Cheshire_Cat

My friend in the Ph.D program takes naps every day. So does my dad, who is a Ph.D. It really depends on your circadian rhythm and how you work best, I think. If I don't have class in the middle of the day, I will probably take a nap, because I know that I am least productive around that time. I'm a morning person, and a night person, but from around 1-3 I am useless. I need around 9 hours of sleep to feel rested, but I think 7 hours at night and 2 during the day will be what I do. The cool thing about the Ph.D program is that to some extent, you get to work according to your how your body functions instead of when the boss says be in. My boss would not be happy with me napping from 1-3 every day, haha.

My Alma Mater is being vilified in the media for daring to allow free speech that most people find distasteful. And so they have to cancel classes tomorrow because a bunch of idiots on motorcycles have a point to make. This is why, although I generally am a pretty conservative person, I don't like being associated with them. You can't have your cake and eat it to. Free speech on campus is a good thing, especially for conservatives because otherwise they would be banned from everywhere but the business school. I'm proud of my university for standing up for real American values and not giving in to tribalism at its worse.

I've grown up with a dad in academia. Academia is a small world. If a professor goes about badmouthing students who don't come to their program, the other professors know that is what they are doing. It's like living in a small town. Everyone knows who the sour-mouthed people and gossips are, and no one pays them much heed. If the professor bad mouths you because you go to the other program, the other program will just think it is sour grapes because you didn't choose theirs.

Ok, I don't know if this is a rant or not. If it is, it is a really shallow rant. But, I am a fairly successful CPA, and I'm going back to school for my Ph.D. I'm super excited, don't get me wrong, however, I'm also kind of dreading being a student again. Not because of the work, but kind of the status. It was so nice to be able to say "I'm a CPA at a big accounting firm downtown" But now I will have to say I'm a student. A Ph.D student, granted. But people don't really understand the difference between that and any other type of college student. And a lot of people view college students as kids, and I don't want to been seen that way. Especially since I look younger than I am and people already ask if I'm a college kid. I am not a kid, and I don't like being treated like one!

I am really bad at keeping a schedule. I mean, if I have a hard time commitment, then I am sure to be there, but right now at work I can be in anywhere between 6:30 and 9:30, and the time I get in varies daily. I really want to be able to take a nap during the middle of the day though, so I'm hoping I don't have classes then. I do best when I take a nap instead of working straight through the day. I'll probably adjust my schedule to get a nap no matter when my classes are.

Are grad classes typically in the afternoon?

I want a messenger bag, but I'm curious as to what everyone else is saying. I am going to go to school downtown, so I probably need something not snatchable, but so far my purse hasn't been stolen, so I think I'll be fine. I always carried a large bag in college. Backpacks seem unwieldy to me.

But, no more standardized tests. At least for me. Lots of un-standardized tests, but at least I'm done with the GMAT and CPA exams. That was the worst part.

I think we are all self absorbed, on all "sides" Lets all remember that people are people are people. There are monsters in the world, but lets not create more because we aren't getting our way. Most people aren't hanging on several acceptances because they want to torture those on the wait list, and the people on the wait list aren't less qualified, and may have the same credentials as those considering multiple acceptances. It is the luck of the draw. Those with several acceptances- Be considerate, if you know you aren't going to accept, then tell them so. Those waiting- be patient and don't create villains where there are none. It is a long and painful process for everyone involved. Lets not make it more painful by attacking eachother.

I've always wanted to adopt- the prospect of being pregnant is not pleasant, and adoption is encouraged in my community. However I also want to have my own, kind of for this reason. It sounds bad. But I know I will marry someone smart, and everyone in my family is incredibly intelligent and with few health problems. It would be sad to deprive the world of us. Prideful? Totally. But I have thought it.

My emotions have been everywhere. When I first got in I was nervous and scared. Then excited. Then sad that I'll have to leave my job. Then excited again. And now I'm so nervous I need to go run a couple of miles to burn off this nervous energy. And also impatient. 4 months, 6 days, and 22 hours to go!

Well, I have only had two grandparents for almost all of my life, and they aren't particularly close to me. My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother both died at 55, when I was a toddler. So having kids young doesn't always stop your kids from losing their grandparents. I adopted grandparents, a childless older couple who were our next-door-neighbors when I was young, and they did grandparent like things with us. Unfortunately that grandmother passed young as well, when I was 13, and that was devastating. I really want my kids to have good grandparents. Luckily, the great-grandparents that didn't die young lived into their 90's, so there is a good chance my parents will still be around for a while. I hope so.

This isn't a rant, but I thought I'd put it here. I complain about my job a lot, and I will be glad when I'm in the Ph.D program. But, I am a CPA at a public accounting firm, it is the Friday before April 15th, and I am sitting in my bed eating ice cream (to soothe a sore throat of course) after being rained out of the dog park. I have worked 40.5 hours this week, and worked about that last week too. I won't be going into work this weekend. Most of my friends in public accounting are tax season zombies at this point. So I guess that makes me pretty blessed, regardless of what happens.

I know the feeling. I mean, I'm sure I want kids, but I also know I want to do this too. And then I want to enjoy having money for a little while before I have to spend it all on kids. I'm a very selfish person.

