eco_env

I think my undergrad professors tended to take a week or so off between christmas and new year's, but the dates and their availability during that time varied.

"Thank you." I mean you are a poor grad student, s/he is not. Just because s/he can afford to give you a gift doesn't mean you have to give one. Maybe give a card. If you don't celebrate christmas, just give a "happy end of semester" card.

I guess I'm the only one in the unfortunate position of not having a variety of tasks to work on- at least right now after classes are done. It's a lot harder to keep working throughout the day when you only have one type of work to do.

Oh, I have another part to the question: how do you stay focused on work for a full day when all of your work for a day involves sitting at the computer? I find that when I sit down at the computer in the morning with the prospect of sitting there and working for the next 12 hours or so and working (counting the meal breaks, etc)... it just doesn't happen. I take hours to get myself in working mode.

http://mbta.com/fares_and_passes/passes/ A monthly pass for the T and bus is $59- that's probably the kind of pass you'd want, or you could pay per ride- $1.70. Your school might offer discounted semester passes. Cleveland circle is pretty close to the D line, too, which is the fastest route into Boston compared to the C and B lines, but the C and B lines are good for doing shopping closer to home. I've only driven in the Boston area, so I have no basis for comparison, but I don't think it's that terrifying. But you won't really need to drive unless if you want to buy groceries in bulk, travel, or have a pet. I think it's pretty common for students not to have cars in Boston.

Does you advisor have specific expectations for what you are supposed to get done and when? Do you have any kind of structure to your research? If not, how do you keep yourself disciplined, set deadlines, and abide by them? how do you decide what's a reasonable deadline? The nearest term deadline I made for myself is in late Feb, with a personal goal of getting some data so I can submit an abstract for a conference, but that's still pretty long term, vague, and (probably) ambitious.

Late Jan-Feb, probably.

There are some obscure online-only journals that don't charge the authors or the readers, but they probably still have some costs- web hosting the journal, an administrative person to manage everything.

Lots, some of the more popular ones: Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Lexis Nexis. Depends on what you are looking for. Or did you mean something else?

I might not be understanding the situation correctly, but it seems to me like next time you should tell the professor your availability at the beginning of the semester.

a related question: is it a bad sign if, when you ask for a recommendation letter, the person replies "I could write it but.." In this case, s/he said that s/he wasn't exactly an expert in my research area. I don't need an expert, but I'm wondering if that was an attempt to wriggle out of the job that I should have paid attention to.

I haven't been a TA yet, but being on the other side of asking for letters, I wouldn't want a recommendation letter from someone who doesn't feel like they can say good things about me. Just tell the student and they'll ask someone else, who might be able to write a better letter. Sometimes it's hard for a student to know who will be able to write a good letter for them.

So how do you get enough contact with someone who isn't your advisor to make them become a mentor? how do you choose someone to be a mentor?

I don't think that' entirely true- at least for me. True, I'm using some tools that my advisor already has available, and at least for now I'm relying on his budget to fund the rest of the materials I need, but I still need to figure out what tools I want to use and which I need to get, and what I'll be doing with those tools. and I certainly don't get my data from my advisor.

maybe putting them all together in an office would help.

We're getting completely off-topic here, but anyway- I spend time on campus because it makes me feel more productive (even if I'm just on GradCafe ) and I think it saves me money on electricity. I will stay at home if I have nothing specific to do on campus all day, though. The nice thing about bringing my laptop to campus (since I don't have a computer) is that I can escape my artificially lit cubicle and work outside. I might lose my internet connection in some spots- but that's good for me, as long as I have all the pdf's I need. I could also work in the lab, but it's cramped and the computers there are old and dysfunctional. Plus I have to wear closed toed shoes and can't eat my lunch there.

Groupon? Isn't that usually for stuff that's a waste of money anyway? the only somewhat practical groupon deal happening in my area now is for shoes. out of 13 deals.

I don't have a computer in my office, other than the laptop I bring with me. I also need my lunch, and sometimes some papers. I might also want to bring a book home with me occasionally. I don't know why grad students need to carry a knife and lighter, though.

I plan transitions between slides, figure out a good way to say something, and then the next time I do the talk (practice or real) I end up saying things differently, lose my elegant transitions, and make mistakes (not major, just misspeaking). How do I avoid this without writing and memorizing the whole speech? or is that what I have to do? it seems like that would make it come out too monotonic.

the professor who said she would write a letter- maybe she doesn't feel comfortable showing you the letter? can't you have her submit it directly to the schools?

as some one who organized lectures, I wouldn't pay a grad student to speak. In many cases, we'd only pay transportation and hotel costs even for famous speakers. occasionally we gave them ~ $1000, but this was for big name speakers.

this black Friday deal on amazon made me think of this thread. not that it's exactly affordable even with the discount...