First Year Students - Fall 2015 - How's It Going?

[Cheshire_Cat]

Reading, reading, and more reading.  I don't know how much of it I'm understanding though.  I don't have anything to do except read until Thursday. Having all of this unstructured time is weird.  But I can sleep in for the rest of the week, so that is nice.

[chrisuw91]

I'm excited to start. I know it will be challenging so I'm looking forward to it.

[hippyscientist]

I start my masters in 3 weeks and I just got all my IT credentials. Want them to update the timetable so I know where I'm going to be when!! Cannot wait to start - but first I got a trip to the US to visit potential PhD schools and see the boy. Exciting times ahead.

[rainbowpink]

I don't start until the end of September. I seriously can't wait. I already moved a while back and am now at my parents' place for a bit. This past month has been mostly Netflix and video games.

[hippyscientist]

This past month has been mostly Netflix and video games.

Oh I feel ya! Thank god for Netflix because I'd have gone up the wall otherwise. It keeps me company when I work from home  

[Shamrock_Frog]

I'm still trying to find a first rotation. Everyone I've talked to has agreed to either a 2nd or 3rd rotation. I have 2 or 3 labs to choose each for those, but I'm still looking for a first rotation. Frustrating. 

I have a lot more free reign for the class I'm TA'ing and I'm both excited and terrified by that prospect. My undergrad TAs are veterans so that's definitely helpful.

[ashiepoo72]

It's been going really well! I am loving my new city and spend most of the time exploring and hanging out with a friend from my old city who moved here around the same time as me. I moved nearly two months before my program starts in order to get my daughter situated in school, so I have about a month to kill before I actually start classes. Now that my kid is in school, I'm planning on brushing up on language skills, looking over some documents that I've stored away for a new research project and reading for pleasure--something I haven't done in a tragically long time!

I hope you all have easy transitions and enjoy your first year. I love reading about everyone's experiences in very different fields and geographic regions and am looking forward to keeping up with everyone's progress in this thread

[Lexaw32]

I wish I had found this site sooner! Would have definitely been helpful throughout the application, enrollment, moving, job search, etc processes. I just finished up my first week of classes after a rather stressful move 1200 miles away from home (car broke down about two hours into our trip and I have yet to get it back. It's been about two and a half weeks). But my GAship is great. Little bit of a culture shock moving from the mid Atlantic region to the south but I like it so far. I'm thoroughly excited about my classes and the work I'll be doing as a GA so I'd say all is well thus far! 

[ballwera]

Wish I was able to start rotations in the summer. I've done nothing but read literature for the past week to get caught up! I will say it's a bit of adjustment to have work once I get home (I've been out of school for 3 years). Also got married a month ago so still trying to get used to that as well... fun stuff. 

[Nanolol]

Orientation is on Sept 8th; classes commence on the 10th.

Beginning my procrastinating in 3...2...

[Chai_latte]

I'm really excited.  I finished my previous grad program this summer.  A few days later, I packed my bags and moved ~100 miles to my new school.  I got an early, mid-July start in my new program--taking an elective and beginning an independent study.  Even though I didn't get much of a break, I'm thrilled about my program.  It is such a great fit!!

We have orientation now.  My new roommates have moved in, I have my class schedule and I'm ready for next week.  Woo-hoo!   

[ShadowFairy]

Reading everyone's comments about how they've been starting off makes me feel pretty nervous. Nevertheless, I also enjoy reading about other people's experiences moving to different geographic and cultural regions.

 

I'm about to move all the way to the other side of the country (west coast to east coast) to start grad school. I wish I could've booked an earlier flight, but I'll be moving in 6 days before classes begin, 4 days before orientation. From anyone's experience, would this be enough time to adjust to a new living place, college, and environment? I feel like I need an entire week at least before I could feel settled in... does anyone else feel this way? I also don't feel prepared for classes lol but I haven't even begun enrolling for them so.

[CBclone]

I moved in Aug 23rd and start on the 31st, and spent most of this week unpacking and getting organized -- I also moved everything from the Rockies to a 1-bd apartment in upstate NY, but since you flew I'm assuming you'll have way less stuff and probably a furnished apartment that you're moving into? If you need to buy furniture and stuff, yeah, it'll be tougher in just a week. 

I think my length of time between moving in and starting classes has been great. Met a few people, had a day of orientation/training for my GA position, and had plenty of time to explore the area a bit. Excited for classes to start on Monday!

[dr. t]

Why did I think being a Real Adult with Real Adult quantities of stuff to move was a good idea?

Edited August 29, 2015 by telkanuru

[ShadowFairy]

I moved in Aug 23rd and start on the 31st, and spent most of this week unpacking and getting organized -- I also moved everything from the Rockies to a 1-bd apartment in upstate NY, but since you flew I'm assuming you'll have way less stuff and probably a furnished apartment that you're moving into? If you need to buy furniture and stuff, yeah, it'll be tougher in just a week. 

I think my length of time between moving in and starting classes has been great. Met a few people, had a day of orientation/training for my GA position, and had plenty of time to explore the area a bit. Excited for classes to start on Monday!

