour or two per week depending on how much you would like to participate. And as I mentioned,
you may want to have an extracurricular activity or two or more depending up to you. For me,
I served as the Student Academic Representative for my programme and I also served on the LSE
Student Education Panel. These extracurriculars may not happen as often or as regularly,
but they definitely do add to your workload and responsibilities. But as I mentioned earlier,
I still think it is a great idea to participate in the wider LSE community, especially if you want to
gain more experience and meet some new people. On top of the academics and the school activities,
I also chose to work part-time while I was in London. And as an international student,
I am limited by my visa to work a maximum of 20 hours a week during term time. But in
reality I think I would work only 10 to 15 hours per week because of all the different
things I had to do for school. So I worked two different part-time jobs. I worked as a server
in a restaurant and of course as one of your LSE student content creators. And as life is
not all about work and school, I definitely wanted to have free time, especially living
in a different city and having the opportunity to explore and travel. On this note, I really want to
say that there was so much I wanted to do in my one year here. And I was able to do some of it,
but it's just impossible to do it all with the workload and the limited time. And I just have to
stress that this one year went by just so quickly and it was just so busy. So there you have it.
Those are what would be the major components of what grad school looked like for me. And to be
honest, there was a lot of decision-making and sacrificing and having to choose one thing over
the other. I guess the word I am looking for here is prioritizing. So I would say to think about why
you're here and what you would really want to get from your experience at LSE. Is it just to get the
master's degree? Is it to do really well because you plan on doing further studies like getting a
PhD? Is it to get more work experience, to network and meet more people, or is it getting to live in
a new city or getting to explore some different places and so on? I think just being really honest
with yourself and knowing what you can handle is key. It is really important to remember that
your time at LSE is limited so managing your time as wisely and responsibly as possible will help
you make most of your year here. I hope through this video I was able to give you some important
insights into what grad school is really like at LSE and to give you guys some advice from
my time here. Thank you so much for watching everyone and I will see you in my next one.