EvieRue

I just had an emotional breakdown in my office. Luckily my officemate already went home, so no one saw me crying my eyes out. But it certainly was challenging trying to silence my sniffling or else my professors might hear me, not that they care anyway. I've always known that grad school is hard, but I never expect it to be this hard, to the point that I'm starting to hate the very research which I was so passionate about...Life sucks...especially when you have to TA with puffy eyes in an hour

Thank you for the advice! I do have a noise-canceling headphone, but it doesn't help much since my office is surrounded by clinical professors who have students coming to their office for questions all day long...

Thank you so much for the reply! I will be sure to pass this information along to my colleagues who are also having doubts about the program and are thinking about transferring. In fact, I just went to one of my colleagues' office to give him an ibuprofen for his terrible headache. He is afraid that if he goes home and rests now, it might reflect badly on him.... (yes...we are not allowed to work from home even when we are sick...)

Hello all! I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips for transferring to another PhD program? I just started my first year here at my current program because I wanted to continue working with my undergrad advisor (she moved here a year ago). However, after the past two months of learning and research experience, I find that both the program culture and research focus are not a good "fit" for me. 1. Students are expected to work in their office (a tiny shared office space with no windows) from 8am to 10pm everyday including weekends. Although I know this is part of the impression management process, my productivity has been very low since I work best when I'm alone and when it's very quiet. 2. My current program is in the business school and almost all faculty members focus on either meso or macro topics. I came from a very micro psychology research background, and my research interest is too micro for the program. 3. I was under a completely different impression of the program before I came here. I wasn't able to get much information from my advisor during the application process because she was also new to the program. For various reasons, I thought students were given more autonomy regarding their working style and research interest, but it's definitely not the case. I felt like I was always being micro-managed. I know it's still too early in the year to tell whether things would get better or not. But I wanted to be prepared just in case I do find the need to transfer. It would be wonderful if you could give me some suggestions and tips. Thank you!!!!!