shadowclaw

My advice is to have a heart to heart conversation with your advisor about your limitations when it comes to social interactions if you are comfortable with it. My husband has Asperger's syndrome and he comes off as angry and standoffish to others who don't know him well, and he has trouble reading the emotions of others - he usually thinks everyone is annoyed with him, even if they aren't! I think this conversation would help alleviate some of your anxiety as well as let your advisor know that you are not just ignoring his feedback, not following conversations, etc. It would also be a good idea to discuss with your advisor how it would be best to give you feedback or cue you into when it's appropriate to talk during lab meetings. Also, I've found that communication with my husband got way better once we had a conversation like this - there were lots of times during our relationship when we had communication issues - him because of his Asperger's and me because of my social anxiety. Working on communication really helped our relationship!

That sucks! It's so obnoxious when an employer backstabs you and depending on the relationship with your employer, it can be really emotionally hurtful, too When I was an undergraduate, I worked full-time at a sandwich shop. The pay was crappy, but the full-time hours made it work. I bent over backwards for this employer and came in whenever anyone called off, did all kinds of extra work that no one else would bother to do, and basically had no life. The owner got a new girlfriend who owned a few apartments and one of her new tenants needed a job. Guess whose hours got cut in half so this new woman who zero experience in the food industry could work full-time? I was so upset about it. About 2 or 3 months later, a friend told me about a server position that was opening where she worked and I was offered almost full-time hours there. The sandwich shop was so pissed that I was leaving, but I was like "you shouldn't have given away my hours if you liked my work ethic so much!" My advice to you is to try to find something seasonal if you can so that you can keep your savings. Amusement parks, water parks, summer camps, wedding venues... even places like movie theaters often need extra help in the summer. Temp agencies may also be able to help you, too, and sometimes you can find short-term jobs cleaning dorms or doing landscaping posted on Craigslist.

Sometimes I get a little annoyed with two core beliefs my parents have: 1) that I can get into any job, program, whatever regardless of whether or not I am qualified, and 2) always chose the job that pays more money. I am seeking summer employment because summer funding is pretty much nonexistent at my school. Last year I did an internship that was really aimed at undergraduates and while I enjoyed some of the work, a lot of it was manual labor that anybody could do, not just those in the natural resource/environmental fields, so I didn't really get a lot out of it and sometimes the work was hard and exhausting, especially when the temperatures got into the upper 90's (over 35 C for people living in the rest of the world). However, it actually paid better than my GTA stipend during the school year, which made it worth it in the end (yay money!). So this time around, the same company that I did my internship with offered some more advanced positions that we much better aligned with my interests and skills - however, I didn't quite meet all of the qualifications and my schedule didn't really match up with what they needed. I applied anyway and got interviews, but ultimately was turned down. My parents were in complete disbelief even though they really didn't know anything about the work. My mom kept going on and on about how because I worked outside in previous jobs, it should count towards the experience this job required because it was also an outside job, as if somehow just working outside makes you qualified for any outdoor work. I'm also interviewing next week for the same internship as last year and I think they will probably hire me again. However, the possibility exists that I might also get a summer GTA position. It depends on the schedules of those "ahead" of me on the list of students who want summer funding, and this year a lot of students will be out in the field and unable to commit to teaching. My parents asked what I'd do if offered both, and without hesitation I said I'd teach. Then I was lectured for about 10 minutes about how it's not very responsible of me to turn down a better paying job (even though the difference is maybe $300 or $400 per month and my husband works so it's not like I need that extra money). I tried to explain that teaching is really more appropriate for my career goals, I won't have to bake in the sun, and I'll end up with some free time between summer sessions to do things. However, they didn't seem to like my reasoning!

@Need Coffee in an IV I bet your cat is just hanging out in someone's house! There used to be a cat in my neighborhood who was so friendly and would always come begging for food. She had a cute little bobtail, too. However, she was really dirty and scruffy from living outside so I assumed she was a stray. If I didn't have my own indoor cats, I might have taken her in! However, after several months, a collar appeared on her, so somebody obviously owned her! It ended up being the people on the other side of my duplex. When they moved, she went with them. Anyway, the moral of the story is that if someone perceived your cat as a stray, he might just be chilling in someone's house right now, maybe even just down the road! People are really clueless sometimes and may not see your flyers for a while, just like my friend and her cat who lived with a neighbor a few houses down for several months until the lady finally saw a flyer. Have you tried knocking on doors and asking if anyone has seen your cat? It's awkward to walk around knocking on doors and some people might not answer because they think you're trying to sell something, a Jehovah's witness, etc., but you could always leave a flyer with a note!

