To PhD or Not To PhD... advice

Just met with a prospective student for my adviser, which brings to mind advice on doing a PhD.

Work with someone you like working with. You get to ultimately decide who you want your adviser to be, and it will be the only time in your life where you can "choose your boss", so to speak. Don't work with someone who you can't get along with or share mutual respect. A PhD is a 5+ year commitment, there's no sense in being miserable.

Choose a project you love. I was nervous about the idea of starting a whole new project when I move to NM; Felisa pointed out I don't need to start the first week I'm there. Try different things, and don't settle for something you're only luke warm about. You need to have the hots for your project. 5+ years is a long time to be bored and/or uninterested.

Interdisciplinary work, it's where science in headed. You don't need to be an expert at everything, but you should learn to communicate with people outside of your specialty. An interesting problem might arise, and you want those people and skills in your tool box.

Consider the people other than your adviser and committee who you will be incontact with. You want to be in a positive environment, again, 5+ years is a long time. Some departments are more cut throat than others. It's a myth that all of academia is like this, find a department that has a healthy relationship with itself.

Research = Worth It!

Real quick update on this overcast Monday morning in "Happy Valley"

My adviser and I have been talking about publishing my research, and today we are officially getting the ball rolling. He wants to send my second chapter to Nature (and if not Nature, then Science)! I don't care if the rejection rate is 90%, or if it does get rejected. I'm just happy that Russ thinks my work is good enough to even bother submitting it. If we can pull this off, my first journal publication EVER will be in a major scientific journal that is read throughout the world!

I'll just be happy to have something other than abstracts on my CV (scholarly resume)!

What's more, this particular chapter is about 90% mine, as in I came up with the idea, and the methods, and carried it through the analysis. If I get this published in a major journal, it'll be through my own hard work, not through riding on the coat tails of someone else.

That's a good way to start the week! Booya!

Pain

I'm going to force an analogy here, so just bear with me.

This week I finally went to yoga for the first time in over a month. Without my knowing, it is the end of March, and I have once again wasted a perfectly good fitness membership by not going to any classes or even so much as using the elliptical. Nevermind yoga.

This week I also attempted to write the abstract for my thesis. My master's thesis consists of two chapters on two semi-related projects. They complement each other, but are stand alone works. The abstract is supposed to succinctly address the results of a study, while still making sense. It should flow and be intelligible.

Both the yoga and the abstract proved to be quite painful. You're trying to gracefully make something fit an idea, but it doesn't always end up so graceful, or pretty, or intelligible. Sometimes you fall over on your face.

Oddly enough, I was able to hold a Tuladandasana (balancing stick pose) and a Dandayamana-Dhanurasana (standing bow pulling pose) with minimal effort. So it seems I have good balance in my life, but zero flexibility.

The moral of the story: take care of your body, if you don't it will manifest itself in the way you think and operate. Oh, and sometimes it's impossible to write, and you need to give yourself some mental space.
My analogy was pretty weak and fell apart.

On Task

With great effort, I'm actually doing a fair job of staying on task today. I finished an assignment and am well on my way to completeing the grading I need to get done. I just have to get through my late afternoon writing class, then I'll be free to go to yoga for the first time in at least a month. I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been neglecting the things that usually bring me peace and relaxation over the past few weeks. My time has been absorbed by grading and teaching stuff. I want to just get the final edits to my thesis done so I can turn it in, but I guess I don't want it desperately enough, since it keeps taking a back burner to other things.

Maybe this evening will set me straight. I'm gonna go to yoga, go home and eat, have a glass of wine, and finish my grading if it isn't already done. Then, tomorrow, when I'm not teaching, I'll format the hell out of my thesis.

Ohm...

Teaching Philosophy: Round 1

Graduate school is actually a pretty sweet gig. It isn't glamorous or cushy, but you can learn a lot and become a really well rounded person. So long as you don't mind living on the cheap, you also get taken care of pretty well. The way graduate school usually works (in the physical sciences anyway, I don't know about humanities) is you get paid to be in a program. If you don't have outside funding (such as a fellowship) you usually get a stipend to keep you alive. In exchange, the graduate student either has a job as a research or teaching assistantship.

