Blk + In Grad School

Marquis is an advisor and program coordinator at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, writer, and host of @detroitworldwidepodcast. His journey started as a freshman conditionally accepted to Wayne State University. He says he bloomed where he was planted, serving students as a peer mentor which inspired his career path to serve minoritized, first-gen students as a career. Listen to this week's episode about his experience as a graduate student while juggling. multiple jobs. It's still a story in the Full-Time Series because this is the reality for so many folks; So many of us have` to work on top of an assistantship stipend to make ends meet and the timing spent working equals up to a full-time job while in grad school full time. He shares his approach to handling all his jobs, navigating grad school, and making authentic connections as a grad student.

Follow Marquis on Instagram at @detroitworldwidepodcast @mtaylor313 or on Twitter @mtaylor313 @detroitworldpod

Quianna grad school journey started in a centerpiece of Black American culture, the shop! A hairstylist turned social worker, she was always finding resources to help her clients. When she decided to go back to school in 2006 to finish her Bachelor's degree, she then realized that social work was the career that would allow her to amplify and empower voices. She got more than she bargained for when she was encouraged to continue and complete her MSW. Listen in to this episode to hear how Quianna pursued her MSW working full time on top of titles as mom, new wife, and the one of the brilliant minds behind @non_tradish. She shares her unorthodox study hours, her prioritization method, and negotiation skills that helped get her through.

Follow and support Non-Tradish! Link: https://www.instagram.com/non_tradish/

Learn more or join the Scholar Circle, the accountability and productivity community that offers resources and support for holistic development. When you’re a member of the Scholar Circle you’ll find trainings, templates and tools that help you stay organized, streamline your research, and boosts your productivity. We just wrapped up the Fall semester and will be starting again on January 19th, if you’re interested head to blkingradschool.com/jointsc

Nicole (@_nicoleblah) is working on her PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Mercer University where her research focus is black women's wellness and perinatal mental health. We talked about her path to psychology from another path and really demystify the clinical psychology education process --which at her university is different from the usual research-dissertation process we think of. She then shares how she balances grad school, work, and family. There's a strategy she uses for reading that is freaking ingenious, seriously. Even if you aren't working full time with family while earning a graduate degree, Nicole dops gems on wellness with the warmest yet firm approach I've heard. Definitely perfect as we continue this series about balancing work & school and wrap up this year.

Learn more or join the Scholar Circle, the accountability and productivity community that offers resources and support for holistic development. When you’re a member of the Scholar Circle you’ll find trainings, templates and tools that help you stay organized, streamline your research, and boosts your productivity. We just wrapped up the Fall semester and will be starting again on January 19th, if you’re interested head to blkingradschool.com/jointsc

When Bianca (@bjesus89) went away to college with aspirations to teach, but when she realized K-12 wasn't for her she pivoted to Higher Ed and hasn't looked back since. Her career moved her to Pittsburgh back in 2017, and she decided after 7.5 years in the profession to pursue an Ed.D. Bianca is now in her second year of her Ed.D. at the University of Pittsburgh focusing on the development of first-generation, low-income students in predominately white spaces. She still works full-time so we talk about how she juggles work and school as well as maintaining a really full social life! Listen in as she shares her thought process for picking her program, how she speaks up for herself in the classroom (and tips on how you can too), and her approach for maintaining balance.

Learn more or join the Scholar Circle, the accountability and productivity community that offers resources and support for holistic development. When you’re a member of the Scholar Circle you’ll find trainings, templates and tools that help you stay organized, streamline your research, and boosts your productivity. We just wrapped up the Fall semester and will be starting again on January 19th, if you’re interested head to blkingradschool.com/jointsc

Sam is one of my Detroit homies. We met about 7 years ago (gasp!) after he accepted a job at General Motors where he's moved up to Reporting Analyst. He finished up an MBA in Information Systems and Global Supply Chain and is now a second Master's in Marketing Business Analytics. We discuss his work-life balance -- because let me tell you, Sam lives it up!--as well as his decision to pursue a second Master's to best position himself for the career he wants. And of course, we talk about the coins and how Sam has funded his education so far.

