Some balance

[M. Swann]

It seems to me that there are a lot of threads here where people's doubts, worries, insecurities, and uncertainties are being aired. People are thinking of leaving their courses, having trouble with matters social and financial, struggling under intense workloads and demanding TA schedules, and so on. This is understandable: after all, it's in these sorts of circumstances, when one has concerns, that one is likely to look for assistance and advice. Without wanting to undermine or denigrate any of that though, I thought it might be nice to create a thread where people can talk about the positives that they, as graduate students, are finding in their fledgeling careers.

Personally, I love every bit of it! I get to read and think about things in which I have an inherent interest. I get to solve challenging problems, and enjoy the feeling of satisfaction when I successfully do so. I get to see my work appearing in the journals that I read, right next to all those other researchers about whose work I have been learning since my undergraduate days. I get to teach bright young students, and share with them some of my own joy in learning. I get to crack terrible jokes to people who are polite enough to laugh at them. And best of all, I get to experience the growth of my understanding and mastery of issues in which I am interested and that I find important. In sum, I feel lucky and immensely happy to be where I am, and doing what I am.

Please join in and share your own positive experiences.

[Grimm101]

I am happy that you are having such a positive experience. I believe that most people have inherent "ups and downs" in their programs and when they hit the "downs," they need positive reinforcement to pull through. I know that when I'm feeling anxious or stressed, these graduate boards are extremely helpful. It provides a chance to vent while maintaining anonimity. As a student of psychology, I'm sure you understand. Yes, my graduate experience has provided me with increased knowledge and overall growth. At the same time, it can be frustrating as I cannot control all aspects of my educational experience. The truth is that no one can be prepared for the rigors of graduate school prior to the experience itself. What is wonderful, is the commaraderie that we share in our journies together. No two programs are the same, likewise, no two people are the same.

[Nytusse]

I like my colleagues. They are good people who it is easy to be friends with.

[Archaeo_Anon]

I feel incredibly lucky to be here. Not just in this specific program (which is great, and all the people are lovely), but also able to be a student again. The lifestyle is tough, but it suits me much better than an 8-5 office job which is what I was in for several years before being admitted. I feel healthier and in a much better place mentally just because I get to do and think about lots of interesting things, and have more control over my time throughout the day, even though the lack of sleep is...grueling.

I love the subject matter and feeling like I've learned something significant. I find it really enjoyable to be intellectually challenged after so many years out of school and in jobs that gave me minimal mental stimulation. I have yet to come across a class, an assignment, even a single reading that didn't seem worth the time and effort. I won't lie, it can be extremely difficult, but I feel like I'm spending my time in a much more worthwhile way, and am getting paid to do it! It's much more satisfying than my previous desk job, which would never have helped me get where I want to be in life.

[StrangeLight]

... i've got nothing.

well, getting to do archival work has been great. but my pre-grad school job also had me doing highly rewarding research. the only difference is, now i'm getting to choose my project rather than being asked to execute someone else's vision. that's actually a really nice change and a big positive for me.

so yeah, there's that. picking my own project. that's been good. and that's pretty much it. my life was pretty awesome before i came here and it's been pretty not-as-awesome since i've been here. i just hope that once i make it through comps, i can focus on my research and remind myself of why i decided to do this in the first place. only three more semesters...

Edited January 15, 2011 by StrangeLight

[redread]

I love the freedom of my program--there are only four required courses for my MA; the rest are electives. Plus, the courses that I teach are left more or less to my discretion. I have to follow certain guidelines, but again, there's a fair bit of freedom. There are some definite downers to this program, but I can live with them. And Michigan has seasons, unlike Texas!

[fuzzylogician]

Good idea for a thread! I love the research that I do. I love the friends I have made in my program, who teach me so much -- more than classes and more than my professors. I love the professors I work with, and the support and encouragement they give me. I love the freedom to choose my research, and the freedom to work in my own times and at my own pace. I love it that they pay me to come to the office to do this every day for the next several years. My program is very demanding but it offers so many opportunities, it's hard to decide which to let go. I love the city I moved to, weather and everything. I could write about the many things that I enjoy less in my program, but in general I think I am very lucky to be where I am.