Teaching assistantships vary, depending on the needs of the college and the class. I've had both non-teaching (grading) and teaching assistantships. I've found that I prefer teaching, even though it can be much more labor intensive. For example, this semester I'm running three sections of an introductory geoscicences lab. This usually involves going over a brief lecture, organizing materials, running the lab, and grading assignments. Depending on the lab, this can be a lot of work, and this too can vary from week to week.

Many of my students are not geology students, and they are there with the attitude that they just need to get through this class and be done with it. I've found that many TAs are willing to just let students slide by; this is not my way of doing things. This is because I get great pleasure out of teaching something, that great moment when a student finally understands what you've been showing them. On the one hand, I know that much of what they'll get from me will never be used again. On the other, I know that a greater understanding of the earth and how it works can be useful if not entertaining. I had a student tell me once that they don't look at outcrops the same way anymore. It sounded like a compliment, and I'm taking it as one!

It's easy to get bogged down with myself: my own homework, assignments, papers, research. Yet in spite of my busy schedule, I would love to have a student come to my office looking for help, because I could certainly spare a moment to teach.

Teaching has vastly improved the way I feel in front of people. Almost everyone has felt that sense of terror when they know they need to get up in front of people and speak about something. I used to get nervous even asking questions in a class or meeting. I feel far more comfortable being heard in groups since I've started teaching on a regular basis. I can now say that I am willing and eager to talk to large groups, even in excess of a hundred people. Three years ago that would have been impossible for me. I have graduate school to thank for this skill.

Stress

Stress, every job has it.

I again want to state that I like graduate school, despite my temporary mood swings regarding the subject. I'm in an interesting position at the moment; I'm currently surrounded by people who are leading very stress filled lives, and I by proxy, am also stressed out.

I have a friend just entering into his PhD, and he is mildly freaking out about his candidacy exam (the thing that determines if they'll even allow you to continue).

I just recently had a handful of friends finish up their PhDs. Part of being a friend is being there to offer an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. My ears and shoulders have been well used this year! I've offered up my house to people who need a place to stay, and I've done what I can to try to help out, while still maintaining my own sanity.

I'm also currently living with a friend who is finishing up. I have to say, given how much trouble she's gotten from her adviser's revisions and general flakiness, she's handling it well. She's writing a blog about her final experiences here, I have a link to it on my homepage. You should check it out if you haven't already.

All jobs have stress, and I'm sure life after graduate school will also be stressful. We just have to be hopeful and believe that if we want it badly enough, it'll all be worth it.

The Quest for Money

As an academic, it is innevitable that at some point you are going to have to apply for research or travel money. This makes sense, it's part of your JOB, so naturally you don't want to pay out of pocket.
I've been on the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Graduate Student Council for going on three years now. Among other tasks, we are in charge of determining who gets the Centenial Travel Grant in the college. Basically we award 3-$1000 awards to help people get to meetings to present their research. Here are some tips for writing proposals, based on my own experience.

1) If you have to write a cover letter, be as specific as possible about why you need the money and why you're most deserving without being overly technical. Chances are good that the person scoring your application is not in your field, you don't want to lose them in a sea of jargon. I'm not even allowed to score applicants from my own department, so you can bet I know next to nothing about half the stuff I read about in applications.

2) When giving a budget, itemize it. I want to know how much every little thing is going to cost, because it might actually make the difference between a feasible budget and a non-feasible budget. If your budget is in major excess of the prize amount, explain to me where the difference is going to come from. Most funding agencies ask for other sources of funding, this information should be in there anyway.

3) Make sure your CV is up to date, and I don't care what you do for fun with your cats on the weekends.

4) Make sure you ask for a letter of recommendation from someone who can write well and actually knows you. Generic letters just tell me that your adviser doesn't know squat about who you are or what you do.

5) If English isn't you first language, have someone who is proof read your application. If I can't comprehend a letter, I don't read it. I doubt I'm the only judge on the planet that does this.

6) Did I already say no jargon please? I'll say it again. No jargon, please. If you must use a technical term, you had better define what it means.

7) Don't just say your research is important or that it would be really beneficial for other people to know about what you're doing. Provide concrete details, it makes for a stronger argument.

8) Be succinct. Don't take 3/4 of a page to get to your point when your page limit is 1 page. I'll fall asleep before then, I promise.

9) Make sure you fit all the minimum criteria for the award, don't waste my time.

10) Follow instructions people, seriously. If it says your cover letter can only be one page, it can only be one page.