what the fuck am i getting myself into with this grad school stuff

fucking hate group projects

also this poster is only supposed to have about 300 words of text!?!? i've cut and cut and still am barely under 600 and that's without the bibliography. how am i supposed to say anything substantive in 300 words?

i've had really good luck with group projects til now, guess it was just my time for a shitty one

twitter it--ask WGW 4 tipz

sorry i am not being helpful

i watched the monks documentary last night and they were talking about how they kept reducing the numbers of words in their songs until there were hardly any words left. what i am saying to you is, have you tried shaving your head?

i do need a haircut

tza: uTexas has a good not profit management thing if that is your bag

Is this an MBA program? A friend of mine did non-profit management as part of an MBA program somewhere in Texas. Now she's decided she wants a phD in art history.

totally kicking myself for not doing the joint mfa/mba option (no one EVER does it, adds an extra year, i can't imagine adding all the mba work in only 1 extra year tbh, and i assumed i'd have a job when i left school since EVERY prior class was all employed by graduation (thanks a lot, economy!)).

http://www.andrewjchinnici.com/files/2007.03.01/thesisskull.gif

ha ha this fucking group presentation is going to be such a mess, i wish there was some way to get you all in on our online system so you could hear the redundant, ridiculous nonsense when 2/3 of a group refuses to make any concession to organization or timeliness

our 10-minute presentation has been going on for 40 minutes and isn't done yet

mostly due to technical issues

lol

the joys of doing an online distance education program

Best part of grad school: Having your papers accepted to farflung and exotic locales.

i hope i'm not being overoptimistic here but i think i see the light at the end of the tunnel. i've got a paper due next week but after that i don't have another paper due until nov. 30. so i've got almost a whole month with no other assignments where i can work on my last couple of papers at a reasonable pace. other than that, in the last couple of weeks i have to make a "portfolio" of previous work for one class and that's about it! which is good because i also need to getting my resume shined up and maybe make an online portfolio with my awesomest papers etc. (not sure if i'll actually need this but it'll be good practice at least)

ready to be done

this one final paper should be so easy - only 1,500 words (about 5 pages double-spaced) and WE ASSIGN OUR OWN FINAL GRADE. but it's fucking "self-reflection" about how we will "move forward" with what we learned this semester. gag, i'd rather write a research paper. it's taking me forever to write some bullshit about my self-development re: community engagement bleurgh

with those kind of self-reflection things that i can't draw from any kind of external material like i can with research papers, i usually try to just start writing whatever i can, w/o regard to how it flows or works as an actual paper that i'm gonna hand in. i can fix that stuff up later. i just write as if i'm talking to someone casually in a conversation, just to get ideas going and just to get words on the screen. those kinds of papers are usually the hardest to actually get going and write something, so i do whatever i can to make the ideas flow more freely. pretending i'm just talking casually to someone usually helps me produce some material, which i can edit later to make it sound more formally written. dunno know if any of this would you help tho.

that's what i've been doing, i'm just getting to the point where i'm running out of stuff to say and i've only got about half the words i need

is there a section or a part you've already written that you can pull out and extend the BS? like a part where you summarize and you can give an anecdote or something? (sorry i don't mean to call your paper BS, just trying to help.)

ha it's totally b.s.

i think i just need to get away from it for a little bit. it's not due for a couple of weeks, just trying to get it over with so i can concentrate on my more challenging finals

prelims... suck...

oh, time away from it, that's always a good idea.

Correct me if I'm wrong but all this paper really is is "how am I going to use what I learned in this class in a future situation"? Can't you, like, pick 3 or 4 major topics from the class and extrapolate a real-life scenario around them, or is it fluffier/fuzzier than that?

I mean, you mention community engagement; isn't this paper really just a pretext on the teacher's part to get you to make plans for how you're going to try to proceed with this outside of school with a side helping of sadistic "SEE MY CLASS IS SUPER IMPORTANT" tacked on?

Ooh I just signed up to do the GRE

Dec. 21

which is actually kind of the perfect day
but I just spent my grocery money signing up for it

oops?

the darkest day of the year! Also my birthday.

I'll do the essay portion on how it's your birthday for $$$EXTRA LU¢K$$$

that is a lie, sorry

I'm sure you will kick arse at it. If you don't have it already the Princeton Review Book is very good.

I still have no idea what the value of the GRE other than being a money spinner for the people that administer it.

yea i'm pretty happy my program didn't require it, was so great not to have to take that test

the general test (didn't have to take any subject exams) were easier than the SAT

the value of the GRE is, it's a pre-req for most grad schools so you gotta take it

i took it on saturday

The semester ends Dec. 5, and I don't work over the winter break, so I have those two weeks just to study. Plus I have this freaky talent for taking tests, it's like the only thing I'm good at besides falling over in comical ways, so I'm not too worried. Thx for yr kind words tho Ed & others!

The GRE made my life miserable for awhile (Math score kept me out of library school).

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/10/22/an-inside-look-at-the-physics-gre/

on the other hand, i look at physics GREs and i kind of amazed that a university admissions would give a shit one way or the other.

grad school is for monkeys

the GREs can be tricky, if they start you out with a couple of hard questions it can really have a big impact on your score.

ha! thought my thesis was due Nov. 30th. I looked this morning, it's due Nov. 23rd. which is Monday. i'll be fine--my last round of revisions with my advisor was just some minor tweaks and stuff, but still: LOL.

Good thing you looked!

Ugh – I feel you, n/a. Thanks to reaccreditation, my university must attach "self-reflections" to almost every writing assignment, undergraduate and grad.

GREs are such a crock, and ETS is a pretty incompetent organization (which doesn't really matter for them, given the total monopoly)...last year one of my roommates had an impossible time sending his scores because the company misspelled his name, for instance. But hey, apparently they count for something anyway...my school has a minimum score cutoff.

Grad school is not a lot of fun right now. I have a horrible final paper that's taken over my life and is preventing me from writing my OTHER THREE.

A couple of naive questions as i consider this grad school stuff (finishing my BA in Spanish w/ minor in journalism this semester):

Is it important to know what you want to do career-wise before applying?

Is it vv difficult to get into a program in a different, but related, area of study than you got yr bachelor's in? i.e. linguistics if you studied Spanish?

Will w33d smoking get in the way?

Does it get in the way of other parts of yr life?

not really. a little cloudiness in the mornings sometimes.

a) not definitively but i think u need more of a goal/plan than "not having to get a real job" or w/e
b) it depends on the program and the program requirements ldo
c) nah i smoke alla time and im in a p demanding program

a) not definitively but i think u need more of a goal/plan than "not having to get a real job" or w/e

this was basically why i went into grad school. it turns out academia is where i want to be, but this is basically luck. i couldn't have told you why i was doing a phd early on, and the lack of direction for the first year or two led to a v. slow start/changing projects/advisors, etc.

so yeah, my number one tip for anyone considering grad school is: think through exactly what field you want to end up working in and whether grad school helps. because if it's not helping there, it's a complete waste of time, money and the best years of your life, and i mean that in all seriousness.

i don't care how much you enjoy your subject for its own sake (as distinct from an academic career in your subject, which is a different thing). the fun you'll have while doing a phd is just not worth the bother if you're not going to get something out of it career-wise.

yah also it may seem like a drag but a couple of years of white collar work w/ a decent salary can make your early twenties a lot of fun and also help give u a clearer picture of what u dont want, what your skills are, what excites u in the day 2 day grind