RNadine21

The program is actually one of the best and most well-known, so in that sense I'm good. I would be looking at it just as I would other programs since the experience would be different from undergrad. I also left almost four years ago so who knows what has changed since then. Thank you for the input!

I'm starting to consider going back to school for my PhD, so for now this question is more just to see what people think. I absolutely loved my undergrad institution, but I had the mindset of going somewhere else for grad school for a change in atmosphere, pool of people to work with, etc. when I could've stayed where I was. I now have my MS and no regrets about the institution I moved to - it was the perfect program for me and I don't believe I would've had the chance to find my concentration (which I am beyond in love with) at other programs I applied to. How would it look to go back to my undergrad institution for my PhD? It would obviously depend on the the people that I've researched having space, any financial support, etc. but if I had that opportunity, I'd love to take it!

1. Researcher for the federal government (NOAA, EPA, etc.). Apparently I don't have enough non-school experience under my belt yet. 2. Researcher for a university. I have a far better chance with this one, I just haven't landed such a job yet. 3. The next star of Animal Planet/Discovery Channel/etc. Come on, that'd be so fun, running around the world and talking about what I love. 4. Environmental policy in DC. Not that I have any background in policy but it seems so interesting.

To make this story as short as possible, let's go bullet point style - I earned my Master's this May, and since then have been working two part-time jobs. Both are in my field and both are temporary. - I got a full-time job which requires me to move back home (still waiting to hear when, and so far it's a verbal acceptance). I'm not excited about this job. It's in my field but not exactly where I want to be (I do know there is room for growth though). I'll be making less than I am now in a much more expensive area. - Now all the sudden other opportunities are popping up. One application has been forwarded to the next step in the hiring process, I received information on a job that would very much utilize my skills, and now my supervisor tells me there has been thought to extending my current position until the end of the year. I don't want to move, but if I have to I want to be excited about the job I'm moving for (which would be the other two opportunities that have come to light). I'm not excited about the job I've accepted, but at the moment it was my best offer. Basically, how do I proceed from here?

So I've graduated with my sparkling new degree. I currently have two temporary part-time jobs in my field, one in research and one in education (which I honestly love - the combination!). However, my life will be back to a huge question mark come the end of September. I've been constantly applying to jobs but I'm thinking of reaching out to my undergraduate advisor to catch up/see if she has any leads. I can't figure out how to word the email...I guess what it really comes down to is this sense of....guilt(?) I have about emailing her when we haven't communicated in two years about help with the job hunt. But people do that all the time right? This is basically the first time in my life I don't have my next step perfectly planned out and I'm freaking out internally.

I'm interested in Savannah for a possible job offer. I'm starting a summer position in my current town (Charleston) that has the possibility of leading to a full-time position in Savannah. Does anyone know much about the town? I know it's very similar to Charleston but I'd like to know more about the neighborhoods and such. I'm just curious in case things go the way I'd like them to go

And to add/answer some questions: 1. Everyone else on the committee was set on me passing my defense, graduating this semester, etc. There were just a lot of instances where this person kept on going off about something instead of just saying "Yes", resolving an issue, and then fine, continue with your rant. Example: it took over a week to schedule my defense because he suddenly became insistent on being physically present (he works in another state) and instead on saying "Yes, this date works" and ending the situation, it dragged on for days because he'd talk about the thesis or just say "I really wanted to be there." But again, it's all done. 2. My advisor has been amazing and has tried so hard to keep the peace, especially when I started throwing out words like "stressed" and "scared". She does try to rein everyone back in but he's been difficult to control. He literally will ignore efforts to come to an agreement and keep going. 3. Oh, I'm sooo keeping the emails. Multiple people have told me to. I'll definitely keep my drafts as well with his comments. Everyone who has seen them has been floored.

