The Advice

In a recent training for TA’s, Dr. Harrell was asked to talk about his experience with Grad schools and give us some tips and ideas to think about.
Dr. Harrell went to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah for his undergraduate studies, Illinois State in Normal, Illinois for his masters, and the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho for his PhD. He has been teaching as an English professor at Brigham Young University – Idaho since 1995.

I write his credentials because he advised us to talk to all of our professors and find out from them where they went to school. Their insight on the different institutions they went to is valuable in making a decision about grad school.

He talked to us about the usual things about graduate school—the different emphases, how grad school ran (classes at night, teaching classes during the day), how many credits it took—but the most interesting piece of advice came right at the end in a rush of hushed voice for emphasis.

“Pick a school that suits your home life.” Or in other words somewhere where you want to be, whether it means being close to your family or not (depending on personal preference). Why? Why that piece of advice?