shadowclaw

I went to a tiny college that had the sciences and math lumped into one department. There weren't any labs, really. Instead, several (but certainly not all) professors worked on projects and occasionally invited students to work with them. I got about a year and a half of experience all together working on 3 projects (although the average student in my department got about 9 months experience working on their senior project). For two of the projects, I basically did data collection, but learned some rather useful skills. One of the projects was also done in connection with a state agency. The third project (my senior project) was designed and run by myself with input from my advisor and I presented the results in a few places (and I have a paper in review). All three projects were in ecology, although my senior project was also in chemistry. I apparently also got decent training in statistics. When I got to grad school, the first year students really had no clue. As a result, I had to sit through a graduate statistics course that was an almost exact duplicate of an undergrad course I took. It was so boring. Skills learned: bird banding, mist netting, aging & sexing birds, water chemistry techniques (sonde, titration), electrofishing (backpack), fluorescence spectrophotometry, HPLC.

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back. My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff. I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.

Went out on Saturday afternoon to go for a nice hike in a nearby national forest and collect some agates from the river. It was a bit of a steep climb to get back up to the trail from the river bed, so I thought I'd see if there was a trail nearby that was a bit easier. I found one that was looked fairly easy but the bottom had been washed out a bit and I needed to climb up a fallen tree to access it. So I started to pull myself up and pushed a rotting log to the side so I could get a good grip... then I felt some pickers poking me in the stomach, which was odd because I didn't remember seeing any plants. I then saw a yellowjacket land on my shoulder and I immediately thought back to the time I stepped on some fire ants and thought I was walking through pickers... and I realized there were no thorny plants around. I jumped back with a small swarm of yellowjackets buzzing around and a few stinging me, so I ran towards the water, preparing for the worst and thinking about the scene from "My Girl" when Macaulay Culkin goes looking for the lost mood ring. Thankfully, they returned to their nest at that point and I was left with my entire torso on fire. Hiking back to the car was miserable, and today I am very itchy.

Not an instructor but have TAed before... as an undergrad, I did occasionally get study guides. Sometimes they were just bulleted lists of terms and concepts to know, other times they included questions from previous exams. Study guides were definitely more common in lower level courses, too. Last year, I TAed for a freshman biology lab, and the lab manual came with a study guide in it. Mostly it was a bunch of questions for students to answer to prepare them for lab exams, but weren't really the same as what was on the exam since it was a practical. The lecture for the class had a massive study guide filled with questions and diagrams... while not the exact questions on the exams, they were similar. Personally, I don't think study guides are necessary, but they do help, especially if it is a mass lecture where students do not have the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. On the other hand, almost none of my science professors gave out study guides and students generally did fine. One thing my general chemistry professor did was have a review day before the exam where we could ask all the questions we wanted. Another professor played geology jeopardy with us to review for our final. Unless there is some college requirement to provide study guides, use your own judgement. If it's only 2 students begging for a study guide, then the real problem is that those students don't know how to study.

No, it's definitely as stupid as it sounds. I get that some places would want you to see before renting, but honestly that's something that could be waived for someone out of state (especially way out of state like me). Especially since one place told me if I got a student from the university to come look at it for me then I could fill out an application. Like a stranger looking at it for me will make a difference! I am happy to sign something that says I won't try to break my lease if it turns out to be shithole if that's the concern. As for the people who just can't trust a stranger from across the country... yeah. There are weirdos everywhere. Just because I live 3000 miles away doesn't make me any more or less likely to trash your apartment, stiff you on rent, or whatever else you're thinking.

Your masters GPA doesn't matter as much as you might expect. The research and publications you get as a masters student are more important, as is finding an advisor that you fit well with when you seek out potential programs. While anecdotal, another girl in my masters program applied to several neuroscience programs and ended up getting into one of her top choices. She definitely did not have straight A's and she didn't defend her masters thesis until a few weeks before her PhD classes started (she also won't officially have her masters until this December). I've also heard from a variety of sources that in the sciences, you're not expected to get straight A's, just to maintain the minimum requirements.

Katsharki, I don't have any advice for you beyond what was already suggested, but I can relate. In my first semester of my masters program, I took a current topics course related to neuroscience because there weren't a lot of ecology courses offered that semester and I thought it might be interesting. I bombed the second exam even though I thought I knew the material well (I think I got around a 75). I still got a B+ for the course even though I didn't get an A on any of the exams. Thankfully, my paper and presentation both earned me A's and helped boost my grade. I'm still mad about that class, though, because I missed the A- by two points. My second semester, my advisor and I agreed that I should take an animal physiology course... boy was that a mistake. It was a comparative course and I had little experience in anatomy and physiology beyond what we covered in general biology lab (which wasn't much). I had such a rough time. I started with a 70 on the first exam and slowly my exam grades went up until I finally got an A on the final. It was another instance where a great paper grade saved me and I got a B. I know that you're worried about losing your TA position, but aside from that, make sure you don't get hung up on having that B. One or two B's amongst a sea of A's really doesn't matter.