Thank you everyone for your supportive words. 1. Long story short, I successfully defended and am graduating in two weeks! 2. Difficult person was somewhat annoying but oddly cooperative in person. We sat down together and discussed his thesis comments and I realized that had he been clearer I would've realized that most of his comments were "take it or leave it" and that there were only a couple of bigger issues that we settled right then. 3. My entire committee is done with him. My advisor will definitely never work with him again, and one person has one as far as vowing to vote no if/when this person reapplys for his faculty position here. 4. You all were right about not letting this experience ruin research for me. I had an interview for a job (which at this point I'm guessing I didn't get, but moving on) and my excitement made me realize that I'm not done with research yet, there's still plenty of passion within me. Now to just sit back and relax....before turning my thesis into a manuscript of course.

About a year ago I wrote on this blog about an especially difficult committee member. This person is notorious for being a pain and causing trouble and stress. Everyone knows this - students, faculty, and staff. This person is basically on my committee because he was on the grant that my project is based on, and my advisor even warned me that he would be the most difficult person I would be working with. I'm defending my thesis next week and am done with everyone's thesis comments but his. Basically, I've spent this semester feeling bullied. my graduation was pushed back a semester due to his corrections on my thesis, which has been a huge financial blow to me as this came to light too late for me to keep my assistantship. I just started a part-time job, but I've been unemployed and depressed until now. His comments are unproductive (not specific or constructive, just vague notes and an unnecessary amount of "ugh" written all over my paper). He is extremely picky, taking apart my wording of sentences, which at this point has become more an issue of personal style than my actually making poor statements. He sends me multiple emails a day with papers to cite when my thesis is well-supported - he just doesn't like the sources I use (like, I have enough for two more theses at this point). He ignores the comments of my advisor and other committee members and continues to push his point when we've either explained an issue or outright offered him the opportunity to dicuss an issue. We're at the point where the rest of my committee is openly frustrated with him. Today is my last straw. I sent out my defense PowerPoint and again, vague comments about disliking my graphs. He then sent me personally (not sent to my committee) an email saying that his comments are not trivial (which I didn't even say, a committee member did, and it was in reference to one specific comment) and that I need to change my presentation. I am emotionally exhausted and I haven't felt like this since I was literally bullied in middle school. I'm going to express to to my advisor because I haven't in the past; I've been acting strong for her but I actually cry all the time over this and the experience has ruined my desire to continue research. While I will finally discuss this with someone, I wanted to see if others have any advice or calming words, because I've honestly been dangerously close to dropping out for the sake of my sanity.

Are there other types of assistantships? My school has graduate assistantships which range from office work to taking care of grounds to taking care of entire residence halls. See if there's anything like that. I even have a friend in my program who created her own GA (granted it was for a project that we already knew about and that she was in change of anyways, she just convinced the grad school to pay her for it). Also, see if there are research assistantships.

Not even gonna lie, this is when I usually call my mom in tears. Lately she's switched tactics from the "You can't quit, you love what you're doing" to "OK, quit and come home then" to which I start yelling that I can't quit, I've come too far and accomplished too much to stop now. She's a sneaky, sneaky, smart lady.

My friend is currently a Big Sister and she loves it. She is not a perfect person (P.S. no one is, so please don't think you have to be), but she is fun, loving, and engaging. As we're grad students, she doesn't have a lot of money to toss around and sticks to things like craft projects and trips to the park. I'm sorry I don't know more about the process personally, but after every "date" with her Little, my friend is beaming with happiness and can't wait to tell us about her day

I'm taking three weeks off, and honestly I was surprised I could get away with that. But there's nothing at the lab to do right now. Besides, I've been getting a lot of financial work done (working on conference grants, looking for grants/fellowships to apply for). I know may people in my program though who are already back. It seems to depend on the nature of your work.

He was good about offering options should she need to take time off, etc. But he talked like she was about to drop at any moment, when she purposely took a year off school to get her health under control. As my roommate said, he doesn't really have a filter, but I felt like this was a bit much.

Sigaba, thanks for the reminder/tip. I wrote something else unrelated today and realized my signature is pretty incriminating so I tweaked it. I think this caught me more off guard exactly because I was taking all the negative comments with a grain of salt. I wasn't trying to form an opinion until I interacted with this person myself. But this person actually pulled a similar move today so I might just put on the big girl pants and deal with him as head-on as possible (since again, I'm hearing about the problem from my adviser and not from the person directly).

