rockhopper

I'll explain the position with my advisor in more detail (thanks for caring enough to keep reading). For clarification, I'll call my advisor "Prof A" and the professor who I would like to work with on this "Prof B". Prof A was my primary advisor for my Master's, and Prof B was on my committee. I am in Oceanography, and my advisor, Prof A, works with marine mammals and the water column, which originally is what I entered my program to do. Due to the remote location of our fieldwork and logistics in the area, I switched my thesis project to examining fish assemblages after one failed field season where we saw no marine mammals (fish are always there, whales, not so much!). I came up with the idea for the project, independently researched how to collect the data, actually collected the data, pretty much everything involved. It was essentially "Plan B" that turned into my actual project, and my advisor had very little input. When I originally proposed the idea, my advisor told me to go for it, because I don't believe he actually thought it would work. Well it did, and I was able to collect data over two consecutive years. My advisor doesn't know anything about fish, fish surveys, or associated analyses, but he stayed on as my advisor so he could help me with the oceanography side of the thesis. Prof B is a popular marine biologist who works extensively with fish assemblages, which is why I wanted him on my committee. There is also a large difference in mindset and philosophy between Prof A and Prof B. My advisor, Prof A, is set to retire in the next few years, and has had relatively few of his students publish in the past few years. He is very intelligent, but I think he sits prettily on his tenure and has gotten a bit "lax" over the years. He is also getting older I believe he may be starting to suffer from some memory loss, but that is kind of beyond the point. Prof B is a younger professor who is known to vigorously publish and pushes his graduate students to do the same. He is at the same university system, but at a different campus two hours away from mine. They actually got into a heated debate during my defense over whether publishing should be a priority for students. Prof A argued the "learning experience" is most important part of graduate school, and Prof B seemed irritated that he has not been encouraging me to publish more. So not only is there a vast different in mindset between the two, but my project is not in my advisor's area of expertise, nor did he really contribute to its creation. Prof B would be substantially more helpful and knowledgeable about actually getting this type of project published, not to mention that he has the appropriate experience with publication. Thus, I believe he is the correct person for moving forward with, and not my advisor. He is not malicious at all, we have a good relationship, and I'm sure would be very encouraging if I told him I wanted to move forward, I just don't think he's the best person for the job. Not having the appropriate experience myself, I know Prof B's expertise and guidance would be pretty crucial.

Thanks for the genuine advice. I'm currently deciding whether an email or phone call would be most appropriate to reach out to the professor, but he is hard to establish contact with either way. I am hoping that reaching out to him in several ways may show him that I am serious about putting the work in, but as you said, I think the biggest consideration is how much time and effort he is willing to also commit. If I may ask another question, if the person I have in mind is not willing to move forward with me, where else could I seek assistance? Would it unconventional to ask a professor in a different department to co-author with me when I will no longer be an actual graduate student? My own adviser won't be very much help, as his expertise is in a different area.

To the OP- Unfortunately it's a hard situation when you're seeing this person every day. I had a situation in my department where I was originally good friends with another grad student who started my program when I did (not with the same adviser). We got along great first year, then did fieldwork together that summer for a month, and all of the sudden he hated me when we returned in Fall semester. To the point where the other grad students in the department would constantly come to me telling me he was speaking rudely about me behind my back. It hurt at first but then after a few months I decided to just stop caring, because I had literally done nothing to this person. He was acting like a child and I just didn't want to put in the energy to be upset anymore. It was difficult, though, because it was obvious to the other students that we did not get along. He eventually apologized (this year) after going through a bad breakup, but I told him I was too busy preparing for my defense to really get into it with him. My advice is to do you- and not worry for a second why she's being such an a**. It may be hard but don't give her the satisfaction of letting her bad juju get to you. You don't have time to deal with that negativity, you've got actual work to do, unlike her, when all she seems to do is be rude and immature.