I recently read a magazine article (or perhaps it was a blog post) about key phrases to teach your daughters to use to help them avoid being pushed out of conversations/ignored by men. I think they may be useful to you. They are: "stop interrupting me," "I just said that," and "no explanation needed." Ok, that last one might not be applicable, but the first two should be. Don't be afraid to call someone out if they're interrupting you or ignoring you. You don't need to be rude back, but something as simple as waiting for them to finish and saying "now that you're done interrupting me, here's what I had to say" will help them realize what they're doing. If they don't take that not-so-subtle hint, then I might start getting rude and interrupt them back. You just need to be loud enough to be heard! I've had issues with other people interrupting me in the past when trying to talk about something. Not in an academic setting, but definitely when talking to people, I've been pushed out of the conversation by others. The worst was working at my job over the summer... I was responsible for training several people in some field techniques. There were two projects going on that overlapped somewhat, but I was training everyone in techniques specific to the project I was leading, and the leader of the other project (who also knew the techniques I was teaching) decided to just jump right in and add some commentary, which would have been fine if she stopped after adding her two cents, but then she just kept going and took over the entire training session and I barely got to say a word while I was demonstrating the techniques. I ended up being very frustrated throughout the field season because she kept making her voice heard above mine when we talked to our supervisors and to our field crew, and if I had just told her to cut it out early on, things would have gone more smoothly. So please try to make yourself heard! You can do it!

I feel very cranky and tired. I'm getting cranky about our money situation because my husband is doing a crappy job finding a job... that sounds funny! Seriously, though, he looks maybe once per week and won't follow up with any of his applications. Mostly I have been filling out applications and sending resumes for him because if I don't, he'll say that he will do it later and then never does. He had an interview at a warehouse for a job that was full-time and had decent pay... I guess he blew the interview, because they e-mailed him saying they decided to hire other more qualified applicants but continue to advertise the position. He had two interviews for part-time custodian jobs, then heard back from both in the same day with job offers. One started immediately with lower pay, the other starts in two weeks. The shifts are compatible with each other, so he could have taken both jobs and he said he wanted to, plus it would have meant having enough money to pay the rent, car payment, bills, etc. plus some extra between the two of us. The next day he changed his mind and told the job that starts now that he accepted another job offer. So instead of earning money over the next two weeks, we have to continue to live off of what I have, which isn't enough. When he finally gets a paycheck sometime in mid-November, we will probably be eating ramen noodles because I only have enough money to pay our rent, car payment, insurance, and utilities. We wouldn't even be in this position if this area wasn't so backwards about renting to people from out of town. Almost everyone with affordable apartments said they were uncomfortable renting to someone out of state or refused to let me apply without seeing the apartment first. The only places that didn't care were expensive, which is why we're paying $950 for a small "two bedroom" apartment (the second bedroom is so small you could barely fit a full-size bed and a dresser in it) in another town with no included utilities, when I could have gotten something bigger for $300 less if people weren't so weird about renting. This place also had a $2300 security deposit which didn't help matters. I'm at the point where I'm thinking about getting a part-time job myself. My funding has no stipulations about working outside of the university, so I'm good to go on that front. I just don't want to, because it will seriously cut down on my available study time, and once summer comes, I need to be out in the field collecting data. Granted, my data collection will primarily be during early mornings so I could potentially work in the evenings, but that's still crappy because field work can be very draining energy-wise. I'm also very tired. Reading makes me tired, typing stuff on the computer makes me tired, basically anything that involves me sitting for a while makes me tired, which I feel like I'm doing all the time because there's so much to read and do on the computer. I end up being far less productive than I want, because I feel sleepy and have to get up and walk around for a bit. I also suddenly started getting shin splints in my left leg during the second week of class. Since then, trying to walk quickly gives me massively painful shin splints and sometimes I have to stop and sit because it hurts too much to continue walking. I'm going to buy a new pair of shoes tomorrow to see if that's the problem... my sneakers are completely worn out.

