Ya Ya

I've found myself taking less notes now in grad school then in undergrad. Perhaps that may be because out of the three courses that I take, one is a seminar, another is an applied course, and the other is stats (i do, however, take notes in this one). What has really aided in my paying attention in class is getting to know my profs. Knowing them on a more intimate level (most of our profs like to be on a first name basis with the grad students) has in some weird way made me want to pay closer attention to what they are saying. I can't really describe this well. But it's kind of like "that's not just boring prof. X, that's Bob who has two awesome kids and a really sweet collection of (insert weird fascinating hobby)." I guess that probably doesn't or won't work for everyone but it has helped through even the most boring stats labs.

Hi. My grad research is on issues related to cultural competency amongst mental health clinicians and treatment acceptability and adherence amongst African Americans. So I too have the task of recruiting ethnic minority participants. As a minority, it hasn't been too hard but I did have to go out of my way (in comparison to those who did not focus on these populations) to recruit. I've spoken to prominent members of the African American community (e.g., church leaders, radio show hosts, community center leaders, and other people involved in community outreach) and that has really proven fruitful. I know that your budget is tight but if you don't necessarily need student participants a little leg work will definitely show results. Good Luck! Keep us posted.

I've seen what tittwriter83 has described a bit. A member of my cohort is from the Ivies (we're at a public R1 state school) and he gets a lot of criticism on his work if it isn't done to a particular standard. But this just occurs in one course with a prof who's an Alum at said Ivy. I don't know how his grades look in comparison to ours but there does seem to be a bit more pressure on him to produce. With that said, I would never complain about what I got in comparison to others. I just seems to be a waste of energy. Why alienate your classmates by being an ass? I do believe that our prof has different expectations of us based on our experiences, interests, and past work but I have yet to hear anyone feel like they have been penalized for it. He just wants to push us to do our best work. "There's no crying victim in grad school!"

I vacillate between really loving my program and being completely overwhelmed by my program. I love how smart everyone is. I love that prominent psychologists within my department know me on a first name basis. I love the prestige in saying that I go to MyU. I love being able to park in the faculty parking lot. I love that I finally feel like I've found my niche. All I need to do is find a social support system and It's all good. This has truly been an amazing journey thus far. I'll save the overwhelming aspects of grad school for another thread.

eco_env I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm having a similar issue but within my lab. Everyone is either married, older, with children, or in such an advanced standing that they don't have time to hang. Except that they tend to hang out with a member of my cohort (who is also in my lab) whose in his late 40s. So I don't really get invited to there little outings but I kind of doubt I would have too much fun considering that I'm in my early 20s. But it would be nice to be invited. Oh well. The guy in his late 40s is having the same problem but with our young cohort.