Agree with what the previous posters are saying. Wanted to add that you should keep up with the counseling. I went through a bad breakup (not a divorce but painful) last semester and counseling really helped me to sort out my feelings, etc. I never told my advisor about the breakup and I tried to throw myself into my work like everyone told me to but some days it just got to be too much and I wanted to talk about it and have a good cry. Therapy was, well, therapeutic, imagine that! Sorry you're going through that, one day you will look back and be amazed you got through all of it, it just takes a lot out of you right now.

@zaphyr- I imagine that you have already had some experience living in Campus View, but I just happened back on this forum thread (two years later) and I lived there last summer. terrible, and literally FILLED with cockroaches. I killed, on average, 3-4 per week. It was just a temporary housing while I was in-between leases but I'd never go back.

I live in Texas and I'm originally from Illinois, my car is in my mother's name, and because of my insurance I keep it that way. Also just a bit of advice I wish I'd taken... I moved here 3 years ago I didn't change my residency until recently, which is technically illegal (it didn't matter whether I was out of state for my assistantship and I was somewhat resistant...) However, Illinois has %5 state income tax, Texas has NO income tax. I should have changed that shit the day I moved here. Don't be that guy (me). If you can save yourself some money without it screwing up too many things insurance-wise, do it. I chalk it up to learning a lot about the real world since I graduated college

Is there a student council in your own department for graduate students? We have one and ours is very active and it's a great way for the incoming students to meet everyone and be included in the social scene. Great source of moral support, too!

I go home and clean the shit out my apartment, because then I feel like I accomplished something. Sad, but it works. I'm also a fan of going on a weekend trip somewhere to get out of your current environment.

Hello all, I'm resurrecting this old topic because I was going to start a new topic but my questions may be fairly relevant here. My situation: I'm graduating next week with my M.S. (Whoop!) and I'd like to create a manuscript to send in for publication from my thesis, but my adviser is not going to be of much use to me with this. He is busy with new students/projects and my thesis was outside of his main research area, anyways. The problem is, I don't have any idea what I'm doing. I've never published before, but I know it would be a shame to not get a publication out of my thesis. I don't want to go into academia but a publication on my C.V. would obviously help my job search prospects. I would like someone to guide me through the process and help me with editing and selecting a journal. I am thinking of a professor who was on my committee, who unfortunately was not the most cooperative guy in the world (read: would not return emails within a months' time, always travelling, often vague with comments until the last minute) but he is known for having many publications and pushing his students to publish. If I worked with him I know I'd get a strong manuscript out of it. Should I approach him and ask him to help me turn the thesis into a manuscript? Any ideas on how to approach him? Does anyone have experience with this situation before? If so, I'd love to hear about them, because I feel like a newbie on the publication scene. Thanks all!

Good to read everyone else's experiences!! They sound like mine. Started two weeks ago. I'm really busy, and just TIRED most of the nights I get home. TAing 4 sections of a 2 hour lab each week hasn't been bad, except I'm just exhausted when I get home at 7:30 at night, 3 nights a week! I really like my cohort, they are all really nice, and luckily, sociable! Now I gotta figure out my research! Good luck everyone, we're all in this together

Oh nice. Thanks for the clarification, now i'm going to read the rules again!

You don't get a 3rd chance to apply. You can only apply twice, and like vertices said, the second time must be while you have taken less than 12 months of graduate school credit, if I remember correctly.

I am a TA in an Oceanography department and I make a stipent $2000/month for 9 months and $1750/months for 3 months of summer. Total $23,250 (this does not include tuition, which is waived)

Hahaha I feel that, guttata. New deadlines are up. November 19th for me! Here we go again, round 2 hah arrowtotheknee, I would GUESS that, if you win the award and carry out the research as designed in your proposal, you could contact the IRB then. I'm not sure though, sorry!

I'm right there with everyone. Moved from St Louis-Texas. $1200 on Uhaul, gas, hotel on the road. $500 for new bed. $400 for August rent. $170 first trip to wal-mart. My stipend starts Sept 1, so from what I read on here, I'm relatively lucky with that. Starting grad school in two weeks: Priceless!