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rising_star

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  1. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from acadimbo in Getting off to a good start   
    This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
     
    And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
     
    Back to the original question though:
    - Be open and willing to learn.
    - If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
    - Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
    - Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
    - Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
    - Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
    - Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
    - If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
    - Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
     
    There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.
  2. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from canned-milk in Getting off to a good start   
    This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
     
    And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
     
    Back to the original question though:
    - Be open and willing to learn.
    - If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
    - Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
    - Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
    - Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
    - Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
    - Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
    - If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
    - Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
     
    There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.
  3. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Sabr_Shukr in Getting off to a good start   
    This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
     
    And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
     
    Back to the original question though:
    - Be open and willing to learn.
    - If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
    - Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
    - Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
    - Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
    - Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
    - Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
    - If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
    - Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
     
    There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.
  4. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Liquirizia in What piece(s) of advice would you give to new TAs?   
    This is definitely field-specific and also depends on where you're seeking employment. A number of TT jobs I applied for this year asked for a teaching portfolio, evidence of teaching excellence or effectiveness, or copies of teaching evaluations along with my application, before or after a phone interview, and prior to a campus interview. While it may not help a great deal, it can definitely hurt an applicant, especially if the evals you get aren't very good and there are other applicants with better evals you're being compared to.
     
    As for actual advice, I'll start with the following:
    - Figure out what resources are available to you as a TA or instructor in your department, in your college, and through the university's teaching center. And then take advantage of them. My PhD university's teaching center flat-out told me that I was one of three grad students from my department (90 grad students) they had ever met with or assisted. Now part of this was due to my department's culture where consulting the teaching center was seen as an admission of failure but that's BS and you should ignore that if people are saying it.
    - When in doubt, consult the internet. By which I mean, if you have to create a syllabus, google around to see syllabi others have created for that course or a similar course. If you're looking for appropriate wording for a policy, again you can consult the internet (though you may want to consult your peers and department first because some stuff is university-specific and/or university mandated). Looking for an assignment idea? Google it. Sample rubric? Google for one. There's really no reason to reinvent the wheel.
    - Accept that it will take you a while to gain your footing in the classroom. Be willing to change midway through the term and to do different things for different sections because not all students are the same.
    - Take advantage of any courses/workshops/tutorials that will help you become a better teacher. Again, the teaching center will probably offer workshops or brownbags. These are awesome as a grad student because most of the attendees will be TT faculty so you can see what they're struggling with or what they're doing that works and use it in your teaching. Doing that early on will make you more effective in the long run, leading to better evals.
    - Devise and administer a midterm evaluation of your students that's for you. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate it into the course. It almost always leads to improved semester evals, even if you don't change very much.
    - Have someone else (an experienced teacher) observe your teaching. It will be painful and awkward and difficult. But, it will help you improve. It will also give you more material for your future teaching portfolio.
    - Take the time to identify excellent teachers on campus (whether or not they're in your field) and observe them. You may need to ask them first, of course. If you're having trouble finding someone, ask the teaching center. Watching other people who are awesome, especially those who do it in totally different ways (like observing a lecture for 400 students vs a seminar for 30 students), will help you understand the variety of what works and identify some techniques that will work for you.
    - Oh, and take the time to learn your students' names whenever possible. They appreciate it.
     
    Okay, that was a lot of advice and probably more than you can do all in one semester. But, I hope it helps someone!
  5. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from amyvt98 in Getting off to a good start   
    This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
     
    And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
     
    Back to the original question though:
    - Be open and willing to learn.
    - If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
    - Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
    - Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
    - Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
    - Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
    - Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
    - If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
    - Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
     
    There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.
  6. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from 1996kayden in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    Re: desk chairs

    If you go to an office supply store like Office Depot, you can often find ratings on the chairs saying how long they can/should be used for daily. I bought one that is for 6-8 hours of daily use and is certified by the American Chiropractic Association. It's a HUGE difference from the cheaper desk chair I'd gotten before. I was able to make it more affordable by using a coupon I got online for 25% off. It has been such a good investment that I don't know why I didn't buy it sooner.
  7. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from BananaSlug4MSW in Pens/Pencils which brands do you prefer?   
    I like the Pilot G2 gel pens. I also sometimes use ballpoint pens (Pentel fine or medium, different pack but the same pen in proflorax's picture above) depending on whether I care about being able to see the ink on the other side of the page.
  8. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Phoenix88 in What piece(s) of advice would you give to new TAs?   
    This is definitely field-specific and also depends on where you're seeking employment. A number of TT jobs I applied for this year asked for a teaching portfolio, evidence of teaching excellence or effectiveness, or copies of teaching evaluations along with my application, before or after a phone interview, and prior to a campus interview. While it may not help a great deal, it can definitely hurt an applicant, especially if the evals you get aren't very good and there are other applicants with better evals you're being compared to.
     