When I was in my masters program, I was basically forced to walk a continuous loop around the lecture hall (with about 150 students) along with the professor and our lab coordinator for an hour. I was specifically required to scan the crowd for any signs of cheating and I was allowed to answer student questions (however, I usually deferred to the professor, as I was proctoring for a class that I had very little experience in and typically had no idea how to clarify questions). I did the same thing for the 2-hour final. The professor would always make a statement about cheating at the beginning and make everyone remove their hats. Students also had to "check out" if they wanted to use the bathroom - they had to leave their exam with me and show that their pockets were empty (so they weren't just going to the bathroom to look up answers on their phone) and were given 5 minutes. So the pacing behavior of your co-TA is perhaps not entirely uncalled for, particularly if he/she went experienced this kind of proctoring as an undergrad. However, the constant time reminders and weird statements would be a bit distracting, along with the pencil grabbing. Providing a statement about cheating at the beginning of the exam also isn't out of the ordinary, but turning into something weird and uncomfortable is. I would probably let the TA know that students are not responding favorably to this and that they could try limiting their announcements and pacing. At my current school, I do not pace at all and instead hang out at the front of the room. I also only have about 40 students to proctor, although last year we had closer to 400 students in one room with 8 TA's co-proctoring - however, the professor decided that was terrible and spread out the students this year. I have to read some announcements at the beginning and make students have their belongings tucked under their desks, hat brims turned backwards, and are seated with empty seats in between them. I also cannot answer any questions aside from English language questions. I am also not supposed to let anyone use the bathroom. I bring up a clock on the big screen and remind them of how much time they have left at about 15 minutes and 5 minutes. I generally spend my time working on my laptop while occasionally checking on them. Last term, I co-proctored with someone who insisted on talking to me the whole time. She whispered, but I'm sure students could still hear her sometimes. She also brought her dog and left him in the car during the exams, so she would be constantly worried about how he was doing. It was really annoying and I'm so glad to proctor alone this term.

This whole "9 to 5" conversation is completely unwarranted imo. In fact, it seems like the people taking a dump on this thread have completely missed the point. This isn't about why we chose to go to grad school, it's about what we like about it now that we're here (or if graduated, what we liked while we were still there). If I wanted a job that involved travel, living in a cool place, meeting interesting people, etc., there are many routes I could have taken, including getting a PhD. If you want to get into the why's, at least a masters degree was really a necessity for me if I wanted a decent job in my field. While there are exceptions, most people I know in my field who only have a B.S. are either working seasonal contract jobs (albeit in some pretty awesome locations around the world) that pay less than my GTA salary or are working full-time jobs that pay the same or only marginally better than my part-time GTA salary. I'm sure over time, their experience will lead them to a well-paying job, but for now, I'm getting the better deal, and when I graduate, I'm going to be qualified for much better jobs than them. There are a few people I graduated with who are making some pretty good money, but they actually aren't even working at jobs they went to school for, which is an unfortunate reality that many people face after graduation. My own personal take on the 9 to 5... I am not generally opposed to working a block of 8 hours, but I hate having the same hours everyday and I hate mornings. Right now, I start at 8 am on Mondays, 10 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, whatever I feel like on Wednesdays, and 11 am on Fridays. I love that it's different from day to day and that I don't have to drag myself out of bed early everyday. It also varies from week to week. Some Wednesdays I do nothing related to school, and others I spend a good 12 hours working. The activities also differ from day to day... I worked for years doing the same thing over and over again, and it's crap. If I stay in academia, I won't have to worry about that, because classes and schedules change from term to term, and even new professors often have some degree of freedom in scheduling so that they don't have to work the same exact hours every day. If I don't stay in academia, a lot of people in my field have varying schedules. So yeah... the career path I'm on will probably keep me clear of boring repetitive work locked into the same time slot every single day.

I'm not a parent, but I just wanted to mention that you should definitely check out the resources at your new school. I've thought about the idea of having a child before finishing my PhD and found that there are some great services available at my school to graduate students. Probably one of the better ones is free daycare service for 3 hours or less during the daytime hours... perfect for when you have a class or have to teach. Not so useful if you have to be in the lab all day doing research, though. The people I do know with children are able to plan their schedule around their personal needs for the most part, such as coming in to work when their SO is home to care for the children or doing work at home. I think this would be more difficult with a very structured program or when doing research that requires long hours on specialized equipment. With luck, you will have a flexible program!

