To add on to the “You Don’t Need Permission” section: So many students go through their education as if they’re on rails. Don’t do that! You don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing, you are paying good money for a graduate school education and you should get your money’s worth (read: It’s not about the money, it’s about creating an experience that doesn’t waste two years of your life doing schoolwork that bores you):

- Challenge prerequisites when it makes sense,

- Take courses outside of your department,

- Definitely do independent studies (I did two and they were some of the best things I did),

- Do internships and volunteer in places that surprise you,

- And please please please don’t be a sheep. Just because “everyone else” thinks something is hard doesn’t mean it is. Just because “everyone else” is bitching about a professor or an assignment doesn’t mean its not worthwhile. Just because “everyone else” is taking X number of classes doesn’t mean you can’t take more (or less). And finally, if you see something you’d like to do, ASK! There are a lot of guidelines in academic departments that are not hard-and-fast policy, they’re just what “everyone else” does/has been doing, so a conversation or two (or simply a signature) can get you what you want, which is probably not written into the student handbook. “Ask and you shall receive” is a good rule of thumb.

Good luck to all the students out there, and thanks Andy for this post. The students that take it to heart will have a much better library school experience as a result.

This sounds like spam but isn’t–I’m just pissed I ripped myself off to the tune of about $30,000, and trying to save anyone else that same mistake.

I am doing an online program (I am close enough, where I may do one or two courses in person, possibly….). I will most likely not have the opportunity for doing volunteer time, or taking a low level position just for the experience, as I need the money from my current job. So how difficult is this going to be to get a position? My current thought is that I want to head into medical librarianship if possible, but am of course leaving all possibilities open (I already have an m.s. biology).