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

"class of xxxx" means xxxx is the year you're due to finish in the U.S. and an undergrad degree takes four years by default.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gotcha

of about four and a half hours' study so far today, around a third of it was reading some of the most appallingly badly presented, impenetrable and WTF-am-i-meant-to-take-this-seriously? bollocks i've ever come across. i ain't putting up with two years of this nonsense, that's for certain :(

Why do you think I left!

i'd say i'm looking forward to sleeping in the library again but i actually don't know if i'm getting any sleep tonight!

Rrowr!

Surviving?

1 more month!! sort of.

ok not really.

Yay tza!

Could those of you in school say why you chose what you're studying and if it's working for you so far?

well, i was right

i've never given a presentation on more than 24 hours w/o sleep before, stoked to see how it's gonna go!! :D

i have - you'll be brilliant!

i am studying performing arts management (most people have no idea what this is) - basically i have learned every aspect of running an arts organization (development, marketing, p.r., general management (commercial and not-for-profit), labor relations, entertainment law, finance, etc.). i feel very knowledgeable and secure in my skills as a leader, but it's a difficult field to break into and, in the end, generally more about who you know than what you know. my professional network has grown exponentially in the past 2 years. i would not have my current job if not for connections made from this program, but i'm still not at the job level i was told i'd be at this point in the program when i initially interviewed with my adviser. part of this is because of the economy, part of this is because i think my adviser is overly optimistic (though in the past, people at my stage in the program have had better jobs). regardless, i make less money now than i did before i entered grad school (but that was not a job in this field), but i like the direction i'm heading and feel like once my thesis is done, i could apply my knowledge to other industries (not that i necessarily want to). basically the "is it working?" question is a very, very difficult one to answer!

the economy sucks for the arts right now, also for everything

yes, i am aware of this.

It will improve. Don't worry. And the fact that you think you've learned skills which are portable will surely help.

I am in the Quickening. Doing very hard sums for 12 hours a day, and I've still got 9 months to go. When it gets to more than 24 hours a day you start going back in time, right?

for months at a time the last year of my grad studies, I would only sleep every two days. I got a lot done! I'm not sure it was worth the cost, though.

Apart from bone weakness and delirium, what was the cost?

the best was last spring when i stayed up for like 5 days to finish my strategic plan for marketing. after turning in, we had to go to a reception, where 3 sips of wine very quickly made us all complete globs of goo.

for months at a time the last year of my grad studies, I would only sleep every two days. I got a lot done! I'm not sure it was worth the cost, though.

― Euler, Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:00 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

My last semester in college I scheduled all-nighters for most Sundays and Thursdays. It was just the right amount of time in between to recover. I can't WAIT for grad school! (I hope I get in somewhere with funding!)

guys i cannot believe you can go without sleep as adults! i did that in college but i have not once been able to do it in grad school.

the cost of repeated allnighters was something like my sanity, plus some burnout issues that I'm still coping with, seven years later. I knew it was bad when, upon walking into a seminar, my profs would look at me and shake their heads. It was like, this is how a drug addict must feel.

ugh, i have never ever been able to do an all nighter. if i sleep less than 5 hours i feel sick. i usually make a point to get 8 even if my work isn't done. i guess that makes me a bad person but i've done ok.

I can still pull allnighters just fine (in my mid thirties). I don't know if you're in grad school to get a tenure-line job in academia, but if so, you'll probably still need to pull them occasionally; at least I do, because of deadlines etc. Basically I get paid a lot better than a grad student, but I work a lot harder than I did too, which is kinda hard to believe looking back.

no i am in law school

i considered phd though and i know i would still be doing the same thing! if i do stay up late the next day is completely useless anyway

awesome. This academia stuff is nuts (as I watch our budget slip away each day).

Through my first year of grad school, I slept maybe 3-4 hours or night, with an all-nighter once a week or so; weirdly enough, I think I was more active, energetic, and productive than at any other point since I was a teenager. But I like to think that was despite the sleep schedule, not because of it.

(After that I got a full-time job as well, and was kind like "screw it, I'll skim the hell out of this novel if it gets me a solid 6 hours in bed.")

yeah I know a guy who's made it through a successful twenty-year academic career so far getting at least 12 hours a night. So it's doable! He must be more focused than I am during the day (e.g. no ILX).

Twelve hours a night? Dude must have some weird summers.

lol

actually he's been in South Bend and Chicago that whole time, so summer is pretty short

i think i actually get more sleep now that i'm school because i'm working from home so i get to wake up an hour later

Euler I know Chicago's a tad northerly, but the sun still rises and sets along the same lines as everywhere else!

It's less the sun than the unending cloudy gloom, but my memories of the area are now colored by snow-covered glasses.

the sun does set a little earlier in Chicago than most places

one good thing about getting accustomed to functioning without much sleep is that you can cope with conferences a little better. In my areas there's a weird macho vibe at these things, where people try to stay out really late, drink a lot, but talk big time shop while they're out, then show up the next day and kick more ass than others, just to show how tough they are.

The conferences are intense. I was in Austin last week, so there was a six hour time shift, and I was getting maybe six hours sleep too, which is way less than I usually get. I'm still totally spaced after being back for four days. There is definitely an expectation that you will stay out late and be at the venue 30 minutes early in the morning checking your email all bright eyed. I generally ignore that and bail a couple of afternoons.

huh. I'm so curious about the MLA, which I'm going to for the first time this year. It just seems so....insane.

did you finish that article I linked on the other thread? terrifying. I have the astronomy equivalent in long beach in five weeks. i have a fifteen minute presentation and four days of interviews and arse-licking.

http://aas.org/meetings/aas213/schedule_scientific.php

Someone post YAAAAAAAOOOOOWWWWWW.jpg.

astronomers might be more nocturnal than most, of course

xpost Yeah word to those considering PhD/academia: every conversation I've had lately with early career friends seems to end in a sort of mutually depressed silence.

I used to love working academic conferences, but that was as an academic press booth-runner. I learned too late that no wine-and-cheese book-release "reception" can beat putting two dozen Krispy Kremes on your table early in the morning on the last day.

huh. I'm so curious about the MLA, which I'm going to for the first time this year. It just seems so....insane.

I went to the MLA as an undergrad nine years ago, just to check out some panels and lectures. It was pretty fun. I got to meet Michael Berube and discuss an article of his I'd recently read in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I also happened to mention, in a crowded elevator, that I went to school in Kalamazoo, and someone else piped up, "Do you know Stuart Dybek?"

ala conference is in chicago next year, was trying to figure out if it was worth paying up for a student membership or even going

gah i never should have looked for and found this - like I needed to know for certain that almost every job I've applied for has asked good candidates (i.e., NOT ME) for additional materials already.

In my areas there's a weird macho vibe at these things

Euler, not sure if you've done so already or are even inclined to mention it but what field are you in? And are you happier now in a tenure-track job (which I assume you have right now) than you were as a grad student?

I found out I wasn't shortlisted for a job via the astrophysics rumor mill this morning. Fucking internet.