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

wow i made this thread in 2008! grad school was kind of ok but i ended up not going into the kind of stuff i was studying for work because my life would have been a living hell. i now want to go back to school and study music composition some day.

joining the Big Ten, leaving the Big 12

can't believe they're giving the penn state coaching gig to a philosopher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i37uttMA6Mc

could someone please post links to the canonical works on academia sucking

http://chronicle.com/article/So-You-Want-to-Go-to-Grad/45239
http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846
http://www.thenation.com/article/160410/faulty-towers-crisis-higher-education?page=full

also

http://www.futurama-area.de/LiH/OComics/16.gif

all those links have been posted at some point or another in this thread, probably more than what iatee listed

among all this cheer, how are those of us who are in grad school doing? what the fuck have we gotten ourselves into? for me, i spent last semester drowning in teaching duties, i'm hoping this semester will be easier on that front so i can maybe get some of my own work done and hey even maybe even pass my end of year assessment.

i kinda like the courses im TAing this semester. it helps that one of them is a stats course i could do in my sleep

otherwise i still kinda feel like im constantly assembling the most complicated piece of IKEA furniture possible w/o any instructions

I wish I could recall which author I am citing, but said author pointed out to me what my own limited experience says is largely true, that being a college professor slowly poisons your personality as a result of decades of exposure to shallow, malleable, inexperienced youths, who you may easily crush in intellectual debate. The slow accumulation of contempt for them eventually turns you into a monster.

I'm doing better than I have in ages...

I wish I could recall which author I am citing, but said author pointed out to me what my own limited experience says is largely true, that being a college professor slowly poisons your personality as a result of decades of exposure to shallow, malleable, inexperienced youths, who you may easily crush in intellectual debate. The slow accumulation of contempt for them eventually turns you into a monster.

Student evaluations can make you pretty resentful, although they matter less the further along you get. Otherwise, I don't really see why this should be more true of professors than of high school teachers or other teachers or authority figures. If anything, professors constantly have all of their work critiqued and reviewed by other elite specialists in their field.

i now want to go back to school and study music composition some day.

I defended a PhD in this field last year if you have any questions. I'm not sure how enthusiastically I could recommend it tbh but it depends on a number of factors (what level you're looking to study at, what you're hoping to get out it, how you go about studying the subject, what your existing skillset is).

I am in groupwork hell until the end of June. I guess these things are supposed to mimic real-life working environments, except in my experience they never, ever do. None of the professional team-based projects I've done were as shambolic as having to work with a bunch of 21-year-olds who are either arrogant, useless, or insecure. Or maybe I just have good coworkers..?

(okay maybe I am being a bit mean about my various groupmates; I am just a curmudgeon who dislikes having to do groupwork)

this is sort of at a tangent to yr post but semi-relevant: are most people on the course straight out of undergrad degrees? I'm sure it depends, course by course, but I always wonder what the mix of continuing study/returning to study would be.

Hooray, rejected! At least I have heard from one of my programs now.

man that sux

Yeah just feeds my paranoia of course; one rejection isn't so bad but it's the only program I've heard from so far so right now I'm at 100% rejections!

Broken thinking of course.

when i was applying i got rejected a lot, it was p shitty, idk if really learned anything from it except that i preferred getting things to not getting them

statistically nobody has gotten into grad school, ever

^^ otm

schlump: yes, most of them are straight from undergrad, aside from maybe... 10 people? out of 45ish?

Yay, I just signed up for a 7AM class, kill me now.

Need to book work travel, so need to know when putative interviews are. Emailed the two schools I applied to that I think do them. Feels like I'm saying 'of course you'll interview me' even though I suspect they won't and mean nothing of the sort

ppl who have taken grad school courses online - is this worth the time if it is a halfway decent school?

I haven't taken grad courses online....but in library science, for example, there are LOTS of people who have. You have to show up for class once or twice a month for some programs. But yeah it is more than worth the time and less stressful. Many people find working at leisure from a home office less distracting than a cold or buzzy classroom.

Almost did it myself - switched to library science - but I hesitated. I had the money and everything.

Now that my sanity has returned I think I'm going to historic preservation school...as soon as I get the funds. It's just that studio courses demand your FULL attention, and life doesn't always allow that.

I just hope my portfolio isn't permanently damaged from being stored in the garage this whole time!

Rejection from Br0wn, four decisions to go. In the meantime, have become secretly obsessed with a two-year Masters in genetic counselling.

hey they rejected me today too! bump it.

Ha! They LOSE!

bye Harvard. Hello, Toronto potential supervior who wants to talk to me tomorrow and miraculously does not require the GRE

What program are you applying to there? [/u of t alum]

Developmental psychology and education.

Ok, i have no idea about that, but can say U of T is a nice school! And, if I am told correctly, its psychology dept is historically important.

Yes, the psych dept has had some very stellar people. I visited the education school (OISE) last year and really liked the feel of the department and the attitude of the people I met, and the relationships that exist with other departments. What did you study?

OFFER from Toronto - I don't have to make a decision till mid-April but they'd like to know earlier
Now have to decide whether I really want to do this!

congrats!
I'm trying to write a research proposal and failing miserably. The template we're supposed to use is sometimes redundant and often vague, I keep waffling over which case studies to use, and I basically have no idea if I'm doing this right. Unenjoyable!

omg congrats!

I got my sixth rejection today, sigh.

Four to go though right??

Seven! Omg.

:(

Oh no what I meant was I have seven to hear from still. Cause I applied to thirteen programs like a crazy person. No weekend rejections thankfully.

oh haha good

doing frantic financial calculations

Marry a rich guy IMO

fwiw i am doing my phd in toronto and have had mostly good xps with the university. it is v dept. dependent tho

could I webmail you, Lamp?

sure!