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

Ha! That's my prediction too. In my program you're forced to read and critique a past thesis. Since I'm one of a very small group of environmental policy students here, there's a good chance my thesis will be critiqued pretty often in the years ahead by those future env. policy students.

pretty much all the novel content of my thesis will have been published in 3 or 4 papers by the time i submit, and probably no less than ten people will read each of those. but i need to put several months into turning those into a coherent 200 page document in order to call it a thesis, and no more than five people will ever read that.

I doubt anyone but me has read my whole 450+ page dissertation, but yeah, I've published chunks of it here and there over the years in journals, and those have been read by a few people (yeah, probably 10 people for each, maybe 20). Although it's hard to tell: once I turned on monitoring on my personal webpage, and posted a new paper, and within an hour it had been downloaded by people with university URLs. So maybe more people read than I'd guess.

I do occasionally get crackpot notes in the mail by people who've read something I've written, and want to tell me their own (bizarre) take on something. Recently I got a long note about the SETI project, by a guy who'd written all over the outside of the envelope as well as all over the notes jammed inside. It's odd as I don't work on anything even mildly related to SETI or astronomy. But it's not the first of these I've gotten. I take them as a badge of honor, like I've arrived as a scholar when crackpots seek me out.

How many people do you think will ever read a good chunk of your thesis, besides your advisor(s) and yourself?

My massive 6,000-word paper/final project will be a revolutionary magnum opus that's gonna totally change the world and get published in the Harvard Business Review and make me a very rich man. If I can finish it on time, that is.

Thesis = FINSIHED.

Can I just
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I mostly finished it off last week, but today I finished the conclusion, fixed up the reference page, wrote the abstract, spell checked, etc.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

http://bestanimations.com/Military/Explosions/Explode-01-june.gif CONGRATULATIONS! http://bestanimations.com/Military/Explosions/Explode-01-june.gif

congratulations

i finished all my big papers, but i have this bullshit 1,000-word "what i learned this semester" busywork essay due monday and i have no motivation to wrap it up, even though it should be easy

good on yer leif. can't beat that feeling...

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How many people do you think will ever read a good chunk of your thesis, besides your advisor(s) and yourself?

my advisor never read a word

it's weird to be getting an MFA in Poetry, as my thesis is essentially going to be my first book-length collection of work (it is a multi-genre investigation of the 'idea' of fences and enclosures), and thus, might be read by numerous people (more than 20-40 at least) as there ain't no way in HELL i am not sending that shit out to the publishers i respect (and know my stuff).

yesssssss zs!!!!!!!!

OK, I know I preemptively celebrated here after turning in my thesis, but today I'm actually DONE done because I've taken my last final and turned in my last project report.

http://www.abovethelaw.com/images/entries/animated%20siren%20gif%20animated%20siren%20gif%20animated%20siren%20gif%20drudge%20report.GIF
I
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hereby
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announce
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myhttp://www.abovethelaw.com/images/entries/animated%20siren%20gif%20animated%20siren%20gif%20animated%20siren%20gif%20drudge%20report.GIF
retirement
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from
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this
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thread
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!
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Anyone else done done?

I hereby announce I got a postdoc offer a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately they can't find the money until June 2010, so I'm just adding more stuff to my thesis to postpone submitting in order to avoid a gap on my CV. "more stuff" = 9 more months than planned : (

congratualtions again though!

Congrats, where is the postdoc? Are you funded for the gap? Can you use the gap to work on publishing?

columbia : ), not yet : (, and definitely (yaaaaow)

i should revive the job thread actually, gimme a minute

Congrats to YOU caek! Postdoc at Columbia, that's wonderful! If I had a similar offer I would probably post 30 Drudge sirens. :)

awesome, congrats!

zs i am done done, too!

I'm not going to post the drudge sirens, but I am going to go

WoooWOooWoooWoooWOooWOooWOooWOooWOoWOoooWOoo

Looking back at the past two 1/2 years, I have to say, it was slow, agonizing torture, and it probably permanently changed me in a negative way.

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

WoooWOooWoooWoooWOooWOooWOooWOooWOoWOoooWOoo

OK I can't help it

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WoooWOooWoooWoooWOooWOooWOooWOooWOoWOoooWOoo

i will never be done with advanced school :(

:D

columbia : )

:D

What the fuck did I get myself into with this commencement stuff? Sitting in the pouring rain while people under a tent don't get that they need to cut their speeches wah wah O_o

gah yeah that is otm. i would have so liked to skip commencement!

also i would like to echo z s's sentiment about being permanently changed in a negative way, for real :(

Really wondering why this seemed like a good idea. Apparently the first time it's rained at graduation here in 23 years.

kinda jealous of u dudes done with this shit already, not gonna lie

They are giving us complete resumes for all alumni honorees now. You'd think they'd realize to cut that shit!

My father just texted me this: "inconsiderate windbags"

^lol

where's yr commencement at?

I skipped out on commencement a couple weeks ago and felt sorta bad about it but this makes me feel a little better. Tza I'm sure your parents are glad you're there etc.

Given yr last post - maybe not!! lol

On the quad.
Xpost

Two people in front of me just got up and left.

ours was soooooo long and boring and the professor elected by students to give a speech and hand out diplomas was one of my (and many others') least favorite professors, it was puzzling how she got picked

my UG commencement featured a rock band made up of professors from my school's neuroscience department

i was pretty stoned during my commencement, it was ok

Lol dad says their view is great now because so many people have left.

I'm hungry :(

It would be nice if my friend with whom I'm sharing an umbrella would offer to hold it for maybe 3 min?

how would you liveblog it then?

Are your gown and hood of sufficiently garish hue?

Not bad. Black gown, burgundy/hold hood

We get tartan piping on the gown and on the lining of the hood and the school's interpretation of the Carnegie tartan pays special attention to clashing with itself.

He just quoted Tony Robbins

Hang in there, tza!

Sorry guys, I drowned for a while but now I have lunched and am home drying out (literally not boozily lol I am drinking prosecco) as a newly minted mistress of fine arts ;)

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WoooWoooWoooWooo

uh

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WoooWoooWoooWooo!