The 10 Differences Between Undergrad and Grad School

Wow. It’s been a while since I wrote a school-related post. I bet y’all didn’t think you’d be seeing one again ever since I graduated university back in 2018. But, here I am because surprise! Your girl is doing her MBA. Ever since I took the leap and became a graduate student, one of the questions that I get asked the most by my friends and family is how does my MBA experience differ from my undergraduate BCom experience? They’re both business-related degrees so how different could they really be? Before I went into grad school, I honestly didn’t think that a Master’s degree would diverge hugely from my bachelor degree, but boy, was I wrong. But luckily, they’re all positive differences for the most part! Now, there is one thing to mention. Obviously my MBA has been greatly different from my BCom so far because of COVID and having to attend my classes virtually, but for the sake of this post, I’m not going to discuss any of those differences here. I want to focus solely on the differences between undergrad and grad school regardless of this pandemic. So, read on to hear about the 10 ways my MBA journey is different from my BCom experience so far!

1 . MBA classes are fascinating. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my undergrad classes but I definitely find all of my graduate classes absolutely fascinating! You have full control to take what you are actually interested or what’s applicable to your career or industry. This semester I am taking a Women and Leadership class, The Manager as a Strategist class and a Corporate Sustainability class. And I love each of them!

2. There’s a whole range of guest speakers. Throughout my entire undergraduate degree, I probably only had one or two guest speakers come talk to my class. Grad school couldn’t be more different. In two of my classes, I have guest speakers every single class. And they’re AMAZING guest speakers. To date I’ve had talks from CEO’s of local companies, prime ministers and vice presidents of large corporations. I’ve learned so much from their experiences and advice.

3. You are taught less theory and more real world examples and experiences. It seemed like for the majority of my undergrad degree, we really only learned the foundations and theory of business principles. Although this is important and makes sense, it’s not always the most fun to have to memorize all these frameworks. In grad school, it’s all about real world examples and applying what you already know to further your learning. I find it exercises my brain so much more! I love it.

4. There are way less tests. It’s all about the ‘triple P’ in grad school (yes, I just invented the term ‘triple P’): papers, projects and presentations. Although papers, projects and presentations are much more time consuming, I find them so much more rewarding than writing a test! Plus, it saves me from the horrible exam anxiety I often experienced during my undergrad!

5. Profs are constantly telling you how smart you are but are also holding you to high standards. I have never been called smart as many times as I have throughout my first month in the MBA program. Everyone just assumes you’re freaking brilliant and honestly, it’s a lot to live up to. I am definitely feeling a bit of the Imposter Syndrome right about now.

6. All of your classmates actually want to be here, no one is slacking off. I have never met a more engaged group of people. Everyone is keen to do their share of the project, participate in class discussions and share their thoughts. You don’t catch anyone texting away during their (Zoom) lecture and breakout rooms are never void of interesting debates.

7. It’s surprisingly easy to make friends, there are no cliques and no drama. Everyone is in that point in their lives where they’re open to new friendships. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the people I met during my undergrad which probably explains why I didn’t branch out from my current group of friends during those four years but so far everyone in my MBA program are so nice and so cool and so fun!

8. Grades aren’t as important. It’s all about your extracurriculars and learning. The importance is placed on the knowledge and skills you get out of the program rather than the GPA on your transcript. It took me a little while to stop focusing on the mark I got and instead focus on what I learned along the way. Although I am still striving for that 4.0.

9. It’s all about class participation. Everyone is expected to share their own thoughts and experiences to add to each other’s learning. You can’t just sit back and listen. You really do get out of it what you put in. I’ve (virtually) raised my hand more in the past month than I did all four years of my undergrad.

10. There are many more resources available to you. I may be slightly biased since I work in the MBA office but there are career advisors, program advisors and student engagement advisors to ensure you get the most out of the program and are set up for success when you graduate. There’s also a bunch more networking events because if there’s one thing MBA students love, it’s networking.

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For more school help, check out my University Advice post from first year, as well as my Second Year Tips, Third Year Tips and Fourth Year Tips, and my What I Wish I Told My Freshman Self post. For those still in high school, take a look at my High School edition post and my Differences between High School and University. For even more advice, you can wander over to my updated Study Tips post, my old Study Tips post, my How to Study like a Pro post and my How to Save Money at Uni post.