TwirlingBlades

Congrats!!!!!

I finished an MS in Kinesiology in 2018. Are there certain schools you are looking at? What is your end goal? Would an MS or PhD help with that? Many kinesiology graduates do well with a BSc and outside certifications, depending on what you want to do.

SO happy to hear this! Congrats!!!!!

Do you know when you are supposed to get your result?

That must be so liberating

Work study

Wow, that is really frustrating. It’s annoying having to repeat yourself over and over. Just curious as as to what your response to this text was?

I want to emphasize this. Adelaide has said multiple times that she is not the one that said the comments re: jealousy. I agree, however, that they are not worth repeating, especially because OP has said that she doesn’t necessarily share those same views. I do also think some of the reactions by OP are worrying. I hope these kind of defensive and borderline rude comments towards fellow academics are contained to the internet. (And I am saying this as someone who thinks some of the things written in this thread were phrased poorly by commenters).

I echo the non-thesis option as a backup. My program had 4 different exit exams we could choose from (thesis, research experience (basically a research paper), practicum, and written comp exam). I understand that the scholarship and PhD acceptance might be hindered by not finishing your thesis, but absolutely worst case you want to finish this degree.

Let’s also remember that it is hard to clearly read tone over text. Although I disagreed with Chanandler’s initial post, I don’t think there was malice behind it and they had a valid perspective. I do agree with Chanandler’s second, longer post, I will say. The very first post that wasn’t positive resulted in a “leave me alone”. I have been following Adelaide’s journey as well and I am crushed for her, but if you are posting on a public forum, expect criticism. And I agree that it is just the first in a long line of failures in academia. Telkanuru’s post pretty much summed it up well.

This is incredibly harsh. Adelaide has said that her work was not perfect. The comments about being treated unfairly were coming from her family/friends. I can’t say whether the grader was overly harsh as claimed, but it seems that the bigger issue was an overconfident advisor. If you read some of Adelaide’s posts from the past year, it appears that she was given very little guidance on how to approach the data collection and synthesize the material. Adelaide has also said multiple times that she has been working on her thesis non-stop. Now, I do agree that the thesis was probably not very good (I don’t mean that as a reflection of Adelaide’s abilities or intelligence) because it does take a lot to fail a thesis outright. But again, it seems that the advisor was ill-prepared to guide Adelaide through this process. It is possible that multiple people are to blame AND that the work wasn’t up to par because of that.

I see. Very interesting situation. Purposefully failing someone would be a big deal, but that certainly doesn't rule out pre-judgmental thoughts. Are you getting other eyes on your thesis? I ask because I would be hesitant to other rely on your advisors advice when she seemed to underestimate the evaluator the first time. Saying things like "very few chances [you] fail again" is kind of worrying (although I don't know that tone or context this was said in. I definitely think taking an extra month to read and give results is a huge deal. That alone is sketchy. Usually these are pretty hard deadlines. You can do it!!!

I’m glad she apologized. What does she think of the comments (why does she think you should have passed)?

A literature review does NOT consist of straight summaries of the articles you are referencing. This is a common mistake with new graduate students and undergrads. A lit review should be a comprehensive overview of the relevant topics and methods that your research article/thesis is going to be about/using. The studies will be referenced to strengthen your review. Going back a bit: Research is usually based off of holes in the current research, or retesting protocols for reliability. A good place to start finding a specific research topic/question is by reading research articles relevant to the overarching topics and reading the “future research” part of the conclusion. You can use those articles with relevant conclusions to write your literature review. You can then flesh out your methods and read more articles that cover relevant topics and methods. It’s better to read and reference more articles and pair them down later than have too few references. You can also keep adding to your literature review in the process of conducting research. Methods, scope, and even specific topic can change over the course of research. I suggest keeping your references in categories so you can easily sort through them. If you read back through your manuscript and you talk about something that is not referenced in your introduction, it may be something that could be added to your intro/lit review. I’m not sure if this helped, or if I completely missed your question, but lit reviews are my fave so please comment or PM me with more questions. I can also give specific examples if needed!

I am so sorry, Adelaide. I remember one of your first posts about your thesis idea. Feel free to PM me. Sending you good thoughts.

