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SystemsOrSomething

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Everything posted by SystemsOrSomething

  1. So, here's the story. I'm a second-semester PhD student living off a teaching assistantship which works me fairly hard. I took two classes last semester and did just fine, but this semester I'm taking three. On top of that, I'm trying to get a leg up on research so I can graduate at some point in the not-too-distant future. The problem is, I'm overloaded. I put a lot of effort into my teaching because I don't want my students to have the same crappy TA experience that I had as an undergrad. I end up going above and beyond what's actually required of me in that capacity. As far as my own classes (the ones I'm taking) go, I'm barely keeping up. Two of the classes have a reasonable workload, but the third is taught by a brand-new professor who seems to have a ton of free time to devote to the course. He's actually a pretty good teacher (despite coming off a little patronizing at times), and I'm learning quite a lot, but I feel like this course is taking up a ton of time that could be spent doing research and/or securing a funded research assistantship. My question is, should I withdraw from the course at this point in the semester? I'll receive a 'W' on my graduate transcript, but that's not my biggest concern. I'm more concerned about the social dynamics of this situation - I might want to collaborate with the professor who's teaching the course in the future, and I'm not sure how dropping his class would affect our relationship. At the same time, I feel like I'm getting so burned out that I'm starting to lose my passion for the program overall. I'm also concerned about the ramifications of dropping from full-time to part-time status - I'll check on that tomorrow.
  2. I didn't even find out about this until yesterday, but I think I'm going to apply. They have an interesting "moral committment" requirement, where you pledge to use your skills for the good of the nation in times of emergency...
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