Thanks for the advice, @fuzzylogician and @rising_star. Once this crazy week is over, I'm going to start with the Shotokan place and do the trial lesson. I've been doing a little more research, and I do have a little bit of a concern about it, though. In all of their photos around the dojo and at events, there are so many men and maybe two women. I wonder if that's just because women happen to be studying at other schools in the area (also discovered that there is a kung fu school in town as well that is owned by women and seems to have a large female clientele) or if they aren't too keen on women. Or maybe women just don't do karate as much as men (although my past experiences at tournaments suggests they do)? I guess I'll find out.

Hi everyone, I've been thinking of taking up a martial art for a while, and I have a few options available to me around my school. I studied Goshin Jutsu karate as a teen and enjoyed it for the most part. It is a style with murky and apparently controversial origins, but it is a Japanese style of the "one strike" philosophy. We met twice weekly for regular class and classes were an hour and a half. I lost a lot of fat, gained a lot of muscle, and generally was in amazing shape as a result of these classes and I enjoyed the comradery with my fellow karateka. I also took a weekly aikikai class. However, at times I felt like it was too military-like, and the belt tests became rather cruel as you advanced in rank. This style is not available to me now, and I'm not sure if I want to try something similar or not. I have the options of Shotokan, Taekwondo, and American Kenpo. The Shotokan and Taekwondo schools both advertise "traditional" classes, which I assume follow the general format of my previous karate experience which involved warming up and stretching, followed by technique practice, and finally the activity of the week (kata, sparring, etc.). Style-wise, Shotokan would probably be the closest as well. Both of these schools offer class three days per week and are an hour and a half long, although there is no flexibility in the class schedule and the schools are not open for use outside of class hours. All belts also have class together. The Kenpo school advertises itself as a place to build character and fitness and for everyone to get their black belt. It has a very flashy website and is also the most popular martial arts school in the area. Classes are three days per week and are much shorter - only 50 minutes long. Classes are also divided up by experience rather than having all of the adult students take the same class. It's also the type of place that gives talks on various topics during classes (e.g., respect, dedication, effort), which cuts down on time available to train. The schedule is super flexible with multiple offerings on different days, and the school is also open beyond class hours for use by students. Kenpo is also quite a different style and perhaps is more practical for actual self-defense, although my goal is fitness. So I'm trying to decide which school I should try. I am fat and pretty out of shape (although I have been doing bike riding lately so I'm getting better), so I'm probably going to feel a bit miserable and sore at first no matter which I choose. I'm a bit turned off by Taekwondo because I associate it with high kicks and jumping, which might not be an accurate impression, but at this point it would be very hard for me to do. I am drawn to Shotokan mainly because I perceive it as familiar, I enjoy learning and performing kata, and I think the longer class time will be good for me. The short classes of the Kenpo school turn me off, as do the talks, but it seems like it might have less of a military flare to it and the flexible schedule is really convenient. Price-wise, the Shotokan and Taekwondo schools are completely transparent. $45 per month at the student rate and you get to try a class for free. The Kenpo school does not advertise it price, but they do offer a two-week free trial with 50% off the membership fee to new students. I assume this means that there's some year-long price that must be paid up front, which is not very convenient, although I don't know this for sure as I haven't called them up to ask. I'd love to get some input from anyone with experience with these styles and what I can expect. Is any particular style better for someone whose out of shape? Are there kata in Kenpo? Is Taekwondo really as kick-driven as I think? Do you just have a suggestion of which of these school seem like the best bet for a plump grad student on a budget? Should I just do the free classes at each and then decide?

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order: 1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research. 2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing. 3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to. 4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way. 5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field. 6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't). 7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding. 8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience). 9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region. 10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia. I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.