    As for actual advice, I'll start with the following:
    - Figure out what resources are available to you as a TA or instructor in your department, in your college, and through the university's teaching center. And then take advantage of them. My PhD university's teaching center flat-out told me that I was one of three grad students from my department (90 grad students) they had ever met with or assisted. Now part of this was due to my department's culture where consulting the teaching center was seen as an admission of failure but that's BS and you should ignore that if people are saying it.
    - When in doubt, consult the internet. By which I mean, if you have to create a syllabus, google around to see syllabi others have created for that course or a similar course. If you're looking for appropriate wording for a policy, again you can consult the internet (though you may want to consult your peers and department first because some stuff is university-specific and/or university mandated). Looking for an assignment idea? Google it. Sample rubric? Google for one. There's really no reason to reinvent the wheel.
    - Accept that it will take you a while to gain your footing in the classroom. Be willing to change midway through the term and to do different things for different sections because not all students are the same.
    - Take advantage of any courses/workshops/tutorials that will help you become a better teacher. Again, the teaching center will probably offer workshops or brownbags. These are awesome as a grad student because most of the attendees will be TT faculty so you can see what they're struggling with or what they're doing that works and use it in your teaching. Doing that early on will make you more effective in the long run, leading to better evals.
    - Devise and administer a midterm evaluation of your students that's for you. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate it into the course. It almost always leads to improved semester evals, even if you don't change very much.
    - Have someone else (an experienced teacher) observe your teaching. It will be painful and awkward and difficult. But, it will help you improve. It will also give you more material for your future teaching portfolio.
    - Take the time to identify excellent teachers on campus (whether or not they're in your field) and observe them. You may need to ask them first, of course. If you're having trouble finding someone, ask the teaching center. Watching other people who are awesome, especially those who do it in totally different ways (like observing a lecture for 400 students vs a seminar for 30 students), will help you understand the variety of what works and identify some techniques that will work for you.
    - Oh, and take the time to learn your students' names whenever possible. They appreciate it.
     
    Okay, that was a lot of advice and probably more than you can do all in one semester. But, I hope it helps someone!
  9. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from thebougiebehaviorist in What piece(s) of advice would you give to new TAs?   
    This is definitely field-specific and also depends on where you're seeking employment. A number of TT jobs I applied for this year asked for a teaching portfolio, evidence of teaching excellence or effectiveness, or copies of teaching evaluations along with my application, before or after a phone interview, and prior to a campus interview. While it may not help a great deal, it can definitely hurt an applicant, especially if the evals you get aren't very good and there are other applicants with better evals you're being compared to.
     
    As for actual advice, I'll start with the following:
    - Figure out what resources are available to you as a TA or instructor in your department, in your college, and through the university's teaching center. And then take advantage of them. My PhD university's teaching center flat-out told me that I was one of three grad students from my department (90 grad students) they had ever met with or assisted. Now part of this was due to my department's culture where consulting the teaching center was seen as an admission of failure but that's BS and you should ignore that if people are saying it.
    - When in doubt, consult the internet. By which I mean, if you have to create a syllabus, google around to see syllabi others have created for that course or a similar course. If you're looking for appropriate wording for a policy, again you can consult the internet (though you may want to consult your peers and department first because some stuff is university-specific and/or university mandated). Looking for an assignment idea? Google it. Sample rubric? Google for one. There's really no reason to reinvent the wheel.
    - Accept that it will take you a while to gain your footing in the classroom. Be willing to change midway through the term and to do different things for different sections because not all students are the same.
    - Take advantage of any courses/workshops/tutorials that will help you become a better teacher. Again, the teaching center will probably offer workshops or brownbags. These are awesome as a grad student because most of the attendees will be TT faculty so you can see what they're struggling with or what they're doing that works and use it in your teaching. Doing that early on will make you more effective in the long run, leading to better evals.
    - Devise and administer a midterm evaluation of your students that's for you. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate it into the course. It almost always leads to improved semester evals, even if you don't change very much.
    - Have someone else (an experienced teacher) observe your teaching. It will be painful and awkward and difficult. But, it will help you improve. It will also give you more material for your future teaching portfolio.
    - Take the time to identify excellent teachers on campus (whether or not they're in your field) and observe them. You may need to ask them first, of course. If you're having trouble finding someone, ask the teaching center. Watching other people who are awesome, especially those who do it in totally different ways (like observing a lecture for 400 students vs a seminar for 30 students), will help you understand the variety of what works and identify some techniques that will work for you.
    - Oh, and take the time to learn your students' names whenever possible. They appreciate it.
     
