beanbagchairs

Sorry FingersCrossedX for copying your title!

I really like FingersCrossedX thread on the "Applications" sub-forum, where he/she asked about dos and donts in preparing one's applications. I'd like to ask current graduate students if you have advice on first-year graduate students, such that we can avoid to make the same mistakes.

I have read the following document and found it to be useful:

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/azuma_guides.html
It's written for CS grad students. I am not in CS, but I think it's useful

I also tried to search for similar threads in this forum. I cant find it. Sorry if this question has been asked/posted before.

Sorry FingersCrossedX for copying your title!

I really like FingersCrossedX thread on the "Applications" sub-forum, where he/she asked about dos and donts in preparing one's applications. I'd like to ask current graduate students if you have advice on first-year graduate students, such that we can avoid to make the same mistakes.

I have read the following document and found it to be useful:

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/azuma_guides.html
It's written for CS grad students. I am not in CS, but I think it's useful

I also tried to search for similar threads in this forum. I cant find it. Sorry if this question has been asked/posted before.

Whoa, I think previous posters have covered almost all aspects in preparing your applications. I'll just try to add some more in deciding where to go in the case of multiple acceptances:

(1) Wait until you know all of your options (i.e., you have heard back from all of your schools) before making any decision. I realize sometimes it is not possible. Do not decide hastily! This is a big decision of your life. I ended up making my decision towards the end of April 15th.

(2) Visit the schools, talk to current students, talk to professors in each school to get the vibe.

(3) Figure out their placement records. Where do their graduates go. Are the current grads happy with their program? Current grads are usually honest about the current condition.

(4) Try to talk to the current advisees of your PoIs. I did this and it revealed some "disturbing" facts about some of PoIs. In other cases, it confirmed my intention to work with said PoIs.

(5) Follow the money! Go for funded offers, especially for PhDs! You'll work better if you dont have to worry about money.

(6) Seek advices from your current recommenders about which offers to choose.

(7) Figure out the research productivity of current advisees of your PoIs.

(8) Only talk about your applications to those who understands the competitiveness/stress involved in graduate applications. This saves you a lot from feeling stupid for getting rejected or wanting to go mental towards everyone around you :-)

Sorry FingersCrossedX for copying your title!

I really like FingersCrossedX thread on the "Applications" sub-forum, where he/she asked about dos and donts in preparing one's applications. I'd like to ask current graduate students if you have advice on first-year graduate students, such that we can avoid to make the same mistakes.

I have read the following document and found it to be useful:

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/azuma_guides.html
It's written for CS grad students. I am not in CS, but I think it's useful

I also tried to search for similar threads in this forum. I cant find it. Sorry if this question has been asked/posted before.

Sorry FingersCrossedX for copying your title!

I really like FingersCrossedX thread on the "Applications" sub-forum, where he/she asked about dos and donts in preparing one's applications. I'd like to ask current graduate students if you have advice on first-year graduate students, such that we can avoid to make the same mistakes.

I have read the following document and found it to be useful:

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/azuma_guides.html
It's written for CS grad students. I am not in CS, but I think it's useful

I also tried to search for similar threads in this forum. I cant find it. Sorry if this question has been asked/posted before.

Whoa, I think previous posters have covered almost all aspects in preparing your applications. I'll just try to add some more in deciding where to go in the case of multiple acceptances:

(1) Wait until you know all of your options (i.e., you have heard back from all of your schools) before making any decision. I realize sometimes it is not possible. Do not decide hastily! This is a big decision of your life. I ended up making my decision towards the end of April 15th.

(2) Visit the schools, talk to current students, talk to professors in each school to get the vibe.

(3) Figure out their placement records. Where do their graduates go. Are the current grads happy with their program? Current grads are usually honest about the current condition.

(4) Try to talk to the current advisees of your PoIs. I did this and it revealed some "disturbing" facts about some of PoIs. In other cases, it confirmed my intention to work with said PoIs.

(5) Follow the money! Go for funded offers, especially for PhDs! You'll work better if you dont have to worry about money.

