Try your best to reach out to faculty and make connections with people who share the same passions as you. Everyone at the University of Guelph is happy to share their expertise and provide guidance, and those connections are very valuable in expanding your knowledge and reaching your goals.
See graduate school as an opportunity to grow in many different ways. UofG has plenty of wonderful research opportunities, and a big part of being a researcher is the chance to communicate your research to different audiences. Graduate school is an awesome opportunity to become a more well rounded person from developing problem solving skills as a researcher to sharpening communication skills, all of which are crucial for any walk of life you end up travelling down.
Think hard and explore the options of different pathways you can take in graduate studies. Make the best out of grad school, be social and go to events to meet others in your program. Enjoy your time here, it goes by extremely fast.
To future graduate students, it is important to keep a clean, legible, and logical lab notebook! Also remember that your brain is your best weapon to succeed in graduate school and it functions best when it is well-rested; only pull all-nighters if necessary. Learn to manage your time and try not to do multiple things at once; multi-tasking in the lab can lead to errors in experiments. Finally, enjoy your time and get all the food and freebies from conferences and other events!
I've been very privileged and lucky since coming to Guelph for my undergraduate degree back in 2010 as all of the opportunities I have been given have been gained through building strong relationships with faculty and staff on campus and finding mentors that have helped guide me along my career path. I've always found that the people on campus are incredibly giving and willing to devote their time to help out students. I've also found that simply starting with expressing an interest to be more involved and showing initiative can go a very long way to opening doors to new opportunities.
Graduate Studies is nothing like your undergraduate, it is one hundred times better. However, you must make sure that you choose a topic that you are interested in for your MRP (Major Research Paper) or Thesis. If you do, it will be a great experience. The biggest lessons you will learn will not be in the classrooms, but from your seminar sessions with your own students, one on ones with your professors and advisors but mostly from the people in your cohort. It is a lot of work, but it worth every minute.