Have you been accepted to a Ph.d for 2015? The application season is over. Obviously 6.21% is better than 18-22% that credit cards charge. However, I would also try to pay down on the loan while in school. Also, think about how much you will be making before the Ph.D, and how much you will be making afterwards. If you are making 30k now, and 70k then, then it is probably worth the 4k in interest because one year deferred would cost you around 40k (well, a little less than that, because you can assume you will get paid more as you gain experience, but I'm making it easy) But if you are making 35k now and will be making 40-45k when you get out... then it may not be worth it. Anyways, that's just something I'd look at. I'm sure if you are physics you can probably figure out how to apply that to your exact situation.

Grin and bear it. You will always have to deal with people you don't like. It is part of life. B may not even actually show up. If she does, it is never good to burn bridges, even if you think you will never need them. Also, I know it hurts to forgive, but try. You will be better for it, I promise you. It doesn't mean saying what they did was ok, but carrying a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

I think my robes cost around $75, but I got to keep them. And then my younger brother used mine as well and just bought a tassel. We had the option of just purchasing a tassel for the masters too, so I did that. It was $15 or so. We also received a hood, which was drab with school colors as trimming. (Why does business have to be drab? Education gets a beautiful teal color and we are stuck with drab.) IMO, the only robes that are really important are the ones for the Ph.D, because if you stay in academia you will be wearing them over and over again. My dad's are made of a very hardy material though.

Promotion! No, not really... my year end reviews were pretty dismal today. At least I can't get demoted from staff accountant. Grad student... they say those who can't do, teach. Bwahaha! I should be wonderful. But, I'm pretty annoyed because they were mostly done by someone who had only reviewed a couple of my earliest assignments and hasn't even talked to me in more than a month. Its frustrating. I hate that it will be my last review here. Oh well... Get used to clueless reviewers. I will write a scathing email about him to my partner when I leave. If I don't chicken out. Hopefully this will be my last feedback from that dreaded project and I can move on. 4 Months, 13 days, 20 hours, & 50 minutes until grad school orientation. I will survive.

I don't think you can attribute that much to a hairstyle. A black kid in the rich part of Atlanta can't begin to understand most of those struggles either. I think a distinction needs to be made. Race is fine. It is a descriptor of certain physical characteristics people have. Just like we would describe an oak tree as different than a pine. The opposite- everyone being the same- would be boring. The problem is the prejudice against people who are different and the fact that we use "race" as a way of doing so. We think the only tree that is a proper tree is a pine and we try to cut the oak leaves to look like a pine. Or we think that because a tree has cones it is a longleaf pine from south Georgia and won't consider the possibility of it being a sequoia from northern California...

Ugh! Volunteer organization problems. One girl takes over and has a grand plan about how we are going to do this one thing. She has a lot of grand plans, but never carries them out. I tell her that this is not a puppy that she can give up when it gets older and uninteresting. (Not that I would ever do that to a puppy either) She says that she will make sure she is there to see it through. A few months later, and she "needs a break" even though she hasn't been there in weeks. I hate unreliable people. I'm the one working crazy hours, having something or other happen to me every week and yet I'm still there when I say I will be, dammit!! Now, should I remind her that she said she was going to be reliable, or just let it go? It pisses me off. People not doing what they say they will do is a pet peeve of mine, especially when they are in positions of leadership.

Lucky! My parents will pay for my phone once I'm in school, and my mom will give me $10 a week to eat out with friends, and my dad will give me $20 a week to tell him how research is going, and I think that is pretty cool. My parents gave me 3 months of free rent after I graduated, and after that I had to pay them rent to live in their house.

I think it is an interesting question. One may get discouraged if they aren't in the middle of the bell curve, but others may take it as a challenge. It is ok to go back to school at any age, and being younger than everyone else isn't a problem either. However, we should note that these are averages. Your cohort may consist of students along the bell curve, or all older than you, or all younger than you (unless you are 19 or 20.) I will be 26 when I enter, so exactly at the middle of the bell curve. However, from what I can tell, my cohort will consist of people right out of college, so I will be the old, wizened experienced one, whereas when I started my masters I was way younger than most people.

I know we get MS Office for free, as well as a couple of other useful programs. As soon as you get all the paperwork filled out for your program, best to find the technology page of the university website and see what they offer for students. Your student technology fees sometimes pay for a great deal.

My work computer is Dell, and I can see how it is built a lot better. However, it is also a LOT heavier.

My dad and I were talking about this the other day. He guest speaks for both a religion professor and a biology professor in their classes and has had numerous discussions with both of them. He is business, who publishes on both the philosophy of science, and ethics. He was saying, that for the most part, hard sciences want clear cut answers. Specific, measurable, verifiable answers. They are very good with the technical aspects of research, but everything needs to be boxed up in a pretty package. OTOH, "soft" science asks a lot of questions, such as about the philosophy of science, but doesn't really come to many conclusions. There is no such thing as the box, in their mind, and no hard and fast conclusions. We really need both sides to be well rounded, but people just gravitate more strongly to one side or the other. Working together is great, and is what a university is for. However, someone who wants hard answers will be driven crazy by the "wishy-washy-ness" of the soft sciences, and the soft sciences will always be annoyed by how definite and sure the hard sciences seem, when there may be other reasons for what they are seeing. On the university, there is always a hierarchy and everyone knows it. The hard sciences always think they are better than the soft sciences, ect... But no one knows where to put the business school because we seem "soft" but business school faculty make more money than the hard and soft combined. We just think we are awesome and let the others fight it out themselves, knowing full well that we rule the world, mwahaha!