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_angua

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  1. Like
    _angua reacted to Cheshire_Cat in The Positivity Thread   
    I got an offer to be a tenure track faculty from a good institution. I am in a very rare field where this is still possible right out of grad school, and even with us, probably half of everyone graduating will have to take visitings this year because the market is rough. I am going to the school of my dreams, and I can't chalk it up to anything other than being incredibly blessed.
  2. Like
    _angua got a reaction from bibliophile222 in The Positivity Thread   
    I did my first real cognitive assessment as a practicum student yesterday and didn't completely bungle it!
  3. Like
    _angua reacted to Regression2theMean in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    This thread is very interesting and will likely be helpful for students early in their careers! 
    I want to reiterate that finding your support structure while in grad school is a must! Whether the support comes from other students, trusted faculty, friends outside of grad school, family, a therapist, etc., getting support can make all of the difference. Grad school is hard. Having people who are in your corner is a must. I prefer a combination of people who are involved in academia and can understand the specific hardships of grad school and a few people completely outside of academia who can help keep you grounded. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my support network. 
     
    I also want to add that you could work every hour of the day and still have things left to do. Grad school is hectic. If you want to be able to “finish your to do list”, then you are in for a rough ride. You have to be intentional with your time. I started setting aside “writing time” every day during which I block off my calendar, close my office door, turn off my phone and email, and just write. Don’t be afraid to say no if you can’t or don’t want to do something. Don’t be afraid to take time for yourself. Time is a precious commodity! 
  4. Like
    _angua reacted to AnachronisticPoet in The Positivity Thread   
    One of THE most prominent people in my field and faculty member of one of the programs to which I applied followed me on Twitter!
  5. Upvote
    _angua reacted to Sigaba in Struggling with Cohort   
    If you're as experienced as you say, then you are well aware of how unprofessional it is to form diagnostic interpretations in non clinical situations of individuals who are not your patients.
    Moreover, given the persistent use of psychology to oppress women, your thumbnail sketch of women you don't like is dehumanizng.
    I get it. Members of your cohort hurt you badly by excluding you from their activities. But how does lashing out at them anonymously really get you where you want to go or closer to the people who would want to spend time with you?
  6. Like
    _angua got a reaction from Adelaide9216 in Twitter Studies (Social Media Studies)   
    I've done research on Fitspo where I literally pulled screenshots and coded manually but unless you have some RAs to help I wouldn't really recommend this! Social media is a hot topic in Psychology right now so you might want to check out some of the lit there. I've seen some studies use Netlytic (https://socialmedialab.ca/apps/netlytic/) to do network analysis with large data sets but I don't know if there are other options.
  7. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    I got my diploma! It's official now and no one can take it back from me lol
  8. Like
    _angua reacted to Cheshire_Cat in Venting Thread- Vent about anything.   
    You are not alone. You don't need to pretend everything is going perfectly. I found that most people have a lot of sympathy for PhD students and understand how hard it is to get adjusted. Don't be whiny about it, but maybe talk to an older student about what is going on and see if they have any advice for you. If anything, a listening ear is always comforting.
  9. Upvote
    _angua reacted to AP in Advice for a first year PhD student   
    Congratulations on you acceptance! I as an international graduate student in the West Coast. Although I came at an older age and having worked, I had no idea what to expect or what the culture would be like. Now I am a professor, so my advice is based both of my graduate experience and my (still very recent) conversations with students in my department. 
