abacus123

The standard is similar in my grad program - 3.0 is the minimum average. Theoretically, one could get a grade in a class lower than a B, and they would be okay as long as their semester average is still above 3.0. The highest score we can achieve is an A, so if you have a 4.0 here you're doing very, very well for yourself. The average is around 3.5, if I had to guess. I think grading is more up to the whims of the faculty teaching a certain course. For example, I had three courses last semester, which I'll call A, B and C. - A's professor gave a difficult midterm, but a couple of the older grads passed down collections of his old midterms - it turned out he liked to reuse questions a lot. So those of us who used those as a study aid pulled A's, and those that didn't...didn't. He then cancelled his final, so our grades were basically the midterm and homeworks (which most people did well on). The average grade in the class was probably A-/B+. - B's professor also liked tricky exams, but he was very lenient on the grading. If you got a "9/10", you really were towards the bottom of the class. the average was likely an A. -C's professor was a nice guy, and his (complex) exam questions were based closely off of his homework. He liked stats, so we always had the full rundown. The average on his homeworks was around an A, and his three exams averaged a B. In the end, in a class of 12, there were 5 A's, 6 B's and 1 C. I don't know who the C was, but I hope they were able to balance it out. So yeah, some professors are lenient, some have the potential to be lenient, and others are just flat-out difficult. It varies by person.

I don't usually wear grad school paraphernalia, because I dislike my grad school's colors. Purple and canary yellow. Sometimes I wonder if someone was dropping acid when they came up with that. I try to avoid wearing any undergrad paraphernalia on days where the two schools are playing against each other.

Speaking as someone in the same general field as the OP, a lot of folks go to grad school because it's more difficult to cut it in the field of meteorology with only a bachelor's degree. So, while the OP should take a break if he feels he needs it, I can sympathize with being torn about the decision. When things get stressful, I like to remind myself that there are options. Grad school, especially in meteorology, can be hectic and frustrating. If it really drove me to the point where I was at great risk of harming myself or I was in mental shambles, I'd be okay with stepping back and saying "this isn't working out right now". Look at it like this: you still have a college degree in a "hard" science (I assume you probably had a good GPA since you're in grad school), so it's not like you'll find yourself flipping burgers. A good friend of mine (he also studied meteorology) found himself in the "I need a break" predicament and he did step away from his program. Now he's working in the admissions office for the business school of a nearby university. For him, it's just a year of work until he can get back on his feet mentally, and then thoughtfully consider whether or not he wants to go back to grad school, or look at other career options. The caveat to his decision is that if he tries to get back into meteorology, grad schools (either his own program or others he may consider down the line) would be more weary of him. His career plans took an unexpected offramp from the interstate highway of life, but he felt he needed to reassess his goals and rebuild his well-being. As for myself, I stick with the workload because I keep my fingers crossed that things will get better, as well as do what I can to make my situation better. In my circumstance, that's worked out well for me. While I encourage you to try your best and stick with your program, if you're down and nearly out, sometimes you need a mental timeout. Oh, and a big reason I enjoy TAing undergrad meteorology courses: It reminds me that when it comes to degrees, I have a one-up on my students because I already have my bachelor's, plus some grad school under my belt. A little snobby perhaps, but it makes me feel better and helps put things into perspective when I'm stressed out.

Hi guys, In my program, it's recommended that we create our own homepages to be linked to the department website. Thing is, the options are wide open. I have marginal experience with HTML coding, enough to write up a page...that would've looked up-to-date back in 2002. I only know how to do simple pages. In trying to figure out what to do for a professional-looking homepage, I asked around my department. One of the other students in my department designed his page with a trial version of Adobe Dreamweaver, which works fine for him (when he needs to update, he just directly edits the script). Others downloaded templates online, but I'm having trouble finding professional looking templates. I was wondering if anyone else has had to create their own webpage, and how you went about it? If it becomes too complicated, I'll bite the bullet and write an old-fashioned looking page, but ideally I'd like to something a little more modern-looking.

Grad school is not an "end all, be all". If you find you're not a great fit with your advisor, or you have some difficulty with a grad class, or TAing is eating your life, you have options. You're not going to get booted because everything didn't fall perfectly into place. Even the smartest people in your program feel overworked and second-guess themselves. You can talk things out with your adviser and colleagues to get an idea what your options are; sometimes you'll find better alternatives, other times it's better to just grin and bear it. So remain calm, work through your research and responsibilities as best as you can, and don't think you're trapped. Remember that while your thesis and your work is important, don't let it completely take over your life. There's more to life than grad school, and you just need to keep things in perspective.

