MakeYourself

Haha, it boggles my mind that many people that I know with BA degrees are so confused whenever I bring up the use of statistics in social sciences.

I would disagree with the above poster and say that it depends entirely on you, what type of career you want to have, what your field of specialization is, who is teaching the courses, the syllabus for the courses, and a multitude of other factors. There is no right or wrong answer here. You have to decide which course best suits your needs, and don't take the courses at face value - it's very important who is teaching the course and what the structure of the course is. Honestly, if you're really interested in both topics, I would personally just take both.

I think what you mean by 'philosophical' conversation is much different than what I would consider 'philosophical.' My area of study is philosophy so most 'philosophical' conversations lay people have annoy me greatly, because most lay people think that philosophy is just opinion and 'expanding your mind.' Again, just being honest. If you spend all of your time focusing on a particular area of study and become an expert in that area it becomes difficult to bring yourself back down to a lay-person level. Doesn't help that my other area of focus is psychology either...

I don't necessarily want to have 'intellectual' conversations or non-intellectual ones, and I don't really think the line can be drawn between the '2 kinds' of conversation very easily. Honestly, I've been thinking about the issue more lately since I started this thread and I've come to the conclusion that I just have a hard time relating to people in general. I think I have low tolerance for people, am impatient, and don't really like to put up with BS. Basically, I think I hold everyone (including myself) to unrealistically high standards (not necessarily intellectual standards but just standards in general) and it has nothing to do with grad school. I think this is just the way I've always been but grad school just highlights it even more. Glad my issues sparked conversation for others though...

Sorry if this question was already brought up in this thread (I don't have time to read through all of it and I'm also lazy). I really want to adopt a cat but I'm worried that in 4 years after I'm finished my PhD I will have to move across the country and I'm not sure how a cat would deal with that or if it would even be feasible to bring it with me. I feel shitty about getting a cat when I'm uncertain about my living situation. I rent, so I could have to get up and move at any point in time and I know cats don't like being moved around since they are very territorial creatures. Anyone have any experience with this, and what are other people's thoughts on these issues? Thanks.

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you don't do research in a Psy D program.

None of this really has anything to do with an 'inherent goodness' of marriage. Marriage is what you make it. The fact that a lot of people in the West have problems with relationships says more about our concept of 'relationship' than it does about the goodness of marriage. What I'm trying to say is, our culture does not foster the sorts of long-lasting monogamous relationships that we wish it would.

I don't think it's brilliant. Any person who pays attention to the norms in Western society would know that this would make a profit. I think it's ballsy. Not every person would have the balls to start this site. If you asked me a few years ago, I would be disturbed by this site. But now, I really have stopped giving a shit about people's lives. People do dumb shit all the time. I know it makes me selfish, but I don't really care if it doesn't affect me directly.

You expand your mind by talking about people fucking babies?

I see you are going into psychology, good luck with those weirdos Just kidding .... I think my other problem might be my offensive sense of humor.

Ain't this the truth.

This was a really helpful post - made me think of things in a different light, thanks a lot. Do you guys have any suggestions for how to meet grad students in other programs? Keeping in mind that I'm quite shy when it comes to meeting new people?

I definitely relate. I do have an easier time talking to professors than to fellow grad students. I do love talking to my supervisors and I enjoy taking seminar courses with profs and learning from them. For me, it's mainly other grad students. There are probably multiple reasons why I feel like I don't get along with most of them. One of them is that my program is very 'cliquey' and I have never been a 'cliquey' type of person so I tend to feel like I don't fit in with them. Another reason is that I find them to be very closed-minded in the sense that they tend to be VERY out of touch with the real world. Isn't this funny that this is a reason why I can't get along with them, yet I can't even get along with people in the real world? I guess I want the best of both worlds.. I want to be friends with people who aren't consumed by academia because I want to be able to talk about 'real people' things, but at the same time I find it hard to talk to 'real people' because I have become so consumed by academia. Quite the conundrum.