    General Advise
    Treat graduate school like a job as much as possible. This means several things. On the one hand, you are now an adult responsible for your time and your own progress. As any adult, you are of course entitled to your own life. My advise: keep the dog! (I wish I had one!). Try to keep a routine the best you can and set an amount of work hours. I am assuming you have no kids and/or no partner, based on you OP? If that's the case, it is very easy to work very long hours. Treat yourself to your favorite hobbies: running clubs, church meetings, frisbee, what ever. I was very good at this in my third year. Grad school is also a job in the sense that you are being trained to be a colleague. I don't think no one will tell you this in your department, but try to dress professionally in tone with the department's culture. You'll always be a little less formal than faculty, of course (especially when you are only writing). Similarly, pick up the way people treat each other. I'm not talking about how to address professors (I'd err on the edge of formality, if you don't know your department's culture yet) but especially the collegiality among peers (or lack of). Stay with the good ones. [Eg: I had my first meeting with a graduate student earlier this month and I've noticed that I planned it more or less how a female advisor had always structured hers: first asking about how you are doing and then going into business]. Age-wise, you are not an UG anymore. Don't behave like one.  But graduate school is not a simple job. Be resilient. Your priorities and working style will change in the next five to seven years. I was very active until year 4, once I started writing the dissertation and going into the job market, I was siting down all day, writing. In addition, graduate school is more than a job because we give a lot to be here. I gave up my country to be here. Others move their families. Others left jobs. So it is very personal in a way that it is not faculty (trust me, I am one of those now). So, take care of yourself. Do not postpone your own health and wellness for a paper, it is never worth it. Believe it or not, life happens when you are in a PhD, so allow yourself to deal with what life throws at you. In addition, look for allies in the program, especially other graduate students. I say allies and not friends because I have the theory that we don't have to be friends with the people we work with. I'm not sure it's true, but for me this idea helped me relax and not feel the pressure of "you have to make friends". I did make great friends and with others I have great professional relationships. You want that.  Take the time to learn. I think it's impressive that you are starting a PhD program so young. Unfortunately, that means that you might be still learning about yourself, especially about how you learn. Now, everybody is there to learn. Remember the friends and colleagues part I mentioned earlier? Well, there is a third group of fellow students (the smallest, for sure) with whom I never wanted anything to do with: those who are speaking and saying nothing, and do not accept feedback.We are all students, we are all learning no matter what stage in life you are. Do not allow anyone believe that you have "more" to learn than others. I came at age 31 and still needed to learn how to read and write, because my foreignness made me a complete outside to American academic writing. You might encounter something like this, so give yourself the space to learn what you need to learn in order to succeed.  You have more power than you think. Although a PhD program is structured (coursework-exams-research-dissertation), you have a lot of agency in how to do each (or some) of the stages. Take a look at graduate certificates, workshops, and the like. I have friends all over the place that started off as part-time (5hs/week) editors of an in-house journal and now they are directors of Digital Scholarship in two institutions. I have friends that began working for the university's center for teaching and today, as they finish their PhD, are leading workshops on teaching, technology, and pedagogy to university professors. Depending on what your interests are, do expand them beyond the halls of your Department. This is also from the job market point of view. Search committees are looking more and more for people who can partner with other areas in the university, who can bring in novel teaching strategies, who can collaborate with others, and who engage the public. There are many, many programs on campuses trying to articulate these needs. Check them out, if it's something that interests you, because you might find yourself collaborating with someone after attending their talk!  Academic advise
    Coursework is not just coursework. Work with your advisor to design a curriculum that works for you. Remember that the goal is to be a scholar, not pass courses. Courses should build into your interests and help you develop a sense of the literature and the debates in your field. Sometimes you'll take courses outside your field, but be conscious about why. Times is precious.  Research well how your exams and prospectus are done. Every institution is different. In many cases, expectations are unwritten so have as many conversations as you can with your advisor regarding the purpose of exams and/or prospectus.  Choose a bibliographic manager TODAY. Like, right now.  I would strongly advise you to take notes in your laptop, since that's easier to search when you are writing papers, prospectus, dissertation, etc.  I would advise you not to get a printer. I got one and then got a job on campus where I could print for free. Maybe you department supports some printing? Check that out before spending money.  Miscellanea
    Take control of your online presence. People will Google you. Do not shy away from grant programs, even if you are not applying for anything yet. Grant writing programs are great to a) have grant applications drafts ready and b) basically boil down your project! (and it's never to early to think about your project). There are many events on campus that are free and/or include free food. Keep them in your orbit. A weekly international lunch fed me during my first three years.  Begin all e-mails to professors with "Dear Dr. Smith" unless they tell you not to (I asked once, and they said that although we can treat each other by first names, they prefer formality over emails because you never know how emails get circulated).  Get your eyes checked (we spend a lot of time in front of screens) Experiment with ILL in the first week or two so you get a sense of how it works. They will be your best friends! Do not get rid of the dog (I know, I've said that, but I insist)  
    Shoot me up if you have further questions. 
