ELM616

Update: Not sure exactly what happened but my advisor has done a 180. He is friendly, encouraging, smiles a lot now, and overall the relationship is good. This change coincided with my completion of a big project I had been working on as part of my RA duties. He did tell me that I did a really good job and that my work was being shared with others in the department and being utilized in various models.So I guess my successful completion of the project and job well done is what turned things around. Not sure why he was so tense about it before though. Maybe he was receiving pressure from people above his pay-grade that I wasn't aware of, or any number of things. It is just kind of funny though, because I didn't change anything about my attitude or approach with him. I just kept working my arse off and I guess that was the right thing to do. Either way I'm glad things have turned around!

Do you already have some roommates lined up? Some apartments provide roommate matching. http://rentutk.com/#search/bedrooms-3/

Hello. I personally live in the Bearden area, which is close to campus. The location is fantastic! There is a greenway which runs from my apartments (well across the street from my apt) all the way to campus. If you're not familiar with the greenway, it is a paved bicycle/walking path that runs through the city. I often ride my bike from my apt to campus via the greenway and I only have to cross two streets the entire way. It's about a 3 mile bike ride that takes me 15-20 minutes. I live in huntington place apartments. Quite a few grad students live around me. It is also within walking distance to the Bearden Beer Market, which is a surprisingly nice place for some light studying. The drawback is that the buildings are old and you're mostly paying for the location. I pay $545/month for a one bedroom. But two bedrooms go for only $650 if you can find a roommate. If you'll be living alone and have a car, you might want to think about Londontown Apartments. My friend lives there and they are one of the best deals in town. One bedrooms are $575/month and the buildings are pretty new. These are also considered to be in the bearden area actually, but a little too far to be within biking distance to campus in my opinion. Anyway there are lots of options in Knoxville and housing is generally pretty cheap. If you can find a roommate your options will improve dramatically as there are some really nice apartments along the river, close to both downtown and the campus which are affordable with a roommate, but tend to be a bit too pricey for a one bedroom on a grad student budget. If you have specific questions let me know. It is a nice break from studying for me

Haha no problem! Like I said, I'm glad to help, I remember how excited I was when I moved out here.

When I moved out here I had no idea what to expect. I had never visited and my experience with the south was a few visits to Arkansas. I was worried it would be a lot like Arkansas and super southern. By southern I mean, super conservative, religious, racist, and lots of strip malls with little to no character around the town. I have been pleasantly surprised since the day I got here. Not only does Knoxville have lots of character, but people are a lot more liberal than I would've ever expected. Now I come from Oregon originally and have lived up and down the west coast and I came here after 4 years in Las Vegas. So I tend to be very liberal, and outdoorsy. That being said, I have felt very welcome and at home in Knoxville. I feel like people are health conscious, outdoorsy, fairly liberal, and dare I say even a tad bit "crunchy". If it were not for the occasional southern accent, I would not even remember I was in the south. When you get here you'll eventually see bumper stickers that read "keep Knoxville scruffy" and it really is a scruffy little town. It's hard to explain why it is referred to a scruffy town, but you'll understand when you see it. It has sort of a mix of industrial, southern, Appalachian, mountain, feel to it. I also love the weather here, but that's a whole 'nother story. The summer nights are fantastic too. The night is warm and a little muggy, but there are fire flies everywhere and you can hear the cicada's in the trees. I don't know about you, but we don't have Fire Flies out west, so I had never seen them! I arrived here in mid-july and I was a little in shock coming from Las Vegas. When I left Las Vegas it was 120 degrees, bone dry, and I was used to seeing nothing but sand and desert rocks. I get here and its extremely green, pouring rain, in the mid 80's and I felt like I was in cambodia, haha! Anyway, I don't think you'll have a problem forming relationships with the professors. Most of my professors prefer to be on a first name basis with their students and really treat you as more of a colleague. I've never had a problem with accessibility either, they're for the most part very accommodating. I think UT is a pretty major party school, but that is really an undergraduate thing. I don't know any graduate students that are into partying. Most graduate students simply don't have time to party even if they wanted to. Hope this helps!

