In the past 10 weeks I have hopefully managed to convince you not only that hitting life’s snooze button to be a graduate student is pretty awesome, but also that I myself am a reliable source of information about it all. The truth is that my experience is atypical, though in a good way. I have a wonderful advisor, a fascinating project and a handy fellowship that have made my time here run unusually smoothly. That’s good for you! So much of the media about being a grad student is negative, that I think my positive take on things is needed. Therefore, for those of you who are still eager to one day pursue a post-baccalaureate degree, below is my advice on how to get into grad school.

Why should you trust what I have to say? Because all the advice here is advice I did not follow, but should have. Disclosure time: I actually made a lot of mistakes when applying to graduate school, and I pretty much did everything wrong. I got into Davis by pure luck: My advisor’s first choice turned her down. I’ve proven my worth since, but here are some tips should you choose to make your own luck.

The most important thing to remember is this: You are not applying to a school or institution the way you applied to college. You are applying to a professor. Don’t look up prestigious schools and search for a faculty member that sounds like a good fit. Search for a professor studying your topic of interest first, then figure out where he or she teaches. This means that you should already know what you would like to be studying, or at least have a general idea. You will be spending the next few years of your life on this topic and it’s impossible to fake enthusiasm for that long, so be sure you’re excited!

Once you’ve found a lab you’d like to join, contact your prospective advisor. Ask him/her whether or not they have space in their lab for a graduate student. If the lab is overstaffed or underfunded, or if the advisor is about to retire or relocate, then that lab is not for you. You don’t want your funding to dry up or for your professor to abandon you like an orphan. Talk to them about their project and what kind of research you could do in their lab. Only then should you apply to the university. Your advisor will be the one who decides whether or not you get accepted, not some admissions committee, so their prior approval is crucial.

A frequently used simile is that grad school is like a marriage. You are going to be spending several years of your life working in close contact with your advisor, so liking the person is as important as liking the research. If your application goes well, you should be invited to meet the department and talk to your advisor in person. Be sure your advisor’s philosophy of science and attitudes toward work are aligned with yours. Make a good impression by having read extensively about your potential advisor’s research. When they meet you, they want to see you gushing about the work they do, and to even have some ideas about the project you’d do as their student. If you’re asking them basic questions about what they study, you have just earned a rejection letter.

If all has gone well, congratulations, you might be accepted into a grad program! Should you accept back? Remember that you are not exactly going to roll in money upon graduating. A good graduate program should pay you for your research, not the other way around. If the program pays your way, go for it. A Ph.D. simply isn’t worth getting into debt for, especially a (useless) humanities one. Master’s programs are less often covered, so choose whether you want an M.A. or Ph.D. with care.

Too early for you to apply? The most important thing you can do to strengthen your application is to have research experience. Not only will it show that you’re capable of such work, but also it will help you find what topics excite you.

With that, I wish you good luck! It’s been a pleasure.

Ma Mat Mata MATAN SHELOMI can be reached at mshelomi@ucdavis.edu. Congratulations to the 0.03 percent of you who see what I did there.

I graduated from Davis a year ago after finishing my Super-Senior year. I spent my last nine months as a student in ballet class, a comedy course I completed twice before and a couple of musicals. I fell into this slump of laziness where work didn’t matter. Why would I show up for class if it’s over already? Also, I went to about eight-and-a-half classes my last year so I’m surprised I was even given my diploma. Also, I still haven’t picked up my diploma. See? Lazy.

I was tripped out by the fear of the next step. The uncertainty of how everything is supposed to turn out makes you cling on to the familiar. A part of me still wants nothing more than to have DC swipes and the ability to bike wherever I please at the drop of a hat. But as cool as we’d like to think Ryan Reynolds was in Van Wilder, we’re poorly mistaken.

Appreciate the last couple of weeks, don’t forget the memories and experiences, but make sure that you let go. Not completely, but enough where you’re able to let yourself be defined by other things aside from college. I’ve called myself a recent college graduate and a track and field athlete for too long. I hardly qualify for either. What we define ourselves by will be (hopefully) drastically different than before. We’re going to have to leave college behind at some point.

Once you’re on the other side, there’s this rush of freedom. It’s exhilarating having to answer to nobody but yourself for the good or bad decisions you make. You can go after whatever career you like or move anywhere in the world just because you feel like it. Vacations and parties have new levels of excitement and feel deserved and earned instead of part of the regular routine. So many amazing and surprising things will happen in your first year out, including learning so much about yourself. I’ve come to understand what it really is I want out of my life and what I want to define my success by. A year ago, my self-worth was still just as high but my interests and lifestyle didn’t line up with my endgame. I made those necessary changes and feel like I’m on the path to reaching those goals.

I do need to reiterate the amount of crap you deal with on a daily basis. That never goes away. Pipes burst in your apartment, family members go to the hospital, you don’t make as much money as you need to make ends meet. Instead of moping around complaining about the problems, do everything you can to create solutions for them. It sounds so simple and easy, but trust me, I’m fully aware of how much more appealing it is to sit under the covers hoping it all goes away on its own. But it won’t. And the feeling of accomplishment and pride in how you learn to deal with all the shit that comes your way is more rewarding than you’d think.

Think of your life as constant spring cleaning. You keep the things you know you’ll need and purge everything else that’s unnecessary. The arguments with your family and friends are probably stupid misunderstandings that don’t deserve as much weight. Just as you’re learning about yourself, keep in mind the type of people you surround yourself with. By now, you should be aware of the traits they have that don’t mix well with your own. What’s the point of trying to make everyone see your point of view? You can’t change the way people act, but you can change how you deal with the personality clash. It makes things go by a lot smoother.

