eco_env

It's becoming obvious that I need to have very specific items on my to-do list in the beginning of the day to get anything, but that's harder than in undergrad because it's up to me to decide how to write a paper, when to start a research project, etc. It's so hard to go from a big goal- "write a 10 page review paper", for example, to specific to-do items I can get done in one day.

I agree with the OP- the program I'm in is actually turning out better than I expected, but my living situation is pretty depressing. I knew the facts of what I was getting into (more or less), but I just thought "that's OK; I can live with that." Now that I am actually experiencing it, I see that yes, I can live with it, but it's hard for me to imagine living with it for 6 years. It's not enough to make me try to transfer, because I don't know ow well that will work out, but I feel like I would've taken a different approach to choosing grad schools if I had the experience of living here, or in a similar situation.

A 0 seems like plenty to me- won't he fail the course with 2 0's? do whatever the rules call for- if you are supposed to report it to the prof. you did your job. if you are supposed to report it to some other committee, do that.

As a white person, I wouldn't bother applying to a fellowship that has "diversity" in the title or the first sentence of its description (in the context of human race/ethnicity).

It's not that i agree with the student loan plan, but it annoys me when people say that students who took loans instead of working full time (or something along those lines) in undergrad made poor financial decisions. When we entered college the economy was doing well, we could expect to get a higher paying job out of going to college, and particularly for going to a college with a good name and doing well- whether by getting good grades, participating in leadership activities, or doing internships that maybe don't pay so well. It made sense to take out loans as an investment, even for a liberal arts degree. It probably still makes sense in the long run; it's just that right now many are struggling with paying those loans because no one is hiring. Maybe people need to reconsider what a cheap college is- many don't seem to realize that expensive private colleges can actually be cheap if they cover all of your demonstrated need (including living expenses, as needed).

I've been hearing from all the professors in my program that coursework IS important, and that many first year students tend to put too little emphasis on it. we need to maintain a 3.5 GPA to keep our funding. participation tends to be a big part of the grade- I don't know if that is good news or bad, since it makes the grade very subjective and hard to predict.

I have about $1600 to spend per month. I'll do anything to avoid loans- I live in an ancient, cheap apartment, I don't own a car, I buy (mostly) the cheapest options at the cheapest grocery store, I arranged to get a discount on gas, and I combine laundry loads as much as possible. But I realized that that lifestyle leaves me with a few hundred dollars extra per month, so I have been indulging a little bit in non-essential, relatively expensive foods. The problem with buying cheap food is that it generally takes longer to prepare, which is eating up a lot of my time.

One of my criteria for the ideal graduate program was that it have low coursework requirements. depending on your area of research, there might be programs that don't require much coursework- though it might be too late to change programs now. And Eigen- there are some graduate programs that don't do rotations- most ecology programs, for example. I'm not doing any lab work yet, several weeks into the quarter, and probably won't be doing lab/field work until I develop a detailed research plan, which could take months.

it's a great boost to my ego to see my academia.edu stats- it's great seeing that people are finding my paper by searching for related keywords.

it should be fine for when you are sleeping, though. this site recommends setting the thermostat to 55 at night, and it's pretty generous for the day- 68, which is higher than what I would use- 65.

yes. I just plague my family with facebook updates instead. it's not the same though.

my response? spend endless amounts of time on TGC and other websites. I'm hoping I'll get motivated again soon when my deadlines become more imminent.

If it's mostly a matter of wanting the excitement of NYC, you can visit NY fairly cheaply and easily (OK, it's 4 hours by bus, but that's manageable once per semester). And Boston/Cambridge and the surrounding cities are full of students- there must be stuff going on that would interest you. Housing is expensive in some parts of the Boston area (all the decent parts, I guess), but not a expensive as Manhattan, and there should be plenty of potential roommates to choose from. what kind of "excitement" are you looking for? maybe look at the Boston/Cambridge thread in the City Guide for ideas.

From my experience, even start up biotech companies prefer someone with at least an MS for the kinds of work that you are looking for (something more mentally stimulating).

I have loans from undergrad.

why save when interest rates on my loans are higher than interest rates on savings? I'm spending as little as possible and if I end up with extra money I'll make payments on my loans.

unfortunately, even if their lab group is small, they may be busy with other stuff. I have a small lab group and don't interact with my advisor much.

Since my religion has very specific requirements it would be hard for me to not find time for it and still consider myself religious. I schedule prayers into my morning routine, so I wake up early enough to fit that in. I leave campus early enough to say afternoon prayers (eventually I'll probably need to do those in school, but that is fairly awkward if people walk in on me praying). I put religious stuff on my to do list, and will even make it higher priority than schoolwork if it's important enough. I'd say it's just a matter of deciding what your priorities in life are.

No internet inside my apartment, filthy old apartment in a somewhat unsavory neighborhood, railroad and highway behind my building waking me up at night, no car and tons of errands to run (and I'm not even sure where to find the places I need to get to), missing paperwork to open a bank account, hot weather every day, while fall is starting back home, and no friends or family nearby to help or provide some company. On the one hand, I want classes to start so I can meet some people and get away from my apartment, on the other hand, I don't know how well I'd be able to focus on coursework while I'm adjusting to all the other changes in my life.

I have some time before I start classes, but I'll soon be moving into my new apartment, furnishing it, setting up residency in the state, opening in a new bank account, etc. I suspect the queasiness I'm feeling is a result of anxiety about getting everything sorted out.

I'm back to report my results: I brought a poster tube, backpack, and tote bag on the plane, but only put the poster tube in the overhead compartment. On some of my flights, I stuffed my tote bag in my backpack. When the flight was crowded, the flight attendant specifically told me that I would need to put my backpack under my seat and could only put the poster tube in the overhead. I also had 1 flight that was so crowded that I had to put everything under my seat (or sticking out, in the case of the poster tube). So, I wouldn't count on being able to bring a poster tube as an extra piece of luggage- it might not work on a crowded flight.

I'm not sure. I just followed the instructions on the library website. apparently my username and password are still active.

I can still access my undergrad school's databases through VPN even though I graduated in May. I was supposed to get access to my grad school's library databases after registering for classes, but that didn't seem to work.