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

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

9 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

For those of you starting PhDs, how structured it the course component and requirements? Mine basically requires 10 courses of my choosing, only 8 of which have to be somewhere in the school of science and engineering (the other 2 could be Russian literature, if I wanted). And 1 class has to be theoretical computer science. I could also take any classes I want at MIT. But my courses all have to be approved by some mythical Committee on Higher Degrees. I had to make a program of study for my fellowship, and some of the courses my advisor-to-be recommended don't even show up in the course catalog. So I have no idea what I'm doing or what my options even are. (I couldn't even find a listing of MIT grad CS courses??) So I can't over plan my future schedule. Argh.

Same here, I have no idea what to do! There is only one required course at Cornell, and beyond that it's also up to whatever your mystical special committee decides! Who knows

[sjoh197]

13 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

For those of you starting PhDs, how structured it the course component and requirements? Mine basically requires 10 courses of my choosing, only 8 of which have to be somewhere in the school of science and engineering (the other 2 could be Russian literature, if I wanted). And 1 class has to be theoretical computer science. I could also take any classes I want at MIT. But my courses all have to be approved by some mythical Committee on Higher Degrees. I had to make a program of study for my fellowship, and some of the courses my advisor-to-be recommended don't even show up in the course catalog. So I have no idea what I'm doing or what my options even are. (I couldn't even find a listing of MIT grad CS courses??) So I can't over plan my future schedule. Argh.

My program has the basic requirements set up... but most of the course structures are at the discretion of your advising committee. Out of my 54 hours, I have to take a min of 24 "class" credits, 3 classes of which must be selected from 4 different categories. 6 credits of dissertation, and the other 24 hours are any combo of classes, independent study, or research. 

While my PI definitely does what I want to do... the uni is very oil-heavy in my field, and I'm not going into oil. So my options are definitely pared down comparatively.

And when you say you couldn't find the listing, did you mean like a schedule listing... or just a catalog listing... because this is the catalog listing http://catalog.mit.edu/subjects/6/ 

[sjoh197]

Also... just for fun... unless I am instructed otherwise by my advise-y people, I would like to take

Igneous Petrology, Thermochronology, and either Geochemistry or Igneous Petrogenisis&Plate Tectonics this semester. 

Not that that really means anything to anyone else... but it's nice to at least type it out loud. 

[Need Coffee in an IV]

5 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

Also... just for fun... unless I am instructed otherwise by my advise-y people, I would like to take

Igneous Petrology, Thermochronology, and either Geochemistry or Igneous Petrogenisis&Plate Tectonics this semester. 

Not that that really means anything to anyone else... but it's nice to at least type it out loud. 

I'm just thinking of my igneous petrology class so many flashbacks.....run far away from geochemistry! Then again I hate chemistry

[sjoh197]

3 minutes ago, Need Coffee in an IV said:

I'm just thinking of my igneous petrology class so many flashbacks.....run far away from geochemistry! Then again I hate chemistry

Haha... I hate geochem too... but doing thermo and geochronology, a decent amount of geochem comes in handy. I think I'm worried that if I actually took it as a class that I might not pass (well, by grad school standards) Maybe I'll just keep self teaching as much as possible. 

Also... My ig-met petrology class was the 2nd hardest class I ever took. I spent about 40 solid hours a week on that 4 credit class. The labs alone were a good 20 hours a week. And 2 40 page "articles" along with 2 presentations. Makes me tired just thinking about it. 

[Need Coffee in an IV]

1 minute ago, sjoh197 said:

Haha... I hate geochem too... but doing thermo and geochronology, a decent amount of geochem comes in handy. I think I'm worried that if I actually took it as a class that I might not pass (well, by grad school standards) Maybe I'll just keep self teaching as much as possible. 

Also... My ig-met petrology class was the 2nd hardest class I ever took. I spent about 40 solid hours a week on that 4 credit class. The labs alone were a good 20 hours a week. And 2 40 page "articles" along with 2 presentations. Makes me tired just thinking about it. 

Yeah I would stick with self teaching but I'm a wuss . I would have to say structural geology was the hardest class I ever took. I was sooo close to a B! Yeah geology labs are brutal. did you ever have to make a thin section? I'm pretty sure those things shaved off a couple years of my laugh lol

[sjoh197]

1 minute ago, Need Coffee in an IV said:

Yeah I would stick with self teaching but I'm a wuss . I would have to say structural geology was the hardest class I ever took. I was sooo close to a B! Yeah geology labs are brutal. did you ever have to make a thin section? I'm pretty sure those things shaved off a couple years of my laugh lol

I actually didn't have to make any for that class. I've only ever made 1 thin section... embarrassing. But I sure do know how to push the button on the centrifuge... lol. I spent an entire summer pushing the centrifuge button ever 15 minutes to an hour, for 20-30 hours a week. And I got paid like $10 an hour to do it.  

