I knew that pursuing a graduate degree in overseas, which has different language and culture, would be very hard and strenuous. However, what I have experienced was beyond my imagination. After following the academic study only in one month, at the INTO Mason Graduate Pathway Program, I suffered what was described as “the shock stage”. It was very difficult to catch up with in class conversations or discussions, overwhelmed with the entire assignments and the worst thing is I had less sleep almost every day. Furthermore, I felt all the lessons that I got from most of the courses-especially from English course-have no relation with my Computer Science study. At some points, I was going to give up. Thankfully, all my lecturers and student’s advisor always thoughtfulness, give an enthusiastic support and encourage me so I can hold on and continue my study positively.
There are abundant valuable knowledge and important skills that I have learned from my courses and those are absolutely can be applied in my study and my professional life. From EAP508 course, I learned how to improve my reading and academic writing through reading many articles and making analytical writing every week. However, I think the most challenging and interesting lesson is the Multidisciplinary Colloquium Project. In this project, I had to read a lot of articles and learned how to do research and practiced doing a professional presentation in relation to my field of study. From PROV504, I learned how to manage my time effectively, planned my future study, and utilized all educational resources optimally.
As a summary, the INTO Mason pathway program absolutely a good program. It provides me opportunities, courses and activities by which can help me facing my further study. Now, I am feeling more confident and ready to pursue my master degree.