I do feel you on the solitary thing, I do tend to be a loner, but I dont enjoy being alone all of the time, lately I just feel like there is no one to talk to. I dont think I'm as brave as you to start talking to random strangers either.

You dont sound like a dickface, Gnome, I know I sound like that, and I'm not happy about sounding like that. I do think that part of the problem is that when you enter grad school you forger how to talk to normal people. I felt the same way that you did up until I finished my honours and entered my Masters program. None of my friends actually went to post-secondary school, I was the only one, and all throughout undergrad I had no problem keeping my friends, and thats why I thought it would stay the same in grad school, but things changed. If I remember correctly from your previous posts, you are jusyt starting your program in Sept. right? I wonder if things will still stay the same for you. And I agree with you on the point that academics suck to talk to (as I mentioned in my post I can't tolerate most of them). My problem isn't so much that all the normal people dont 'get' me, its more so that I feel like grad school has changed me. And I have turned into one of those intolerable people.

Anyone else find that their social life has gone down the shitter since they started grad school? When I got accepted into my program, I was very adament about trying to keep a non-academic friend circle while in grad school because I didn't want my whole life to be consumed by academia. Well, that didn't work, I actually find it very difficult to have non-academic friends. I don't know how to put this without sounding pretentious, so forgive me if this comes across as arrogant, but I just find that once you get to a certain intellectual level or way of thinking, talking to lay people is extremely difficult. And I'm not proud of the fact that I'm 'more intellectual' or anything, but I just find it so difficult to keep in touch with old friends. Having conversations with them is hard... we have nothing in common... and well, people say dumb shit, and I feel like I constantly have to hold myself back from correcting people in their ignorance. So you might ask "why don't you just make friends with other grad students?" I really really cannot stand other grad students. There are some that I can tolerate, and a few that I can call my 'friends', but for the most part, I find this demographic to be insanely intolerable (myself included). Now that I've put it all out there and made myself sound like a pretentious douche (at least I'm being honest), does anyone else have this experience? Or anyone have a completely opposite experience?

I don't think those questions are rude, they are pracitical. You might want to phrase the first one in a different way, such as, "are there any projects going on in the lab that I can be involved with?" Just straight out asking to use archival data for your thesis is a bit pushy. Get involved in a project and then that might lead to something coming out of it that is related to your thesis. Remember, this is a 2-way relationship, it's not just about impressing your supervisor or making him happy, this is about your career too. You shouldn't fee bad asking pragmatic questions that affect your thesis or your work schedule.

The OP's reasoning abilities are impeccable.

Thanks for all the responses. I feel better about my neuroticism now

Anyone else worry about plagiarism after writing and submitting a paper even though you know that you double and triple-checked every single citaiton and reference? I have no idea why, but for some reason I always feel certain that I missed something and the plagiarism police are out to get me. I guess all those plagiarism lectures in undergrad had an impact on me. It would make me feel better though if I knew I wasn't the only person who is completely neurotic about this.

Having an advisor is a lot of like dating. At the beginning it might have seemed hopeful but over time he started to neglect you and act like a jerk. Dump him.

I figured out pretty early on that any idiot could graduate from our high school by just showing up to class. I didn't really try that hard.

Cage, I am thinking that you may have misinterpreted what I meant by feeling outcasted. I was not meaning that the OP will be rejected or disrespected because of his/her views (of course, this isn't impossible, it could happen, but it wasn't my point). I meant that he/she maye FEEL outcasted, meaning that they may feel like they are a part of a minority in their views, and since their view is unpopular (and actually threatening to the dominant view), then they may feel somewhat like an 'outcast' in their program or in the field. I'm thinking now that outcast may not have been the right term to use, but oh well.

Actually, I agree. By no means do I think it should be a requirement to have this passion. I am just personally annoyed by particular individuals and by the business that academia has become overall. But I know it's not realistic to try to impose such a requirement on everyone. Like I said in my first post, this thread is really a thread about complaining about complaining But I understand that there are a lot of factors that play into why certain people attend grad school.

Do you have a point to your responses besides piggybacking on the discussion in order to be an unnecessary asshole?