     
     
  10. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in The Positivity Thread   
    My department decided to nominate me for a convocation leadership award !
  11. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    I actually thanked the examiner in my acknowledgements! My thesis is much stronger in terms of quality now and I am proud of my work.
  12. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT! I learned a lot from this experience even if it was difficult and I will be able to carry that knowledge on to my PhD studies
  13. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    I PASSED!!! WITH AN EXCELLENT GRADE!!! PHEW!!!
  14. Upvote
    _angua reacted to springxsummer in Distinction between Counselling and Clinical Psychology in Canada   
    The distinction between clinical/ counselling is largely historical. In Canada, or at least where I live, You will see counselling psychologists working in clinical settings and vice versa. For example, I interned at a place where counselling psychologists worked with people with severe PTSD. That being said, in general clinical psychology is aimed at more severe problems, such as working with people in hospitals or who are in a residential treatment program. Counselling psychology might be more things like career counselling, mild to moderate mental health issues, or relationship problems. However, there is so much diversity within the field that it's hard to fit the two into neat little boxes. 
    Generally research experience is still important for getting into counselling, but less so than for clinical. You may have a better shot at course-based (non-thesis) programs, though these will make it harder to get into a PhD if that is your goal. Alberta and Saskatchewan do not require a PhD to practice. 
    Are you able to start volunteering in a lab where you live?
  15. Like
    _angua reacted to juilletmercredi in In What Order Did You Write Your Dissertation   
    I wrote my methods section first, because it was the easiest to write and by the time I was writing, I had already finished my data collection. I was doing data analysis simultaneously, so that part happened more iteratively - as I conducted my analyses I went back and edited sections to make them accurate to what I did.
    I wrote the results next, as that was second-easiest. Methods, data analysis, and results altogether took me from early September through mid-December to complete (including reviews of drafts and consultation with my advisers), so around 2.5 months.
    I wrote the intro/literature review next. (In mine, the intro and the literature review are two separate sections, but the intro is very short - like 6 pages). It took me about 2-3 months to do this, so I worked on it from January to March-ish. It was easier to do this because now I knew what I was introducing, so I tailored my lit review to refer very specifically to previous research/theoretical work that pointed to the precise kind of research and analyses I ended up doing. If you write your lit review before doing your methods and results, you may have to go back and edit a lot to tailor your lit review to your work.
    I didn't do an iterative review process with this - I drafted the entire thing and sent it as a huge complete chunk to my adviser. Perhaps risky, but I knew from previous experience that I wouldn't have months and months of comments back, so that's what I did.
    Then I wrote the discussion. This was the hardest part to write for me and I hated it, but I think it took me about a month - so I was done in April-ish.
    That was just enough time for me to get the comments from my lit review back, which I addressed in like 2-3 weeks, and then comments for my discussion, which I also addressed in maybe 1-2 weeks. I did not update my lit review unless I was aware that a new work had been published - so I didn't go looking for works that had been published in the last 2 months since I had submitted my draft. But I was receiving article alerts from journals and people also sometimes sent me articles, so if I received something and I knew where it would fit well, I wove it in.
  16. Like
    _angua reacted to ClassicsCandidate in The Positivity Thread   
    I completed my Roman Drama summer course, which means I'm officially 50% of the way through my MA in Classical Studies ?