This is a super annoying problem that I think ends up plaguing numerous grad students. The general policy at most (if not all) universities is that the university owns all research being conducted by its employees, and PI's are sort of the stewards of the data for the university. So assuming there wasn't a special contractual agreement between you, your former PI, and the university, your PI is allowed to do what they want with the data you collected and analyzed, as well as your code. That being said, your post implies that PhD student # 1 took graphs you made that are printed in your thesis and passed them off as his own. If that's the case, the PhD student and everyone else on the paper are guilty of plagiarism since you were not consulted about it and your thesis was not cited as the source of the graphs. If reported and investigated, your former lab could be in trouble. If, however, they are graphs that never made it into your thesis, then you're out of luck since they weren't published. Whatever the circumstances, it was a dick move not to include you as an author on the two papers if you made a substantial contribution to the data analysis (didn't matter if you did much writing or not). However, there's not much you can do without stirring up a lot of negativity in your former lab. It may be worth it, though, to make a case to your former PI to include you on future publications using your code and the dataset you collected.

For a masters degree, no, I don't think it's that unreasonable since you'll only be there about 2 years. For a PhD program, I think you'd get real tired of that drive after a while - but then again, there are people who commute to New York City daily who have over an hour of travel time. I personally stayed at home with my parents while doing my masters about an hour and fifteen minutes away. It was way cheaper to pay for gas than to pay for rent in my school's city. The first year I felt went really well. I was on campus two or three days per week for classes and meetings and worked part time near home on the other days. My research was done off-campus over the summer. The second year I got a graduate assistantship and had to be there five days a week. That got old very fast, but at least it was only two semesters. In terms of social life, my program at the time was pretty small (under 20 students) and students didn't really interact with each other all that much outside of the classroom aside from our monthly get-togethers. So lack of socialization wasn't really an issue, since it wouldn't have happened if I lived closer anyway. I personally don't see socialization as a big issue in graduate school anyway - even now in my PhD program, I rarely see anyone in my program or friends from other programs on a daily basis (unless I have a class with them) because we're all much too busy with class, research, studying, etc. We do like to go out on Friday nights for dinner or some other activity (we went bowling last week), and that isn't something that would be hindered by living far away. However, I think this would ultimately depend on your program and the people in it. I'm sure some graduate students spend more time together than others. I will say that having an excessive commute can affect your academic life depending on what your workload is. In that second year, it was at times a struggle to get everything done. My assistantship took up around 20-25 hours of my time each week and driving ate up 15 hours per week (plus any additional driving besides commuting to school). I then added one or two classes per term on top of that along with working on my thesis and it could get rough. But I did it, and I also finished my masters on time, unlike the rest of my cohort who took an extra term or two, despite living right down the road from school. So to sum up, living an hour away might not be a problem, but there are multiple factors at play and you will ultimately have less time available to you each day to get things done.

Oh no! I hope you find it soon. When I was a teen, we moved about a mile away after my parents sold the house to a temporary apartment while they built a new house on some land they had purchased. One of my cats would constantly bolt out the door and walk to our old house and we'd get a phone call from the new owners to come get our cat. Once we moved into the new house, she stopped doing that. One of my best friends also had her cat disappear in a storm one night. He occasionally went outside and on this night he must have gotten a little lost in the storm and didn't come back in the morning. She put up flyers, visited the shelters, posted to cragislist, etc. and after several weeks, she accepted that he was never coming home. Fast forward about 5 months from when he went missing, and the lady who lived about 5 houses down from her saw a flyer still hanging at a store and called her. She had the cat the entire time and somehow never noticed any of the flyers. So don't give up! Arrrg, this makes me so mad for you! I assume you didn't have the professor's promise to split the royalties in half in writing (email or otherwise). I know you don't think it was worth the fight, but I feel a bit sad that you let it slide so easily. From your post, it doesn't even look like you approached the professor to ask him why he went back on his word. You could have even phrased it as, "the publisher seems to have made an error in the contract. How do we go about correcting this so I get my portion of the royalties like we discussed?" However, you know what's best for you. Although I would still ask the professor what was up that - maybe wait until you've graduated and on your way to grad school so he doesn't get huffy and screw you over further. As for the free book, personally, I'd burn it.

I'm a little annoyed with two of my students right now. I gave a quiz and these two students completely missed how I wanted them to answer a question. So they basically lost over 1/5 of the points on the quiz because they didn't understand that I wanted them to circle one of two choices next to each statement in a list (instead they just circled one of the five statements in the list and I'm not entirely sure why). I emailed them through our online course system so that they'd both get an email and see a notice that they have a message when they login to the course system (which they have to do multiple times per week for their classes). I asked them to come to my office hours to reanswer the question, but neither showed up. They also didn't email me back and it's been two days, and I can also see that they've visited my course page since I sent the email, so they should have seen it. Maybe they just don't care.