    Okay, that was a lot of advice and probably more than you can do all in one semester. But, I hope it helps someone!
  10. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in English corrections for non-native speakers in science class   
    In a non-writing intensive course, I would not spend time correcting mistakes like these or penalizing them unless they interfere with your ability to comprehend the answer and evaluate whether it is appropriate/correct. Definitely direct students to the writing center. If there is a ESL specialist, you may want to include their name so students know who to contact. 
    In a course where writing is a key component (e.g., scientific writing, writing/research in the discipline), my approach would differ. In that case, I would meet with the student(s) individually to discuss ways in which to improve their work. Note that I do this for all students early in the semester. In those meetings, I try to walk through at least a page of their paper and explain to them what came to mind as I was reading the paper initially. This helps them see my thought process and also understand the key issues as I was grading. 
  11. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in Dissertation/Reading Advice   
    This is going to be a quick reply (sorry!) but I can elaborate more if you'd like.
    Reading:
    1) It's not necessarily about skimming but about reading effectively. There's a chapter in Hacking the Academy about how to read an academic book in an hour. The chapter itself is two pages long so, even if you don't like their method, you won't lose much time reading about it. Another option would be to check out this PDF by Paul Edwards at the University of Michigan. I'm actually assigning it to my students this semester so they can learn more about how to effectively read a book (most of my undergrads have never had to read a book cover to cover before). 
    2) For a lot of books, you probably really only need to read the intro, conclusion, and then the intro and conclusion to each specific chapter IF there are parts particularly relevant to your research/interests. Only read the entire book if you really have to. 
    3) There's lots of info out there about how to increase your reading speed (e.g., by not reading each word aloud in your head). YMMV but you may want to look into some of these techniques.
    Dissertation:
    1) The best way to get a sense of what a dissertation should look like is to read some. I recommend reading (okay, well skimming) at least five. You want to read 1-2 written by students of your PhD advisor (regardless of their topic) and another 1-2 recently completed ones from your dept (again, topic is unimportant). This is to get a sense of what your advisor and department are expecting in terms of length and depth. It'll also give you a sense of how people in your program structure their dissertations.
    Then, read another 2-3 written on your topic in the last five years. There's two reasons for this. First, a lot of the most recent scholarship can be found in dissertations that haven't yet been turned into books or articles, so you may get a better sense of what is cutting-edge or unknown in your area (and, as a bonus, avoid rehashing something someone else just did in their dissertation*). Second, it'll give you a sense of whether the way people are writing dissertations in your department is what's common for your topic/area. Plus, you know, you'll have a great bibliography to mine.
    *The logic here is that you'll end up competing with that person for jobs and to get your book published and they've already got a head start on you.
    2) There are a bunch of books on writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day and that sort of thing. I never read any of them. Instead, I gave myself specific word count targets for each day and made sure that I met them.
    3) It's difficult for any of us to tell you how to approach the actual writing because we don't know your typical writing process. Did you write a MA thesis? If so, use the same techniques if those worked for you. Personally, I made a detailed outline of the entire project (really, the Table of Contents), then decided about how long each part needed to be, then decided what to work on. I ended up not writing my chapters in order (that's never been my style so I wrote Ch. 3-5, then ch. 2, then the conclusion, then ch 1) because it made the most sense to me when I was writing it. I think I also ended up shuffling the order of the chapters around at some point.
    4) If you want to finish in a year, set up a timeline and work backwards to ensure that you give yourself sufficient time to complete everything. That is, if you have to defend by X date to file, then you want to make sure your final draft is to your committee about a month before that. From there you can figure out what targets you need to hit and by when. 
    5) Whether or not you can keep working while various committee members are reviewing chapters is entirely dependent on your committee. No one on either my MA or PhD committees wanted to read anything until I had a full rough draft. That meant that I didn't have to wait for feedback all the time but it also made it nervewracking because there were fewer checks to make sure I was on the right track. So, after your orals, I'd ask your entire committee how they want to proceed in terms of chapters and drafts, as well as what you can expect in terms of turnaround. You'll also want to ask how frequently they want progress reports/updates, if they want the entire committee to reconvene every few months, etc. All of these things vary widely based on who is on one's committee.
    Good luck! You can do this!
     