(6) Seek advices from your current recommenders about which offers to choose.

(7) Figure out the research productivity of current advisees of your PoIs.

(8) Only talk about your applications to those who understands the competitiveness/stress involved in graduate applications. This saves you a lot from feeling stupid for getting rejected or wanting to go mental towards everyone around you :-)

Yep...my biggest obstacle was CHASING my LOR writers around to make sure they upload their letters ON TIME. Two submitted hours before the deadline. Boy, I was sure I'd have a heart attack.

Whoa, I think previous posters have covered almost all aspects in preparing your applications. I'll just try to add some more in deciding where to go in the case of multiple acceptances:

(1) Wait until you know all of your options (i.e., you have heard back from all of your schools) before making any decision. I realize sometimes it is not possible. Do not decide hastily! This is a big decision of your life. I ended up making my decision towards the end of April 15th.

(2) Visit the schools, talk to current students, talk to professors in each school to get the vibe.

(3) Figure out their placement records. Where do their graduates go. Are the current grads happy with their program? Current grads are usually honest about the current condition.

(4) Try to talk to the current advisees of your PoIs. I did this and it revealed some "disturbing" facts about some of PoIs. In other cases, it confirmed my intention to work with said PoIs.

(5) Follow the money! Go for funded offers, especially for PhDs! You'll work better if you dont have to worry about money.

(6) Seek advices from your current recommenders about which offers to choose.

(7) Figure out the research productivity of current advisees of your PoIs.

(8) Only talk about your applications to those who understands the competitiveness/stress involved in graduate applications. This saves you a lot from feeling stupid for getting rejected or wanting to go mental towards everyone around you :-)

Whoa, I think previous posters have covered almost all aspects in preparing your applications. I'll just try to add some more in deciding where to go in the case of multiple acceptances:

(1) Wait until you know all of your options (i.e., you have heard back from all of your schools) before making any decision. I realize sometimes it is not possible. Do not decide hastily! This is a big decision of your life. I ended up making my decision towards the end of April 15th.

(2) Visit the schools, talk to current students, talk to professors in each school to get the vibe.

(3) Figure out their placement records. Where do their graduates go. Are the current grads happy with their program? Current grads are usually honest about the current condition.

(4) Try to talk to the current advisees of your PoIs. I did this and it revealed some "disturbing" facts about some of PoIs. In other cases, it confirmed my intention to work with said PoIs.

(5) Follow the money! Go for funded offers, especially for PhDs! You'll work better if you dont have to worry about money.

(6) Seek advices from your current recommenders about which offers to choose.

(7) Figure out the research productivity of current advisees of your PoIs.

(8) Only talk about your applications to those who understands the competitiveness/stress involved in graduate applications. This saves you a lot from feeling stupid for getting rejected or wanting to go mental towards everyone around you :-)

Whoa, I think previous posters have covered almost all aspects in preparing your applications. I'll just try to add some more in deciding where to go in the case of multiple acceptances:

(1) Wait until you know all of your options (i.e., you have heard back from all of your schools) before making any decision. I realize sometimes it is not possible. Do not decide hastily! This is a big decision of your life. I ended up making my decision towards the end of April 15th.

(2) Visit the schools, talk to current students, talk to professors in each school to get the vibe.

(3) Figure out their placement records. Where do their graduates go. Are the current grads happy with their program? Current grads are usually honest about the current condition.

(4) Try to talk to the current advisees of your PoIs. I did this and it revealed some "disturbing" facts about some of PoIs. In other cases, it confirmed my intention to work with said PoIs.

(5) Follow the money! Go for funded offers, especially for PhDs! You'll work better if you dont have to worry about money.

(6) Seek advices from your current recommenders about which offers to choose.

(7) Figure out the research productivity of current advisees of your PoIs.

