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

^this is my experience with my big project this semester. My only complaint is changing any cell in our rambling excel model pretty much means a coffee break.

In other news, on the thesis front I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel (which I fucking should because it's due in two weeks!), AND I got a call from the EPA today saying "we really want to work for us bro". It's been a good day!

― "buttz" (Z S), Thursday, 23 April 2009 13:29 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Its a good time to get a job at DoE or EPA, EPA especially are screaming for anyone who can make turn lab results into NPV/IRR.

man this semester needs to end, like, yesterday. ugh.

at least the project that caused me to lose my mind upthread is more or less done, or the tough part of it was anyway

yes.

also: last class of the year is next tues. it is my turn to host a small panel. i had a cancellation last minute and now can not find a 2nd panelist! if i fail this with 1 week of grad school left i will die.

but i am turning my thesis over to the dean tomorrow!

i'll be on yr panel. can i talk about how email is evil?

NO.

you need to talk about public relations strategies and tactics for attracting non-traditional audiences.

MY THESIS WAS APPROVED!

high five!

:D

congratz

psyched!

thanks, dudes!

congrats

next week is the last week of classes but i still have four papers due before i'm done. one is "finished" but i'm holding it off on turning it in in case i have any last-minute epiphanies (not due til next week), one is nearly done but i'm still implementing some suggested additions from the reviewer, and two i haven't started yet. of the two i haven't started, one is a short "what have i learned" essay (easy), but the other is the big final project for the class :/

WOO and indeed YAY: hearty congrats.

WAY 2 GO, TZA!

next week is written finals

lab final for neuro this coming friday, physical exam final this afternoon (gotta go study....now!)

then i light out for the territories

i am hosting my panel tonight (finally confirmed 2nd panelist on sunday afternoon lol) and next tues we have a party. guys... i can't believe i am finally done with this grad school stuff!!!!

good luck n/a and gbx!

been stressed lately, mainly about final papers but also because most of my classmates seem so dorked out about what we're studying, like they're really into it and know all about it and have conversations about it, while i basically am just doing what i need to do to get through school and i feel guilty for being bored by a lot of this shit, especially because that's how i treated college and i feel like i didn't really "take advantage" of being in college educationwise and careerwise (making connections etc).

i wouldn't feel guilty--you're using grad school as a means to an end. i was bored by college too (and i've been bored in grad school 75% of the time) but i've gotten enough other stuff out of it that i feel it's worth it and stuff

tehresa, I am giving you a virtual high five that reverberates loudly into the digital night!

It sounds like this:

Wha-POW-ow-ow-wwwwwwwwwww

^_^

btw next week, I think Wednesday/Thursday, if all goes well I'll be here soliciting digital high fives because by then my thesis will also be approved. :)

i think we need to have an end of the semester sing along to School's Out

omg awesome congratulations tehresa!!!!!!!!

Awesome job Tehresa. caps and gowns all round.

Roll on May 11th for my final deliverables.

zs, i will reciprocate your fiveness!

YAY TZA. Pretty soon the only person writing 8000 words of speculation around here will be...me.

yay i passed yay

good job

Pretty soon the only person writing 8000 words of speculation around here will be...me

*Waves, weakly*

Hoping to have the year's final assignment finished tomorrow, ready for polishing (did someone mention turds?) and submission, along with its friend, on Thursday. Then comes SUMMER, during which I fully intend to catch up on interesting reading for which I didn't have/make time this year; read ahead for next year's courses; and work on my research-project proposal. Oh, and spend a bit of time thinking about what the fuck I'm going to do next, and e-mailing course directors going REMEMBER MY FUCKING NAME (note to self: must work on that e-mail before sending it).

Also: congratulations gbx! Sorry, didn't read that bit before posting :)

i mean, guys, i passed a 30-minute practical exam (doing a physical), still have two weeks of finals and 3.5 years of medical school left

hey I'm doing a Masters, I technically belong here. But then my experience as a part-time student is nothing like the immense stress and so on you're all on about, I heartily recommend it (although two years to do a Masters is one thing, seven or whatever to do a PhD is slightly different). It's like cheating, but legit. I handed in my work for the semester, a single 5,000 word paper (okay, 6,600, brevity is a skill I've yet to develop), and now I'm technically off until September. But in that time I can start working on my 15,000 dissertation, which is due in in sixteen months. O yeh.

But on the other hand, my experience of a long long line of tiny steps towards something big is making me envious of all you guys with your big scary events.

I just drop into this thread to congratulate the grad-school folk at each hurdle passed; my assigned 8k words is for something else entirely.

Friend is doing a curatorial PhD and is scared she'll get booted off, but over the course of the degree she has been sacked from job for being pregnant, had kid (both mum and kid nearly died), brought successful sex discrimination/constructive dismissal case (org is now trying to play 'if we pay you, we go bankrupt' BS), moved under extreme pressure and has had to do all of this plus lecture part-time at a uni 100+ miles from home with no help whatsoever from her former partner.

It's good to see people making progress! I just finished 6000 words of PURE UNADULTERATED SCIENCE myself (but don't ask how long it took)

i mean, guys, i passed a 30-minute practical exam (doing a physical), still have two weeks of finals and 3.5 years of medical school left

So? Every little counts ... I just put the final fullstop on an essay (which still needs some editing and tweaking, and a reference section) but FUCK IT, YAY ME :)

hey I'm doing a Masters, I technically belong here. But then my experience as a part-time student is nothing like the immense stress and so on you're all on about, I heartily recommend it (although two years to do a Masters is one thing, seven or whatever to do a PhD is slightly different)

Ha, exactly ...

I handed in my work for the semester, a single 5,000 word paper (okay, 6,600, brevity is a skill I've yet to develop)

Wait, what? Jammy sod. Last semester: 11,000 words. This semester: the same. *Shakes fist* :)

y'all made me curious so i checked - mine was 9,730 words.
i think my hueg marketing project last year was twice that though. lol @ joek thesis.

anyway, gbx doing a physical is nothing to sneeze at! lots of doctors suck at it!

ah, you guys with your requirements of less than 100,000 words not including appendices.

yeah, i know i got off relatively easy, but also i'm doing more of a professional thing than a research thing.

: )

I really envy you writer-types. I have 2500 words of a 6000 word paper written and I have absolutely no fucking idea what else to write about, and the damn thing is due in two weeks! There's only so many examples you can write about to support your argument before the reader is like, "OK, I get it. Move on."

caek, I take it that was your dissertation?

one paper between me and freedommmmmmmm

i have a while to go, but I don't remember the last time someone turned in a phd thesis less than 50k in our dept, xp

I have 12K at the moment, but I've got probably another 6K to add on (IN THE NEXT WEEK AAAAAAAAAGH).

travails of the grad school student:

A few hours ago, I was happy because I had added on 3 1/2 quality pages to my thesis. I had it saved on the desktop at the library (note: DUMB). I stepped outside to make a phone call. I got sidetracked, and then was coerced into stopping into a little wine and cheese event, and then I came back about an hour later. It turns out that after an hour, the computers here automatically reboot and delete everything on the desktop. So now I'm sitting here trying to retype the ideas and structure of what I had written before. Aggggggggggh

can i just

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/images/2006/10/19/dmu_head_in_hands_315x420.jpg

gmail urself

yeah I know how to do it. I didn't expect to be out for an hour and have my data deleted, whoops.