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

i'm going to be taking four classes and 1-2 modules and working full time!

they usually don't let you in unless they think you can hack it

profs cut you more slack because you are an a-dult

in my experience they cut you LESS slack!

at least you get to work from home too! that would save me like 2 hours a day.

they usually don't let you in unless they think you can hack it

^^^ was just about to post this

don't they sometimes just let you in to take your money?

all you can do is do the work! and then the work will be done!
all you can do is do the work! and then the work will be done!
all you can do is do the work! and then the work will be done!
all you can do is do the work! and then the work will be done!

^^ this is the most otm thing about <s>grad school</s> life that has ever been said

endless group projects, some programs even have you keep the same group through the whole load. either way you will get to know your fellow inmates so try not to make any enemies or they will shank you in the shower (aka peer evaluation forms).

xpost lol modbot f'd up the code

i drank way more beer and was way more social in grad school than in undergrad, or even in non-school life (but it took me way too long to finish gradschool).

bell, that is a lot - you can do it, but as you know, you will not be very social and prob not even be able to drink very much beer b/c of hangovers being no good for tight schedules

all you can do is do the work! and then the work will be done!
is the mantra that got me to finish

make sure your boyfriend knows that you are really scared and stressed out about this and that over the next year even if you are in a bad mood and snappy you really do like him and appreciate his support and when its all over you guys will go somewhere nice for a weekend

is this your 5th grad school thread?

lol u counting

Dude, n/a, Library School is easy. So easy.
I have already taken ten hours towards my MLS while working full time at a University Library. I applied for the Master's program but my fucking GRE Math score kept me out. Really sucks. I took College Algebra a few times before I finally passed. I looked at the study materials for the GRE math and just shrugged, "yeah, I don't know this stuff." Bad idea.
Now I need to get into a program or get a tutor, I have to relearn Algebra. For fucking Libraries. Don't undertand.

not to be an ass, but i did see this title and think, 'another one?!'
xpost

why do you care?

who said anyone cares?

ok, that sounded snarkier than it should have.

i don't care, i just noticed. there's a difference.

also is a bit funny since ppl always used to get all postal when someone started a thread on a topic that'd been previously discussed.

i mean, you won't have to do organic chemistry, that's gotta count for something

-- rrrobyn, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 3:21 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^^ real talk

also i start doctor school a week from tomorrow and i am scared shitless

mostly because i forgot everything about science :-/

wtf is a "mitochondria"

well, you cared enough to make a comment about it.

aw dude you forgot mitochondria? mitochondria and ribosomes and golgi bodies are like the coolest things

all doin' the work to make the nucleus look good

lol gbx!!! u better party hard this weekend

lol I remembered that one! xp

xps tom otm

Even if I could do the math, I think a grad school class in finance would put me to sleep within 5 minutes.

grad school = pain and suffering

but then you're done, and people are, like throwing money and healthcare at you.

also rrrrobyn/bell i have one of the fruitier BAs and i still managed to trick people into thinking i should be allowed to cut a guy legally, so there's that. but then i also had to do 18 months of doctoring pre-school and take a dumb test and then chill for a year, forgetting everything.

xp i was kidding about mitochondria and cellular stuff. it's mostly orgo i've let slip.

woah evan wtg!

deej: that is in the cards, yes. big party, i will keep you posted

also is a bit funny since ppl always used to get all postal when someone started a thread on a topic that'd been previously discussed.

-- tehresa, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:07 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I got bitched out for this by Ned in my first thread!

check yr email gbx

i should have given flash cards to all the people i delivered to this winter.

"sign here"

"ok....what is the conjugate base of hydrazoic acid?"

"....shit"

all you need to know about mitochondria:

http://infodome.sdsu.edu/about/depts/spcollections/exhibits/1002/images/lengle.jpg

you will learn a lot, but you will also get fat

its hydrazoic acid minus one hydrogen

sheesh, you have to memorize names to be a doctor?!?

i still managed to trick people into thinking i should be allowed to cut a guy legally

the truth is that i would really like to cut people open and fix stuff. but doctor school seems like crazy talk for me. right now. and i still want to be a communications/writer/journalist person on one very important level.

p.s. gbx i keep forgetting to tell you that you rule for doing all the work and getting in and being almost actually in med school!!

bah, i really hated grad school. i hated it, and didn't finish, which i might hate more. i had an exceptionally bad run of luck when i was there, tho.

i say, if you want to work in finance, then you're absolutely doing the right thing and you'll be just fine. it's supposed to be hard! otherwise it wouldn't be worth much.

i dunno v, i was just making stuff up. i guess that's what they have PDAs for now.

i did just order an anatomical atlas, though, and will be remembering the names of parts on a dead person for about two months straight starting next week.

bell: get a RPN calculator. <3 <3 <3

http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/74421824/318380

Good luck to both of you. My application goes in next week and fingers crossed I will be in the same boat come january.

ps thanx rrrrrrrrrrobyn.

you should be a nurse and then do journalism about it

i just want gbx to be able to prescribe me some of the fun drugs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atul_Gawande

gbx i already have one of these babies
http://salestores.com/stores/images/images_747/HP12C.jpg

I've thought about the nursing thing too but I'm still undecided. We'll see how I feel after I finish MA in January.

