Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[1Q84]

So I am finding out that my program has some issues relating to FERPA, but I am not sure if they are enforceable. Like a complete lack of discretion with issues surrounding personal student data/financial info/etc. Has anyone come across this? Sort of poisons the atmosphere to know everything about everyone. Super competitive ethos+hierarchical funding+lack of discretion=?

 

The school can get into huge trouble with the federal government if they do not abide by FERPA. I'd bring this up to your HR department if members of your program continually breach ethical and legal codes of conduct.

[brown_eyed_girl]

Maybe not intelligence but when someone is talking about the merits of spending money on an education and says it is a waste of time and money I always consider their major. 

 

Yes your degree in general studies or a study of the people named Bob between 1502-1503 AD is a waste of time and money, it doesn't make STEM the same. 

 

Let's not bash non-STEM fields, please! *Someone* has gotta know about the Bobs! 

[Cheshire_Cat]

Ok, I don't know if this is a rant or not.  If it is, it is a really shallow rant.  But, I am a fairly successful CPA, and I'm going back to school for my Ph.D.  I'm super excited, don't get me wrong, however, I'm also kind of dreading being a student again.  Not because of the work, but kind of the status.  It was so nice to be able to say "I'm a CPA at a big accounting firm downtown"   But now I will have to say I'm a student.  A Ph.D student, granted. But people don't really understand the difference between that and any other type of college student.  And a lot of people view college students as kids, and I don't want to been seen that way. Especially since I look younger than I am and people already ask if I'm a college kid.  I am not a kid, and I don't like being treated like one!

[ERR_Alpha]

People in academia have fucked up priorities. I shouldn't be expected to skip important family events.

[.letmeinplz//]

Let's not bash non-STEM fields, please! *Someone* has gotta know about the Bobs! 

Google knows about the Bobs...

 

Seriously though, as stated in the post you quoted...

 

I'm bashing someone who chose a major with low financial prospects and thinks if it was a waste of time and money for them then it will be a waste of time and money for me. If someone tells me I'll never pay off my debt and my time is better spent continuing to work yet they aren't in my field or a similar one (where I will at least double my current salary when I leave school) and they are in a field that perhaps isn't paid well (like Bob Studies) I will dismiss their assumption that my choice of grad school is the wrong one.

 

Yes for some majors 50,000 is a lot of debt to accrue and difficult to pay off once you graduate, but for others it just means the M3/C63AMG/etc comes to the garage a little later. So a Bob major has good advice for other Bob majors, but not for others.

 

 

People in academia have fucked up priorities. I shouldn't be expected to skip important family events.

I had a boss that questioned me for not working on a weekend because I was spending time with my dad before he was deployed again. It is better just to take care of you and your family and whatever happens happens. You know what the right thing to do is.

Edited April 22, 2015 by <ian>

[ERR_Alpha]

Google knows about the Bobs...

Seriously though, as stated in the post you quoted...

I'm bashing someone who chose a major with low financial prospects and thinks if it was a waste of time and money for them then it will be a waste of time and money for me. If someone tells me I'll never pay off my debt and my time is better spent continuing to work yet they aren't in my field or a similar one (where I will at least double my current salary when I leave school) and they are in a field that perhaps isn't paid well (like Bob Studies) I will dismiss their assumption that my choice of grad school is the wrong one.

Yes for some majors 50,000 is a lot of debt to accrue and difficult to pay off once you graduate, but for others it just means the M3/C63AMG/etc comes to the garage a little later. So a Bob major has good advice for other Bob majors, but not for others.

I had a boss that questioned me for not working on a weekend because I was spending time with my dad before he was deployed again. It is better just to take care of you and your family and whatever happens happens. You know what the right thing to do is.

Thanks for the reassurance. Ever since I've moved away I've realized how important family is. One of my close friends in graduate school lost her father, so I know how lucky I am to have a father I can go home and see. The science will wait... That's what I like to think. Edited April 22, 2015 by ERR_Alpha

[BiochemMom]

People in academia have fucked up priorities. I shouldn't be expected to skip important family events.

This is every job.

[brown_eyed_girl]

Google knows about the Bobs...

 

Seriously though, as stated in the post you quoted...

 

I'm bashing someone who chose a major with low financial prospects and thinks if it was a waste of time and money for them then it will be a waste of time and money for me. If someone tells me I'll never pay off my debt and my time is better spent continuing to work yet they aren't in my field or a similar one (where I will at least double my current salary when I leave school) and they are in a field that perhaps isn't paid well (like Bob Studies) I will dismiss their assumption that my choice of grad school is the wrong one.

