From BAs to PhDs, the Gazette is handing over the editorial reins to a group of undergraduate and graduate students to offer new students a friendly “Hello!” – and to share some of their top tips for getting the most out of their Memorial experience. Stay tuned for more student-submitted messages during the first few weeks of the semester!

Meet Dipen Modi

Dear fellow students, welcome from me, a master of arts student in economics from Kolkata, West Bengal, India! Let me begin by introducing Memorial University to you.

Memorial University holds the fort when it comes to top-quality, medium-sized universities in Canada with some of the most affordable tuition rates for Canadian and international students.

When I say top quality, I mean top quality.

Top 600 worldwide

At rank 36, Memorial University is the only Canadian university that made it into the Shanghai Rankings 2020 Academic Rankings of World Universities’ top post-secondary institutions for the study of marine/ocean engineering.

Here’s just one example of the world-leading ocean-related work taking place at Memorial.

Overall, the university ranks within the top 600 universities worldwide, according to the World University Rankings. You become the best when you are surrounded by the best.

This is one place where you can make yourself! Moreover, you get to work with expert scholars from all over the world.

International exposure

According to the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies in 2016, Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest percentage of full-time international master’s and doctoral students in Canada.

The intercultural exchange gives you international exposure, which some of us don’t get in our home countries.

“Opportunities will only be limited by the limits you place on yourself.”

When classmates become family and professors become trusted advisers, graduate studies is fun and fulfilling.

I encourage you to participate in student elections and take part in the array of opportunities and initiatives organized by the Graduate Students’ Union.

This networking will bring out the best in you and help you advance in your professional life. Your graduate experience will be what you make it since opportunities will only be limited by the limits you place on yourself.

Hard work pays off

Also, be prepared to discover that graduate studies is a lot different from undergraduate school. Graduate programs will require more initiative and self-motivated efforts than undergraduate courses.

You are responsible for your own progress and accountable to yourself in pursuit of your degree. It may get challenging at times with all the projects and responsibilities assigned to you.

At times like these, remember the famous words of philosopher John Dewey:

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning results naturally.”

Your hard work will eventually pay off. There are numerous resources available at your disposal. In fact, you may even be overwhelmed with the support you get at the university.

Memorial University will teach you about yourself and your discipline in a way that other schools cannot. So, embrace your program enthusiastically.

Welcome to the family!

Up next: Juliana Vidal, a doctoral student in chemistry from Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on Tuesday, Sept. 8.