Grad School: The Other Side of the Story

There are various books and websites from talk about the challenges and awards of pursuing graduate studies. To outsiders of academia, grad school is a glamorous and wonderful intellectual paradise. After all, who would discourage their kids from pursuing higher education? Education is good right?

This book is a collection of my experiences and a few others that dared to speak up. In February of 2012, I have decided to put our experiences and share with anyone that cares to read it. Anyone with negative experiences in grad school can tell you that these experiences are never advertised and never taken seriously. They are simply forgotten and dismissed by others. I remember the first time my friend complained to me about the quality of his graduate education, I listened as a friend but I dismissed the claims like a skeptic. I thought he was simply not fit or not smart enough to endure the challenges. Throughout the years, I have heard similar stories from a number of students who had similar experiences, across different universities and fields with different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Still, I did not fully believe, until I experienced it myself.

I have kept everything anonymous and wish to remain this way, knowing that I would be offending a large number of people. This is a story of my graduate education that took place at a Canadian university. It is important to note that the purpose is not to degrade a particular university or higher education in Canada, but to voice the experiences of the concerned and the unfortunate.