  17. Like
    _angua reacted to sgaw10 in Venting Thread- Vent about anything.   
    Yep. I'm moving from a city with one of if not THE best public transit systems in the country, and it's saddening.
  18. Like
    _angua got a reaction from bibliophile222 in The Positivity Thread   
    I have an apartment secured in my new city and my final flight booked! Figuring everything out has been so stressful but I'm happy things are falling in line and excited to get started!
  19. Like
    _angua reacted to sgaw10 in Venting Thread- Vent about anything.   
    I'm moving in less than a month now to start graduate school. As excited as I am, I'm also experiencing some relocation depression. The neighborhood and city as a whole from my undergrad mean the world to me, and it's so painful to let it go. It's the first place I've ever felt at home. And it feels strange moving from a huge city to a smaller one.
  20. Like
    _angua reacted to juilletmercredi in Workflow Preparation for Graduate School   
    It's actually pretty hard to plan this out in advance, as you often have to test out any system that you plan and sometimes the system you select ahead of time doesn't really work for you. Learning how to use Zotero and OneNote ahead of time are good tasks so you're not wasting brain power doing that mid-stream. You may want to check out other reference managers to make sure Zotero is the one you want to go with (Mendeley is a common favorite). I'm not sure that LaTeX is necessary, although it depends on your work style and also what field you're in. (I have a PhD in psychology and did not find it useful.)
    I'll actually go out on a limb and say that you might want to spend this free time just relaxing and doing some fun stuff. Your time is about to become greatly constrained, and graduate school can be a very stressful experience. When you look back, I'm willing to bet you'll be more likely to regret not enjoying yourself in your last months before graduate school than you are to regret picking up some small skill that can be easily picked up in graduate school.
  21. Downvote
    _angua got a reaction from PolPhil in I failed my thesis.   
    I also hope Adelaide is okay and is getting support offline with revising her thesis.
    And just to reiterate and maybe clarify my point for people who seem confused or think I am arguing for universal praise (though I think that's a pretty bad faith response to what I said), in general I think it's better to think about how we can respond in helpful ways based on what we actually know about how people experience crises or distress, rather than moralizing about how we think they ought to respond.
  22. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    Resubmitted tonight! Fingers crossed now! 
  23. Like
    _angua reacted to PsyDuck90 in GRE test dates advice   
    It's really best to narrow your school selections by faculty interest match. That counts way more in the grand scheme of things than GRE scores. 
  24. Like
    _angua reacted to Adelaide9216 in I failed my thesis.   
    Just some news: I am resubmitting this week. Two of the three professors gave me their comments already, and they both said they would be highly surprised if I fail again. I hope the examiner will feel the same way!
    I still have a few changes to make but nothing major in their opinion. 
  25. Upvote
    _angua reacted to MarineBluePsy in Taking time off after PhD   
    In your 20s I see nothing wrong with taking a year off after a major achievement like a PhD (this is fine even after a Bachelor's in my opinion).  You literally have plenty of time left to join the rat race, save for retirement, buy a house, etc.  In your 30s or 40s a year would be excessive so maybe 3-4 months would be more realistic.  It sounds like you know you want to take the year off and you just want someone to say your reasons for wanting to do so aren't crazy.  Your reasons aren't crazy.  Your parents won't be here forever and spending time with them now (while they still remember you and can move about) is never going to be something you regret.  The year off can also be used to really think about where you want to live and how best to enter the job market there.  If you so choose, you can also work on your stutter.  You can also enjoy some of the things that 20somethings who were less productive than you enjoyed routinely........sleeping in, taking a road trip, doing something stupid just because, binge watching some random tv show, travel, etc.  You can also engage in some hobbies you've always been curious about and just plain relax.  Be sure to journal about your year so when you're old you can remind yourself of all the fun you had.
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