The hardest class I ever took was a "Development of Terrestrial Planets" by my advisor. It wasn't really a lecture, more like a discussion based class. We would read 2-3 papers a week and talk about what was wrong with them lol. And the tests were various problems that haven't actually been solved yet, asking how we would go about approaching them and such. From what I understand... it was the closest to a grad school class I've ever had. We even had to make a god-damned Wikipedia page. I was the only person to actually make an A on the project (and the Class). It was because of all the flashy gifs I made lol  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessera_(Venus)

[Danger_Zone]

1 hour ago, pterosaur said:

For those of you starting PhDs, how structured it the course component and requirements? Mine basically requires 10 courses of my choosing, only 8 of which have to be somewhere in the school of science and engineering (the other 2 could be Russian literature, if I wanted). And 1 class has to be theoretical computer science. I could also take any classes I want at MIT. But my courses all have to be approved by some mythical Committee on Higher Degrees. I had to make a program of study for my fellowship, and some of the courses my advisor-to-be recommended don't even show up in the course catalog. So I have no idea what I'm doing or what my options even are. (I couldn't even find a listing of MIT grad CS courses??) So I can't over plan my future schedule. Argh.

I feel like my PhD requirements aren't very structured, which is bothersome when trying to come up with what I want to take, but has given me freedom to take courses on things that are interesting to me even if they aren't technically History courses (for example, I will be taking a Sociology course related to my research interests). My program has a two-part required historical methods course for the first year, but other than that you need to take 3 courses each semester: usually one or two seminars and some kind of more independent reading/research course.

I don't know if this is applicable to you, but one thing that was recommended to me while I'm starting out my PhD is to choose actual in-class courses which will allow you to meet and interact with other grad students, especially if they are just starting as well, since these are going to be people you will be seeing a lot for the next few years.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[Danger_Zone]

26 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

I actually didn't have to make any for that class. I've only ever made 1 thin section... embarrassing. But I sure do know how to push the button on the centrifuge... lol. I spent an entire summer pushing the centrifuge button ever 15 minutes to an hour, for 20-30 hours a week. And I got paid like $10 an hour to do it.  

The hardest class I ever took was a "Development of Terrestrial Planets" by my advisor. It wasn't really a lecture, more like a discussion based class. We would read 2-3 papers a week and talk about what was wrong with them lol. And the tests were various problems that haven't actually been solved yet, asking how we would go about approaching them and such. From what I understand... it was the closest to a grad school class I've ever had. We even had to make a god-damned Wikipedia page. I was the only person to actually make an A on the project (and the Class). It was because of all the flashy gifs I made lol  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessera_(Venus)

That's great, who doesn't love a flashy gif!

I created part of a wikibooks page for an American History class (mostly the movie stuff), but it isn't nearly as fancy:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_State/New_York_State_in_American_Popular_Culture

I also spent a tonne of time editing the page, but people can just kind of come in and add whatever they want (which is great, but we had a lot of random people posting some rather inappropriate things while we were working on it.)

[Cat_Robutt]

@pterosaur I feel like the odd one out being in a heavily qualitative field here... my program is pretty structured, but our advisors meet with us regularly to assess performance and overall goals. They want to make sure we are meeting the requirements for the program! And we all have to choose a subfield and/or dual doctorate, so I'm hoping to go for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as my subfield. It's been interesting following this thread and realizing my major is really different from some of y'alls; the entire approach is more so collaborative and communicative, which makes sense for mass communications? 

 

[Cat_Robutt]

Unrelated, but er, I suppose equally important––I have a really serious subject I trust you all with: during my M.A. I dealt with a combination of depression and bulimia. I've since "recovered," but the thought of managing these has cropped up several times recently. I'm a tad worried I will fall back into these destructive patterns of dealing with stress for my PhD program, and was wondering if anyone on this thread has dealt with similar mental health/physiological issues? I'm so, so sorry if this is TMI; I've just found this site to be incredibly encouraging and helpful during this whole pre-graduate school process and am genuinely curious to know if anyone has advice on this front.

