Traveling during school?

[dungheap]

I'm wondering how many people get time to travel during school? I have a friend in math who seems to take at least 3 big trips a year, is this realistic? I'm going to be doing eng work so I'll probably be stuck in a lab more. I just don't get how he gets away with it.

[compiler_guy]

It depends on your stage\timeframe in graduate school, course work, research deadlines and other chores..

But you should be able to have at least 1 2-3 week vacation a year.

Also the summer if formally your 'free time', and you could use it for a vacation, but most go to do interships and such,

[zabius]

What constitutes a big trip? Most graduate stipends are enough for rent, groceries, bills, and not terribly much more. I can't imagine that he'd be able to afford 3 full-blown vacations every year without some other source of funding (savings, perhaps?). And even if he could, how does he find the time? You should ask him!

 

Going a couple hours out of town for a weekend is pretty cheap and doable, though. I know a lot of people who do that kind of thing every now and then. I wouldn't call those "big trips" though.

 

I know one graduate student (a former classmate of mine from undergrad) whose research is funded by various grants (including an NSF grant). She's a biologist who works on organisms in Central America, and so she has to travel there for fieldwork every summer. However, she purposefully books trips that are ~2 weeks longer than necessary so that she can have a 2 week tropical vacation (surfing and whatnot) on someone else's dime. Personally, I think that's unethical and kind of detestable, especially since there are so many other scientists out there who would use some of that grant money for actual research. But somehow, she gets away with it, and I wonder how common this sort of thing is?

 

Most other graduate students that I know don't travel much, except to see their families for the holidays and to go to conferences. Maybe things are different in other fields, though. In my experience, graduate students are expected to continue their research over the summer and most other university holidays... "breaks" are for undergrads. :-)

Edited April 1, 2013 by zabius

[jmu]

It depends what you're researching. In my field (and the related ones) frequent shorter trips and/or one long trip to your field site are expected. I seriously doubt my dissertation would be accepted if I wrote about what's going on in a country without spending extensive time there to find out.

[TakeruK]

What constitutes a big trip? Most graduate stipends are enough for rent, groceries, bills, and not terribly much more. I can't imagine that he'd be able to afford 3 full-blown vacations every year without some other source of funding (savings, perhaps?). And even if he could, how does he find the time? You should ask him!

 

Going a couple hours out of town for a weekend is pretty cheap and doable, though. I know a lot of people who do that kind of thing every now and then. I wouldn't call those "big trips" though.

 

I'd agree with this assessment! During the years where you have courses, you probably could only easily get away during the breaks. If your course schedule works out, you might be able to swing a 3 or 4 day weekend trip but personally, the amount of work required to make up for it is more stressful than the vacation is worth! After your courses are done, I think it's reasonable to be able to take a total of 2-3 weeks off per year to travel, visit families, go to weddings, whatever. For those working in fields where they might have to tend to an experiment, it might be a bit harder to schedule since you would want to clear it with your supervisor.

 

I know one graduate student (a former classmate of mine from undergrad) whose research is funded by various grants (including an NSF grant). She's a biologist who works on organisms in Central America, and so she has to travel there for fieldwork every summer. However, she purposefully books trips that are ~2 weeks longer than necessary so that she can have a 2 week tropical vacation (surfing and whatnot) on someone else's dime. Personally, I think that's unethical and kind of detestable, especially since there are so many other scientists out there who would use some of that grant money for actual research. But somehow, she gets away with it, and I wonder how common this sort of thing is?

 

I think it's hard to judge whether or not this is okay without more details. For example, a few years ago, I went to an international conference, in France. I stayed an extra week to visit Paris with my wife as our honeymoon. This saved me on the cost of airfare from Canada to France because the grant would have paid that anyways. However, I didn't charge any of the extra costs of my time in Paris (hotel, touristy things etc.) to the research grant funding that trip. I think it's all ethical and fair if the cost that you charge to the grant is about the same as what the grant would have had to pay anyways, if you had not taken the personal time. Similarly, I usually charge research travel to my credit card, where I get points and frequent traveler miles. Also, sometimes when on conference travel with a per diem, I might take the opportunity to treat myself to a nice meal at a restaurant, or maybe spend a bit more on meals than I would normally do so if traveling on my own dime. I don't go overboard though, since I know that spending my advisor/my grant's money now means less for me later, but if I am being completely honest, I probably spend more on meals when I'm not paying for it myself. Many conferences in my field will often have at least half a day that's "free" in the middle of the week so that people can spend that time being a tourist! If they didn't do that, then most people would probably just skip some of the sessions in order to do just that.

 

Technically, an argument could be made that all of the above examples are me taking advantage of a research grant (taking advantage of the fact I'm already in a place I want to visit, or getting "free" frequent traveler points, or getting a nicer meal out of it). However, I see them as legitimate "fringe benefits" that come with the job.