Taking packages to the leasing office sounds like a swell idea! I hate talking on the phone... It's wrapped up in my social anxiety issues and I really don't want to call UPS. But stopping in the office... that's wonderful. The leasing office here claimed I couldn't get mail sent to the address until we went to the post office to request our keys (which I didn't know about and had stuff sent here). All of my mail got here fine even though there was a piece of paper in the box that said "vacant - do not deliver mail." Now there's a paper with our last name on it taped to the other end of the box... I guess the mailman just doesn't care. What's worse than getting someone else's mail is getting someone else's collection calls. I don't know if this guy had the landline phone number before my parents did or if he just gave the wrong phone number, but for like 10 years we'd get calls for some guy and the collection companies just wouldn't take our word for it that it was the wrong number.

Since moving to my new apartment, I have been receiving lots of mail for the previous tenant. Not just junk mail or catalogs, but phone bills, bank stuff, medical stuff, etc. Basically, a lot of important mail! I've been writing "return to sender" and popping them back in the mail. Yesterday, however, I got a package from Amazon (and it has the prime tape on it). I don't know this person managed to get a package shipped here, unless it was something backordered. Now I have to call UPS to have it sent back since I couldn't refuse it (they dropped it off without ringing the bell). Anyone else get mail for previous tenants?

I've only had two weeks of school so far, so it's hard to say how my week will be once things really pick up. I have four courses, amounting to about 10 hours each week in lecture/discussion. For one course, I have about 3 hours of reading and then online discussion and occasional assignments. Every other week I also have to prepare to lead discussion on a paper. For another course, reading and writing takes around 3 hours. My third course involves a somewhat variable amounts of reading writing, and watching videos, but it probably takes about two hours on average. My last class is a statistics course, and I spend 4 to 5 hours working on assignments. So that's about 23 hours of regular work each week. Monday, Thursday, and Friday are all short days on campus. Wednesday is a loooong day. I prefer to do my readings and other work at home, though that may change as the semester progresses. Also as the semester progresses, I will be doing more reading and writing for two projects related to my courses, plus hopefully start preparing for my research. I have my first meeting with my advisor on Tuesday. Depending on the project, it may end up entirely field-based (except for analysis of course), or perhaps spending some time in the lab. One of the issues of studying migratory birds is that they're here for a limited time (unless you follow them, of course). So that means an intense field season in spring and summer, but nothing in fall and winter.

I didn't realize you had zero coursework in biology! I'm going to make an assumption that you've probably had at least one statistics course and calculus. Like otherss said, two semesters of biology and chemistry will be necessary, plus my recommended ecology and wildlife biology course. The more upper level courses, the better, but at least having the basic science courses and an ecology course will help you meet admission standards. If you pushed yourself, you could do all of this in a year. You could fairly easily take 2 semesters of general bio over the summer, then take ecology and other environmental and wildlife courses in the fall and spring (along with chemistry). However, it would be hard to find upper level courses at a community college, but you could always take one or two someplace else while doing the rest of the work at a community college. As long as the other school accepts your ecology course as meeting the prerequisite, you should be able to take a wide variety of upper level courses in the spring. Just be mindful that biology and chemistry can be difficult for some people, and trying to take a bunch of science classes at once can be stressful. And do get field experience!

I don't know about Humboldt, but generally speaking, a degree in some sort of biological or environmental major (General Biology, Ecology, Environmental Science, etc) is fine, but you should have some field experience related to the kind of project you want to pursue. For example, if you want to work with birds, some volunteer work at a banding station would be good. If you're interested in wildlife diseases, volunteering at a wildlife rehab center would work. If you lack any field experience, it's going to be difficult to convince a prospective advisor to work with you, and doubly so if you don't have a degree in a related field. Wildlife biology can be a bit cutthroat due to low funding in the field and the abundance of students trying to get into graduate programs. If you are really interested in changing fields, you don't necessarily need another degree (although a few courses in wildlifw bio would help), but you should try to get field experience. There are lots of opportunities out there! As for specific courses, I'd aim for a general ecology course and a general wildlife biology course to start. Any courses specific to the organism you want to study would be great, too.

The financial aid office never had trouble changing my direct loans as an undergrad. I imagine they can do the same for a plus loan. You can probably even do it through email with the financial aid office. Shoot them an email and see what they have to say.

