callista Posted January 14, 2014 Author Posted January 14, 2014 Oh my gosh, new semester starts tomorrow. My post doc left me for a job (which I'm super happy for her, but will miss her to death), so now I'm basically the only one running the lab now…with about 8 RAs to handle. Here's to praying the anxiety won't kill me!! AACK! Oh man, welcome to your new learning experience!!
nohika Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 Hooooooooooooow did I end up with a classload that is HARDER than last semester's hell?! I was supposed to take a break!! Wtf is wrong with me!! Oh wait. I'm interested in policy and the only policy class in my department is taught by the professor who is notorious for insane workloads. Plus my independent study is going to be busy-making AND my advisor wants a rough draft of my thesis proposal by the end of the semester and I don't even know what one of those looks like. Nose to the grind. Grr.
ion_exchanger Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 My course load is heavier than last semester even though I am taking one less credit. Then after school I travel an hour to my lab for rotations. I'm already exhausted.
nohika Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 My course load is heavier than last semester even though I am taking one less credit. Then after school I travel an hour to my lab for rotations. I'm already exhausted. Yup. Yup yup yup. With the exception of the one hour to the lab - instead I throw in bus-ing to and from school which takes about an hour each way. My roommate, on the other hand, is looking at a much less stressful semester. If I didn't want to know more about policy as a potential career field, I'd drop the freaking class. Sigh. But I just got a 260$ refund this morning, so that helps, I guess.
ion_exchanger Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 You feel my pain. Days start waking up at 6, leaving home at 7 to be on time for class at 9. At school until 3, and then lab at 4:30 to around 8:30. At home by 9:30, passed out at 10. Repeat. mop 1
Andean Pat Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 Hey everyone! Hope you had a good break! I feel you!! My workload is heavier but I think it will be fun. I take one workshop, for which I have to produce rather than only read, a regular seminar, an independent study (lots of reading), and a language class (which I already almost hate, sigh). I am really glad to be back, it is still hard to wake up in the morning, but I am happy that I have something to do in this cold! Are you applying for summer grants?
nohika Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 You feel my pain. Days start waking up at 6, leaving home at 7 to be on time for class at 9. At school until 3, and then lab at 4:30 to around 8:30. At home by 9:30, passed out at 10. Repeat. Similar, but moved a few hours down. Wake up anywhere from 7:30-10am-11am, go to class or meetings three days a week, come home, RA work for at least 5 hours, doing schoolwork/various busywork until about 3am, then go to bed. Nope, I don't adjust my bedtime for when I get up, so I tend to go to my 9am meeting on about 4 hours of sleep, give or take a bit. But I've got a crapload of schoolwork I didn't have last semester, plus more research than normal, and...blech. My mixed class is weird. I'm starting to resent being called a grad student because all it means is more work, but I'm getting to know a couple of the undergrads and they're nice, so that's nice. But there's lots of lecturing and I'm not used to that at all, so it's kind of weird. Plus as the grad students we're the 'examples' for the undergrads and that's getting a bit tiring already. I love my shiny office though. I'm finally getting to use it and I want to snuggle it because it's so adorable and perfect. (Yes, I'm a bit of a weirdo.)
ion_exchanger Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) I want an office, I want something! I'll settle for my desk. More than anything I want to leave this lab, go home, and eat pizza. Edited January 17, 2014 by ion_exchanger
nohika Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 I want an office, I want something! I'll settle for my desk. More than anything I want to leave this lab, go home, and eat pizza. I just ordered a kettle for mine and staplers and stuff. Going to go shopping for it tomorrow and get some basics. So so so excited to finally have an office like my cohortmates. Didja get your pizza? :3
ion_exchanger Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Noooo, I'll have to wait until I leave the lab at a time where a pizza place is still open!
Pol Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) My grades got in about a week ago and I can officially say it's going well. Edited January 17, 2014 by Pol dat_nerd 1
LMac Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 I can't figure out if the time off over the holidays was so long that I forgot just how hard grad school is, or if this semester is just that much worse. I think it's the latter. First emotional breakdown of the semester came after only 6 days, but I've decided that a day that starts with a breakdown, should end with whiskey....just as soon as I get all this work done. At what point does a challenging workload become an impossible one? I know grad school is all about being resourceful, and proactive, and working your butt off but I'm starting to feel like the next 2 weeks are setting me up for failure. Several people are giving me things to do (including giving several unique talks with very little advance notice), but none are aware of what the others are giving me. I thought about speaking up, but don't want to come off as whiney if my perspective is wrong, and all of this is actually within reason. Ugh Sorry, just venting and I figured this would be the most understanding audience around since I'm sure you are all going through your own versions of this.