  12. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    Re: desk chairs

    If you go to an office supply store like Office Depot, you can often find ratings on the chairs saying how long they can/should be used for daily. I bought one that is for 6-8 hours of daily use and is certified by the American Chiropractic Association. It's a HUGE difference from the cheaper desk chair I'd gotten before. I was able to make it more affordable by using a coupon I got online for 25% off. It has been such a good investment that I don't know why I didn't buy it sooner.
  13. Downvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Indecisive Poet in Looking back, how do you feel about your undergrad experience?   
    I think your undergrad experience is pretty common. Discussing texts is how people learn about them. I sincerely doubt that your characterization about participation points vs "someone deeply learned in the field" is true of your classes. Professors have specific goals in mind when leading a discussion and typically guide students toward reaching those, even when you (or the other students) may not see it. If you truly wanted to spend time learning from the faculty and hearing them pontificate about a particular text, you can and should have gone to office hours to engage in a more nuanced discussion.
    More broadly, there's a clear sense in your post that despite your statement that you don't want to complain, that's exactly what you're doing. You obviously don't trust the faculty you've learned from, even as you praise them as "some fantastic scholars", because you don't trust their judgment about where you should apply or their ability to evaluate your senior thesis. In that case, I guess I wonder why you think they're fantastic and want their LoRs if you also don't think they know anything about your potential or grad school options.
  14. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from neat in Doing a Fulbright when already accepted to PhD program?   
    Given the particulars of your situation, I would contact the other two schools you turned down, explain to them that your circumstances have changed, and ask if they'd be willing to consider your Fulbright year as a deferral.
  15. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Statboy in SOP length...how approximate is "approximately"?   
    You know, I thought a 500 word statement was unreasonable until I actually did it. Ended up with 499 words and it basically says the same thing as all of my longer statements do it. Part of being an academic is being able to be concise. Submitting more than twice the limit shows: a) you can't follow directions, you're unable to be brief/concise, and c) you think guidelines don't apply to you. The question is whether it's worth conveying that to people who only know you based on a folder of paper. I always went with an adamant no.
  16. Like
    rising_star got a reaction from friesandwater in Does anyone else feel like their Masters program (research based) isn't challenging enough?   
    I sort of felt that way the first year of my MA (eons ago now). Then, I got some good advice from more senior grad students: your experience will be as challenging as you want it to be. If you seek out opportunities to go beyond the coursework, get involved in more research, learn to be a better teacher, etc., then your master's can and will challenge you. But if you don't do that and complain about the program, you really only have yourself to blame. Instead of saying you feel pigeonholed, seek out the things you think are cool, new, or interesting. Go to office hours to talk to profs about them. Read up on them on your own. See if anyone will take you on as a RA to focus on one of those topics. Your education in grad school is driven by you so make the most of it while you can.
  17. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from ContractMonsterSlayer in How Important are Conferences?   
    Institutions don't just make up P&T guidelines out of thin air... So I'll just say that we borrowed heavily from what our peers from a standard comparison group of 150+ similar institutions were doing. But sure, if folks just starting a PhD want to discount what some potential employers might want, by all means they should. It'll improve the odds for others, which can't be a bad thing for those folks.
    More broadly, I think you're assuming that I have zero familiarity with English PhD students or English PhDs on the market. *shrug* Let's just hope for the sake of everyone reading this that you're always right and I'm mostly wrong. 
    Also, if co-authoring helps someone see and understand the process and build their confidence to publish, then I'd say that it's more than valuable even if not all R1 institutions will recognize it as such when on the market. FWIW, I've seen a lot of students be hesitant about putting their work out there but be much less so when given the chance to write or publish with someone more familiar with the process. In the sciences (social, natural, physical), this is common and part of one's training. In the humanities, it isn't, which may affect publication rates. I know there are other factors affecting publication rates but, from successful* CVs I've seen, there are many folks who have one co-authored pub early in the PhD and then several solo authored ones later. 
    *Successful = got on the long list for Skype/phone interview and/or made the campus visit list
  18. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in Just when you thought HELL couldn't get any worse...   
    First, I want to say that you're confusing bluntness with hostility. I don't mean you any ill will but I am being very blunt and honest with you, as I am with everyone else I know in graduate school or that wants to be in grad school.
     