As peers, it’s our responsibility to help each other through all the big struggles. So many factors (the economy, job market) are trying to keep us down. I believe we’re in the trenches together. Sharing our insights, experiences and struggles with the people in our lives is beneficial. I want nothing more than my family and friends to be successful and find fulfillment in their lives and to do anything I can to help.

God, I sound so old. But we’re college-educated adults now. Regardless of how daunting that last sentence is, that success we’re striving for rests on our shoulders. Get out there and make that shit happen.

JAZZ TRICE is here if you need him! Contact him at jazztrice526@gmail.com or twitter.com/Jazz_Trice.

Following the protests across UC campuses in November, UC President Mark Yudof commissioned a report, called the Robinson-Edley report, to make recommendations to facilitate free speech while maintaining the health and safety of those involved. A draft of the report has been released to allow the UC community to provide comments until June 8 to strengthen the report’s recommendations.

Beginning with the Free Speech movement in the ’60s, free speech and civil disobedience have been intertwined with UC history and culture. To ensure the free flow of ideas we must take every step possible to protect our right to free speech.

We must not give up this chance; this is a rare opportunity for us to give input on policies that will directly apply to us. We have the means to shape the administration within our reach.

With the State’s decreasing financial investment in higher education, protests and civil disobedience will only happen with increasing frequency. Whether you choose to protest or not, the administration’s response affects everyone — we have first-hand knowledge of that. It is our duty to share this knowledge, and it is pathetic if only 33 people from the entire UC system had commented on it as of last week. If we do not take advantage of this opportunity to voice our opinions, we may not be given another.

In order to prevent the events like those in November from happening again, we must ensure that the recommendations put forward are implemented. We must put it on ourselves to hold the administration accountable.

However, that first requires us to know what is being recommended. Getting through all 158 pages of the report is a daunting task — especially for those of us who have enough trouble getting through 20 pages of assigned reading. However, there is a solution: The report conveniently lists all of its recommendations beginning on page 100. It’s an easy read and it’s just as easy to make a comment.

Go to campusprotestreport.universityofcalifornia.edu to skim through the recommendations and let your voice be heard. It is as easy as creeping on your friends’ Facebook profiles.

A “New American Century” is a phrase often heard bandied about by both the Obama and Romney campaigns. What it entails is somewhat vague, but it is not difficult to guess the contours of such an idea. A New American Century would involve global dominance with regards to the economy, military and the standard of living. Such a century would be an affirmation of our highest vanity and deepest ego — to be the biggest, baddest kid on the block, the readily acknowledged king of the global jungle. Well, too bad that is probably not going to happen.

I am moving onto shaky ground here theoretically, but I believe that the reason for the coming Great American Decline has to do with a loss of the American ideal of service to others and sacrifice for the collective good.

Here, you might sputter rather irritatedly that, well, of course America is going to be number one forever and ever, Amen. To believe otherwise is to be almost heretical in thought. After all, we are the eternal shining light on the hill! My god, to not be the king of this hill would be to permit the world to slip into utter darkness, right?

Unfortunately, last time I checked, there is no sacred covenant explicating America’s greatness. Our country is great only because previous generations worked, served and sacrificed to make it great and because they, and we, were the lucky recipients of good fortune. We escaped the wounds of WWll, allowing the U.S. to be the ascendent nation for decades.

On an individual level, the collapse of service clubs and organizations is an example of the breakdown of our willingness to serve others. Our politicians’ acrimony, lack of compromise and complete short-sightedness in policy also point to such a collapse on a collective level.

I could give example after example of this in politics. One is when the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Republicans’ primary goal is to make Barack Obama’s presidency a failure. Another is the ineffectual effort of Congress to pass a climate-change bill. Doing so would admittedly involve sacrifice through higher prices of energy in the present, but such a bill would ensure a better country for future generations. A third would be the collapse of deficit reduction talks last summer between President Obama and Speaker Boehner that would have involved major sacrifice, both politically and economically, but would have dramatically strengthened the country’s fiscal standing down the road.

Lacking a strong service-sacrifice mindset, our country shows daily signs of malaise that point to a grimmer future. Our politicians seemingly cannot compromise. Our economic system has deep structural weaknesses. We are in debt up to our future grandchildren’s eyeballs. It is a complete mess.

What would a society look like if everyone was willing to sacrifice more, to compromise more, to act in a way that puts future generations ahead of the present? There would be less certainty in thought, less “I am right; you are wrong,” because such a posture kills any chance of the most important ingredient in democracy — compromise. There would be more legislation that involves sacrifice. Spending cuts, higher taxes and lower entitlements would be acceptable because they would again be putting future generations first.

A service-sacrifice mentality will never take hold in our macro-society unless it begins in the micro — in your life and mine. For me, the best example of such a mindset are my parents. They have adopted 16 children, most with mental and physical disabilities. They did so because they could not stomach knowing that children, through no fault of their own, were being shoved into the dark corners of orphanages and institutions, unloved, left to rot.

It is a life of sacrifice. They have never had a new car. They have never been on vacation. Yet they have gained far more than they have given.

As an individual and as a nation, we should adopt a similar mentality. We should all sacrifice more, volunteer more and give more. In politics, our nation’s leaders should avoid the comfortable embrace of certainty in thought and instead be willing to accept different viewpoints, to compromise daily and avoid gimmicks and expedient solutions.

To do otherwise is to invite decline. So yes, there will be a New American Century, but only through service and sacrifice will we make the next one hundred years a century we can be proud of.

JONATHAN NELSON is going to miss writing these columns. E-mail any last opinions, ideas or spastic rants to jdnelson@ucdavis.edu.