Hey there, Don't know anything about the MSSW program, but I can tell you about Knoxville in general. Currently live here and I really like it. I also came here for graduate school. This is my second year so I'm still learning things about the area, but I can tell you quite a bit. Its hard for me to say how big the campus is. Its big. Big enough to have an excellent bus system that is strictly for students at no charge. But if you're in Henson Hall, then you'll be across the street from the bookstore and student union, close to the library, and close to pretty much everything you need and you'll probably never need to take the bus, unless you don't feel like walking to the gym. Knoxville is very outdoorsy! Lots of hiking to do out here for sure! I'm sure by now you know the smokey mountains are about an hour away to the east, cumberland mountains about an hour to the west and there are lots of lakes to play in during the summer! My first spring here, I went up to cades cove and just drove around the loop with some friends and we say 4 black bears! By the way when you say OSU, are you talking about Oregon State or Ohio State? Cuz if you're from Oregon I have a hunch you'll love it here and it will remind you of Oregon a lot. Anyway, ask me what kind of info you're looking for and I'd be happy to help. I remember how excited I was when I moved out here.

Hahaha thanks! These two comments made me feel a lot better.

No actually I'm the most senior student of his. I'm a second year PhD. There is one first year PhD and the two others are first year MS students. That's why I was initially thinking that he is just babying them. It hasn't always been like this. During my first year, even though I didn't see him that much he was always really pleasant around me. It may be a case of me trying too hard and thus not really being myself around him. I don't know. Its probably best that I just stop focusing on it and let the relationship just take its course.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I guess for now I'll just keep my mouth shut, head down and work my ass off. It is early in our relationship. In my program first year students take all of their coursework in Economics dept even though our assistantship and offices are located in a different dept on the opposite side of campus. At the end of the first year, we take an insanely high pressure written qualifying exam in the economics dept. If we pass, we advance to the 2nd year and start taking more courses in our home dept. So even though its the start of my second year, I really haven't spent a lot of time with my advisor, and he is just now giving me significant research assignments. You all are probably right. Hopefully things will smooth out. I do not want to switch advisors, that seems like it would be dicey. Plus he has some really interesting research projects, which could be a huge opportunity for me.

Seriously I don't know if I did something or said something to piss him off, but he obviously doesn't like hearing me speak. In our weekly meetings he is all jokes and smiles with the other three grad students. But with me he's all stern and makes this face like he wishes I would just die. So I asked him how I was doing. Here is how it went. ME: "So, how am I doing?" HIM: "Good, you're doing just fine." ME: Oh ok.... [Awkward pause] ME: "I ask because its hard for me to read you sometimes and it seems like you're upset with me." HIM: "No, you'll know if I'm ever upset with you." ME: [awkward chuckle] "OK, thought I should ask. Well thank you. Have a nice day." So maybe I should just let it go. There's no reason why we need to be friends and apparently I'm doing just fine. But seriously WTF? Why the attitude? Maybe he thinks I should be doing better than "Good, you're doing just fine" and he's trying to be stern so I'll work harder? Maybe its because our football team sucks and he is a big fan? What do you guys think, should I just let it go and ignore it?

I'm sure many people have been through this before. And just like them you will make it also. I had written qualifying exams after completing first year of Economics PhD and it was insanely stressful. Tons and tons of pressure. The rumors before the exam were that only about 40% pass each year. The rumors turned out to be true. We started with a cohort of 16 and only 7 of us passed at the PhD level. Everyone gets two attempts in my program. I completely bombed it my first attempt. I was just way too freaked out the first attempt. I was so nervous I nearly had a panic attack when they handed out the exams, and it was disastrous. The second attempt was much better. Despite the fact that it was my last and fateful attempt, I was more calm the second time around. I think the second attempt, I was able to mentaly accept the fact that I might fail, and if I did fail, that all would be ok. My advice is to get lots of exercise, eat healthy and remember to take one day every week without studying. On that one day, do whatever you want. Rest, go to church, go to the bar, anything. Just make it a special day for yourself to keep your sanity.

Why don't you just sit somewhere else?

Finally today I found out...I passed my qualifier!!! Had to take it twice. Bombed it the first time. Only 6 out of 17 of us made it to the second year!! Phew! I feel so lucky and blessed! It feels so good to be a second year PhD!!! Maybe now I'll have a shred of a life, and hoping for a badass internship next summer!

visit the following for tons of info on admissions to econ programs.http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/

So close to being a second year! Must pass qualifier exams to move on to the second year. Status TBD!!