[alexis]

This is probably a good exercise for me right now due to my being in the throes of writing a massive paper this weekend.

I love the research part. The program is a great fit for me and the flexibility of scheduling things on my own time is awesome (even though that often means working through the weekends). I am already looking forward to classes being over after my second year, but I figure it's better to be into the research anyway--I'll be teaching and doing research the rest of my career, not taking classes, so I try to look at it that way The people in my program are very nice and supportive so I can't complain.

[rachaelski]

I love this thread as much as I do graduate school. I'm sure I will be harassed for saying this, but I think the life of a full-time graduate student is much easier than working a real job. I will substantiate my life before graduate school and what I love about it currently. I was pretty normal, I went to college right out of high school and graduated in 4 years. Then I went on to get my Master's in International Affairs, full-time student, straight out of undergrad. Next, I joined Teach for America, while completing my 2 year commitment, I was also working on my Master's in Teaching and my state credentials. That' was pretty difficult, considering I worked at an extended day school, with students in school from 7:30-5. I taught for 2 more years, and then I began my PhD program full-time (my first year of PhD I was a part-time student, while teaching full-time). Of all my grown-up experience, post-college, my time in the Master's in International Affairs and my PhD studies have been the easiest. That's not to say I don't work hard, but my lifestyle and the organization of my life is much easier.

I love having control of my time! It's nice that I can make time to run or see a movie. This perk was reaffirmed when I did a fellowship last summer for my state's higher education department. I was in an office (with no window) 40 hours a week! Yuck. Shackled to the desk. Boo.

I love the opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas. My advisor and I are teaching a class together, I am the instructor for an undergraduate course in teaching writing and she is the professor for a similar graduate level course. We are teaching them together as a single class, with AMAZING projects. So much fun. I work with friends and share ideas. It's been especially rewarding because my program as quite a few Native American students who are brilliant, but a couple are non-native speakers. Helping a friend with their paper (grammar and mechanics) is so rewarding and creates a great sense of community.

I love reading from 9am to 11pm and truly enjoying what I am reading about.

I love riding my bike to campus, and taking my part to reduce my carbon footprint.

I love teaching my amazing undergrads, who are future teachers and will further impact the schools in our community.

Those are just a few of the things I love about graduate school. I am so thankful that I have a supportive husband who was okay with me halving my income in order to be a full-time student again. Having the time to truly think and process big ideas is not something everyone has the opportunity to do.

[psycholinguist]

I absolutely love the department I'm in. The other MA students are bright, interesting, funny, supportive, and full of nifty observations; the Ph.D. students I've met are just the same. The faculty is wonderful: even the professors who are sometimes a little on the boring side are very eager to help you out. Everyone is just so interested in promoting an environment in which students are encouraged to come up with research-questions and/or -topics. The administrative staff members are so great: of the main department secretaries, one is funny and amazing with every type of technology you can think of, and the other one is such a sweet person and an expert in everything to do with finances and registration. Physically, the department was just renovated so it's such a lovely space now; you can always go into the lounge and find a nice corner to sit in and a good group of people to chat with if you want. There's also a great department mini-library; every time I go by it I see five or six books I want to read just recreationally!

Every day I'm reminded of how much I love my field and subfield. I feel so lucky to be getting to work on the sorts of projects I'm doing. I'm seeing ideas for potential new studies absolutely everywhere, and starting to get a sense of what could probably be presented/published where. I love conferences and meeting other people in the field. By this point I have no doubt that I'm aiming for a Ph.D. in linguistics (preferably right here...heh), and I'm just thrilled about it.

My supervisor is really special. Even only having met me twice, when my MA application ran into problems at the last minute she fought for me and got me put on the waitlist. Working with her has been so, so great: I'm interested enough in her work in the first place that I was a little star-struck at first, and it has turned out that it's been a great match in terms of both research-interests and personality (INTJ-ish, for people who like the MBTI). Not to mention that her classes are awesome. I feel so fortunate to be working with her!

I had the best TA assignment last semester! It was for a class I was really, really interested in, being taught by another great professor. I actually enjoyed almost everything I had to do for the job, and started looking forward to teaching classes like that myself (a first).