 

However, something like intentionally slowing down your work so that you can have a vacation would be crossing the line, for me. If I wanted to stay in Hawaii for a few days after a telescope observing run (="fieldwork" for me?), I would do so but pay for the extra meals and hotel cost myself. I could see some field work trips incurring very little extra cost if you stayed longer (e.g. if you're camping and/or cooking your own food?) though. I could also envision a situation where a conference might end on Saturday, but flying home on Sunday might be more expensive than the extra hotel stay on Sunday night plus the flight home on Monday instead. That would be a lucky situation where you could get an extra day to do what you'd like! However, it would also be okay for the researcher to choose to take the more expensive flight home on Sunday too -- they shouldn't be forced to stay an extra day

 

Most other graduate students that I know don't travel much, except to see their families for the holidays and to go to conferences. Maybe things are different in other fields, though. In my experience, graduate students are expected to continue their research over the summer and most other university holidays... "breaks" are for undergrads. :-)

 

Except for one or two weekend trips, almost all of my travel in the past ~3 years of grad school has been tied onto conferences or visiting home for holidays or planning my wedding. I feel like when I don't have TA or coursework requirements, I probably could take a week off to do a cruise or some "big" holiday if I wanted to (and make up for it by working extra before/after) but I think the main thing holding me back from doing something like that is budget! I think the difference between grad students and undergrads is that while undergrads have their vacation time dictated by school break sessions, grad students tend to work during these times but then take about the same amount of time as vacation time. We just have the freedom to schedule it around our own classes and research commitments (unless we're in a field where research is all the time!).

Edited April 1, 2013 by TakeruK

[pears]

i WWOOFed a few times when i was an undergrad, as a cheap alternative to vacations when i wasn't going home. in sum: you work on an organic farm for an amount of time specified by your temporary employer (i was never told i had to work more than 6 hours a day, but i often found myself putting in 8+, just because i enjoyed it) in exchange for housing and food. typically, i've found they'll give you a daily hot shower or bath incl. soap towel etc, an air mattress or couch with bedding and a pillow, and will stock up on food of your choice or include you in their meals, depending on how they eat and what your eating habits are (e.g., i ate 3 meals a day with a largely vegetarian family, but had my own section of the pantry when i worked on a small meat-producing farm).

 

if you find yourself with, say, a spring break devoid of any academic work to do, there are probably places you can get to and from for $300 or less round trip where you could WWOOF for a short period of time.

[zabius]

I think it's hard to judge whether or not this is okay without more details.

 

Ah, sorry... I should have specified. What she does is claim that her fieldwork will take ~2 weeks longer than it actually does, so that she has a 2 week period in the foreign country in which she can just surf and sight-see and whatnot. If she would use her own money to pay for those two weeks, that would be totally fine (I'd be tempted to do the same if I were in her position and had the extra time). But that's not what she does judging from the comments she makes on Facebook, via which she brags about her "free vacations." It seems that she continues to use the grant money to pay hotel and travel expenses during these extra two weeks, despite the fact that she's not actually doing any research then (the research is done and she's just hanging around for fun). I think it's unethical because two weeks of hotel bills (plus whatever else she's claiming is "necessary for fieldwork" when all she's doing is chilling on the beach) is a lot of money which other researchers could potentially use for the intended purpose (i.e. science). I don't know how much of this is coming from the NSF vs. her advisor's grants vs. other grants, but regardless-- all of that money is earmarked for research, not one's personal surfing adventure. It makes me frustrated because I know good scientists who have been denied NSF funding, and it just doesn't seem fair that someone else is using those very same funds for something that's not even remotely scientific.

 

The stuff you described sounds perfectly legit, though. There's nothing wrong with eating well when you're away for a conference or staying an extra night after the conference because of the way that the flights work out. Or even staying several extra days but paying for the extra expenses yourself. What my acquaintance is doing, though, is different, I think.

 

That's all tangential, though. I agree that once you're done with courses, you could (and perhaps even should, so as to maintain your sanity) take a 1-week break once a year or so. But three big trips per year seems excessive and hard to imagine given the average grad student's work schedule. Maybe the OP's friend takes his work with him? I don't know what type of math he's doing, but that seems like it's something that one could feasibly do with math work?

Edited April 2, 2013 by zabius

[juilletmercredi]

Also depends on your fund$.  I have the time to take 3 big trips a year, but not the money.

 

Depends on your advisor, too.  My advisor doesn't care where I do my work from, as long as it gets done.

[rising_star]

I'm with jullietmercedi. I have the time to take as many big trips as I want (or, I did before I was under the pressure to finish my dissertation quickly). I typically take 1 week off at Christmas, 2-3 weeks in May/June, and then maybe another trip in the summer to go visit friends if I have the time/money. This year, the May/June trip will probably only be one week, and then I'll go see my sister for a week in July hopefully. Part of the reason I can go on these trips is because I have free places to stay, which definitely helps cut down on the cost.