(8) Only talk about your applications to those who understands the competitiveness/stress involved in graduate applications. This saves you a lot from feeling stupid for getting rejected or wanting to go mental towards everyone around you :-)

I had a similar experience.
I am very fashion conscious: I read fashion blogs/magazines and dress nicely. I dont do it for other people, I do it for myself. It alleviates my mood if I wear something chic. Men (and women, especially!!!) that are not in my cohort usually underestimate me; but, once they take a class or work with me, doubts are generally disappeared . Just be yourself.

I had a similar experience.
I am very fashion conscious: I read fashion blogs/magazines and dress nicely. I dont do it for other people, I do it for myself. It alleviates my mood if I wear something chic. Men (and women, especially!!!) that are not in my cohort usually underestimate me; but, once they take a class or work with me, doubts are generally disappeared . Just be yourself.

I once attended a speed reading workshop. I did not find it useful. It's very hard to do speed reading in my field (engineering). You cant speed read through a page of equations. I imagine it works for other kinds of readings. I am not sure.

I know that this thread may be just a hidden advertisement; but, I just wanted to share my experience.

Yep...my biggest obstacle was CHASING my LOR writers around to make sure they upload their letters ON TIME. Two submitted hours before the deadline. Boy, I was sure I'd have a heart attack.

Follow the money You'll thank yourself when you are debt-free.

My professor once told me that helping students gives him satisfaction. Think about it, one of the main reasons to work in academia as opposed to industry is the chance to work with students.

Congrats..

I think fuzzylogician covered all already.. I am impressed fuzzy! I am not sure if I can add anything else.

Well, I guess I can tell you this:
My professor always said that "You are the expert of your talk/particular research; you know your research problem better than anyone else. There's nothing to be afraid of when you talk about it in front of a large audience. You are the expert"

That helps me when I was presenting for my first conference.

Sometimes it helps you to figure out what you want to do for a career by actually taking up a career you have in mind. If it feels right, then you have found your career of choice. If it doesnt feel right, keep looking.

After getting a BS, I thought I want to have a career in the corporate world. Did that for a year and a half. It turned out that it isnt for me. I went back to school and got an MS. I've been doing research projects/jobs ever since. I am loving it

Good luck, just go with the flow. Dont feel pressured that you have to find what you want to do in life in 24 hrs!

- memorize your graduate handbook. it will have all the timelines you need to meet, the courses you need to take, the requirements you need to fulfill. your advisor, believe it or not, will not actually know this stuff. s/he will know that there are certain things you need to do to meet your requirements, but s/he won't actually know what those things are. it's up to you to be on top of it. sometimes, the director of grad studies won't even know what it is you need to do. frustrating, but as long as you have the department handbook to back you up, you'll be okay.

- learn to value yourself for something other than being smart. everyone in your program is smart. everyone is used to getting the top grades in their class. you will no longer be the best and the brightest. you will also frequently be told that your work isn't good. the grades themselves don't matter anymore, it's the comments in the margins that let you know your work was inadequate. you will have weeks or months of self-doubting, you will read your advisor's every twitch and tick as evidence of his/her contempt for your mediocrity.

like yourself because you're funny, because you're creative, because you can run a marathon, because you can fix things with your hands, because you actually had the "wild years" (or "tumultuous years") that your colleagues heard so much about when they were in the library/lab. but do NOT like yourself only for your intelligence, because within a year, you won't feel smart anymore. i've given this pep talk to colleagues of mine that were having panic attacks when they thought they wouldn't get research funding or that their advisor hated their work, and it rarely sinks in for most of them, because they've always been "the smart one" and can't yet see themselves as anything else. it's time to let that go. even the students with 4.0 GPAs, who breeze through their thesis/comps/overview, who hold big-time national fellowships have days/weeks/months of feeling stupid.

- know the department politics. if there's a universally-hated faculty member, you should know that before you start bringing that person onto various committees. if that universally-hated faculty member is your advisor, you need to know that too, because it will be up to you to cultivate strong relationships with other faculty. they'll need to like you because they don't like your prof.

- don't date within your department. seriously. it's too incestuous and breeds competition within a relationship or between couples. grad school isn't on the buddy-system. you don't need to pair up with someone the first month you get here.