 

Yes for some majors 50,000 is a lot of debt to accrue and difficult to pay off once you graduate, but for others it just means the M3/C63AMG/etc comes to the garage a little later. So a Bob major has good advice for other Bob majors, but not for others.

 

Well, I'd say this is really more a problem of people who think that their experiences are universal. And people who give unsolicited advice.  

 

P.S. These problems are also frustrating for those of us who don't go into STEM. Many warned me about getting a humanities BA, but lo and behold I was one of the few people I knew to have a job offer in my field before I graduated. Granted I'm not rolling in cash, but since I've got only a few thousand dollars in loans and a fun job, I'm quite satisfied with my life choices.

[Scantronphobia]

The school can get into huge trouble with the federal government if they do not abide by FERPA. I'd bring this up to your HR department if members of your program continually breach ethical and legal codes of conduct.

Yes--I agree. I don't think that they are concerned, and maybe they don't have to be, legally speaking. Having read FERPA rules, they are pretty loose and only apply under certain conditions of funding. Even if they  do not apply to my program, I don't think that students' personal data should be casually shared, even by word of mouth (which is, btw, excluded from some FERPA rules). This program is stressful enough without the unvarnished--whatever it is--that is going on...

[Cheshire_Cat]

My Alma Mater is being vilified in the media for daring to allow free speech that most people find distasteful.  And so they have to cancel classes tomorrow because a bunch of idiots on motorcycles have a point to make.

This is why, although I generally am a pretty conservative person, I don't like being associated with them.  You can't have your cake and eat it to. Free speech on campus is a good thing, especially for conservatives because otherwise they would be banned from everywhere but the business school.  I'm proud of my university for standing up for real American values and not giving in to tribalism at its worse.

[shadowclaw]

I discovered today that my department at my undergrad school made a facebook page about a year ago (which I was invited to like at some point but never saw it). While browsing through some of the photos, I discovered that a picture of me doing a titration was the cover photo for the entire past year up until a week ago. And I didn't get to see it, darn it! Well, at least they love me, anyway (or something like that).

[Mechanician2015]

April 29. No positions offered so far... Kind of already tasting the bitterness of my first professional and academic defeat.

How did I get here and how do I get out?

[shadowclaw]

There are 2 schools that haven't given me a decision yet. For one I assumed that I would be rejected soon after April 15, however, my application is still marked as in review. I suppose it's possible that they are still making their way down the waitlist, but I really want to bring closure to that application, as it was my first choice. The other I honestly have no clue about. In the past, the admissions committee has met after April 15 and sent acceptances as late as June. It's actually my last choice, but since my funding is in limbo at my only acceptance, it sure would be nice to have a funded offer. Then again, my acceptance doesn't have a due date for me to commit, so I can wait until I do know about funding to confirm my intent to enroll. An acceptance by this school would force me to make a decision before I have all my cards on the table.

[Shamrock_Frog]

Haha just a school in the middle of Pennsylvania. No big cities nearby, so undergrads must have to resort to pizza thievery to entertain themselves. I may have stabbed him if he actually ate it.

Today's vent: people who constantly ask you to do things for them, but as soon as you need a favor, they are too busy. There's a girl in my program who probably asks me to do something every other week. This semester it's mostly been help with her statistics assignments. I help her debug her SAS code and explain when to use this test or that. Sometimes I really spend a lot of time helping her. This morning I asked her to do something that required 5 minutes of her time and she just had to walk across the hall from where she was working. Instead, I got a "I'm busy with my lab prep right now." Maybe I should have told her that last semester when she asked me to do things while I was prepping my lab materials.

And of course when I asked the lab supervisor if she could pop in and do it, she gave me a snarky reply, but at least she said she'd do it. I do lots of extra things that aren't actually part of my job (which someone else slacked off on or she didn't feel like doing because she was sick or behind on work) because she asks me to and it's not a big deal. You'd think that me asking for a small favor wouldn't be such a problem!

I used to work a job that was nights and weekends (14+ hr shifts) and I covered a shift at some point for every.single.person on staff. But one day when I came down with food poisoning not a single person would cover my shift. 12 people that I had covered entire shifts for, and not a single person was willing to help me out when I was literally puking up my guts.  I started calling around at 7-8am for a shift that started at 6pm that night.