Well, I've officially completed my first full week of classes (started Thursday last week). Things are a bit different than they were in my masters program, which is to be expected, but still, it's different. My stats class is overloaded... the course was full and probably 10 people were on the waitlist, and they all come to class. A few people have dropped and some of the waitlist are now in the class, but it's still very crowded and people are very cutthroat when it comes to seating, with good reason. After the first three rows, it's very hard to see the screen with all of the heads in the way. My other classes are much better. One course has two students enrolled (including myself) and the professor has already told us he will be gone for half the quarter... we will be making up those lost classes with field trips. Another course has four students and does a lot of work online, with class time devoted to discussion and working on a review paper. My fourth course falls on a day where two weeks will be lost to holidays (thanksgiving and veterans day), plus another he is going on vacation. Unlike my other course that falls on the same day, the professor didn't plan around these lost days with take home work or online stuff. Instead, he is having us double up on other weeks or move the class to another day, and we will be voting on what time slot works best for these alternate class periods. Very strange indeed. I am quite happy with my classes, though. My masters program was small and there weren't too many courses to choose from each semester. Now there is a buffet of courses, and it's hard to choose which ones will best suit me. Looking forward to the rest of this semester!

Curious how it is tailored to in-state students. Certainly some of my courses are tailored towards this state. For example, my natural resource law course focuses on federal and Oregon law, and not say California or Washington law. Sometimes professors will make reference to different places and events in the state, but really, this is something I would expect. I'm not sure how a requirement could be tailored to locals, though. Maybe requiring extensive knowledge of local laws, procedures, etc. that differ from other states?

Well, I got half of my masters while married (we got married just after the spring semester of the first year ended), and I am now working on my PhD while married. Honestly, it wasn't really any different than when we were dating/engaged when I was an undergrad, except that we started living together. However, my masters program was within driving distance, not across the country. Sometimes he got a bit frustrated with me being away at school all day and into the evening four days a week (sometimes more), but he appreciated that I spent most Saturdays and Sundays with him, when we both had the whole day off. He also appreciated my crock pot meals that I made on days I wasn't home at dinner time! My PhD required a cross country move. He came along. There's no way we'd do a long-distance marriage for 4 years or so. For a masters, it might make more sense to live apart if he has a good job that he likes. A year and a half isn't that long. One of my best friends was in the Air Force and married someone who was also in the Air Force... stationed on the other side of the country. They got married, went on their honeymoon, then returned to their respective bases. I believe it was 9 months until her husband was able to get transferred to her base. They made it work by using vacation time to visit each other (which they had been doing before they got married). The same can be done with school breaks, and doesn't have to be expensive if you book travel in advance and explore various options.

Based on what I've read and experienced, I think it might really take off once more people hear of it. When you submit a manuscript, you can suggest reviewers and it lets you know if the person is already registered in the system or not. If he/she isn't, you can invite him/her to POS. None of the reviewers I suggested were registered already Hopefully more people will find out about this and take part! The professor who suggested we use POS heard about while at a conference in France this summer. I don't know if that means it's more popular in Europe at this point.

Has anyone tried Peerage of Science and had success with it? POS is touted as a new way to do peer review (you can check out the website at http://www.peerageofscience.org). Basically, it's supposed to shorten the time your paper spends in review and help prevent those cruddy reviews where it seems like your reviewer didn't even read the paper. The basic process is that you first submit your manuscript and set deadlines for when you'd like it reviewed by, when you'd like peer review of your peer review done, and how long you'll have to make revisions. Next, your paper gets reviewed by two people using a specific format that is supposed to help show you what parts of your paper need most revision. After the review stage, the review actually gets reviewed. So if your reviewer did a lousy job, they will get called out on it by another reviewer. Finally, you use your reviews to make revisions. At this point, you can submit the whole history of the manuscript and peer review to participating journals (which may or may not require further peer review). Participating journals also have the option of viewing your manuscript anytime during the process and can make publishing offers to you. It sounded like a good idea when one of my committee members from my masters program suggested we use it. However, our paper only got one review (and the review is currently under review), and it wasn't very good... not that the reviewer didn't try to do a good job, but they really didn't understand how the stats worked and that's what most of their comments were on. Anyone else try this and have a good experience?

I haven't even officially started and already there are some hiccups. For one my the courses, only myself and one other student registered. Generally, the course would be cancelled with so few students, but the instructor indicated the course will still be offered if we both really want to do the course. I'm really surprised more students didn't register. It's a special topics course on biological invasions, which is kind of a hot topic in ecology. In any event, I e-mailed the professor and let him know I would still like to take the course. Hopefully the other person will, too, but I think it will definitely be interesting with only 2 people. Then again, I took two semesters of intermediate Russian as an undergrad with only 4 other people and we had a blast. The other things that happened is the director of the program suddenly decided to resign from the position effective at the beginning of next month (I assume he's still remaining on the faculty since he has several graduate students). The dean of the graduate school called for a meeting with the faculty tomorrow, followed by a meeting with all of the program's students to "begin a conversation about the future of the program." On the first read through, I thought it was a very ominous e-mail; however, on the second read, I realized she just wants to talk about what direction the program is going, which could be good or bad. Either way, it's an interesting way to kick off my PhD program.