Toronto is fantastic. Love the city, love how easy it is to get around, love being able to walk to so many things, love the culture (classical music, opera, museums, art-galleries, etc.), love the nearby grocery-store, love my adorable little apartment. I even like the climate: not actually that cold by Canadian standards, plenty of sunlight throughout the year, pretty autumns.

Best thread ever.

[starmaker]

I have liked most of my classes in my MS program. I've liked most of my profs and classmates. I like the boost to job-hunting that the ongoing MS gives me (I'm a part-time grad student who works full-time) and the fact that it will help me get into a better PhD program. I like getting to learn about different things, some in areas that I didn't know anything about before. I like the fact that working full-time and doing a part-time MS is still generally easier and less stressful than undergrad was for me.

[TMP]

I never regretted my MA program, not even for a minute. I never asked myself "What the heck am I doing here?" I felt so privileged to be working with my adviser and being her student, and getting to know top-notch professors in my department. I truly enjoyed my friendships with all of my closest friends whom I've made in and out of the program. They kept me sane and cheered me on when things became difficult. I loved taking advantage of faculty seminars and on-campus lectures to learn a bit more about a particular subject outside of my own specific interests.

The best part of graduate school was being able to control my time and weekly schedule. It did take a while for me to really figure out my routine and priorities.

The other part was having a financed opportunity to conduct my MA research in another part of the United States and doing my language study overseas (Who can say no to an opportunity to earn 19,000 frequent flier miles on Continental in a single summer?!).

And the student ID. Gotta love the discounts when traveling.

[Katzenmusik]

Yes, I must admit, I can't relate to the "I hate grad school" threads at all.

For me, this time is a complete privilege.

Like a few of the posters above, I was stuck in HORRIBLE desk jobs for four years after graduating from college. The pressures of grad school cannot begin to compare with the pressures of these jobs (fundraising amid tons of deadlines and ridiculous office politics and a recession). I often had to work through lunches, holidays, evenings, vacations... the stress was overwhelming, to the point where I would wake up and cry because I had to go to work.

And now? I spend my days reading, writing, having intellectual discussions. My program organizes fun work projects and field trips. There are a raft of grants and fellowships that I'm now eligible to apply for (as a student). And I'm going to an international conference this spring, which should be pretty fun. Grad school is paradise.

It sounds cheesy, but every day I am grateful for the chance I was given to go to grad school with a full tuition waiver and stipend. And I am taking advantage of every opportunity that comes my way and working to derive every possible benefit from my program.

Would I have valued this right after college? Absolutely not. It was the prior years of drudgery that make grad school so fun and rewarding to me now.

Edited January 22, 2011 by Katzenmusik

[Bumblebee]

Great thread! Here comes my grad school experience. I'm only in my second semester of grad school, but I absolutely love my program. I love the courses I took the first semester and the courses I'm taking this semester. I love the department and the people in it. The relationship between the students is great, even when we are in different programs (I'm in the Hispanic Linguistics track, and there are people in the Hispanic Literature and Portuguese tracks). The relationship between students and professors is really good too and there is a lot of collaboration between everybody.

I love the campus. It is huge and I got lost a lot of times during my first weeks here, but it is a beautiful campus with lots of things going on all the time.

And I love the town. It is the perfect size for me (small city, with all the basics of a city and without the stress of traffic, rush hour, etc.), and it is very international (they have international festivals and plenty of international restaurants, which I love).

If I had to grade my grad school experience so far, I would say A or A+ (if I had a car it would probably be an A+ )

[Riotbeard]

I can relate to the I am sad threads but I don't personally feel it. I think the transition may have been rougher and begged more questions of why am I here, if I went directly from undergrad to grad. Instead I spent a miserable year as a paralegal, which told me that academia, while maybe has longer work hours, gives me much more control over my schedule. I love my cohort. Outside of smoking way too many cigarettes, I am healthier than I have ever been. The social scene here is great, and a lot of my best friends are also my fellow grad students. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to the real world.

[UnlikelyGrad]

In my fourth semester here...

I love my classes! If I had gone to a traditional chem program I would have been done with classes last year, but I've had to learn so many new things in my interdisciplinary program. I am loving every minute of it!

