Ongoing Academic Work

[JerryLandis]

I know most of you all completed your semesters a couple weeks ago and may even know your grades already. Anyone out there have post-Christmas exams or have work due in January? I'm working on my undergrad thesis which is due in under 2 weeks, and feel like I'm straggling behind everyone else who has finished everything!

On a related note, can I expect to have carefree winter breaks in graduate school? I must admit that I really have no idea what I'm signing myself up for!

[socialpsych]

On a related note, can I expect to have carefree winter breaks in graduate school? I must admit that I really have no idea what I'm signing myself up for!

Hmm...not really. Well, maybe it depends on your field/program. I am pretty sure in my program people are expected to get some work done over winter break...

Oh and also, my undergrad thesis wasn't due until May, so I certainly hadn't "finished everything" by this time last year.

[fuzzylogician]

On a related note, can I expect to have carefree winter breaks in graduate school? I must admit that I really have no idea what I'm signing myself up for!

I have two deadlines for publication submissions during and 4 weeks after the break, but no deadlines for any school-related work. We had to get everything done before the break, which is very different from what I'm used to, but also very nice in a way. At least once I got everything done *sighs*. My colleagues are all using the time for a much needed break and we're not expected to do any work. I think the same is true for the first summer break--there's not too much work to be done. As you progress in the program, you have more and more things to do over breaks, like generals papers and ongoing projects. I'm hoping to finish a project I was working on at my MA institution, if they get the funding to hire me again, so completely unrelated to my current projects (but it's field work so hopefully I'll be able to use the data I gather for that as well).

[rising_star]

On a related note, can I expect to have carefree winter breaks in graduate school? I must admit that I really have no idea what I'm signing myself up for!

Almost everyone in my program does some work over winter break but the amount done varies. I'm going to be working on a manuscript, catching up on some journal reading, and starting the lists for my comprehensive exams over break (I'm off until mid-January).

Summer breaks are even more stressful. We teach (all summer courses in my dept are taught by grad students since we don't earn money over the summer otherwise), do fieldwork, and work on publishing. I'm slated to teach in the summer, if the course gets its minimum enrollment, for three weeks and then spend 8-9 weeks in the field doing (pre-)dissertation research. It's widely expected that we'll apply widely for funding throughout the spring to be able to conduct research over the summer, or self-fund that research.