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

immuno kids were the cool kids at my grad schools

biophys prolly least cool

today i'm bummed because i applied for the nsf graduate fellowship grant this fall, and recommendations were due yesterday, and one of my professors who agreed to do it a month ago but has been traveling and out of touch since around thanksgiving forgot. a huge fellowship that i spent a lot of time applying for, and i don't even have a chance for because someone FORGOT. this ever happen to any of you guys?

yes, one of my letter writers is good at doing this. i have to remind him a week out, and then again a couple of days before. on those occasions he's missed the deadline he's just sent it off late. i presume this has not reflected well on me, but it does at least get read.

are NSF letters submitted by a website that is now closed with no wriggle room?

they are submitted by website. there is still a link that says "submit recommendation" but i suspect my professor is not going to look at his email until 9 am monday morning (he's that type) and i don't know if it will still be there then. wish i could get in touch with him over the weekend but i don't even know if he's still traveling.

you've emailed him anyway though, right?

fwiw, assuming the website (or a human) has some discretion to accept the letter a couple of days late, i don't think the fact that it got in late will even be noted in the file that is distributed around the panel. so it's worth chasing!

(this is different when you are one of fifteen people applying directly by email to a professor for a job. there is more flexibility for stuff to come in late, but stuff like that gets noticed and noted.)

oh yes, i've emailed him. i hope you're right and there might be a chance. thanks.

This just happened to E., she got a GFY from one of her job applications because a recommendation went astray. My department, on the other hand, is really in favour of students being independently funded from their advisors and has a whole admin assistant dedicated to funding, conferences and job market. One of her main jobs is making sure that faculty get their letters off on time, (and students get their applications in). It seems to pay off though, students in my department won 5 out of 30 available nationwide NSF grants in the subject area last year and was able to expand the grad student intake this year as a result.

I should revive the caek job market thread as I am going through this by proxy right now.

maria this kind of stuff happens all the time in academia I suspect; call him on Monday, get it sorted and I'm sure you'll be fine!

a huge fellowship that i spent a lot of time applying for, and i don't even have a chance for because someone FORGOT. this ever happen to any of you guys?

yeah. professors, disgusting savages.

caek + dyao are right though, you should be fine!

I have met so many academics who are crazy forgetful/disorganised (one of them is my father so I grew up hearing his tales of forgotten deadline reminders etc*) that I would hope that any organisation dealing w/them is totally used to this happening and will just roll their eyes and not hold it against their students

good luck, Maria!

(* this is totally offtopic for the thread but I was just thinking last night that my mother has the gene for sleeping in in the morning but the gene for getting shit done well before the deadline; my father has the last-minute gene but also the getting up at 4am to do stuff gene, which has saved his ass on so many occasions; and I have the last-minute gene but also the not-getting-up gene, which leaves me kind of screwed and not about to be on the grad school thread for real)

thanks guys, i really appreciate the perspective. also, i talked to someone yesterday who had one recommender just fail to submit his letter completely, and he still got an honorable mention, so it's comforting to hear they don't just toss your application because of it. anyway, today also feels like there's more to life than grad school, which is good to remember.

hey guys

i don't uh want to be a journalist, and every day at journo school has reinforced this sentiment

waht do i do

i know the *answer* is finish the course because i can, but i have strong objections to getting involved with this shit on a paid and careerist level

luckily for you even if you wanted to be a journalist there are no careers left

so think about it as a dodged bullet

lj shook

finish the course, get a qualification, use it to get a job that isn't being a journalist.

that is the advice my parents have given me, thanks! just had to get that off my chest. have to be very careful abt not saying that to my supervisors

if i'm made unemployed next month as expected, i stand a good chance of getting paid to do a postgrad in september. hard to think of a downside to that tbh.

Lj, iirc it is a course in scientific journalism and good technical writers never starve. Might not be the most glamorous work writing documentation but someone has to do it and most engineers are terrible at it.

^ word.

I've spent 6 months of this past years writing a user's manual for our bespoke IT system, and it's the easiest (and most rewarding financially) work i've ever done. lol public service.