Ok, I know this is technically is an admission result from last year, but I finally heard back from Florida International University's Biology program. It was a rejection... kind of figured that out when the fall term started approaching.

Crock pots will seriously save your life. I know some people get worried about leaving them on while no one's home, but my family has used them for years without incident. You just put your ingredients into the pot in the morning, put it on the appropriate setting for how long you'll be gone, and bam! Food is ready when you walk in the door. Rice cookers are also amazing if you like rice. I have one with a timer, so I can set it to be done cooking just as I'm getting home. You can also make a wide range of food in a crock pot, too. I especially like making chili and thai curry in mine. As for me, my husband, two cats, and I left Pennsylvania on the 1st and began our road trip to Oregon. The first few days were boring, just lots of diving. Once we got to the southwest, it got more exciting because we had never been to that part of the country before. Our first major stop was Roswell, NM, but we got there at 4 and that's when all of the cool alien stuff closed, and most of it didn't open until 10 the next morning, which was too late. So I was really bummed about that. We went to Flagstaff, AZ next and went to a nearby national moment which was cool. Next we went to Moab, UT which is an amazing place and visited Arches National Park and I bought a nice rock containing a few pieces of red beryl at a rock shop. We went to Las Vegas, but didn't have time to do anything on the strip because we primarily were visiting friends. It's not terribly far from our new home and we can stay with friends for free, so we might head back at some point. Our last stop was in Reno, and we stayed at a terrible hotel and my bike got stolen. It was a very low note to end the trip on, and I was too angry during our drive up to Oregon to really appreciate the national forests of northeast California. At least the cats didn't act up during the trip! Our apartment ended up being smaller than I pictured it and the appliances are old (but functioning). However, it was clean and they just painted it (which made it stinky). Our relocube arrived the next day and all our stuff was perfect. No smashed anything. We also found a cool used furniture store and scored some dining room chairs, a love seat, and a rocker chair for under $100. That leaves more in the budget for other things, which is awesome. I'm not crazy about my new city. I don't live in the same town as my school, and honestly, that town is much nicer. However, we're in a nice neighborhood away from all of the stores and we have a yard and garage. Orientation starts on Monday!

Well, loading the relocube went reasonably well. We couldn't get the recliner or filing cabinet in, or the dining room chairs. My dad said he'd hold onto my cabinet for me, along with a few boxes of fancy expensive dishes that I really have no use for right now, but may in the future. We may look into having him send the recliner via UPS... it probably wouldn't even cost $100 to ship, and it's worth about $600. I guess we'll have to buy some chairs when we get to Oregon, but they don't have to be fancy. We have plenty of other things to acquire as well, like a couch! The relocube looked bigger than I envisioned, although my dad and husband took one look at it when we arrived at the terminal and started laughing hysterically. They were convinced we'd have to bring half the stuff back home. Yet just about everything important fit! We also reorganized the car a bit, so it should be much easier to drive. Unfortunately, we discovered that our old bike rack doesn't work on the new car (even though my husband claimed to have tried it out and it worked fine). So I went on a search for one at multiple stores tonight. Found one at Dicks Sporting Goods, but the car fit list from the manufacturer only went to 2009. My car's design hasn't changed too much in the past few years, and it claims to fit most hatchbacks and vans (we have a Subaru Forester), so hopefully it will work! We'll find out in the morning. I wanted to have a bit more done tonight so we didn't have to wake up so earl tomorrow, but my parents wanted to take us out to dinner. So we'll be loading the boats and the bike tomorrow, and stuffing a few items onto the backseat that we managed to forget to bring to the relocube. Then we're off on our cross country journey! First stop, Terre Haute, Indiana!

Tomorrow we load the relocube and find out if we have to leave stuff behind. I'm still really mad about the uhaul ubox... I got a quote in May for $2500 for two, which was more than enough room to bring everything. When I finally got my moving plans more solidified (read: found a place to live) and was able to schedule the uboxes, the price had doubled. The relocube was $2000 for one and that's all our budget can allow for with the higher prices. We're already only moving a queen size mattress, box spring, and frame, two dressers, one armoire, one recliner, and a bunch of boxes. I'm really hoping the table, chairs, and filing cabinet can fit, too, but I have my doubts. I did the math with how much we could fit in terms of cubic inches, and everything would fit with some room to spare if I could magically make everything into perfect square shapes that fit nice and tight like tetris pieces. The real world doesn't work that way, though! The car is packed pretty tight, too. It's going to be a long annoying drive with no view out the back window.