Yes that might be a good approach. This advisor only really has two students and one post doc though. I'm one of the students so maybe I will get with the post doc and see what they are doing. Thanks.

So my advisor had a death in their family. I really want to show my condolences but I'm not sure exactly how. My dilemma stems from my time in the marines. I'm used to never crossing the line between professional and personal life. But obviously this is not the military. The thing is that my advisor has not discussed this with me but the dept. secretary made an annoucement. I don't want to intrude and cross an unspoken line, but obviously I'm saddened by the news and would like to express my condolences. I'm a first year PhD so I've only known my advisor for a few months now. Of course we are friendly to each other but definitely not yet on a first name basis. I'm going to the wake of course. But do I send a card? Or should I go above and beyond a card in someway since they are my personal advisor. I think an email would be cold. I'm contributing to the fund for flowers, but I feel like I should reach out just a little bit more since this person is my major advisor. An advisor whom I feel lucky to have because they are very nice. I'm in a small department and most people seem to be like family, but I'm new and not sure where I stand among them. This might seem like a stupid question. And the answer very simple....Just express my sympathy. But what if my advisor prefers to keep things professional? What if they don't want some first year getting too close? So I was a marine. And in the marine corps infantry if you don't have a certain time in service then you barely have a right to say anything at all to any senior marine. I know academia is not the marine corps, but this structure is still ingrained in me. What should I do?

So I'm having a somewhat different experience now that I'm a PhD student. But I already did a Masters. I know some people go straight from undergrad to PhD, but I did an MA in pure economics. Now I'm doing a PhD in natural resource economics. But its really not that different because the first year I take the same micro and metrics sequence as the pure economics students. The only difference is that instead of taking a year of macroecon, I take a year of natural resource econ which is basically an extension of microecon theory. Anywhooo. When I was in my masters, my first year was grueling grueling. And the entire program itself was quite difficult. While there I was maybe one of the average students at best. Now I'm here in a PhD and I'm kinda breezing through it. Which scares the crap out of me, because last years cohort had half their class fail out after not passing their qualifying exams. So I'm scared that I'm not working hard enough and setting myself up for failure. But honestly I just don't have that overwhelmed feeling that I had in my Masters. Don't get me wrong it has been a very very busy semester but It hasn't been nearly the struggle that it was in my masters. And now I feel like I'm in the upper quantile of students. Maybe I paid my dues and took my lumps in my Masters and I deserve to have a somewhat easier time, but its just a little unnerving. Anyone else feeling like this? Sometimes I wonder if I should've went to another program. The program I'm in wasn't the highest ranked, but they gave me a very generous Research Assistantship and I feel very happy here. I really like my department and my advisor, but once in a while in the back of my mind I wonder if I'm selling myself short and should have gone to the higher ranked program that didn't offer as much money....Cause maybe they would have higher placements and higher long run salary.

Haha! I love that this thread is still going strong! I'm now approaching the end of my first semester in a PhD program and let me tell you... I have been inundated with "best," I'm like a soldier under fire here. Nearly every professor signs "best." I guess its just a quirk of mine but it irritates the (you know what) out of me. I think most of them do it just cuz everybody else does it. Its kinda like an industry jargon, that they subconciously enjoy using because it reminds them they're an academic. Lame!! Jargon and Buzzwords are for the uninitiated!

This is a good thread. I had never heard of Ombuds until now. Turns out my university has one! good to know.

Haha Dang you mandarin.orange!!!!!!! You email her right now and tell her that "Best" is not approved in her undergraduate catalog!

Haha touché! I think Professors should sign off like this: Best of luck to you and yours. I'm sure your family will be very proud when you're awarded the Nobel prize because you're certainly more intelligent than I because I'm outdated and irrelevant but I'll still fail you if you don't keep in line. Sincerely, Prof Xxxx

This is fantastic idea!!

All great posts guys but I'm not reading much into it. This was meant to be a light hearted and humorous post. But it does still drive me bonkers

I actually prefer these!