extracurricular activities

[spectastic]

I want to join the cycling team and the solar car team. The cycling will take up about 10 hrs/week, with occasional weekend races. The car team is more flexible, but I'd like to be involved for the connections and stay in touch with my engineering side. My adviser is pretty explicit about dedicating a lot of time in the lab, and it's in my best interest to be on my adviser's good side. I don't want try to do everything and end up half assing like I did in undergrad. What's your experience been like when it comes to activities?

 

oh i forgot, I also have 20hr/week of TA, to help pay for everything. shit...

Edited May 3, 2016 by spectastic

[fuzzylogician]

My experience is that you prioritize what matters. It could be a hobby, family, friends, whatever. It'll have to come at the expense of some other things, but that is what life is all about. If you can do it in a way that doesn't disturb others, I don't think it should be a problem (so, if you have to leave the lab every day at 3:30 or everyone has to reschedule their life around your hobby on a regular basis, they might resent it more than if you step out early one day without bothering anyone -- obviously, those are extremes, but I hope the point is clear). At the end of the day, spending more hours at the lab does not necessarily mean being more productive. More often, taking time off to recharge is very important for our well-being and productivity. I would probably recommend starting with just one team, though, and seeing how it goes. You can always add the second one later. Especially if this is your first semester, there will be a lot to adjust to. 

[rising_star]

I had a hobby in grad school with a similar time commitment to the cycling team and it was fine. I just scheduled things so I was able to meet my TA responsibilities, do the research and grant stuff which needed to get done, and pursue my hobby. It only ever got tough at the end of the semester, and only because my hobby had a big event the last weekend of the spring semester, which meant I couldn't get any work (grading, reading, research) done that weekend. 

[spectastic]

understood. i was just wondering what people have done in the past. 

and taking on only one of those in the first year is probably a good idea.. 

I think the adviser's expectation is over 40 hrs/week in the lab. 20 hrs for TA. 10 hrs for classes. suddenly, I'm left with peanuts. 

[Danger_Zone]

18 hours ago, spectastic said:

understood. i was just wondering what people have done in the past. 

and taking on only one of those in the first year is probably a good idea.. 

I think the adviser's expectation is over 40 hrs/week in the lab. 20 hrs for TA. 10 hrs for classes. suddenly, I'm left with peanuts. 

I won't be working in a lab so, this might not be very helpful but I thought I should mention it. I don't think you will know how much time things take until you actually get into the work and research. You may find some weeks you don't need as much as 40 hours, whereas you might during others. As for TAing, unless you are teaching a class yourself I do not think you are going to need a full 20 hours a week. I'm going to be TAing for 20 hours as well, and was told I'd just have to attend classes, hold an office hour or two (which you could use to work in between students showing up), and grade papers. The latter may be especially time-consuming at first, but I think once you get into a routine you should become more efficient at grading. If you find this takes up too much time, I've heard others mention that it is helpful to time yourself when grading papers (to make sure you don't spend too much time on one paper.) So I would advice to see what happens, and try not to worry until you actually get exposed to the work load.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[spectastic]

valid point. I've done TA before, and I don't think it's really 20 hrs. But every program is different. They might put me in 2 labs, or have extra hours of recitation, who knows. The thing that sucks the most is the grading, I agree, especially midterms. We had to work past midnight to get everything done, and that just didn't mesh well with a full course load, with senior projects, and all that. 

[spectastic]

what about FSAE? that sounds very interesting, but also sounds like a huge time sink... looks like solar car, but for the big boys

Edited May 18, 2016 by spectastic

[dr. t]

Woo, cycling team! 

Yes, it's doable, but you need to learn how to create time for yourself, and it often involves making decisions as to where to put your effort that you would not have to otherwise.

[spectastic]

yes woo!

apparently, you only need to do 3 cat A races in order to qualify for nationals. wouldn't that be a privilege, to race against the best in the nation, future pros, and olympians. the team had one guy in the race, put in 2x more hours this this and better than me all around, but was pretty much pack filler. one of the local prodigies racing for a&m got 3rd in the crit, I think.

[maelia8]

My first year of the Ph.D. I was easily able to do a 10-hour extracurricular commitment, but once I started teaching in the second year (which just ended for me), it became impossible. That year I even cut out exercising aside from the 20-minute walk to campus, and I still barely made it through each 14+ hour workday. I've since adjusted to teaching and have figured out how to manage my time better, but I recommend cutting back when you start teaching (if applicable) and then gradually adding things back in as the workload becomes more manageable.

[kimmibeans]

Admittedly I'm not teaching, but I find that it's all about time management. I do about 10 hours a week volunteering, plus 3-7 hours of school-related extracurriculars, depending on the week. I try to plan my lab work so that if I have to some time off one day I can make it up later that week (staying late or coming in weekends if I have to) It's a lot of work sometimes, but it's important to me so I don't mind.

[rising_star]

7 hours ago, maelia8 said:

I recommend cutting back when you start teaching (if applicable) and then gradually adding things back in as the workload becomes more manageable.

The downside to this approach is that it means that you aren't necessarily prioritizing self-care, which everyone needs to do. It makes sense to potentially reduce a 10 hour a week commitment to 5 hours a week, at least at first, but cutting things out altogether could actually make it more difficult to later figure out how to do those things.

[maelia8]

On 6/2/2016 at 7:36 PM, rising_star said:

The downside to this approach is that it means that you aren't necessarily prioritizing self-care, which everyone needs to do. It makes sense to potentially reduce a 10 hour a week commitment to 5 hours a week, at least at first, but cutting things out altogether could actually make it more difficult to later figure out how to do those things.

Yeah, that is also a danger, for sure. However, I tried for way too long (and far too hard) to still do all of the things I used to do pre-teaching, and it took a lot of stress as a wake-up call to make me realize I just had to get rid of some things in my schedule, as trying to half-ass everything was allowing me to do nothing well.