Follow Sam on Insta: @sam_goin_ham1

Also!Join in on this conversation on Monday 12/14 where GRE will be hosting a virtual event to begin the conversation about admission bias, the current climate for graduate education amongst students of color, and more. I’ll be serving as one of the panelists in the conversation and invite you to share your thoughts. Come join me on December 14, 2020, at 2 pm EDT Link for registration: http://bit.ly/39UHKDU

Adebukola Ajao (IG @baddisparateyouth) is a graduate student at Northeastern University set to finish her Master’s in Digital Media this month! She was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellow which fully funds her studies in exchange for work in her community. It doesn’t stop there though, Adebukola works full time as a program advisor at a local high school, runs her multimedia agency. She's a highly motivated woman wearing many hats, and we've chopped it about her decision to go back to grad school + how she balances everything on her plate. Her #1 strategy for balancing it all follows Toni Morrison’s writing routine.

Adebukola’s interview is the first of a series all about going to grad school full time and working full time. I know so many of you are juggling school, family, work and I absolutely commend you! Idk, how ya’ll do it and I often get questions about how to balance grad school and working full-time so I found a bunch of folks to share their story with us!

Get the latest update from Blk + in Grad School at blkingradschool.com/links

The letter of recommendation can be a great tool in telling your story in a graduate school or fellowship application. You want to include a skill/character they could speak to. Providing what you want each recommender to speak on (and the angle they address the skill/character) can assist them with crafting their letters. Professors are super busy and organized emails with this specificity help them quickly write your letter because they don't have to start from scratch or rely on their memory. Ultimately making your letters stronger and better received by admissions committees.

Here's how I organize my recommenders when I applied to grad school and I'm using this now as I apply to fellowships. You can get a copy of my worksheet to keep track of all of this in 'Get to Grad School', a FREE email series I created about APPLYING TO GRADUATE SCHOOL. This 7-day series was developed to help you prepare your best application so you can attend the school of your dreams!

- FREE.99: Applicants can spend over $1,200 during application season and still not be admitted anywhere. Reduce your costs by more than 60% and increase your chances of being admitted!Application costs can exceed $1, 000 so you need

- One Worksheet for all your apps: Find everything you need to application season in one worksheet. Makes your life less frustrating and progress easy to track.

- Packaged with HBCU ❤️ : Created by yours truly, this e-course has a some flavor to it. Rap references, memes alldat.

Sign up today at blkingradschool.com/apply

Are you or someone you know heading to grad school? Hopefully, you or they know how important funding is for grad school. Some schools are great about funding, others are..not so much. Either way, securing funding is very important. I hosted a webinar a while back covering a bunch of strategies I've used and taught about funding.

Graduate school can be really expensive, on average a graduate degree in the U.S. can cost $30,000-$40,000 a year. You’ve probably been told you don't have to pay for graduate school but no one really explains how to go to grad school for free.

Nowadays, it can sometimes feel like an undergraduate degree is not enough anymore and that you need a graduate degree if you want a decent job. Or you may feel like you need a break and may get burnout from so much school. These are two of many legitimate concerns that you need to explore for mapping out your educational journey for this round of applications.

If you’re considering secondary education and don’t know if you want to pursue a Masters or Ph.D., this episode is for you. Allante’ sits down to discuss the differences, the pros and cons, and the approach to picking which degree is most beneficial for you. She touches on “The Illustrated guide to Ph.D.’s” by Dr. Matt Mike, which addresses the circle of human knowledge.

When you’re considering secondary education you may ask yourself, “Do I really need a Masters in this field? What do I gain from getting a Ph.D.?” Allante’ answers those questions with more questions to help you dig deeper on your journey. “What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Do you want to be an expert on a topic, or do you want to gain knowledge on a topic and specialize and be a specialist where you know where to get answers and figure things out?”

Sit and relax as you listen to Aya share her thoughts on diversity in academia and strategies that universities can implement to truly embrace and embody diversity. Aya Waller-Bay is a sociology Ph.D. student at University of Michigan examining the identity narration of black students in the application process. On this episode Aya and I discuss the personal statement that students submit for scholarship and college admissions.

Aya shares her own story in personal statement and how it inspired her to explore how the admission process has influenced the way marginalized individuals share their trauma. Aya also shares a story related to this topic, like a lot of first-generation, low-income students.

You can follow Aya on Instagram + Twitter: @aya__marie