Believe me, I have 10 time your qualifications from a well-known university and I'm beginning to ask if I shouldn't start all over again because I feel I don't know much.


No one knows much while beginning a Graduate programme. Only by years of training do they acquire expertise in their subject. So it's normal that you feel you don't know much - if you knew, you wouldn't be applying to Graduate School. That's what Graduate education is all about. So you should just have faith in yourself and take one step at a time. You will see the end of it with your perseverance. How you'll use it in professional situation is what you have to figure out. But a PhD in a discipline related to industry can lead many kinds of professional paths.

Hopetully, the strange/rude behavior is just a one-time thing. As others pointed out, he may be busy, had a bad day, just received rejection for his paper/grant/whatever. Although, none of these should justify his behavior. After all, it is his job to advise you in course selection. But professors are also human: they get cranky, annoyed, stressed, etc.

If the rude behavior becomes a habit, then you may want to seek another professor as an advisor.

Hopetully, the strange/rude behavior is just a one-time thing. As others pointed out, he may be busy, had a bad day, just received rejection for his paper/grant/whatever. Although, none of these should justify his behavior. After all, it is his job to advise you in course selection. But professors are also human: they get cranky, annoyed, stressed, etc.

If the rude behavior becomes a habit, then you may want to seek another professor as an advisor.

So, I've recently learned that a former student of mine (as a TA) is a candidate in the federal election up here, and has some chance of winning and becoming an MP (Member of parliament). Keep in mind, I had him in 09-10 and he's still a student at that university. I have absolutely nothing against the kid; he was one of the better students in the class. But since learning of this, I can't shake the feeling that I've had off and on many times, mostly when hearing about people I knew in school (not close friends but acquaintances) who seem to be working their dream job or succeeding in what they want to do.

The feeling essentially is that I'm terribly unsuccessful and going nowhere, always in the process of getting there, but never arriving, that things, events, the world is just passing me by and I've missed whatever opportunities I may have had. I don't think it's jealousy or envy at all, in that I have absolutely no desire to run for office or to do the various other things which have sometimes prompted this feeling. That is, I'm not thinking "I wish I was in their place", but rather something like "I wish I could be succeeding as they seem to be". It is completely irrational and absurd, but it gnaws at me.

I know by any standard I'm doing well and doing what I want to do; I have an MA and will be entering a PhD program in the Fall. Still, I've been in post-secondary education now for almost 9 years, will have four or five more, at least, and have not accomplished anything I've wanted to accomplish (at least it feels that way), and seeing people of my age and younger seemingly accomplish so much has this terrible effect on me. Maybe it's also, at least this time, because I've been rather idle and unproductive the past few months while working on and then waiting for applications and results, and so I kind of feel like I'm stuck in mud. Whatever psychological neurosis is screwing with me right now, I really hope I can get over it soon.

Anyone had similar feelings? I have acknowledged how ridiculous all this is and completely accept that there are no reasonable grounds for me to feel this way, so there's no need to say it. I guess I'm kind of just hoping for some reassurance that I'm in a good place and really am going somewhere, and that others sometimes experience such absurd feelings in reaction to perceived success of others. However, if you do want to call me a whiner and other, worse, things, have at it. Maybe I do need a kick in the butt to be rid of this.

Though the Grad Cafe is quite US-centric, not everybody here comes from the same culture and therefore not everyone knows the same slang. But I suppose you were ignorant of that - bless your heart.

My first round of grad school was similar. I had an advisor that was hot and cold. One day praising and the next denigrating. The atmosphere was abusive. After years of this, 3 graduate students left (including me) on the same day. I switched to another advisor, who was great, but outside my field of interest. Because of different research, I basically was starting over research wise. I ended up leaving grad school without a degree. My advice would be find a new advisor, but keep it well within your research interests, and continue on. Don't stay in a toxic environment, but do make sure you make a better choice to switching than I did. After a 12+ year absence, I am returning to pursue a doctorate and very excited about it. I had almost given up hope of ever going back, but if I didn't I think I would have always regretted it.

Best of luck.