Big fish, small Pond

Grade school: 26 classmates. 

High School: 99 classmates. 

College: starting 755, graduating 348 classmates, 23 from my discipline.  

Masters: 122 classmates, 8 from my discipline. 

PhD: 6,500 other grad students, 20 classmates in my cohort, 35,000 undergrads.

Up until my PhD, I have been living in a few small ponds. My class sizes in grade school were larger than my college and master’s degree class sizes. There were a few classes where there would be six students and one professor. They knew us by name, details about my life, my goals, what professors I was working with, etc. They knew me. I was never so thankful for that support and personal attention until I attended my first few days of my PhD. Sure, most of my classes are 15-18 students, but as a whole, this university is HUGE! There are people everywhere, all the time. Here, they ask me what my student number is (which I have no clue) almost daily. Here, I have to chase people down for registration, enrollment, grant/ stipend issues. And because everyone is so busy, you are not a priority. “They will get to it.” It is one of the most frustrating things to encounter. Case and point, two weeks ago I realized that I was not enrolled in the classes I registered for. As it turned out, the cashiers department put a hold on my account because I had an outstanding balance. Now the great thing about getting a PhD is that it’s free. No tuition or incidentals comes out of my pocket, my grant and fellowship pays for it. So this outstanding balance had nothing to do with me but with the administration of my department. After daily emails and even a few meetings, my paperwork was being continually passed around. No one knew who to talk with so that my issue was fixed. It was now a few days before class was to begin. Again, I continually followed up, “just checking to see what the status is….” The response “so and so has to sign off on it, then so and so has to enter it in the system.” Very. Frustrating. Today, the first day of the semester, I was still not enrolled in my classes. Five hours of badgering phone calls, meetings, emails. I am finally enrolled in my classes, the balance is paid, the hold is removed. I profusely thanked those who actually assisted me in getting this taken care. Something that should never have happened in the first place. But every phone call, every email, there was never “hi, what can I help you with?” Nope, I got “what’s your student number” as my greeting. The beauty of being a ‘big fish in a small pond’, is that relationship, that personal and personable relationship. And I understand readers will think, “oh, you chose a big school.” Yes, I chose the program and the benefits of a government position. Because I know that in the long run, being a small fish in a big pond is only temporary.  That working at CERC allows me to still be a big fish in a small pond. And I know that I am my strongest advocate, and badgering and probably being downright annoying got things accomplished. So I guess my takeaway from my last two weeks is, make sure you are a big fish in your own pond, and remind everyone in the big ponds that you are a freaking largemouth bass.