    Second, I'm not saying that I believe you'll take longer than everyone else to do a PhD. I am saying that it will be hard for people evaluating your application to overcome that perception. They are going to know the overall time-to-degree for your program, if they know anything at all. Otherwise, they're going to judge your application by comparing how long you took to do the MA to that of their own MA students and others with a MA in the applicant pool. You may think that you have overcome those obstacles but, you continue to place the blame on your advisor and accept very little of it personally. That won't read well in an application, especially since you aren't going to have a rec letter that says "Oh, all of X's students take forever to finish so actually 1000Plateaus finished quickly given who he worked under." Do you see my point?
     
    Third, while you may be taking what people say under consideration, you come across as dismissive of everyone that does not support your entrance into a PhD program immediately, that thinks you took a long time to finish, that thinks your difficulties were personal and not just due to your advisor, etc. You are fairly one-sided in your thankfulness if you read the comments carefully. Those of us who have said that applying without your advisor's letter is a bad move have been brushed aside, for example.
     
    I absolutely 100% agree with this. If I were in your shoes, I would try to schedule at least 45 minutes to meet with each one of them and find out what they genuinely wanted you to do, where they think you came up short, and why. Without their support (even if that just means they won't badmouth you if someone calls them), you are going to have a very, very hard time pursuing a PhD in a reputable program and with funding. If you don't care about either of those, then please tell us so we can stop giving you advice as if you do.
     
    One year longer really is a lot longer for master's students. It's the same as going full-time, taking a full load of courses every semester, and taking 6 years to finish a bachelor's in the US. It's a lot of extra time and a lot of extra money, whether that's yours or the department's. And while professors may be jerks, it generally takes a lot to have two professors who worked with you on a thesis refuse to write you recommendation letters.
  19. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in Just when you thought HELL couldn't get any worse...   
    Man, there's some trainwreck advice being given out here. Listen, there are lots of reasons why you should be worried about the rec letter situation. Some schools actually require that you list the person's relationship to you when writing down who they will get letters from. So, it will be a red flag for them if you never write "advisor". Also, faculty know each other and they talk. Don't think someone you're applying to work with won't pick up the phone and call someone they know in their program (rec letter writer or not) to ask about you.  I've said this many, many times on here over the years but, when I applied to PhD programs, one of my rec letter writers got multiple phone calls from my POIs asking for additional information about me, to follow up on stuff in the letter, etc. That rec letter writer knew about two of my admissions before I did and even warned me that one of my POIs was going to call! So do not underestimate or doubt the amount of talk that goes on.*
     
    Were I you, I'd think very seriously about pursuing this path. Take some time off to really consider your options and lay the groundwork for pursuing the PhD. Maybe you need to take additional MA classes so you can get better letters and write a strong writing sample. Maybe in doing so you'll regain the confidence of those you've already worked with. But just forging ahead now seems like a recipe for disaster.
     
     
    *And please, don't tell me this shouldn't happen because of FERPA. Because it happens anyway and good luck finding a way to bring a lawsuit if you ever find out.
  20. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from kaaditya in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    A lot of good stuff has already been said, so here's my take.

    The first year will, almost always, suck. So, find a way to make it suck less. Figure out which work *has* to be done and which work doesn't, then work accordingly. Make friends with your cohort, or at least some of them, so you have someone to talk to during breaks in class. Remember that you don't have to be best buddies with any of them. In fact, it's probably better if you aren't. Either find a new hobby or stick with an existing one. Write it into your schedule so that it happens. I recommend something that incorporates exercise but YMMV. Use the hobby and any other activities you have to start meeting other people, especially if you move to a new city for grad school.