[sjoh197]

7 minutes ago, Cat_Robutt said:

Unrelated, but er, I suppose equally important––I have a really serious subject I trust you all with: during my M.A. I dealt with a combination of depression and bulimia. I've since "recovered," but the thought of managing these has cropped up several times recently. I'm a tad worried I will fall back into these destructive patterns of dealing with stress for my PhD program, and was wondering if anyone on this thread has dealt with similar mental health/physiological issues? I'm so, so sorry if this is TMI; I've just found this site to be incredibly encouraging and helpful during this whole pre-graduate school process and am genuinely curious to know if anyone has advice on this front.

You could always pm me if you want. 

[rhombusbombus]

I have no idea if I should be registering for classes or not. Guess I should ask someone after the weekend.

I'm so glad I get to bring my dog with me to grad school. I've had him almost 9 years. I'm still trying to figure out how bathroom breaks are going to work. We're moving from mom and dad's with a huge backyard to a third floor apartment! @hippyscientist if you need to dog test anything, I'm def looking for dog sitters!

My decorating style is kind of masculine-cozy I think. I love wood and leather and linen! I think I've been heavily influenced by my mom's style so we'll see if it changes when I have complete decorating autonomy.

Fun tip: fabric and heavy duty starch on the walls instead of paint. At the end of your lease, just peel the fabric off and wipe the starch off. No pain, ALL GAIN!

I've been hoarding stuff for the move bc I don't want to scramble around for stuff. Just got an air mattress on sale at walmart until I get a real mattress, and have all of my bedding except for sheets and pillows.

------------------------

I've been "working on my GRFP" proposal for the last 2 weeks. I'm trying to read stuff I'll need for my project but am too excited to focus!!

[Danger_Zone]

7 minutes ago, Cat_Robutt said:

Unrelated, but er, I suppose equally important––I have a really serious subject I trust you all with: during my M.A. I dealt with a combination of depression and bulimia. I've since "recovered," but the thought of managing these has cropped up several times recently. I'm a tad worried I will fall back into these destructive patterns of dealing with stress for my PhD program, and was wondering if anyone on this thread has dealt with similar mental health/physiological issues? I'm so, so sorry if this is TMI; I've just found this site to be incredibly encouraging and helpful during this whole pre-graduate school process and am genuinely curious to know if anyone has advice on this front.

I'm sorry to hear you went through that. I think it's actually really common for grad students to experience mental health issues. If you aren't already talking to a professional about this, remember it's definitely an option and you should never feel ashamed. Take the time you need to take care of your mental health before something happens, whether this means talking to somebody or managing your time effectively in order to make sure you can pursue hobbies, spend time with friends, relax when you are feeling particularly stressed, etc. This is important for every student, not just people with mental health issues.

I dealt with some depression and anxiety during undergrad and did not do anything I said above. My life and GPA ended up suffering, but now I'm going into grad school with the knowledge that sometimes these issues can resurface, so hopefully I am better equipped to deal with it. I think I am mostly better but still deal with some socially-related anxiety, but I've been taking this issue day by day. It's really helpful to make small, realistic adjustments instead of expecting myself to be perfectly better right now. Rambled a bit but I hope that makes sense and maybe helps.

[Cat_Robutt]

2 minutes ago, Danger_Zone said:

It's really helpful to make small, realistic adjustments instead of expecting myself to be perfectly better right now. Rambled a bit but I hope that makes sense and maybe helps.

Thank you for your advice! Seeking help from a professional was fantastic for me; what were some of the small adjustments you made, if you don't mind me asking? I know this is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and have been working hard to deal with stress before it gets too overwhelming!

[Danger_Zone]

Just now, Cat_Robutt said:

Thank you for your advice! Seeking help from a professional was fantastic for me; what were some of the small adjustments you made, if you don't mind me asking? I know this is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and have been working hard to deal with stress before it gets too overwhelming!

Of course! I think what has been helping me most is thinking of a long-term goal and how I can slowly work towards it.

I would really like to be able to teach one day, so I'm going to have to work on being able to talk to and be around others more comfortably to do this (of course being more sociable is a beneficial thing even if I didn't want to teach, but I gave myself a reasonable long-term goal to work with.)

So I do my best to just "put myself out there" more, even if I sometimes say silly things. I was always afraid that I'd say something stupid, so I'd never bother to try to talk in the first place, but the more I try to slowly work on this (i.e. trying to keep up small talk with cashiers, remembering to make better eye contact, smile, etc.), the more I feel like I have more things to say to people. I still get this "blank" feeling often (not knowing what to say to people), and I will probably always be kind of shy, but I love to be around other people and talk to them, so if I hold myself back I'm really missing out on things I want to do. I've also had professors/teachers tell me they used to be extremely shy, but are now completely outgoing! So knowing that other people can, and do, improve themselves is really self-assuring.

