Attending NC State University for my undergraduate career was one of the best and most enriching experiences of my life. Because of my love for the Wolfpack, I was eager to join the Institute for Advanced Analytics. I assumed it would feel like an extension of my undergraduate experience.
After just a few days in graduate school, I quickly realized that several aspects of being a student at the Institute were drastically different from being an NC State undergraduate student.
While I continue to sport NC State’s red and white proudly, I have added the Institute’s blue and orange to my collection.
I majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology, so I spent all of my time on Main Campus. However, the Institute is housed on Centennial Campus, which I seldom ever visited in undergrad. This year, I drove to my classes, which I never did previously. Some students at the Institute walked, but the majority drove to our classes because the parking deck is conveniently located, and not many students lived within walking distance.
During my undergraduate work, I had a lot of free time, which is typical for most students to have time between classes. On average, I had around two classes a day, and there would even be some days of the week when I would not have any classes at all. I would often get my work done in between classes or on free days. At the Institute, however, classes start at 9 am every day, and I we were usually finished with classes around 3-4 pm. The undergraduate “uniform” usually consists of sweatpants and a t-shirt – just about anything you can throw on before you leave the door. In contrast, at the Institute, we wear business casual attire every day and business formal when meeting with employers. Dressing in professional clothing and being in the building for a full day has been an amazing primer for what a full-time job would look like. We treat the Institute as if it is our office.
In college, almost all of your peers are similar to you in age. Typically, you enter your Freshman year as an eager 18-year-old surrounded by thousands of other 18-year-olds just like you. This is not the norm in graduate school. The person to the right of you in class may be married with children. The person to the left of you could have already obtained their Ph.D. and is coming back for more school. My fellow classmates joined the Institute from various different walks of life, and it has been so refreshing to learn other people’s advice and perspectives.
There are so many aspects of the Institute that make it so uniquely different from undergrad and from other graduate schools. It is an amazingly formative graduate program that I could not be more thankful to be a part of. While the Institute is so different from the NC State undergraduate experience I had, I love it all the same. I am still proud to be a member of the Wolfpack and to sport my new orange and blue school colors.
Columnist: Becca Chemmanam