We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

On 5/26/2017 at 7:04 PM, MarineBluePsy said:

I can't believe that soon we'll all be 2nd years.

No kidding! We made it! Congratulations, all.

[MarineBluePsy]

13 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

No kidding! We made it! Congratulations, all.

This is true, we did make it.  How are things going for you?  Anything you'll do differently for 2nd year?

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

6 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

This is true, we did make it.  How are things going for you?  Anything you'll do differently for 2nd year?

Things are going well, I managed to pull off an A- in one of my classes  How did things end up for you? I do plan on doing a lot of things differently moving forward, but those things don't seem to be academic - I want to keep going to the gym in the mornings, for instance (which I only started about halfway through the year), and I want to go to more talks. How about you?

 

 

[MarineBluePsy]

16 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Things are going well, I managed to pull off an A- in one of my classes  How did things end up for you? I do plan on doing a lot of things differently moving forward, but those things don't seem to be academic - I want to keep going to the gym in the mornings, for instance (which I only started about halfway through the year), and I want to go to more talks. How about you?

 

 

An A- is so exciting!  Academically I ended up doing just fine overall which is a relief.  I second the talks!  I went to several talks throughout the year that were really informative, so I plan to incorporate more.  I also stumbled upon several online, so keep your eyes peeled for those as well.

Going forward I've decided to focus more on the few aspects of my program I can change (even if only slightly) to meet my needs and have the future (as in what I'll do when this is all over) in mind.  I'm grateful to have others in my network that ended up in programs they weren't happy with so they've had some helpful tips for sticking it out since that is often the better option.  Otherwise, like you, I'll be incorporating more wellness tools to keep me balanced and healthy.

[Neist]

Anyone doing anything fun for the summer break?

I'm just doing a lot of reading. I'm going to a U. Penn. for a workshop later in the summer, but otherwise, my summer is relatively empty. Not sure what to do with myself!  

[hippyscientist]

On 6/2/2017 at 4:37 PM, Neist said:

Anyone doing anything fun for the summer break?

I'm just doing a lot of reading. I'm going to a U. Penn. for a workshop later in the summer, but otherwise, my summer is relatively empty. Not sure what to do with myself!  

Oh wow, envious! Summer is crazy busy over here, I'm working on 7 different papers, of which 5 or 6 I am expected to be first author. Just got back from a 5 day vacation though which was fantastic! Hit the ground running tomorrow with data collection in the afternoon. I'd love to have a bit of a longer break but going to try to convince my advisor to let me work from home a bit (when I'm on writing). We have a HUGE conference in August, and another smaller one in September so lots of prepping for that stuff too. I passed my candidacy exams so officially a PhD candidate now, and got to deal with all the responsibilities that brings. It's weird to think we've got newbies starting in a few months, and that was us a year ago! 

U Penn will be awesome! I'm actually looking at a lab there for a postdoc...yep looking at postdocs now. It never stops!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@hippyscientist how long is your program? Aren't you a first year? also SEVEN DIFFERENT PAPERS?!!?!???!?!!? I can't believe you're looking at postdocs already, I feel so inadequate haha.

Saturday I'm heading off to Switzerland/Austria for a week-long vacation. I'm ashamed to admit I've never been out of the country but I'm excited to be fixing that

 

[hippyscientist]

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny yeah I'm a first year (well almost 2nd year!) but we take our candidacy exams at the end of our 2nd or 3rd semester depending on how we're getting on. I'm looking at postdocs already because my advisor thinks I might be out in 3 years total, so that only gives me 2 years to figure it out. At the 18 month mark I want to have a list sorted, and know which conferences to go to to schmooze appropriately! The 7 papers are as follows: 1 where data is already collected, 1 which is a lit review, 2 which are from the same data collection which we're getting ethics for this summer, 1 is a collaboration with a bunch of people around the lab, validating new technology, 1 is a simulation study where I'll be starting to build the model, and 1 (from my masters work) is currently in review at a journal so I'm expecting to have to edit that a lot before it gets accepted anywhere. Was not my intention to make anyone feel inadequate, I'm terrified at the pace everything is moving. On a happier note, Switzerland and Austria will be fantastic, make sure you enjoy all the chocolate and that you have plenty of space for photos, it's stunning everywhere. 