[Cheshire_Cat]

My favorite guy leaves on Tuesday for his summer internship.   Sad.  I just want to give him a hug and never let go.  But since he doesn't like physical touch, that wouldn't go over well.  So I'll just be mean to him because I'm mad he has to leave.  It isn't even his fault, but I still don't like it. He'll be back by the time I'm in school, I know. But I don't want him gone in the first place!

[Marst]

Last time I saw the last girl I had a serious thing for is three years ago. The distance between us is so large, both physical and cultural, but we have kept sending each other messages for all these years. Hardly ever serious, but we keep mocking one another, flirting even, trying to make each other jealous (or is that what I want to see?). I don't dare hoping that when we meet again everything will be the same as it used to be, so I do consider myself available, but somehow I am too preoccupied to notice anyone else.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Marst

[Cheshire_Cat]

I have another guy friend that I haven't seen in three years, and I still miss him too, more than I'll miss my favorite guy.  We were never romantically interested in eachother, however I wouldn't have survived college without him.  He was the first person I talked to voluntarily.  Somehow, he saw how shy I was and was able to gently coax me out of my shell in a way no one had been able to before.  He was my comfort zone, my shelter in the storm.  If I was overwhelmed, I could go be near him and everything would be ok.  And he gave great hugs.  I don't want to miss anyone else like I miss him, but inevitably if you get close to someone, you will.  I'm tired of my friends up and leaving.  I hate the transient nature of being a young adult.

 

In other news, why does my body think it has to wake up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?  Shops aren't even open until 10.  Kroger is.  Maybe I'll go grocery shopping while no one else is crazy enough to be there.

[Quantum Buckyball]

my boss is making my coworker (the one I don't like) to teach this summer, karma 

[Quantum Buckyball]

This dude just finished his 4th year and was complaining that his boss doesn't care about his project, he claimed he spent on average 60 hrs/week in the lab "working" but doesn't have the data to show his "productivity". and now he's telling people that the former student who worked on his project faked data in her publications because he couldn't reproduce any of her experiments.

 

I was like, "gurl, you're getting pretty desperate, and stop the rumor because that's just bad juju."

[Marst]

Apparently the way to tell a friend that a mutual friend just passed away is by forwarding them an email addressed to the mutual friend saying

"Rest in peace, *name*".

Edited May 2, 2015 by Marst

[St Andrews Lynx]

Apparently the way to tell a friend that a mutual friend just passed away is by forwarding them an email addressed to the mutual friend saying

"Rest in peace, *name*".

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I guess the person who sent the email was upset and didn't know how to break the news to you. Take care.

[shadowclaw]

I used to work a job that was nights and weekends (14+ hr shifts) and I covered a shift at some point for every.single.person on staff. But one day when I came down with food poisoning not a single person would cover my shift. 12 people that I had covered entire shifts for, and not a single person was willing to help me out when I was literally puking up my guts.  I started calling around at 7-8am for a shift that started at 6pm that night.

 

This happened to me frequently when I worked in food service, especially my last job at a pizza hut. I took 20 credits a semester and then worked 40 hours a week in a combination of waiting tables and making pizza. There were days when I worked completely alone, doing everything (waiting tables, answering phones, making the food, cashing out the orders) because my entire scheduled staff claimed to be sick, no one would cover them, and the general manager wouldn't come in because her four days of work were too much. If I had something come up that I needed a shift off, I couldn't get someone to cover it if I started asking several days beforehand, but I could never bring myself to be a dick and just call off. There were days when I was a food safety hazard because I was so sick.

Apparently the way to tell a friend that a mutual friend just passed away is by forwarding them an email addressed to the mutual friend saying

"Rest in peace, *name*".

My grandmother once found out that a friend passed away in a very awkward way. Her friend had written up Christmas cards to everyone but hadn't put them in the mail yet when she died. So her daughter opened them all, slipped in a small note that she passed, and mailed them.

[Quantum Buckyball]

People aren't going to award you a PhD just because you're a "nice" person   Some people are just unbelievable.

[ERR_Alpha]

My advisor doesn't understand that I have to grade for TA and study for class. I'm hiding in my apartment to finish my grading.

[_kita]

I had a summer job-one I was thrilled fo. Teaching psychology at a summer camp. I would build my own curriculum, and it was hosted at a university close to me.

I was offered the job & told to get them a curriculum. Apparentlyhe never got it. Or my follow up emails or calls. And they hired someone else. I forwarded my initial email to their logisticss person (since it's time stamped proving I did what I said). Now I'm offered public speaking instead. Never wanted to flip off a company before.