@Cheshire_Cat I'm not sure Illinois counts as the frozen north! I'm very sorry to hear that you have the responsibility of putting your dog to sleep. Although from personal experience, it's better to be the one who takes the pet in. My parents put my first dog to sleep without even telling me AND they didn't even stay with the dog - just dropped her off. I held it against them for years and I felt very guilty about not being there for the dog in her final hours for quite a while. When it came time to put down our second dog, neither of them wanted to do it, but when I stepped up, I think I shamed my father in going with me. I ended up taking my old childhood cat to be put to sleep myself. It's extremely rough, heart-breaking, and otherwise painful beyond belief. On the plus side, the vet does give your dog a sedative to calm them beforehand, which hopefully makes it a little less terrifying for them, and they have you to hold them as they slip away. However, it was hard to think of them for a while because my mental image immediately went to their death, but after a few months I could look at photos without weeping and I could think of them in their youthful glory instead of in their old, sickened state. Although to be honest, I'm balling my eyes out right now and it's been 7 years since my cat died and almost 12 years since my second dog died. My parents are moving also (or at least are trying to move). However, they are taking the warm weather route!

I agree with Fuzzy - I don't think that undergraduates often publish their senior theses, but certainly some do. If you did a good job on it (did an adequate literature review, wrote it well, have good clean figures, etc) then packaging it up as a manuscript to submit to a journal (or wherever else you might be publishing, depending on what it is exactly) should be quick and easy and not deter you from putting effort into new projects in your MA program. Fuzzy makes a great point, though, about the maturity of your ideas. Even a well-done project might not really be a good choice for publishing if it doesn't really make a substantial contribution to your field. However, if your advisor thinks it is suitable for publishing, then there's a good chance it is. Do be aware that graduate school can represent a big shift in workload compared to your undergraduate program - there's lots to do and not always enough time to do it! This will certainly influence the amount of time available for you to pursue working on getting your paper published. Personally, I did publish my undergraduate thesis while I was in my masters program. It didn't require a lot of effort on my part and my masters advisor was quite happy to see me working on getting my stuff published. Likewise, my PhD advisor was quite happy to see me work on getting my masters thesis published.

kayyyyy made a great suggestion in figuring out what's cheaper - shipping your current stuff to your new location or selling it/storing it and buying new stuff. I recall when I was applying to various programs, I estimated moving costs to each of my top choices. For a move similar to yours, I got a quote for one of the smaller uhaul trucks (I think it was the 15' truck) for around $700-$800 (plus the cost of gas, of course) and a shipping container for around $1200. When you add in the gas, the price for the uhaul ends up being a bit less and the uhaul fits way more. However, the move I actually made was east coast to west coast, and a uhaul truck and a shipping container were about the same price ($2000), but then I had to add the gas for the truck on top of that plus driving a uhaul over 3,000 miles was not very appealing to me. So I went with a shipping container. So let's say that whatever method you choose to transport your stuff by costs around $1000 - is your current furniture and other belongings worth that much (or has enough sentimental value that it's worth it if it's not)? Right now if I were to make a move that costs that much, my furniture and my washer and dryer are pretty new and cost enough that replacing them would cost a lot more than $1000, so I would go with the moving truck/container. However, before getting married, I owned a bed, an old hand-me-down dresser, and a cheap Walmart nightstand, plus assorted small items. Not really enough to justify spending that much money to move it and things that really mattered to me could fit in my car! Something else I'm wondering about - why are you shipping your car when you could just drive it? East coast to the Midwest isn't terribly far (although this depends on where on the east coast you are coming from) - you could make the drive in two or three days (or even one really long terrible day) depending on how much driving you want to do. I don't know how much it costs to ship a car, but I feel like the cost of a plane ticket plus the cost of shipping a car costs quite a bit more than paying for the gas to drive plus a night or two in a motel.

