almater435

I mentioned the stipend coming from TA because previous commenters mentioned I'd have a hard time changing anything if I was funded by the advisor. I guess in this whole thing I haven't been clear. I of course more than understand I will be working a "9-5" and likely beyond those hours. I got into graduate school, therefore I at least know a fraction of what hard work I need to put into this. My main concern and what I mean when I call it a 9-5 is that I am not permitted to go to the library or a coffee shop on campus to get some work done if I need some quiet from people in the lab, or if I simply need a change of scenery. I don't want to go home and watch Netflix, just some flexibility in my location for working. The work in my lab doesn't require being in the physical lab unless I need to run a participant in the study or to do work on the lab computers. I hope that better explains my situation and doesn't portray me as someone not wanting to work hard in school.

Thank you everyone for your long replies, I greatly appreciate it! I had a long week and it was bearing on me. What I didn't specify in the original post is that I am not supported by my advisor or grants through her, but through the department as a TA, so completely outside the scope of research. Moving forward, I'm going to be as diligent as possible to show her I can work independently and see how these next few weeks or months go with classes gearing up. for the day-to-day life, my primary issue is with the 9-5 simply because it is not conducive. One of the current graduate students expressed her desire of wanting to get home to cook dinner, and another of the students said "only ten more minutes!". At that point I find it to not be productive if you are sitting and waiting for "work" to be over. I also have the back-up plan of switching advisors if I find I really do not work well in this environment. Who I would switch to is also someone I expressed interest in on my application to the program and have expressed research interests in the alternate advisors area of study to my current advisor because we might (assuming I stay in the lab I am currently in) collaborate. So I guess I'm saying that to defend myself, because I do not think it would be a big surprise if I decided to switch. I know that can create some drama, so I am going to really think about my decision. The department also discussed changing advisors at our visit day, so I do not think it is unheard of. Again, thank you for taking the time to read my post and thank you for responding!

Hi everyone, One of the many reasons I like academia is because of the schedule that is typically more relaxed than a typical 9-5 throughout the year. I've just started working in a lab as a first year Ph.D student, right out of undergrad. I was aware that my advisor treated the lab like a 9-5 job, when we're not in class we should be in the lab working on whatever, whether it is lab work or coursework. This is not my favorite method of working, as I would rather have some silent reading time in the library rather than reading in the lab with undergraduates and graduates who are talking about work, making it hard to concentrate. However, what I was not aware of was how strict my advisor is about taking school breaks. It appears that no matter the work load, the current grad students can only take 2 weeks off the entire year to visit their family and they had to pry that time away with the advisor. I am not sure if this is just because I am naive, but I would have expected more flexibility based on what I saw with grad students during my undergrad. We have a fall break that is 2 days that I was already looking forward to so I could take some time to visit my sister, but when I asked the grad students about it, they said I "might get one day off". They also only get one week out of 5 for Winter Break to visit family, and I am not sure they have taken any time off this summer. They also seemed overly excited for when my adviser was going to be out of town, so they could leave a couple hours early on Friday, which I felt was weird. The work we do takes time, but the only reason we need to be in the lab is to run data on the computers, or for participant appointments which don't happen too often and we have plenty of notice in advance as. I guess my question is, is this typical? Will I just have to get used to working 9-5 with no breaks? Or should I talk to my adviser about this? And before I get criticized, I was no where close to expecting I would get a full winter break, because the lab still does need to run. I just was not expecting this. Thank you in advance.

I received a question from a POI that really shocked me and ended up with me not wanting to work with him. He asked me what my interests were and I was able to define them in a slightly specific way, I was prepared for this. He then asked me (prepping me by saying it was a tough question) what exactly I wanted to study and how I would set up the project. From what I've gathered from other interviews is that it is not expected of applicants to know exactly what they would want to start to research in such a specific manner. It really turned me off from the program because I felt really pressured and he didn't attempt to take any of that pressure off. Other interviews have phrased similar questions by asking what my research interests are, and if I have any specific focus, but it is okay if I have not gotten to that point yet. It was just an odd interview and a completely different feeling from other ones.

I'll be going on 2 all day visits where I'll be meeting with multiple members of the department soon. What do I bring? I was thinking a bag (girls, a long champ black bag) and in it I would carry a water bottle, clipboard with papers, my schedule, and a pen. I would also wear a wrist watch so I can keep track of the time without looking at my phone (I have a tight schedule of bouncing between offices). Is there anything else I should bring?

Hello fellow developmental psych students! I applied to 8 schools (a little over zealous). These include: Emory, Georgia State University, University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Boston University, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and University of Louisville. I have had a skype interview with University of Louisville and Emory. I am going to visit days for University of Tennessee, Emory, and Georgia State. So far I am feeling good about the process! It all seems to be happening so fast! To prep for them, I have just really chugged through my POI's publications, and what their current graduate students focus on. My mentor now told me that I need to be really well versed in the research that is being conducted in the lab I am an undergrad RA in. She said that the people you will be meeting with at an interview want to hear if you can talk about research in a way that makes sense. Good luck to everybody!