St Andrews Lynx

Free time in a STEM program?! Hahahahahaha! ...But seriously, work expands to fill the allotted time. It also varies by discipline, university, PI and personal preference how much free time you have. Somebody who procrastinates heavily will have a lot less free time than a person who guns through the same courseload immediately. If you want to have a hobby then my advice would not be to worry about how much free time you may or may not have. Just do it.

Check out Iain M Banks and his Culture novels.

Ask in person rather than email, if at all possible. The lack of a response is probably just because your email got lost in their (100) Unread Inbox.

Urgh. How do you, gentle forum readers, deal with passive-aggressive behaviour in a professional environment? From those above, below or adjacent to you in the food chain? If you are not the direct recipient of passive-aggressive behaviour, would you still call it out in someone else? Thoughts, advice, anecdotes all appreciated.

My understanding of anxiety & depression is that these aren't "quick fix" things. Nor is there an easy way to sort out complicated mental health issues by yourself. My advice would be to get back to a therapist sooner rather than later. The rest of your future career is going to involve working alongside other people, so it is important to invest in an effective solution to your issues.

Your university may have some sort of writing center that can help you out. I think that our school there are courses to teach you scientific writing, but they are organised and operated outside of the science departments (i.e., in Professional Development). They are certainly available for PhD students, I suspect Masters students will be able to take them as well. I also know that there are courses/lunchtime workshops available at my school on everything from TAing to how to manage your advisor! I think that with a bit of digging you can find guidance. Or failing that, ask more senior grad students to give your essays a once-over before you submit them.

Whenever my work week officially ends (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) I burn incense in the evening. I find that it helps me disconnect from the stressful academic stuff, so I can properly unwind at home. Drinking Roobios, chamomile or green teas are an important part of my evening ritual, too. There has to be some sort of work/home switch-off. Even though I'm working stupid hours right now, I know that when I leave the lab I'm not going to think or stress about it until the next day. I'm currently getting to the gym once or twice per week in the morning. I deliberately chose an off-campus gym, so that I didn't have to be around students and so I could get off campus more frequently. Naked Juices are more effective than coffee when I need to boost my energy levels. Plus they are healthier.

I'm human. I am Spartacus.

Personally, I think that as long as your clothes are neat/clean, you smell nice and act with a professional demeanour...a bit of blue hair dye won't matter.

Not quite once per week for formal meetings. I like the current frequency, because it gives me time to think about research problems for myself and (i) come up with a solution myself (ii) demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the problem and possible solutions. However, when meetings are more frequent they keep the pressure on me to do work and make progress in my research. So I guess it is a balance.

I'm a person who considers music to be an important part of my life - although I'm not especially obsessed with bands, just individual songs. * There are some songs that remind me of a particular place/time in my life. For example, when I was in London "Little Talks" by Monsters & Men was playing on the radio constantly, so when I hear that song I think of London (and the happy memories associated with it). * Some lyrics perfectly capture my mood at a particular time. "And it feels so good to hurt so bad, and suffer just enough to sing the blues." Just like a line in poetry or a novel. * I particularly like songs with interesting rhythms or heavy drumbeats. A lot of modern pop lacks that kind of musicality, which is why I dislike much of it. I don't need to listen to music all the time, though - I can hear it perfectly well inside my head.

I think you need to sit down with your advisor and some hard salary figures on a piece of paper. What the Dept is paying you for the summer class, how much cash you have from external funds (e.g, the grants), and the exact amount of money that you have budgeted you need (rent, living expenses, whatever). Tell him the amount of money that you require to support yourself. From your post it sounds like you are not completely cash-strapped (you have a part-time TAship and grants) over the summer. Perhaps your advisor doesn't realise that there is a significant financial gap in your funding for August, which is why he's reluctant to give you more money after you've told him that you already have some. Lastly: a verbal agreement isn't worth the paper its written on. I would consider emailing your advisor and wait until you get a commitment in writing before trusting them on promised funding.

I would go with an option that is slightly "easier", if you're a first year TA with little teaching experience. Remember that you'll be expected to do research, attend your own classes in addition to the TA work in your first year. My own experience is that TAing - even for a conceptually simple introductory course - took up a LOT of time/energy at first, then by the second semester I finally figured out the efficient ways to get it done. First semester is something of a crazy balancing act! TAs aren't supposed to know everything or be infallible. Faculty (& your PI) understand this. If you tell your students that you're a brand new first year TA, they will also understand. I'd forsake the "hard" option in your first semester, and wait until you are more confident in what you're doing as a TA.

Try to go elsewhere. I've heard someone in industry say the same thing: staying in the same place for undergrad and PhD doesn't look great in your CV. But I think it can be partially mitigated by going elsewhere for your postdoc.

1980s Power Ballads are the best music to run column chromatographies to.

Not all methodology groups work in that way (i.e, as glorified reaction assays). In my group we have to synthesise a lot of our substrates and catalysts. As we develop a new reaction we've got to understand why it is working the way it is - often that requires a lot of intelligent control experiments and brain power. Methodology projects are shorter than a total synthesis project, so if you complete 2 or 3 smaller reaction methodology projects you will have been exposed to as much diversity as in a single total synthesis on say, an alkaloid. On a more general note. You could have done the wildest, most innovative, 43-step total synthesis project and have ran all of Lazslo & Kurti's Named Reactions TWICE...but if you get to the job interview and are unable to sell yourself, then that job will go to the well-presented, personable Methodology graduate student who could really talk themselves up. Etc. Most "organic synthesis" labs have an overlap of total synthesis and methodology - go for those labs with the best balance. What I've seen of people who work in pharma is that they have a mixture of both total synthesis and methodology on their CV.

Total synthesis isn't all that fashionable these days. The vast majority of the "pure" total synthesis groups I've seen are struggling to obtain funding. Making small molecules or designing new reactions is a lot more lucrative.

I think there is a difference between giving feedback after the final essay has been marked and before the student has turned in said draft (i.e, they want you to tell them how to make it into an A-grade essay rather than figuring it out by themselves).

"Knocked-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge..."

You are a natural born poet, Spectastic.

I've found it is something that gets easier to deal with over time. As a TA starting out you feel nervous, unsure if you even *are* qualified to teach and perhaps could have made the grading rubrics clearer beforehand. Anyway, I'm almost certain that students can sense this kind of uncertainty in their TA, even if they couldn't articulate it. Be briskly firm, but polite. Have a stock set of phrases to use "You needed to do X to get an A grade...and you didn't do that." Remember that you are in charge and that the power rests firmly with you. Do not get drawn into arguments with the student - state your reasons and keep stating them if they keep on arguing. Do not talk more than is necessary - anything you say an opportunistic/desperate student will want to use against you. You aren't actually obliged to waste time with the student if they are being argumentative and refusing to listen to you - tell them that.

My advice would be that if you want to set up meetings with faculty, organise a day of visiting via the grad program administrator. Precisely to avoid this type of bias. Does it surprise me? No.

The Ancient Universities in the UK all have some incredibly weird traditions for their graduation ceremonies! At Edinburgh when we walked across the stage the Principal/Vice Chancellor of the University tapped us on the head with a hat made from the trousers of John Knox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox). Every single one of us. We had to register for our graduation ceremonies and indicate if we would be in attendance. That way the school knew who was missing - but their name was announced as "in absentia". It was done in batches by degree program.

The overriding benefit of the uncomfortable fixie bike in Seattle is that you will successfully camouflage in with all the hipsters up there...