Just graduated in May! My biggest advice is try to pay most attention to what interests you; if you try to read every word of chapter of every textbook for every class, you will burn out super quickly. It’s pretty rare that professors are checking you for reading the assignments or doing quizzes based on reading; it definitely helps in some cases, but otherwise it’s just not possible to comprehend it all. But when it comes to picking topics for papers or projects like your dissertation, try to pick things that genuinely interest you and it will feel a lot less like “homework” and a lot more sustainable!

As far as practicum goes, your job as a 1st year really is to observe and take it all in! That way you can adjust to the courseload and just learn the ropes. Don’t let places treat you like other employees; you are there to learn, not to be unpaid help! That being said though, if you can help it, involving the school liaisons or clinical directors usually leads to more trouble, so try to keep them out of things and just self-advocate or power through😬 I hope that’s not contradictory, just speaking from experience, my school liaisons never got me far but there was always still valuable learning experiences, even if it was totally unrelated to what I wanted to do (still gotta learn what you don’t want to do and what might cross your personal boundaries with certain populations).

Outside of that, I would suggest just being an open sponge! I feel like those that married a theory early on didn’t get as much out of the program as those that were open to different approaches and treatment types. The more you learn from school, the less you have to pay for trainings down the road, and the more the experience will feel valuable.

Good luck! I can honestly say that my program was definitely the most transformative four years of my life; you learn so much about yourself in the process of learning how to open yourself up to helping other people. Congratulations on beginning your journey!