I feel like the universe is currently working against me. I keep getting screwed out of fellowship opportunities. About two month's ago, my program head arbitrarily decided to nominate an incoming student for a fellowship from the graduate school, despite promising that if she had multiple students interested, she would form a committee to review the nomination packages. This is either because a) she waited until the last minute to send in the nomination and didn't have time to form a committee, or b) went with the new student because she's obsessed with recruiting. I had a fellowship application due yesterday, and I spent the last two weeks putting in a lot of effort into my essays and getting everything looking really nice. My advisor, on the other hand, waited until the last possible moment to write a recommendation letter. He literally waited so long that he had to send the letter overnight for it to get there on time (and it's a hard deadline for all nomination materials to be received). However, either he or Fedex screwed up something, because instead of delivering it on Saturday, the letter is marked for weekday delivery only and won't get their until tomorrow (even though it arrived in the city in the wee hours of Saturday morning). I sent an email explaining that there was an error with delivering the letter in hopes that the fellowship committee will still consider my application, so fingers crossed.

Honestly, I owned very little that couldn't easily be replaced after the move, and what I did want to bring could easily fit in the car or be mailed relatively inexpensively (like my books). In fact, if it was just myself moving, I would have most definitely packed the car and drove. It probably would have been cheaper to replace everything than ship it, too. However, I have a husband who has a large and heavy collection of insulators that could not fit in the car (too heavy, plus no room for my stuff). Leaving it behind or selling it was not an option, so we had to get some sort of moving container.

@Cheshire_Cat Your professor sounds like one that my teaching intern last term had for one of her classes. She showed me some of her tests, and the professor took off points for "not enough detail" when her answers were correct and adequately answered the question he was asking. I recall a policy class I took that really aggravated me when it came to our exams - we were learning about different laws and were given a situation and had to explain under which laws the people in the case study could sue each other. It ended up that we had seven or so laws to choose from, and one didn't apply. So I didn't address it in my answer and I lost a lot of points because I didn't write "this law doesn't apply." At least I still did well in the class. I'm a little annoyed today because I've been working on a side project with several other people for over a year. I did all of the data analysis in February of 2016 and basically had the bulk of the paper written up by the summer. The other people on the project were responsible for putting together an introduction and adding some information to the discussion section. The literature review was basically finished before last summer started, but it's taken them this long to get everything typed up and to make a few conceptual diagrams. The person leading the project basically ignores it for weeks on end and occasionally sends out emails asking everyone to hurry up, even though she is working on the part of the paper we're waiting on! I will be glad when this finally gets out the door so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

I used the ABF ReloCube as it was the most affordable at the time. Other options include the U-haul U-box and PODS. There may be others! Both the ReloCube and U-box only come in one size (and the ReloCube is slightly larger and holds 500 more pounds). PODS come in a few different sizes. Both the ReloCube and PODS can be delivered to your apartment where you pack it up, and then they ship it to your new place and drop it off for a few days. The U-haul box can only go from one U-haul place to another rather than to your door. They set it up in a trailer so you can rent a truck from them to pull it to and from your home (which naturally adds a little bit to the cost). The ReloCube also has a similar option to this where you can bring all of your stuff to an ABF center and pack up the container there and then unpack it at a center near your destination. However, you can't actually bring the ReloCube to your apartment like the U-haul box, so you have to use a moving truck of some sort to bring your things to and from the cube. This is actually what I did, because it was about $1000 less to ship from ABF center to center rather than door to door, and renting a U-haul van cost me about $50 on either end, so I saved $900. However, this might not be a good option if the nearest ABF center is really far away (their website will help you figure that out, though). Another thing to consider with a shipping container being delivered door to door is if your new landlord will be ok with a big container outside of your apartment for a few days. The ReloCube and U-box both fit into a parking space, so they might not be an issue (unless of course you only get one parking space and have nowhere to park your own vehicle - assuming you have one. Obviously not an issue if you don't). All of the PODS I've seen are a bit bigger, but it's possible they make a small one that also fits into a parking space. Packing one of these containers is also a bit of an art form. They look small on the outside, but actually hold a lot of stuff. However, it's really important that everything is tightly packed or things could be broken as the containers are loaded onto the trucks. Oh, and ABF also offers a portion of a big truck trailer for shipping which ends up being more space than their ReloCube, but costs more. Basically, a big truck will pull up to your house and you have X number of hours to load up your portion of trailer space and then it drives away - same thing happens at the other end (but for unloading). Definitely look into price quotes now and check all of the companies (it also doesn't hurt to check regular moving companies, too). I highly recommend making your reservation early, even if you don't know your new address yet. You can give it to them later when you know.