    Regarding money: Figure out ASAP whether or not you get paychecks in the summer. If you won't, start planning *now* for how to pay your summer living expenses. If you don't think you'll have enough, plan to take out a small subsidized loan in the spring semester (summer loans require summer enrollment, which could be extra money if your tuition waiver is like mine and doesn't cover summers), put it in a savings account, and don't touch it until late May. If you're having trouble juggling the start-up costs of grad school, take out a subsidized student loan for a few thousand dollars. Your payment after graduation will be under $50/month and you won't be stressed and/or paying criminally high interest rates to a credit card company.

    Find a good and capable advisor. Note: this may not be the person you thought you'd work with. Interview potential advisors before deciding, if possible. Before forming a committee, ask other grad students about whether or not those faculty get along. Then, run every single name by your advisor before approaching that person. You do NOT want a committee that has their own issues that they bring into the room when discussing your stuff.

    And, given the time and financial constraints, learn to cook either now or once school starts. I could barely cook when I started grad school but I've gotten better. Seek out food blogs and cookbooks that offer simple recipes. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is a great resource (though admittedly, years later I'm still unwilling to make some of the stuff in there due to complexity). If you don't already have one, get a slow cooker so that you can toss food into it in the morning and come home to a warm dinner. On days when you're biking/walking home in the dark, cold rain, it will seriously make you not want to give up.

    Last but not least, don't date in the department. Just don't do it. It always seems like a good idea at first but, it can get ugly. So just stay away and, if you're having trouble, remember that you'll have to see that person daily for 4+ years after you break up, see them dating other people, hear about their drunken shenanigans and hookups, etc.
  21. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in Just when you thought HELL couldn't get any worse...   
    Two points here.
    1) Just because "lots" do it does not mean that you should. Some of those people in the "lots" take time to have children, go abroad to conduct research, have their field sites literally burn to the ground in a forest fire, etc. You can't compare yourself to anonymous data. You should be comparing yourself to the other people in your department. How many of them finish the master's in less time than you? How does your time to degree compare to the departmental average?
    2) People don't generally take way longer than the norm on a master's and then get to go on to a PhD. A master's program is either 1 or 2 years. If you take 50% longer than everyone else, then that makes it really, really hard to believe that you'll somehow be able to finish a PhD in a timely fashion. So instead of the "average" you presented (which, btw, is not broken down to show whether or not those people already had a MA when they began), it becomes reasonable to suspect that you'd take 50% longer than that, so 9-12 years. No one would take on anyone who they knew would take that long to finish. No one sane, at least.
     
    At this point, you seem both incredibly stubborn and thick-headed about all of this. It is clear that you won't listen to the collected wisdom of many senior graduate students so, why do you keep posting?
  22. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from TwirlingBlades in NEED SOME MAJOR HELP WITH RESEARCH PAPER WRITING   
    This is, quite frankly, an incredibly rude and condescending response. You have zero clue about the OP's academic background prior to the MA but are asserting that the OP has never been able to write an A-grade essay in their academic life (18 years of education as you put it). I earned maybe 2-3 As total on papers as an undergraduate and still somehow (likely as a shock to folks like you, ExponentialDecay) successfully completed both a master's and a PhD with full funding for both programs. One can improve on their writing with time, practice, and critical feedback from others. Why not simply provide the OP with useful resources rather than tell them they'll never be able to produce professional scholarship? OP, pay the doubters/haters no attention. I had a professor who gave me advice like ExponentialDecay's when I was an undergraduate. Had I listened to them, I would've dropped out of college and never become the teacher and researcher I am today.
     
    2 years of B grades in a MA program are not great. However, you can still improve, Francophile1. If the issue is that your arguments aren't strong enough, see if you can go to office hours and have a professor explain to you what else they're looking for. Is it that your argument itself isn't making sense or that you aren't providing sufficient supporting evidence for your thesis? I find that the latter is very common, as there's a tendency to tell, rather than show, the reader what you want them to know. If this is the case, you may want to add more quotations or examples from the text to bolster your argument. Another possibility is that they're saying your arguments aren't strong enough as a way of saying that your arguments need to be more nuanced. Are you arguing broad or narrow points in your papers? Sometimes it can be difficult to argue an extremely narrow, specific point so we go broader, which then leads to a weaker argument overall. You'll want to be careful not to do this.
     