I love my research! Yeah, there are times I am flustered by the amount of dishes I have to wash, and the equipment is old and needs constant repair, but I love the challenges, the unravelling of thorny problems.

I love my advisor! I love my peers! I love reading articles about cool science!

I'm not saying it's not a lot of work--it is--but I LOVE GRAD SCHOOL! (And no, I don't usually use this many exclamation points.)

[psych21]

I'll add to the good stuff. I LOVE it here. I sit in classes and constantly have that feeling of "yes! this is what I wanted to do! everything I did so far was just to lead me to this point!" Most of them are challenging, which is why I wanted to enroll in a PhD. I need constant challenges. Even though my GRA position doesn't particularly entail all my interests, I'm just glad to be fully funded in a program severely affected by budget cuts. I love my professors, I love my research, I love academia. Oh- I love my cohort. They are absolutely the best. The town I live in is great-- progressive college town, small enough to get anywhere fast, big enough to have multiple cultural activities and ethnic restaurants. This place has four distinct seasons, which I love. I feel I belong here and I don't regret the hardcore move (I'm an international student). No regrets whatsoever. The PhD program is definitely what I was meant to be doing right now.

[StrangeLight]

pro - in one of my discussion sessions, i tried a performative task with students. basically, i pretended to be mexican dictator, porfirio diaz and they, in groups, served as my economic advisors from various schools of thought. they had to convince me why their economic programs were best for the country. it worked really well. they grasped the material and laughed and had fun in the process.

con - in another one of my discussion sessions, it was clear my students hadn't even done their readings, or didn't grasp the readings, so i had to abort the performative task midway through. and then lecture them, in as friendly a tone as i could manage, that if they can't prepare for class there's no point in me holding it.

pro - i cranked out a conference paper in about 3 hours. it's got a different slant than my thesis and brings my historical work into the realm of present-day policy, which i like. conferences seem to be the sort of places where you can get away with that presentism. i'm really happy with it and i really enjoy giving conference presentations, so i'm excited for that.

con - i don't make enough money to turn the heat up in my apartment, so my toesies are cold.

[wanderlust07]

I love that tonight I am going to a "grading party," because the people in my program totally get that sometimes facing student essays requires pizza and communal support. This will also raise student grades.

I love that one of my struggling students sat in my office for half an hour last week going over his first draft and insisting that my (required) comp. course is important to him, even though he's working 20+ hours a week to pay for school.

I love that even though my health sucks this quarter, my advisor is more worried about my ability to get the care I need than my ability to turn in my papers. I also love that she's genuinely pleased about my admission to another program for next year, even if it means I have to leave.

I love that I can watch crazy, surreal, batshit insane German cinema and call it "homework." Ditto for indulging in long, jolly Trollopean novels and campy scifi shows.

[Gravity]

The only "bad" part of my program is my advisor - the rest is great.

I love my fellow graduate students. We're all there for each other. If one of us is having a bad time, we kidnap the person to go get drinks and bowl or watch a movie The other professors are all very helpful with any kind of question that we have.

Every Saturday night, we (the grad students) get together to drink (alcoholic or non - depends on what you want) and vent and/or work and/or just talk about something other than graduate school. We usually end up going out to eat, too.

I like being able to go out over the summer and running my own field work, too. We all get to do that.

[LizzieT]

I could not be happier with my program. Miami is great and the fellowship I received makes it possible for me to teach only two semesters (one class each) which means I have lots of time for research. My cohort is great and very supportive of each other. My adviser is challenging. I know I am in the right place--I had other offers but this was the best one and I am glad I took it. I ha e never felt so appreciated for what I do in my life.

[Kathiza]

I could not be happier with my program. Miami is great and the fellowship I received makes it possible for me to teach only two semesters (one class each) which means I have lots of time for research. My cohort is great and very supportive of each other. My adviser is challenging. I know I am in the right place--I had other offers but this was the best one and I am glad I took it. I ha e never felt so appreciated for what I do in my life.

Congrats! I'm thinking about going to UMiami too... Unfortunately I didn't get a teaching assistantship so I can't teach - which is a big con on my list...