Ah, but it's not technical writing. It's a journalism course, except we write in a journalistic manner about scientific issues! We learn multimedia techniques. We discover how journalism and society interact. I want out.

i think what ed is trying to say is that your course will be useful to you in other areas besides journalism--scientists/engineers are not known for their writing skills

learning how to write well is a good skill to have

agreed - also at least you'll have something to show for the time you spent there, too.

the professor i wrote about this weekend still hasn't submitted the reference, even though i called his office monday morning and he said he would, and i emailed him a reminder yesterday. i am really frustrated that it's almost a week late at this point, and i am really losing ground for if i call nsf and beg the longer this goes. what do i do?!

call him again--that's what i would do, then call nsf, let them know you're working on it. it's not your fault your professor is a dingus

I read that as "call nsfw" and wondered if there was a department for that sort of thing...

learning how to write well is a good skill to have

No it isn't! It's the bare minimum that the jobs market expects. If you don't write well, MS Word will cover your faults. English literature and journalism? So you can read, write, think, disseminate and understand. Sorry, no. We have someone who has experience in our field of employment! He/she gained it while you were racking up tens of thousands of pounds' worth of debt. A machine can do the thinking you do. ANYONE can do the writing you do. Either become a farmhand or do a law conversion. Society has renounced your kind. We didn't tell you this six years ago when we should have, but sincerely you are the dead-end humanities garbage that nobody wants. The ones that apply in 500-strong batches to a job that's gonna be internally-appointed anyway. Journalism and paid writing are dead. Either create a novel that's gonna sell or suck cock for a publishing internship. And where's the glory in that? Sure, your creative enterprises can continue in your spare time. But only under our watch, on our terms.

Really, I want to be in a band, and work humbly but securely in some public sphere. But my parents are paying for this course. My talents are not required anywhere and I don't want to head down the nepotism route.

Sorry for anguishing @ ILX but this is a stupid and terminal situation for arts graduates. Sure I'd be a radio DJ or a sports commentator but I've gone down the wrong paths to get there. Others are ahead. I've taken the wrong turnings and there's always someone who's gotten there first. I haven't even practised music enough. Spread so thinly that all I have left is writing which everyone can do with a computer. Writing, ideas, and a whole load of angst.

ANYONE can do the writing you do

not really, tbh.

Really, I want to be in a band, and work humbly but securely in some public sphere

eh a postgrad in journalism would probably give you an in to a lot of public sector jobs, man. don't let the current jobs market decide your 25 year career path for you.

LJ, i love you 100% but i think you're wrong about writing being a good skill to have--i totally understand your anguish about grad school, though. MS word covers some faults, sure, but not all. not yet. hang in there, kitten.

but i think you're wrong about writing being a good skill to have

ha obv i mean "writing not being a good skill to have"

what if i don't want a career path? well maybe i do but the very term sets my teeth on edge. i just wanna work. for cash. in society. except not in the gutter. dammit

people like me but they don't employ me.

i like you but i would not employ you. i just want us to be honest with each other.

eh i don't understand you're differntiating working for cash from a career path. an eclectic and dubious career path is still a career path.

lol english is easy

No it isn't! It's the bare minimum that the jobs market expects.

Hahaha have you ever had a job?

basically the bare minimum the job market expects is "know when you shouldn't curse"

"please try to wear pants"

"watch your drooling"

have you tried finding a job in the last year or so?

I've seen the writing skills of people who've been hired in the last year or so.

yeah it's fine, i understand xps to dmac

Nah, of course it's a career path, but the term triggers some kind of horrible cringing effect in me. As if I'm living for my career. As if the career is the means, the end, the alpha, the omega, the definition of who I am.

Dan, I've had several jobs. I didn't mean that ALL jobs expect English writing skill AS A REQUIREMENT. I meant that especially jobs in a media or data sector merely expect you to be proficient in English, and if you're not, then hey no big deal, we can make you proficient with technology.

You should seriously look at jobs in technical writing.

basically the bare minimum the job market expects is "know when you shouldn't curse"

― wtf?!? just randomly started crying! (HI DERE), 09 December 2009 17:13 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
"please try to wear pants"

"watch your drooling"

― jazzgasms (Mr. Que), 09 December 2009 17:14 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

we urgently need to convince the tortured LJ that this is 100% OTM no bullshit. everything above this level of activity is bright young executive styles

You should seriously look at jobs in technical writing.

yes

hey no big deal, we can make you proficient with technology

no

I'm kinda bad at the first two of those things :-/

http://www.xenon-kino.de/Medaia/spike2.jpg

^^^ First GIS result for "british pants," this explains so much

kind of lolling at the idea of LJ strolling into work pantsless and legs akimbo and being all "what, it's Casual Friday!" to his horrified coworkers