Well, I went the other way. I did my undergrad at an ivy and went to a big, party-loving state school for my graduate work. It had less to do with the environment and more to do with the funding. As a new grad student, it's hard not to feel dumb. But you're in grad school, working with people who have at least as much experience in the general field as you do, and often much more experience with specialized subsets of the field. You're there to learn and to develop research skills to be a professional in your field. It doesn't happen overnight, but I think you'll find that with advancement through your courses you'll find yourself able to hold your own in discussion. If the program didn't think you had potential to be great in your field, they wouldn't have taken you. Also, while you should focus on your work and all, sometimes it's good to just take a night off. A breather can give you much needed time to compose your thoughts and make you feel better.

I TA a class taught by a senior lecturer who has a master's but no PhD. When addressing him, I always use "Professor Lastname" in formal settings. My adviser in my undergrad was actually a senior lecturer as well, and everyone always called him professor. I prefer to use the term professor for anyone in a non-TA instructional role at a tertiary academic institution. Otherwise, I refer to them as Dr. if they have a PhD but don't teach, or Mr./Ms./Mrs. if they don't have a PhD and don't teach. I guess I consider being a professor a higher title than being a doctor.

My primary function is research and I have no plans on going into instruction of any form post-grad. Regardless, I TA a course in introductory oceanography (which is really funny because my research is in meteorology, I just had a partially overlapping background that fulfilled their needs). Anyways, I still put forth a lot of effort in my TA work. I had some really awful TAs during my undergrad. Some seemed to go out of their way to make others miserable, and it was ridiculous to witness. I took a personal vow that I would never do that if I ended up doing instruction in some form. So although my TA work is secondary and I only do it as part of my funding, I put an effort into it. I'm not going to bend over backwards and I'm not going to coddle students, but I work to try to present the information they need in a clear and concise manner, I hold my office hours and I respond readily to students' questions and concerns as they have them. So far, that's worked pretty well.

It seems a lot of folks are able to speak up for the social sciences, so I'll throw in a story from the physical side. I went to an Ivy and graduated with a 3.14 GPA, mostly because I made Dean's List in three of my last four semesters (the GPA on my transcript that went with the apps was 3.07). I had research experience, extracirriculars, and a 1440 GRE. They knew I working on an honors thesis when I submitted my application, but it wasn't complete (which makes more of a difference than folks might realize; five people in my major started honors theses, and only two were finished, one of which was mine). I applied to four schools (in retrospect, I should've applied to a couple more). One school rejected me, two accepted me with partial funding, one accepted me with full funding. A buddy of mine in the same major had around a 2.9. Took challenging courses, but grade-wise they really hurt him. He applied to six schools. Four rejected him, one gave him partial funding. The last was a school he did summer research at during his rising junior summer. They remembered him, remembered his quality of work, and gave him a full funding offer. My research partner from an REU had only a 2.98 and went to a second-tier institution for our field. Applied to ten schools, rejected my eight. One school offered acceptance without funding. The last was the school where we did our REU. They accepted her with full funding. In conclusion, it's not just about your GPA. It matters a lot because they want to make sure you can put up with rigorous class and research, but it's not the only factor they consider. Prior research, awards, and experience count for a lot as well.

Did the same thing by starting at the beginning of this month. Really sucks not having other first-years to talk to yet. Sucked even more to discover that I was the only one proficient in the English language and that the building I do work in is across campus from the department offices. But it's okay, I talked to the director of my department and I'll officially be disaffiliated from this research group in the fall. It'll give me more time to scout around in the department for other groups more in line with what I want to do. I think it's better to have realized that now than to have done so in the fall, so starting early, although it didn't pan out for me, was something of a blessing in (a very frustrating) disguise.

