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

[CBclone]

I didn't do a lit review course in undergrad. I suppose schools or programs that require a thesis as an undergrad would require students to take one, but not sure. I'm in a course-based Master's on a non-thesis track option and won't take a research methods course until next year (my 2nd and last year), and it will be a two semester sequence. Students in the thesis track take it during their first year, but otherwise they just make everyone take it to get the experience in case they want to go into research later on. 

 

 

[shadowclaw]

2 hours ago, piglet33 said:

You're learning how to do a lit review in grad school?! Sorry if I sound amazed...that's like first semester of first year of undergrad where I went. Did you not have experience before hand? (I'm international so it might be different...I'm just slightly shocked!)

I would think that this is field specific, although I don't think I did an actual literature review until I was a junior in my biology program, and that was kind of luck. We had to do literature review papers for two courses - a research methods-type course and in senior seminar. Some students chose to do both of these courses their senior year. Of course, we learned the concept of a literature review much earlier in lower-level courses, but writing up a few paragraphs of review in a lab report is a lot different than writing a 10 page in-depth literature review. 

Being a former Computer Science, Computer Forensics, Information Technology, English, and Anthropology major, I can report that none of those fields required me to do a literature review as a freshman. I spent a bit more time in the technology majors, and none of them would have required a literature review at any point unless perhaps it was part of the senior seminar courses (but I didn't get that far, so I can't say for sure, but probably not since they weren't research-based programs).

In other news, it's midterm! Quarters are so weird coming from a semester system. This past week was week 5 and it's half over! I have 3 midterm exams, which is a bit of an adjustment for me, because I haven't had many midterm exams since my first year in my undergrad program. Most professors I had (both in undergrad and in my masters program) just did several exams at regular intervals instead of doing a midterm and final only. Two of my three exams are online and open book... I've completed one and it was extremely easy. I'll be doing the other tonight I think, unless I want to save it for tomorrow or Tuesday evening. Tomorrow afternoon I have an in-class statistics midterm. 

[ashiepoo72]

I never learned how to do a lit review in undergrad, even in the capstone historiography courses (and historiography is literally about how the literature has changed and is changing soooo...). It wasn't until I did an MA that professors began hammering home the importance of lit reviews. Everyone has different experiences in undergrad, but from what I've heard the first year or two of coursework in the PhD gets those coming in with a BA and/or little experience at the same "level" as those with an MA and/or more experience.

It's funny, I've had professors who HATED the lit review aspect of scholarship, but I'm kind of obsessed. I love me some primary sources, but reading the more contentious debates in the literature (and some of them are straight up nasty and personal) is fun.

[hippyscientist]

CBclose, Shadowclaw and ashiepoo72 thank you for educating me! I'm starting to realise that maybe my undergrad was slightly more rigorous than I initially thought.  It's so difficult to figure out what people have had exposure to, I guess that's why they try to bring us all to the same level. 

My lecturers have always driven home literature reviews, we had to scour the published body for everything - from rugby research to golf, from in depth metabolic pathways to neuromuscular control - and then write literature reviews on it. I'm not a big fan of them, I'd much prefer to be doing the data collection and stats but I'm grateful to have been given a good grounding.

It's scary to think that I've nearly finished my first term (my course is on 3 terms which is slightly odd), but explains all the deadline stress!! 

[VulpesZerda]

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

[Dedi]

7 minutes ago, VulpesZerda said:

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

I have the opposite problem--There are few people in my cohort that go to this specific campus (there are three that make up the whole University) and they are in different labs. So I feel pretty isolated. My undergrad professor advised me to try to look out for opportunities that meet with the same people regularly (even if not in my cohort or department).

[hippyscientist]

1 hour ago, VulpesZerda said:

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

There are 14 of us in my cohort and we have split into about 3 very flexible groups. I tend to study, hang out and work out with these people. Thankfully I also have my coaching which means I'm not around them 24/7 - more like 16/6! It's weird when I'm naturally quite an introverted person, but I guess we all have quite similar personalities which means they're easier to get along with. Not what I was expecting, but actually quite nice. I think as we get more stressed I'll create a bit more distance, but currently it's not competitive. There are a few members of the group who do think quite negatively, so I'm trying to put some space between us.