I'm American but I lived in the heart of Paris for a few years when I was a child. Notre Dame was one of my favorite places, my family would go multiple times a month. I liked lighting those little candles. It's so devastating.

I did my UG and G at the same university. I completed my bachelors early (finished in 3 years, in the US bachelors are usually 4 years), and completed the masters in 2. My university doesn't have a PhD program for my area of study. I didn't really consciously do anything differently. There is a lot less time spent physically in class (I had 3 classes per semester for my first year, then 2 classes per semester for my second year + thesis hours). I also had an assistantship outside of my department which took up a LOT of my time. This means that I had the ability to (mostly) schedule my own time since I didn't have to physically be in class more than 2 or 3 days. That was definitely a learning curve. My second year was taken up mostly by my assistantship and writing my thesis/collecting lab data, all of which had to be scheduled by me. Especially the first semester, before I started to get into my research, it was hard to not just sleep all day, since I felt like I had so much time (I only had class T/Th mornings, and M evening). That quickly went away though, all of the work started to pile up during second semester/end of first year. Sorry this isn't super helpful, but grad school by nature is different and you will learn to adhere to a new way of learning! About half or so of the students in my program went to the same university for UG, so that was really cool. It was nice to work with the same professors and continue working on projects from UG, so definitely take advantage of that.

Taxes are irritating. I ended an assistantship in May due to graduating, started a W2 job, and have a 1099 job (teaching figure skating on the side). It's not *hard*, just annoying. Plus trying to gather all the stuff I want to write off for 1099. Boooo.

She's a home organizer and author. She has a netflix show which many people have been watching lately! She also has short, informative videos on youtube.

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I'm a figure skater and I was supposed to have a big test today but it snowed heavily and the high level judges couldn't make it because of the weather, so I have to wait two more weeks. Small in the grand scheme of things but I felt really ready today and I'm afraid that I won't feel like that in 2 weeks.

I've been sick since sunday and it's very annoying.

Yes, I would think about contacting the dean of arts and science. If you've been here 3 semesters and still can't get basic information, it's time to escalate. Obviously be respectful and professional, but be firm. Definitely meet with the coordinator *asap*. It's up to you if you want to meet with her before contacting the arts and science dean. If she can meet with you and answer your questions, then I would hold off on emailing the dean (but it's totally up to you). I would bring a list of questions to the meeting with the coordinator, in order of urgency (handbook/requirements, scheduling for next semester, issues with academic advisor/timeline for graduation, not being able to contact professor in the concentration you would interested in, etc). Let her know that you might need a longer meeting (30+ minutes). Don't be afraid to be firm in your assertion that you have felt you have lacked getting basic support. If she is new, she probably wants to take suggests on how to make the department better and she might have other students that have come to her with the same issues. Let us know how it goes. PM or comment if you need more help, I've navigated many grad issues, lol. Edit: You might also want to ask/email the a biology secretary/front desk about a handbook. I needed an updated one last year and they emailed me a PDF.

Hmmm, this all seems very strange. I would email the coordinator that you met with (since you know she exists) and ask her about a student handbook and course questions. Getting registered and on track for next semester is the most urgent thing to get done at this moment. You've said that you don't know who the biology department head is, but I'm asking about the dean of the college that biology is in. If you can't find one person, go higher up. What school/college is biology in? Find the dean. (Obviously it is hard to help without knowing the name of the university you are at, so I am giving you general direction.)

Okay, so your program does have a non-thesis option. Since, based on the info you have given, it seems you are behind. Once you find someone to meet with, I would ask about the non-thesis option. If you are not planning on getting a PhD, I wouldn't break your back doing a full thesis if you don't have to. Did you meet with the new coordinator? Her being young isn't relevant if she is knowledgable. She might be able to help you. Did you email the dean of whatever college biology is in? If you can't find the department head, I would go higher. Have you asked any secretaries in the biology building/office? Even just asking "Hi, I'm a student and I am looking for the biology department head's email. Do you have this information?" The secretaries were invaluable to me in grad school. The also might know office/room numbers. It's their job to keep track of this information. Edit: by exit exam, I mean the thing you have to pass to graduate. Your school might not call them exit exams. The department I graduated from has a thesis, research paper, comprehensive written exam, and practicum option. Everyone had to pick 1. It looks like your school has 2 options.