I'm just curious about others' opinions about this situation... So last week my roommate had a meeting with her adviser, which went from her proposal to her finances/personal health. Her adviser reprimanded her for taking out loans (even though most people in our program do), went on about whether she can handle the program with her health (she has MS but hasn't had an episode in a year), and basically put her in a bad mood. He even asked if her roommates had loans and who they were - like, he wanted names. I just felt bad, my friend has gone through so much to get here, and having her own adviser doubt her really upset her. I also don't want him knowing my financial business - he has no connection to me whatsoever and I don't feel that it's his business (she didn't tell him who her roommates are, just that we have loans as well). The whole situation just left me in a weird mood, and it's not the first thing this person has done to make me feel that way. Thoughts? Am I looking too much into it?

Sooo background on this person....he's on my program's faculty list but is not currently in the state. He basically ended up on my committee because he was on the grant proposal for my project. My advisor outright told me that he might be an issue but that she'd do her best to referee. First red flag. When I told older friends in the program that this person is on my committee, I got a "Good luck with that" reaction. Second flag. I physically met him for the first time during my comprehensive oral exam, and he was very nice. He suggested books to read and sent me papers to help with my literature review. This left me confused with everyone's reactions. I finished my lit review two weeks ago and sent it out to my committee. Days later my advisor mentioned that this person emailed her with comments and to look out for an email myself. Days pass, and at this point I've written a good chunk of my thesis proposal but I need comments to move forward. I finally ask my advisor for the comments she got since I never got an email from the person, so she forwards it. It basically says that my lit review was nowhere near good enough. That's fine....except there's nothing telling me how to fix it. It mentions that I don't have an understanding of why my project was funded....because this is a literature review, not my proposal (my proposal does have a section on significance - correct me if I'm wrong in thinking that doesn't have to be in a lit review). It says that I was wrong in saying my species is found in the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed it isn't - I said it's in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (I went right to my paper to see if he was right). The email itself was difficult to decipher - bad grammer, different fonts, random highlighting. Now I'm sitting here wondering how in depth he read my paper and with no direction for fixing it. I know I should email him, but I don't even know what to say.

I was in your situation last year. I've been a big city girl all my life and I moved to a smaller, spread out city. I carpooled last year, and the bus system got me downtown for teaching, but I'm actually going to a dealership tomorrow and will hopefully have a car. It's going to be a big expense, but as I'm starting my project and we're all taking different classes, it's basically a necessity. I will also be using student loans to pull this off, but I'm rationalizing it by reminding myself how much I really need it to get to classes and my lab.

South Carolina, but yea I've had the same issues in both places.

Comcast can be pretty annoying. I had it in FL and now in SC. As others have said, it randomly goes out (either the volume on the TV or channels/internet altogether) for no reason. And my new roommate pointed out to me that we were being charged a ridiculous amount for the modem (I know nothing about this so I'm just relaying her opinion). I wouldn't have signed up for Comcast again but my prior roommate set everything up before I moved so I didn't have a say. I'm definitely looking to switch since I'm moving into a house with two friends.

Hmmm, I just used a free offer from VistaPrint and it doesn't have the logo. I just found a nice relevent design and put my name, program and school, school address (I have a mailbox there), cell and email. They're my gift to myself for passing my oral exam, and I'm so excited to start passing them out!

I hadn't thought about it until I had a seminar on networking, which included the inportance of keeping up with old contacts. I decided then and there to open up contact with my academic advisor from undergrad. I sent her a quick email asking her how things were going and giving her an update on what I've been up to. I even sent her a link to the paper I published. She was very excited and asked to show my paper to the department head. I definitely plan on emailing her every couple of months. I now go to the school where my research mentor is (and he's on my thesis committee) so no worries there

I just got a gym membership with my roommate/classmate. It really helps to have someone who keeps me on my toes. It also helps to go to classes; I have a very short attention span so working out on a machine is so boring for me. I need an instructor yelling at me hahaha.