@geologyninja13 As someone who spent their whole life in the northeast, the rain in the winter can be really annoying. This is my second winter here, and by most accounts, it's actually been exceptionally rainy and not normally this wet (however, the most recent reports on climate change for the region suggest that this is a trend that will continue in the future). I believe I saw the sun three times between October and February. The good news is that generally, it isn't a terrible downpour or anything like that, just soft gentle rain. I actually very rarely wear my waterproof jacket to school - if I wear it, it's typically because it's a bit chilly out rather than particularly wet (and it's a much warmer jacket than my hoodie). I actually spent my first winter wearing hoodies only - it wasn't a very cold winter and the sweatshirts were fine in the rain for going between buildings and whatnot. If I were biking to school, I would probably wear the waterproof jacket more often, though! I think your rain gear will more than protect you from the eternal wetness that is the winter. But to answer your actual question of how not to go crazy - you can actually check out some sort of sun lamp from the library to shine on yourself if you're feeling bad. Seriously. Another option is to take advantage of the occasionally sunny day (and days where it's just overcast) and get outside. The coast is a great place in winter. A bit windy, but beach combing is great (you can find some pretty awesome marine fossils, too) and there are lots of little places to visit in the different towns. The aquarium and the marine science center are only an hour away, and you can even go to a cheese factory if you don't mind a three hour drive. There's also snow recreation in the Cascades - plenty of snow parks and ski places if you like winter sports. I will add that the constant winter rain is perhaps an acceptable tradeoff for the amazingly dry summers (although maybe not so acceptable since water appropriation is a problem... I highly recommend taking FOR 562 if you'd like to learn about water laws in the west). Anyway, summers are beautiful and dry... which is awesome for all of the great outdoor activities available. Although if you were hoping to swim in the ocean, you may be disappointed. The coast is pretty cool during the summer (60s and 70s) and the water is frigid (not to mention a bit rougher than east coast waves). However, if you enjoy looking at the ocean and beach combing, then you're good to go. Also, there is surfing! I can't really speak about party life in Corvallis since I live in Albany. I imagine that the closer to campus you are, the more likely you'll be to encounter the party attitude. Most of the grad students I know live a reasonable distance from campus and their apartments are pretty peaceful. Meanwhile, as I'm typing this in my apartment in Albany, my neighbors are partying with their windows open and I can hear it even though all of my windows are closed. My neighbors are actually all pretty chill, although the ones on the other side of my duplex are awake at weird hours of the night and make some strange noises. Anyway, I'm pretty happy being a grad student at OSU although sometimes I get very aggravated with my program head. Your experience will largely depend on the culture of your program and the personalities of the grad students you encounter most frequently, but you are of course not limited to spending all your time with other geography students! I TA science labs and for the most part, students do care about what they're learning and they respect their TA's. There are always exceptions, though, but I haven't had any major problems yet *knock on wood* I think students really appreciate it if you make it clear that you actually care about them and their performance in your class and put an effort into being a good TA. Also, if you have an interest in teaching in academia after grad school, I also highly recommend looking into the Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching. It's an 18-credit certificate, which amounts to one course per term over two years, and it is very much worth it if you have an interest in teaching. It can be be done concurrently with your regular degree program. It has dramatically changed the way I viewed teaching and learning, and my students have definitely been a lot happier and seem to get more out their lab since I started applying the things I've learned so far. It's extremely rewarding to have students email you and talk to you after class to tell you that you're the best TA they've ever had and want to know what lab section you're teaching next term. Last, about pot culture - I again don't know a lot about what goes on in Corvallis on the weekend, but I imagine it's like alcohol. The underage students get older ones to buy it for them, they go overboard at first, and eventually the novelty wears off by the time they're old enough to buy it themselves and they use it responsibly for the most part. I haven't heard any complaints about it, and to be honest, I'd rather be around a bunch of stoned undergrads than a bunch of drunk ones. Stoned people are usually much more pleasant I'm pretty sure I've had some of my students show up to class a bit stoned, but they still did their work. I also know several grad students who smoke pretty much everyday because it helps them manage stress and anxiety and they do just fine. However, if you do chose to partake (there are lots of options for both smoking and eating), do remember that officially, grad students shouldn't be using it since the university receives federal money. In other words, don't broadcast it to the world.