I think I would've broadened my horizons when it came to applying to schools. I applied to four, was accepted into three. The one I was denied is a school that is very popular in my field applies to so my chances weren't great anyway. I think I would've liked to have sent out a few more applications to different programs so that I could've had a broader range of options than one school fully funded and two schools with tuition waivers but little or no funding. That being said, I would've stayed closer to my core interests when visiting schools. I kinda gave in to the fully funded program and let them push me into work that I don't really care for, and it has detrimentally affected my overall enthusiasm. I made the wrong decision on that one. Arguably, I would've applied as a PhD instead of as a Master's student, to open up more funding options. A lot of my friends in my field applied as PhDs because doctorate students have a higher likelihood of funding, but truthfully they plan on dropping out once they have a Master's. I applied as a Master's student and I wonder if that caused schools to limit their funding for me. The school I went to left an option on their application that was along the lines of "Master's but considering PhD". I think that might have been a factor in why I received a full funding offer, even though I only plan on a Master's at this time. In conclusion, I would've applied to more schools as a PhD and stayed closer to my core interests in the field. For what it's worth, one school I applied to sent me a letter from the department chair saying that if I was still looking next fall, "there is a very good chance a funded assistantship will be available for you at that time". So, if I don't like it here enough, I s'pose I could explore that option further.

My all-time favorite professor was in a boat not too unlike yours. He graduated school with a 2.7 GPA in physics from a large state school. For the next ten years, he worked - as an air pollution consultant, as a TV weatherman, and as an instructor at a small state school 2,000 miles away from his alma mater. he went back to school (different from where he was teaching) at age 32 after taking a couple of non-degree classes while he was an instructor. He earned his PhD at the age of 37 and was hired by the school as an associate professor. Fast forward to when he was my advisor fifteen years later, and he was the second highest-sitting faculty member in our school. Not too shabby for someone who went back "late". It's never too late. Take some non-degree classes to show you can handle academic work, and to figure out what exactly you want to do. If you're passionate and put a lot of effort into your work, you can get into a program somewhere.

I am yet another person who did their undergrad at Cornell. Wonderful school, very challenging from the undergrad perspective. I lived in the Cornell Heights neighborhood just north of campus. I never had a problem getting to class...mostly because I didn't mind walking 20 minutes. Bus services is dcent but not great. Parking on campus is nearly impossible; it may be better to not have a car,l depending on where you live and how much travel you plan to do outside of Ithaca. Be sure to visit the Big Rad Barn. It's the grad student hangout (originally it was the carriagehouse of Cornell's first president), and on Fridays they have drink specials (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties).

Thank for the advice. I dunno what exactly the department chair can do but I'll raise my concerns to him. The professor only uses English when talking to me or when he has to present something to the whole group, for which he'll speak in both Mandarin Chinese and English; otherwise it's just Mandarin. Two people in the group (postdocs) have such poor english they have to present in Mandarin; the other three grad students can understand English, but avoid using it unless talking to an English speaker like myself. It's frustrating because I feel there's a lot that's not being communicated.

So, I recently went through the process of applying to grad schools, and while I was accepted to a few different places, I was fully funded at only one of them. I visited and was unimpressed, but figured I could still make something out of it for a Master's and then figure out what I wanted. Now here comes the problem. I started working in the research group this summer, because I thought it would be useful to stay on time with my degree. There's no formal contract, but there is an email agreement that says I could begin work on the 1st if I wanted. So I did, and the research I've been given is nothing like what I want to do. When I visited, I thought it would be somewhat pertinent, but this has turned out to be a false belief. Worse, the meetings are conducted in Mandarin and I'm the only person in my group who doesn't speak Chinese (and oddly enough, the only one with an atmospheric science degree - the rest are electrical engineers). I don't know anyone here, there's a huge language barrier with my group members, I'm doing research I have no interest in, and I'm extremely frustrated, viewing my decision as a huge error in judgment. I have a couple different options. Option A is to withdraw, but that's undesirable for a number of reasons. Option B is that I could try and say that I jumped into things too soon and come back in August. Provided that works, the hope there would be that in the following fall, I could interact with other faculty and work my way into another research group (there are several other faculty with research I'm more interested in, but I can't really talk to them now because I'm in another building away from the faculty --- classes will eliminate that problem). My funding in the fall is covered by TA funding from the dept, and my summer/ non academic year funding is RA. The thing is, I was accepted as an RA+TA, the RA being as part of this research group, and I'm trying to avoid burning too many bridges before I've even begun my formal graduate education (could they actually boot me out for going on leave for the summer before I'm enrolled or when I'm trying to switch in the fall?). I'm really looking for advice and please share if you have a moment to spare. I was prepared for challenges, but not quite like this.