[shadowclaw]

11 hours ago, VulpesZerda said:

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

I don't actually know how many students are actually in my cohort! We didn't have a program orientation (just attended the campus-wide graduate orientation), and we won't have our core courses until the winter and spring terms. Outside of our core environmental science courses, our program is pretty much open to any coursework in biology, botany, fisheries, wildlife, forestry, zoology, etc. so there isn't a high likelihood of bumping into other members of my program, let alone other newly admitted students. So maybe starting next term, I'll get to hang out with my cohort when I figure out who they are.

Looking back to my masters, I met up with the majority of the program's students about once per month, and hung out with a few select people more often... generally ecology people (our program was in general biology, so we had a variety of disciplines represented). It would be nice to do that here, since I moved across the country and don't have any friends here!

[Cheshire_Cat]

On 11/1/2015, 4:57:02, piglet33 said:

You're learning how to do a lit review in grad school?! Sorry if I sound amazed...that's like first semester of first year of undergrad where I went. Did you not have experience before hand? (I'm international so it might be different...I'm just slightly shocked!)

My background is accounting, so we learned how to research tax law and GAAP codes, but not academic research. I have a good amount of experience and qualifications in my field, but it is very rare for someone in my field to go into research.   In undergrad and my masters, I can count on one hand the number of papers I had to write, and the longest paper was 10 pages double spaced.  

[sackofcrap]

I can't wait for this semester to end. We are getting so close.

[random_grad]

On 11/2/2015, 9:31:46, VulpesZerda said:

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

Humanities person here - almost never see my cohort outside class. Maybe once a week if all is well. Don't mind that too much though, I've always been fine by myself. And otherwise there's a good connection with the few upper-year specialists in my subfield, so however rare our encounters it feels like we're together and can share something deep in terms of research.

---

How does the transition from one school to another feel in terms of the way your field is framed?

For me, 2 months in, the change from one school to another has been huge. My BA/MA school was all about tools of the trade, and now in PhD there's great expectations for a mastery of theory. It feels like I need to acquire a certain theoretical knowledge-base which all 2nd-years seem to grasp quite well and 3rd-years (the few ones who attend the seminars) seem to master to the level of the profs (or at least to a level where they can talk about that stuff freely). Looking at them makes me hopeful that it's totally doable.

 

[sackofcrap]

On 11/2/2015, 8:31:46, VulpesZerda said:

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

I tend to spend time with my cohort a lot. There are quite a few of us though (comparatively speaking). We see each other at least once a week outside of class, usually more, but of course not everybody shows up. Some days it will be me and a few of the girls, other days it will be other people hanging out.

[hippyscientist]

Have any of you experienced sexist comments from peers and/or professors? This is to both guys and girls! There's been a few comments made by certain staff members and an individual on our cohort and it's led to an awkward atmosphere.

[ashiepoo72]

I haven't in my PhD program but there were some notorious sexists in my MA. One professor made female students feel extremely uncomfortable. I'd give examples of some of his comments but don't want to squick anyone out. We were pretty good at shutting down sexist comments made by other grad students. One that comes to mind: a male student claimed the reason "only" the females in the class liked a particular book and its discussion of rape was because the author was also female. The other men in the class were even more offended than the women and told him they, too, appreciated the author's treatment of rape in the book, thought singling out the female students was offensive and effectively blackballed him. It was glorious.

[hippyscientist]

Wow ashiepoo! There's a guy on our (very maths/mechanics intense) course who constantly asks the girls why they're even there, as everyone knows a girl's place is only to serve men. Everyone was disgusted by his comments but he keeps making them, despite all of us trying to shut him down. I did feel a little smug when I scored substantially higher than him on a maths exam...

[shadowclaw]

15 hours ago, piglet33 said:

Have any of you experienced sexist comments from peers and/or professors? This is to both guys and girls! There's been a few comments made by certain staff members and an individual on our cohort and it's led to an awkward atmosphere.

As an undergrad, I definitely heard some inappropriate comments from both students and professors, but none were particularly sexist. Definitely sexual, though. Probably the most inappropriate thing I heard was in general chemistry when a guy walked in, took his seat, and declared that after class he was going to the bar to find some girls with daddy issues. The professor asked if he thought before he spoke, to which he replied with a gleeful nope. No wait, I do recall a somewhat sexist comment from undergrad! I overheard a discussion between a professor and a student about whether or not women should serve as infantry in the military, and it was the professor's opinion that women weren't strong enough to carry wounded soldiers out of harm's way so they shouldn't serve in that capacity.

