Failing my first semester in grad school, what to do.

[Miro]

Happy Black Friday to all,

This is my dillema,

I got accepted into mid-tier chemistry program however i really wanted to do material science so I ellected to affiliate ( join) a huge lab of 40+ people in a BME program that is currenlty ranked 3rd in the nation in the same school, hence i am sort of in two programs. in chenmistry, we are expected to teach 5 diffent sections of labs ( mine is org chem II), and take classes , no research your first year. in BME, you get accepted into the lab right away and your PI pays for you, so you are expected to do research while taking two classes. Because i am in these to program I ended taking classes, doing research and teaching. this resulted in be falling way below my class average in exams. I catch myself I stopped doing research so i can focus on my classes however I am still failing.I think my continous failure is due to these reasons

1. my chem class is way over my head and the materials we learn in class does not correlate with the book.

2. I am playig catch up in my engineering class since i have never taken any engineering classes in undergrad

3. 90% of my students want to go to medical school so they are all very demanding especially when it comes to grading. I answer alot of e-mails in a day regarding labs we performed in class.

4. I feel very lonely ( i am a minority in a PWI).

I personally do not want to get kicked out, what do i do. How can convince my professor that i can handle the work load? How do i approach my PI, who is teaching my engineering class (he is not really a people person)?

P.S i graduated summa cum laude, received many competitive awards for research in undergrad, was accepted to top tier chem. programs etc.

[SANDIEGO]

It sounds like you're trying to do too much, and then not doing a good job at any of it. Are you really trying to do two program's worth of work?? You should speak to your adviser(s) and/or graduate counselor and figure out a course of action that makes sense..

[memyselfandcoffee]

I am not sure what should do, but perhaps if you talked to someone in career advice centre they could tell you if too much is being expected of you, and what you can reasonably do about it.

one thing, though, I don't think part of your teaching job should entail answering tons of emails from students on a daily basis. why not set up a discussion forum on your elearning site, to field questions, which you could tell them will be replied to on a certain day each week. so then you could just spend a couple of hours one day week on that. or else could you set up a 2 hour slot in the week to have office hours?

good luck1

[fuzzylogician]

Sounds like you need to get your two program coordinators together in a room and discuss how to tailor a program that fits your needs and that is sufficiently rigorous to award you a degree from both your programs. Trying to do the two programs disjointly at the same time without having any adjustments from either program sounds absolutely insane to me. The first year in most programs is designed to be extra-rigorous and usually tries to get students up to speed in their field within one or two years, starting from some basic notions but racing through much of the current literature in numerous subfields. It's hard enough to do just one program if you spend all your time just on that. Doing two is frankly borderline crazy or at least highly ambitious.

I think that slowing down is a good idea but I think the logical thing to do is have an official study plan with your two programs that amounts to a reasonable workload, even if it's somewhat higher than what just one program would be. But doing twice the amount of work as everyone else will get you precisely where you're heading - doing a mediocre job at many things, or else completely dropping the ball on some.

As mentioned above, there may also be ways you can improve your efficiency in both teaching and studying. Indeed, you shouldn't be spending a lot of time on TAing and you shouldn't be giving in to your students' demands just because they are pre-med. You need to have firm policies about grading and about when you are accessible. For example, setting up a discussion forum, as suggested. Or, answering questions only once or twice a week, or during office hours, etc. Similarly - you should only answer email during office hours (=no nights or weekends). Students will take for granted whatever you give them. Be more considerate of yourself, and they will do the same.

[rising_star]

I think you need to schedule your day and divide up your work better. For your TA work, you need to limit the hours you will answer emails and grade student work. Set a reasonable amount of time per assignment and stick to it (I used to limit myself to one minute per double-spaced page I had to read/grade). Only answer their emails once per day, and limit the amount of time you spend doing so and the length of your responses. Tell them if they want more, they need to come to office hours or ask you before or after class.

But, there's something I don't understand. If you're only affiliated with a BME lab, why do you have to take classes in that area? Or did you decide to enroll in two separate degree programs?

[Miro]

I think you need to schedule your day and divide up your work better. For your TA work, you need to limit the hours you will answer emails and grade student work. Set a reasonable amount of time per assignment and stick to it (I used to limit myself to one minute per double-spaced page I had to read/grade). Only answer their emails once per day, and limit the amount of time you spend doing so and the length of your responses. Tell them if they want more, they need to come to office hours or ask you before or after class.

But, there's something I don't understand. If you're only affiliated with a BME lab, why do you have to take classes in that area? Or did you decide to enroll in two separate degree programs?

I choose to take the classes in BME in order to build up my biology/engineering foundation and the also relate to my thesis more than my chemistry classes. Lastly my advisor requied all the first year students to take that class since he teacher the class.

T

[Miro]

Thank you guys do much. I will try this advises and see what happened.