Faraday Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 This was the first weekend since the undergrads returned, and I must say I was nostalgic today of how peaceful campus was over winter break with nobody around.
pears Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 I'm starting to prepare abstracts for conferences (papers & posters alike) for the first time, & it's totally nerve-wracking! I've only ever prepared talks for classes or small professional settings where I know most or all of the attendees on a first name basis. The topic I want to look into is a sliiightly touchy one: mortuary archaeology is my area of focus, so I'll be dealing with burials, cemeteries, missionizing & ensuing changes in identity + religiosity... woof. Fortunately, I've read enough about what to do — or, sometimes, what not to do... like. Ever. Seriously. — when dealing with sensitive issues that I hope I'm off to a good start in terms of getting in touch with tribal councils for information, permission, etc. Still, it's unknown territory, so I'm all kinds of worried about doing the right thing morally & ethically by respecting Catholic & Native concerns, and creating high quality research worth sharing with hundreds of seasoned professionals at the same time.
Pol Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Colloquium conference Saturday, giving a presentation early March, many manuscripts in the works, book chapter published at Camb. UP due early june. Outreach/wide impact initiative website launches in a week. Finished and sent a lot of manually coded data to a comparative group in Berlin last week. More data due for another group soon. Also... classes, TA, RA. All that amongst other things, I'm in over my head. Edited February 25, 2014 by Pol
ion_exchanger Posted February 26, 2014 Posted February 26, 2014 I gave my first journal club presentation for my department last week. I was feeling pretty confident until I got behind the podium and could hear my shaky voice. Of course it never goes the way you prepare. I need to get used to that spot, all of my important presentations will be there! mop 1
callista Posted March 6, 2014 Author Posted March 6, 2014 I have a stats/methods midterm in a few minutes. Not feeling that confident about it right now.
Guest ||| Posted March 8, 2014 Posted March 8, 2014 I have a stats/methods midterm in a few minutes. Not feeling that confident about it right now. You aced it
LMac Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 I finished my lab rotations and am the first in my class to join a lab! Woo hoo!!! mop, dat_nerd and dstock 3
ion_exchanger Posted March 13, 2014 Posted March 13, 2014 Congrats LMac! I am insisting on doing a 4th rotation and will probably be the last to join a lab. One of my fellow first years is already talking about aims! Head in hands.
biotechie Posted March 13, 2014 Posted March 13, 2014 My school is weird and has five 8-week terms per year. I have 2 years of classes in 4 terms, and I just finished the 3rd term 2 weeks ago. I got the grades for it today, and I passed those classes! It was supposed to be the most difficult term. That puts me at ¾ of the way done with classes! I have 6 exams (for 3 classes) and a qualifying exam until candidacy. I should defend my qual in August or September. I also joined a lab last term, the second student in my class to join. The other person had rotated during the summer, so they got to join earlier. This term, the classes are supposed to be more fun. I'm excited because they're classes I'm interested in, plus I'm starting to dig into and plan my project! LMac, dstock and nohika 3
ion_exchanger Posted March 13, 2014 Posted March 13, 2014 My fourth rotation is the one that I'm most excited about. I can't stop thinking/reading about it, even while in my current rotation, which is terrible. If it doesn't work out, I'll be going back to my first rotation, which will be almost a year ago at that point. New students will be coming in! Wow, things just got real. biotechie 1
Faraday Posted March 14, 2014 Posted March 14, 2014 Graduate recruitment weekends as a graduate student: mmmmm... free cookies! Queen of Kale, dstock, biotechie and 1 other 4
ion_exchanger Posted March 15, 2014 Posted March 15, 2014 Oh gosh, recruitment. So much tasty free food. I'm in a special program so I actually have to do two recruitments. Yummy. I noticed a lot of applicants this year are seniors in undergrad. There is only one person fresh out of undergrad in my cohort.
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