I hope that helps even though this is more applicable to social anxiety than anything. This is what I have struggled with most which has partly contributed to depression (and the other way around.)

 

 

 

[knp]

I'm outgoing now, having made that transition, but I absolutely remember how revolutionary it felt to look up at the radio while ordering coffee and be like, "I like this song, huh?" (I assume you're not already working food service or retail? If you happen to, taking advantage of some of the low-stakes small talk opportunities is great practice.) A particularly helpful step, for me, was learning to be moderately interesting about the weather, which is the sort of thing one (me) pooh-poohed as "boring" and possibly "normie" in one's (my) teenage PITA phase. Really, though, you can go a long way commiserating or celebrating something common like that together. 

At parties, or other situations where you might have a five minute conversation, not a twenty second one, the more you ask questions, the less you have to talk. People love talking about themselves! "Oh, tell me more!" "What did you think of that?" "What did you do then?" "What was your favorite part of that thing you mentioned?" "Have you seen recent movie, or what do you think of the trailer?" That sort of thing; I find myself more likely to "blank" if I'm talking about myself than if I'm trying to learn more about the other person.

The last thing I did that helped—and this is premised on the fact that my basic affect/tone is/was kind of reserved or mean, depending on how generously you interpreted—was make a point of smiling at the end of sentences or questions. I definitely used to get too freaked about talking to do anything with my face, so I'd be talking in this kind of odd tone with a weird affectless expression on my face, which didn't help me come across as friendly. I was the opposite of a nervous smiler! Turning that around and making a point that I should smile at the end of every third question I asked (or whatever) helped a lot, too, I think. And now maintaining a friendly tone (based on American cultural norms) is just habit for me, so I don't have to think about my presentation so much any more.

[hippyscientist]

5 hours ago, Cat_Robutt said:

Unrelated, but er, I suppose equally important––I have a really serious subject I trust you all with: during my M.A. I dealt with a combination of depression and bulimia. I've since "recovered," but the thought of managing these has cropped up several times recently. I'm a tad worried I will fall back into these destructive patterns of dealing with stress for my PhD program, and was wondering if anyone on this thread has dealt with similar mental health/physiological issues? I'm so, so sorry if this is TMI; I've just found this site to be incredibly encouraging and helpful during this whole pre-graduate school process and am genuinely curious to know if anyone has advice on this front.

I'll PM you with a few more details when I've written this but long story short, yes I've experienced similar. I found that making sure I had a "safe space" to retreat to, and someone to confide in really helped. My bedroom in my apartment is mine, and mine only. No one is allowed to come in it at all, and when the world is feeling too much I know that I have my space that I can go and do some meditation and breathing exercises in. Yoga has helped so much I want to make everyone who's every had any self-doubt, body dysmorphia, eating issues, depression, anxiety ANYTHING like that to give it a go with a supportive and encouraging teacher. Something like hatha where the focus is on the breath, your own practice and self-acceptance. I honestly cannot tell you how much it's helped me start to feel okay again.

Find a councillor, and go see them before you start having flair-ups. Build that relationship before you're in a vulnerable state so if you do have a relapse, there is someone there who is trained and can help you. I also have friends, who although they know about my past, don't know that it's still an issue at times. If I feel the common signs I will go to my friends house, sit with her with a cup of tea and a teddy bear and just vent about anything, nothing, everything. I'm not sure if you have a friend like that but it helps having someone who is totally non-judgemental. She doesn't counsel me about anything, just is there.

Other advice I can give very much depends on you, and your experiences so I'm not going to suggest it. Some people will take it well, for others it makes their symptoms worse. 

Totally switching tracks now, @rhombusbombus I will happily do doggie walks  This can very much be arranged. We will need to do a grad cafe meet up where we can finally meet each other in person come August. There seems to be loads of us going to PSU on here!

[Danger_Zone]

14 hours ago, knp said:

I'm outgoing now, having made that transition, but I absolutely remember how revolutionary it felt to look up at the radio while ordering coffee and be like, "I like this song, huh?" (I assume you're not already working food service or retail? If you happen to, taking advantage of some of the low-stakes small talk opportunities is great practice.) A particularly helpful step, for me, was learning to be moderately interesting about the weather, which is the sort of thing one (me) pooh-poohed as "boring" and possibly "normie" in one's (my) teenage PITA phase. Really, though, you can go a long way commiserating or celebrating something common like that together. 

