I think your comment speaks well to how I've been feeling. It is a professional program, but going into it when I was deciding where to go, it still seemed like a great fit, like I'd be learning loads, etc. Objectively in some classes we did discuss some material I hadn't been professionally exposed to before (like the history of federal general science policy in the 1940s), but we didn't go into much detail on the HOW and more importantly what things comparatively look like today.

You explained it better than I could by identifying that the program is more of a "professors grading on ideas" situation. For example, I noticed that a lot of my younger classmates often promoted ideas that were technically inconsistent with NEPA, agency authority, etc. (and therefore couldn't even legally happen), but those suggestions flew because they were valid ideas (I would say that a student suggesting that "X current component of ____ agency’s authority is inappropriate for Y reason, so I propose Z modification," would be super nuanced/solid view, but that's not so much how things worked). Not to say these students wouldn't understand that information were it presented to them; it just wasn’t and it didn't seem like grading was based on them knowing what was/wasn't legally feasible in the current policy environment.

COVID definitely makes things more challenging from a "stopping by office hours" standpoint, though I did attend Zoom office hours for all of my professors, joined a club within my program (on Zoom), went to my program’s weekly lunchtime guest talks which were about varied topics, etc., on top of me working in the lab. I think that I would have considered pursuing getting another gig either with the university or in the private sector, though I've been hesitant to do so given my health circumstances (and were it not for the University’s current hiring freeze… lol). I did enroll in an online zoom language course through the city's adult education program, though. So I did a lot to try to become involved, but you're right that COVID makes all of that less "natural" and unfortunately also perhaps less impactful.

Are you meeting new contacts, learning new material, thinking about things in a new way? Is it informing your work, or the work you want to do in the future?

I think... not, which I'll need to bring up with my advisor next semester (I don't necessarily want to drop out without pursuing other options, and really don’t want to drop out when I could be done in a year from now anyway). I'm meeting new contacts in that my professors and classmates are new contacts, but I'm meeting fewer contacts than I'd meet professionally, learning less new material than I could learn professionally, etc. I like that some of the readings have helped inform me of the early history of science policy in the USA, but I'm not pursing a degree in the history of science, so that's more just... interesting bonus material that I've enjoyed learning, but not something that I feel should be a focus in a dedicated environmental policy program. I’ve spoken to classmates a year above me who are pursuing internships, but those internships are generally at very junior levels far below my role at the job I just left, which makes the internships seem like perhaps they wouldn't be a great professional goal for me.