Something funny happened last night. I was browsing AllTrails for some hiking ideas and discovered that you can hike up to the summit of one of Oregon's tallest peaks without doing any actual mountain climbing (if that makes any sense to you). So I told my husband that I wanted to do that hike and another nearby before we move. He then asked me what I meant by move, and I was like, "when I graduate and we leave the PNW." Very seriously, he said that he didn't think I wanted to ever leave, and when I told him I wouldn't make him stay here because I know he hates it, he replied with, "I only hate parts of it." So now I'm sitting here wondering if this area is growing on him. Maybe I'll get to stay out here after all! Although I'm pretty sure my parents would freak if I told them I was staying on this coast. Every so often, they like to remind me that I need to try to find a job on the east coast so that I can visit them more. That's another concern in the back of my mind. My mom retired about a month ago and my dad is retiring in a week. They are trying to sell their house and move to a warmer climate by the beach. My three brothers have little to do with them these days (although one is a violent drug-addicted asshole, so it's best that he's out of everyone's lives) and my sister is finding more and more excuses not to come around. If they move, I'm probably the only one who will visit them and I'm 100% certain that I'm the only one who would be willing to care for them if their health degrades in the coming years. It will be much harder to make the changes necessary to care for them if we're on opposite coasts! PS - congrats on the conference!

I was in your position when I was accepted into my PhD program. I had to move 3,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast! Everyone has given you great advice, but here is my experience with long-distance moving: First, I had a tough time trying to rent from independent landlords. They had the most affordable housing in my area and all of the features I was looking for. However, none of them would rent to me unless I was willing to fly across the country to meet them first. They were "uncomfortable renting to someone so far away." I didn't have the funds to make a trip like that, so I missed out on some potentially good apartments. Second, even some of the bigger rental companies and complexes would not rent to me unless I saw the apartment first. One company was willing to let me have someone else look at the apartment for me. However, like you, I felt really weird about emailing students I never met asking them to go look at an apartment for me. In retrospect, this was an error, because there are lots of cool people in my program and several of them would have been happy to do this for me had I asked. What I ended up doing was renting from a complex. Several of them had apartments available for when I would arrive and were willing to hold it for me with a deposit. This could have ended poorly... my apartment could have ended up being a complete dump. However, none of the complexes actually wanted me to sign a lease until I got there and did a walk-through. So if it was truly terrible, I did have the option of saying "nope" and heading to a motel, although I would have lost the holding deposit and been stuck without an apartment for a bit. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed with my apartment. The website and craigslist ads for the complex make this place look like a beautiful park filled with beautiful townhouses with private yards. Turns out there's only one tiny spot that looks park-like and the interior of my unit left a lot to be desired. The private yard is actually decently sized, but it's surrounded by a crumbling brick wall. Yet I'm still here, so it's really not that bad Some other strategies used by other members of my program who moved across the country: One had a friend living about an hour away. He put all of his stuff in storage and stayed on his friend's couch until he found an apartment. Another found someone looking for a roommate for the fall term only and decided to do that so she could look for apartments when she got here. However, her roommate turned out to be a demon, so she found an apartment really fast. My only other comment is that it's really early for apartment hunting. You're not likely to find anyone advertising leases for the fall until June or July. Also, if you are planning on bringing a lot of stuff with you, look into different options for moving trucks and shipping containers. For me, a shipping container was the most economical and I originally could get two of the u-haul containers for a very good price when I checked into it in early June (for a September move). However, when I actually went to reserve the containers in August, the price had more than doubled, so I could only afford one from a different company (ABF) and had to leave some things behind. So the moral of the story is reserve early!

I haven't seen the new film yet (perhaps I will later today), so I don't know the context. However, there were outbreaks of the plague in Europe into the 19th century (and occasionally you still hear reports of cases in modern times). There was a large outbreak in Marseille in 1720, which is close to when I assume the story takes place (it was originally written in 1740). So I don't think it's too unreasonable to include a reference to it, depending on how it's done... I recall a line by Belle's father from the trailer saying little towns were safe. Perhaps they moved to the little town to escape the threat of plague in big cities like Marseille? What I'm curious about is why exactly there is a prince in a castle in the woods in 18th century France. This would have made sense if the story took place in the area of Germany and central Europe that was broken up into many small sovereign states. However, it doesn't really make sense for a French prince to be in some random castle in the forest, especially with nobody looking for him. Although I'm looking at Wikipedia right now to try to answer my own question, and I see that Prince is a title in the French nobility (and different from the concept of a prince as the son of the king), given to the eldest son of a duke, which makes a bit more sense.