At parties, or other situations where you might have a five minute conversation, not a twenty second one, the more you ask questions, the less you have to talk. People love talking about themselves! "Oh, tell me more!" "What did you think of that?" "What did you do then?" "What was your favorite part of that thing you mentioned?" "Have you seen recent movie, or what do you think of the trailer?" That sort of thing; I find myself more likely to "blank" if I'm talking about myself than if I'm trying to learn more about the other person.

The last thing I did that helped—and this is premised on the fact that my basic affect/tone is/was kind of reserved or mean, depending on how generously you interpreted—was make a point of smiling at the end of sentences or questions. I definitely used to get too freaked about talking to do anything with my face, so I'd be talking in this kind of odd tone with a weird affectless expression on my face, which didn't help me come across as friendly. I was the opposite of a nervous smiler! Turning that around and making a point that I should smile at the end of every third question I asked (or whatever) helped a lot, too, I think. And now maintaining a friendly tone (based on American cultural norms) is just habit for me, so I don't have to think about my presentation so much any more.

I'm not working at the moment. Back in high school/college I applied for some jobs when I was feeling "brave", but I think it really would have helped me if I actually got one. My parents were really against me working while I was in school, so I think I may have just used that as an excuse not to get a job. I was already really nervous about having to work in retail, fast food or something else which would require talking to strangers all day.

I definitely agree about asking other people questions, as I would much rather talk about other people than myself! But at least history is something I really love so I'm happy when people ask about what kind of history I like or what kind of research I'd like to do.   I definitely understand the tone/expression thing as well. I've been told quite often that I seem bored or even sad when talking to people, even though I'm most likely neither of those things. So I'm also trying to work on this, even though it's very difficult to consciously undo things like facial expressions that you might not even realize you're making/not making.

[knp]

It's okay! My working-with-customers experience actually contributed almost nothing to my ability to talk to other adults, because I've almost exclusively worked with children—I find that difficult, but not stressful, so it didn't carry over much. But I was thinking about the other half of the retail equation because it works for other people, because I definitely practiced "on" a lot of coffee shop employees, and most memorably because I read an article last year by a woman who happened to get over her own social anxiousness by working the counter in a sex shop. It was amazing: "you'll never be nervous about small talk again after you've spent a few months answering customer questions about [bleep bleep bleep] or [bleep]." Unfortunately I can't find it again, which I'm sad about because I thought it was laugh-out-loud funny, but googling it was only giving me only some rather, shall we say, sketchy? links.

[Cat_Robutt]

@Danger_Zone, @knp, and @hippyscientist thank you all so much for your advice and kind words....having safe spaces and support systems is something I'm slowly building into my life, and I will have to try out hatha yoga! I had a really awkward fat-shamey experience trying a yoga studio out here in Los Angeles, so I may have to take it extra slow!  

I tend to be the person my friends and family go to when they are needing a safe space; I just seem to have a hard time extending that bubble of acceptance to my own self. This also means if I can bring any of you a thermos of hot tea and some cookies (or Digestives!) I'd be so, so happy to do so.

[Danger_Zone]

@knp I've done some work with children and adolescents. I think even if it didn't help me be more conversational around other adults, it did help me get out of the house and push myself to do things. Plus it was fun (well, mostly.. teens can be a handful. ) That sounds really funny! I guess that's one way to get over social anxiety.

@hippyscientist I've been considering signing up for a yoga class or something similar for a while, maybe I'll do that when I move down for grad school. I occasionally do meditation when I am stressed or anxious, and it does seem to help.

[sjoh197]

Well, I went to another rock show this morning.

I now own 10 more rocks lol.

[Neist]

44 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

Well, I went to another rock show this morning.

I now own 10 more rocks lol.

The first sentence tricked me!  

I went to a book sale at a local public library, and I bought a couple books. I didn't expect to find anything interesting, but they actually had a lot of really decent history books. I figured it was going to be a lot of reject titles, but I bought several practically new, academic press hard bounds for pennies (figuratively)! 

What luck!

[hippyscientist]

@Danger_Zone man, I totally encourage everyone to give yoga a few chances. It all depends on finding the right style, teacher and studio for you. The first few times I went I just didn't gel with the experience, but when I moved for my masters I tried again and just fell in love with it. If I don't practice for a few days it feels funny! 

You can get the judgey people that @Cat_Robutt obviously experienced in LA (ugh I hate yoga in LA), or you can get the really really supportive people who don't care if you can't touch your feet. It's all about what feels good for you. Most of the classes we spend with our eyes closed, listening to our bodies. You'll be surprised at what you can do. It's a great mind-quietner too. Sure, it's not for some people, but I'm a firm believer that's more because they haven't found the style that suits them.

Also, Cat Robutt - dude I am so down for tea and cookies. At any and all times.