So about a week then... that's generally more or less the amount of time for me! Your housing fortune must've been so much better than mine, I find it difficult to imagine getting an apartment during the first year of grad school. Although that might just be NY for ya. I'm moving into one of those graduate 'dormitories' for the first year, so I don't think I'll be needing any furniture, just the essentials. Glad you have an excellent start so far, makes me feel a little more relieved! After all, we will be spending the next few years wherever we're studying.

 

Why did I think being a Real Adult with Real Adult quantities of stuff to move was a good idea?

Lolllll I don't even think Real Adults (at least, not me) ever thought it was remotely even a good idea.

[CBclone]

To be fair, I'm about 4 to 5 hours upstate from NYC; if I was in NYC I may have just gone w/ a furnished place or sublet or on-campus housing for simplicity. I also was able to visit my school and town in April and looked at a few places that landlords knew would be available in August and was able to sign a lease sometime in late April or early May. I'm a bit of an over-planner...some friends who also moved onto grad school this year packed their places 2 days before moving and kept saying they'd "just find a place" upon arrival, less than a week before their classes start. I'd go nuts with that idea. Two of them found places, the other is, as far as I'm aware, still living in her van in search of a place. 

To each their own, as they say!

Good luck to you on your move and grad school adventure, RideTheLightning469!

[Chiqui74]

Classes start on Wednesday, but I have already have readings for the very first class.  It's a massive tome (it's a survey book).  I've done some of it here and there but I still can't quite shift my brain to PhD gear.  It's just not "real" yet.  It'll be real enough when I get to class and I'm lost because I didn't read. I need something to click.

[SocialPsychYear2]

Now that classes have started: reading, reading, reading.

[mb712]

Survived the first week, now I'm worried about getting my ass kicked in one of my seminars this semester. I have been trying to settle into a new city half way across the country while doing orientation and starting the semester which I thought would be manageable... I probably should have moved a little earlier than I did, but I also didn't want to give up the last two weeks with friends and family. My cohort seems cool which is great since it's a small cohort. I'm nervous but optimistic, hopefully I can say the same in another couple months!

[shadowclaw]

Tomorrow we load the relocube and find out if we have to leave stuff behind. I'm still really mad about the uhaul ubox... I got a quote in May for $2500 for two, which was more than enough room to bring everything. When I finally got my moving plans more solidified (read: found a place to live) and was able to schedule the uboxes, the price had doubled. The relocube was $2000 for one and that's all our budget can allow for with the higher prices. We're already only moving a queen size mattress, box spring, and frame, two dressers, one armoire, one recliner, and a bunch of boxes. I'm really hoping the table, chairs, and filing cabinet can fit, too, but I have my doubts. I did the math with how much we could fit in terms of cubic inches, and everything would fit with some room to spare if I could magically make everything into perfect square shapes that fit nice and tight like tetris pieces. The real world doesn't work that way, though!

The car is packed pretty tight, too. It's going to be a long annoying drive with no view out the back window.

[shadowclaw]

Well, loading the relocube went reasonably well. We couldn't get the recliner or filing cabinet in, or the dining room chairs. My dad said he'd hold onto my cabinet for me, along with a few boxes of fancy expensive dishes that I really have no use for right now, but may in the future. We may look into having him send the recliner via UPS... it probably wouldn't even cost $100 to ship, and it's worth about $600. I guess we'll have to buy some chairs when we get to Oregon, but they don't have to be fancy. We have plenty of other things to acquire as well, like a couch! The relocube looked bigger than I envisioned, although my dad and husband took one look at it when we arrived at the terminal and started laughing hysterically. They were convinced we'd have to bring half the stuff back home. Yet just about everything important fit! 

We also reorganized the car a bit, so it should be much easier to drive. Unfortunately, we discovered that our old bike rack doesn't work on the new car (even though my husband claimed to have tried it out and it worked fine). So I went on a search for one at multiple stores tonight. Found one at Dicks Sporting Goods, but the car fit list from the manufacturer only went to 2009. My car's design hasn't changed too much in the past few years, and it claims to fit most hatchbacks and vans (we have a Subaru Forester), so hopefully it will work! We'll find out in the morning. I wanted to have a bit more done tonight so we didn't have to wake up so earl tomorrow, but my parents wanted to take us out to dinner. So we'll be loading the boats and the bike tomorrow, and stuffing a few items onto the backseat that we managed to forget to bring to the relocube. Then we're off on our cross country journey! First stop, Terre Haute, Indiana!

[1Q84]

Random question: is it super weird and lame to ask your professor to sign a (fiction) book that he recently had published? 

[Chai_latte]

Random question: is it super weird and lame to ask your professor to sign a (fiction) book that he recently had published? 

NO!  I don't think so, at least.  If someone asked me to sign a copy of my thesis for them (lol), I'd be flattered.

[jujubea]

Wish I was able to start rotations in the summer. I've done nothing but read literature for the past week to get caught up! I will say it's a bit of adjustment to have work once I get home (I've been out of school for 3 years). Also got married a month ago so still trying to get used to that as well... fun stuff. 

I just got married too.... I feel ya

[1Q84]

NO!  I don't think so, at least.  If someone asked me to sign a copy of my thesis for them (lol), I'd be flattered.

That's my instinct But he's my non-writing-related prof and I don't want it to come off as extreme toadying (because it's not--that's my worst nightmare!)