    Working--and exchanging papers--with your classmates could help you with this as they'll be familiar with the literature and theories you're drawing on in your papers. If you can, Francophile1, find a partner or a couple of people who you can share drafts with and get feedback from. As knp and VirtualMessage have said, writing is a process full of revision and you'll want to go through multiple drafts before submitting a paper. For example, I went through 8 rounds of revisions of my most recent draft manuscript before getting feedback on it from one of my peers. It was only after incorporating that feedback and reading it through another time that I then sent the manuscript in. Tedious? Yes. But I wanted to make sure it was the best writing I could submit to increase the likelihood of it getting published.
     
    There's some excellent advice here. For class papers, think of the professor as the editor if you're following what VirtualMessage says. You'll want to go through several full drafts and revisions, get feedback from peers or the Writing Center, and revise again before you submit your paper. This means starting early on your papers (4-6 weeks before they're due if possible) and putting some serious time and effort into both the research and the writing. It is doable!
  23. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from Suraj_S in Not going to a conference that I am not presenting   
    I would attend, especially if you're about to be applying for a fellowship. You want people to know you finished your PhD, are doing well in your postdoc, and where your research is headed next so that you can potentially find support for it. You don't have to go to every session or go all day. Be strategic about where and when you attend the conference.
  24. Upvote
    rising_star got a reaction from LOiseauRouge in Getting off to a good start   
    This has been my experience as well. My department has an almost weekly happy hour frequented by grad students and faculty. Some people talk about random things (sports, news, etc.), others talk about teaching, others about research. I've found that in some of these small conversations I've gotten great ideas or insights into my research that I hadn't gotten otherwise. Sometimes just being asked to give the 30 second version of your research can force you into thinking about it in a different way or allow someone else to say something you hadn't thought of. Without those conversations, my work would definitely suffer.
     
    And yea, I'm one of those people who can't work all the time. Back when I did my comprehensive exams (which were multiple questions over like 10 days), I remember people in my department (mostly those not yet at the exams stage) being surprised that I was still attending the class I was TAing (I was mostly grading but went to every single lecture), working out, and even watching an episode or two of a TV show online. But you know what? You can't work for 16 hours a day for the 10 days without a break. And really, since I was limited to like 25 pages double-spaced per answer, I would've ended up writing way more than I needed if I'd worked that long. Instead, I rode my bike to the gym, worked out with friends (including some who had PhDs and thus totally understood what comps were and why you might need a break), cooked myself real food, etc. It's about knowing what you need to work efficiently and be productive and taking the time to do whatever that is.
     
    Back to the original question though:
    - Be open and willing to learn.
    - If you're in the humanities or social sciences, take the time to just browse the library shelves in your general field and in your intended research area to get an idea of what's been published and what research resources are available to you. (Even better, meet with a librarian early on to make sure you know what your school has and the support s/he can give you.)
    - Skim through recent journal issues in your field to get a sense of what topics are current and which are becoming dated. Pay attention to book reviews if there are any and use those to help you find relevant books for your discipline and research area.
    - Learn to use reference management software (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) and start keeping track of your references that way.
    - Figure out an easy to use system for staying abreast of current/new research in both books and journals that may be of interest.
    - Read your graduate handbook (and TA handbook if needed) so you know what is expected of you. Ask questions if expectations are unclear.
    - Start figuring out what, if any, courses outside the department you might want to take, how often they're offered, how difficult they are, etc.
    - If you're going to need research methods training, figure out how to get that ASAP. In the social sciences, this often means taking courses in qualitative methods, statistics, and/or GIS and seats in those classes can fill because they're attracting students from an array of disciplines. Getting your methods coursework done means you can start collecting data sooner.
    - Get to know whomever helps oversee grant apps (NIH, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, IAF, etc.) at your institution and ask them what you can do beginning now to prepare to apply in the future, when you should be applying, what you'll need to be competitive, etc. And, while you're there, get them to help you set up some alerts for grant announcements.
     
    There's probably more you could do, especially related to conferences and networking, but I don't want to overload anyone with suggestions.
  25. Like
    rising_star got a reaction from biotechie in Dogs and Graduate School   
    I almost wrote a reply to this, then decided to just link to past discussions so that I'm not repeating myself. I hope these links are helpful!
     
     
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