Bell - you can do it. It's only a year. It's going to be tough but also so worth it!

oh i see you just totaled how much you're spending on books

xp

I started in my early thirties and it seems to me now like that was kind of late for me. But I didn't really have the clearest idea of what I wanted to do. Part of the problem for me was that I wanted to pursue disciplinary areas where I didn't really have a really solid academic background, just ordinary interest and enthusiasm. I was in an interdisciplinary program where you could do that -- but the learning curve for these things may just be steeper as you get older.

In my department, recent tenure-track hires have been younger, which leads me to think that if the intention is to secure such a job it might actually be harder if you're older. But if the point is to do a particular project regardless of career outcome (or where a humanities PhD can be an asset, like museums and libraries).

A thing that should really be totally basic but which I couldn't quite get myself to do is, if you get accepted to programs and visit them, really listen to how you feel about your experience there. (One piece of advice I wish I'd listened to was pay attention to what the grad students complain about, because grad students always complain, but you can gauge for yourself how significant their complaints sound.) I was accepted to the program I really wanted to get into, and I went there... but I actually felt less anxiety visiting another program where the experience might have been better, and where the department seemed more secure in its funding and more definite about graduation timelines.

My terminal English MA (which, like what Lily describes above, was in a department that didn't offer a PhD) was a much better experience than my PhD program, for what it's worth. I'd be happy to hear of the reverse being true for someone else!

I really wish MAs in humanities were given more credit. Face it, undergraduate humanities programs are largely diluted and shallow unless you really dig in as a student; a good number of your cohort are there to get any degree to show they went to college and may or may not have deep love for the subject matter. I have deep love for this subject matter. But I'm also 50 and not going to derail my life to enter a doctoral program and am under no delusion that I could or should get an academic job, per se.

I personally feel like I got more out of my undergrad English degree than out of my MA program, but then I did dig in as an undergrad. But I agree that MA degrees should be given more credit - specifically, I don't see why humanities MAs should be considered so much less qualified to teach college-level classes than Ph.D.s, when we've taken all the same classes. I'm not trying to discount the amount of work and knowledge that goes into a Ph.D., but it's specialized, focused work on a very specific, probably arcane topic, and it's not going to make much difference in your ability to teach undergrads.

(Yes, I know, research, prestige, publishing, limited jobs, etc. I understand why Ph.D.s get to be professors, if they're lucky, and I don't. It's frustrating, that's all. I'm a very good college-level teacher, and I can't make a living at it unless I get a Ph.D., and I don't want to get a Ph.D. because I dislike the current approach to academic writing and don't want to spend years of my life adding to it for no one to read.)

Thanks for the comments, NJS! Very helpful.

Having done an MA in English at a university that had a Ph.D. program, and having then adjuncted for years at a university that offered MA and MFA but not Ph.D., I would strongly advise against the first approach. You will absolutely be a second-class citizen compared to the Ph.D. candidates, and it's likely that your program will essentially just be a cash cow for the university, that the professors won't put in much effort for you and won't expect much of you. You will probably find many of the other people in your program frustratingly young and naive. I think an online program will have many of the same problems - low effort, low expectations, the university mainly being in it for the money.

On the other hand, an MA program at a relatively cheap backwater with no Ph.D. program has a few things to recommend it. The professors are not going to be distracted either by Ph.D. candidates or by research, so they may actually do some teaching. There will be less obsession with cutting-edge thought and thus less nonsense that will be outmoded in two years. You may actually be required to work. (No guarantees on that - you will have to check the requirements of each school. But NYU's idea of a thesis was one journal-length article with no thesis defense, while the University of Alaska, Fairbanks required its MA candidates to write a full-length thesis, defend it, and take a comprehensive written exam on a reading list of 100 or so books.)

xp — glad to be of help!

so lol, ten years after posting itt about starting my Ph.D. program, and a year and a half out from posting itt about defending the diss, i am now considering going back to school for a masters in library science. am i insane? is it just that the grass looks greener?

REASONS I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS:

* 9-5 structure might really be way better for me psychologically
* i'm detail-oriented, i like logging and organizing things
* really enjoyed the one year i spent with an internship as a processing archivist
* want to remain adjacent to/involved in research, humanities, scholarship, etc.

REASONS IT MIGHT JUST BE "GRASS IS GREENER":

* whole scholarly 'job market' just wigs me out
* i am not overflowing with great ideas for things to research/publish, which wigs me out
* certain aspects of teaching also make me pretty anxious/wigged-out

wtf am i getting myself into with this going BACK to grad school stuff?

the great question of course: how much is my interest in a lateral move driven by the innate qualities of this field, versus the specifics of my current adjunct situation?

(obviously unknowable)

pic.twitter.com/bRB59YKk3Q

— gal debored (@ckayerawlings) October 2, 2022

Can you get funded? :)

would be a very important thing to figure out! a lot of programs advertise that they have fellowships, TAships, etc., but by itself that doesn't necessarily mean much.

end of phd/preparing to go on academic job market is one of the worst parts of my life

i'm in this permanent state of crisis where i have an enormous amount of very hard work to do, but the anxiety/stress is crippling and i end up procrastinating way more than i should, which then feedback loops into more stress because i'm not making sufficient progress

Best wishes. If it makes you feel better, even the thought of “that” part of the process was enough to steer me away from the phd, at least for now.