 

Random question for you all, how is your workspace on campus set up? I'm really curious how it differs! Here, we have 4 or so PIs with their grad students sharing an office space. At any one time there could be 10 of us working here, but it's really quiet at the minute. It's kinda nice because we get lots of interaction with faculty who aren't our advisors so they all become kind of mentors. 

[Neist]

On 6/6/2017 at 4:21 AM, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Saturday I'm heading off to Switzerland/Austria for a week-long vacation. I'm ashamed to admit I've never been out of the country but I'm excited to be fixing that

 

That sounds fun! Get to visit CERN while you're there?  

On 6/6/2017 at 10:18 AM, hippyscientist said:

Random question for you all, how is your workspace on campus set up? I'm really curious how it differs! Here, we have 4 or so PIs with their grad students sharing an office space. At any one time there could be 10 of us working here, but it's really quiet at the minute. It's kinda nice because we get lots of interaction with faculty who aren't our advisors so they all become kind of mentors. 

6

My department has a dedicated floor in an eleven story building, about a third of which are dedicated graduate student offices. Currently, I'm alone in an office; it's a two person office, but I have no office mate. We get a decent amount of interaction with others, too, but only if they hang around the department. Given the solitary nature of historical research, a good many of faculty members and graduate students study elsewhere. That said, there's definitely a common pool of people one can expect to find on the floor, and we're pretty friendly.  

On 6/5/2017 at 7:09 PM, hippyscientist said:

Oh wow, envious! Summer is crazy busy over here, I'm working on 7 different papers, of which 5 or 6 I am expected to be first author. Just got back from a 5 day vacation though which was fantastic! Hit the ground running tomorrow with data collection in the afternoon. I'd love to have a bit of a longer break but going to try to convince my advisor to let me work from home a bit (when I'm on writing). We have a HUGE conference in August, and another smaller one in September so lots of prepping for that stuff too. I passed my candidacy exams so officially a PhD candidate now, and got to deal with all the responsibilities that brings. It's weird to think we've got newbies starting in a few months, and that was us a year ago! 

U Penn will be awesome! I'm actually looking at a lab there for a postdoc...yep looking at postdocs now. It never stops!

Sounds busy! Also, congrats on the exams!  

[MarineBluePsy]

On 6/2/2017 at 4:37 PM, Neist said:

Anyone doing anything fun for the summer break?

A few trips planned, some pleasure reading, attending more social events, trying new recipes, shamelessly watching The Bachelorette, and purging things that I no longer want/need/use.

Edited June 7, 2017 by MarineBluePsy

[Neist]

21 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

A few trips planned, some pleasure reading, attending more social events, trying new recipes, shamelessly watching The Bachelorette, and purging things that I no longer want/need/use.

Sounds like a lovely summer break.  

[MarineBluePsy]

On 6/8/2017 at 0:15 PM, Neist said:

Sounds like a lovely summer break.  

This is precisely the attitude I'm forcing myself to have about it instead of complaining about all the things that aren't working =)  Now if the library would just hurry up and stock the books I want faster then I could really get my reading on.

[Neist]

On 6/10/2017 at 10:05 AM, MarineBluePsy said:

This is precisely the attitude I'm forcing myself to have about it instead of complaining about all the things that aren't working =)  Now if the library would just hurry up and stock the books I want faster then I could really get my reading on.

Man, I'm going to rue the day if and when I leave academia. I love my well-stocked university library system. Even if they don't always have what I want, they have nearly always obtained what I need through interlibrary loans.

[spectastic]

someone should start a different thread....

[MichealMottiff]

On 9/1/2016 at 11:34 PM, janetjanejune said:

@sjoh197 We all deserve to sleep like that.

The company shipping my car delayed pickup to tomorrow...the day TS Hermine's supposed to hit Georgia. :|

Which company that was? let me know so that i would not work with them in future.