I can't think of any instances of sexist comments in grad school at all. One of my professors did tell me a story about when she applied to grad school (which was like seven years ago). She got in contact with a PI who studied elephants, and he straight up told her that women were too small and weak to work with such dangerous animals. I'm probably just lucky that I haven't encountered much sexism since high school (but boy was it blatant there). 

[hippyscientist]

It's good to hear that it's not isolated incidents, because other than this one student and impossible professor (who I've already had a rant about) I love grad school. These two individuals just make it a little more testing on my patience, as I'm sure will be the case for whatever career I would end up in. Dangers of being in the minority in a field I guess, yay for tough skins!

[kjc]

Ugh. Here we are over half way through the semester and I am having some serious doubts. I like my advisor and research area, but the school and program are not impressing me. Everything is unorganized and unclear, fellow students are apathetic, and there are few course options. It makes me wonder if I made the right decision. Anyone else have similar feelings or some advice?

[brown_eyed_girl]

The sexist comments you guys have mentioned sound really upsetting. Have you considered going to school officials? Especially if this I someone in your cohort who you will have to be around a decent amount, I don't think it's reasonable to put up with that. Plus, the thought of someone in a PhD program openly saying women should serve men rather than be in higher education is even more upsetting given that they could be teaching young women soon. If he is saying things like this unchecked, perhaps he needs a good reminder of university policy on gender discrimination. It may not solve his obvious issues, but perhaps he'd at least see how truly inappropriate his comments are and realize that there is no place for that. 

[hippyscientist]

Yay! I just got the top grade in an exam!!!! Suck on that, boy who told me women shouldn't be in academia. (Sorry, I'm just so happy. Plus I'm hoping my meeting tomorrow with our programme head is productive and highlights the less-than-satisfactory behaviour of a certain cohort member).

[dr. t]

This just came across my radar: http://captainawkward.com/2015/11/05/786-trouble-dealing-with-male-grad-students-who-take-up-all-the-air/

I'm not sure how great the given advice is. My own would vary based on how important the supervising professor is to your department and career, but my ideal solution would be to get another (white, male) grad student to use their privilege for good and shut Nigel down, e.g. "Nigel, Jane was making an interesting point; would you mind letting her finish?" Applicability dependent on ally availability, of course.

Edited November 10, 2015 by telkanuru

[VulpesZerda]

Maybe it's because of my field and its acute awareness of the gender issue (http://www.interruptions.net/literature/Smith-Lovin-AmerSocRev89.pdf), but I've noticed one of my professors actually shuts down the white males in my seminar sometimes! I think he realizes that the longer we don't get the chance to talk, the less likely we will ever try.

[scarvesandcardigans]

On 11/1/2015, 6:59:39, CBclone said:

I didn't do a lit review course in undergrad. I suppose schools or programs that require a thesis as an undergrad would require students to take one, but not sure. I'm in a course-based Master's on a non-thesis track option and won't take a research methods course until next year (my 2nd and last year), and it will be a two semester sequence. Students in the thesis track take it during their first year, but otherwise they just make everyone take it to get the experience in case they want to go into research later on. 

 

 

In undergrad I had courses on research methods which included going over literature reviews, but they focused more on what to write for your own research. This was the same for students on thesis tracks in undergrad. I have never actually heard of a lit-review specific course! I'm in a very similar program to you, CBclone, and we only have meetings about research every now and again about "how it's going." 

I would like to be able to take a lit review course, though. That sounds like it would be extremely helpful! 

[CBclone]

The research methods class I'll be in next year isn't specifically lit review -- I just recall several cohort members who currently in that class working and stressing over their lit reviews for about 3 weeks earlier this semester. I'm actually looking forward to the content and process of the course, even if it may sound daunting and like a ton of work according to the students currently enrolled. The nuts and bolts, from what I've heard: The whole class starts from scratch to determine a research proposal, do lit reviews, go into the field and collect data, and make a formal report that goes into the school's research database. Individual students also do the same for a research topic and proposal of their own choosing, which becomes the beginning of their thesis writing process if they are in the thesis track. 

[sackofcrap]

On 11/9/2015, 1:58:26, kjc said:

Ugh. Here we are over half way through the semester and I am having some serious doubts. I like my advisor and research area, but the school and program are not impressing me. Everything is unorganized and unclear, fellow students are apathetic, and there are few course options. It makes me wonder if I made the right decision. Anyone else have similar feelings or some advice?

I have felt this way at times during my semester. My program can be unorganized at times as well.