life as a first-year
November 13th, 2009 by Ψ*ΨAs most readers are likely aware, I finally started grad school a few months ago. And I like it here, mostly. (Of course, there are days I can barely make it home before collapsing, but I’ve accepted that there is no end to such things.) I think this place is underrated, which is awesome–there’s a lot of amazing research but not a lot of competitive asshole students.[1] The first quarter is nearly over…which means it’s time for an obligatory introspective post.
- Moving. Love: The 3800 mile road trip with my brother was unforgettably epic. We saw some amazing things along the way. Hate: The ant colony we discovered living in the car somewhere around the Badlands. Also, leaving that guy I’ve been seeing for the past seven years and my kitties behind :,(
- Living in CA. Love: It’s 70-some degrees and sunny almost every day, I no longer believe in rain, and I’m surrounded by delicious and super-fresh produce. Hate: Rent is about double what it was in KY, and the police are…well, I won’t go there, but back home no one enforces stupid things like jaywalking (except for that one street where people actually die trying to cross).
- Incoming Chemistry class: 2009. Love: Almost everyone. These people are awesome and fun. Hate: They almost all live in student housing, and I don’t…but I do love my apartment and have fantastic housemates.
- Entrance exams. Hate: The stress of studying things I haven’t seen in a few years (the downside to taking time off, though it was worthwhile). Knowing that not passing them means taking more classes. Love: High passed all four! Can now proceed to block out the painful memories of forget all the biochemistry I ever memorized learned.
- Classes. Love: There are only two of them this quarter, and they’re both very specialized and relevant to my field. One in particular is super awesome and has zero busywork. Hate: Having something to dictate when I have to wake up in the morning. I, uh, really like sleeping…and working for a tiny startup for a while let me operate on my own schedule, so I miss that a lot.
- TAing. Love: Interacting with the young’uns. I like lecturing, and I try to make the class exciting for them. Hate: FUCK GRADING. There is probably nothing I loathe more than grading.
- Research. Love: Great group, advisor and project(s). Also, I’ve found useful and approachable people to bother frequently with stupid questions. Hate: GRADING KEEPS ME OUT OF THE LAB. IT MUST DIE! I WILL MAKE IT BLEED WITH MY ANGRY RED PEN.
- Synthesis. Love: Making new compounds inspires some degree of megalomania. There is one other synthetiker in my group–a super awesome postdoc. Hate: Lack of space, lack of equipment (well, I’m ordering things…), lack of general group knowledge, chromatography.
- Device fabrication. Love: OMG DATA! Plus there’s no glassware to wash, and you pretty much never get exposed to anything nasty because… Hate: it’s all in the glovebox with giant hands. And there are a million little things that can go wrong, and a million little things that have a huge impact on performance that you wouldn’t expect.[2] Fab & testing takes FOREVER, too.
- Applying for fellowships. Love: The idea of actually getting one. Hate: That it almost definitely won’t become a reality.
[1] Let this be a lesson to the undergrads who read this blog, since application season is upon us: You don’t necessarily want to go to the “best” school you get into. I thought I wanted to go to Berkeley, but they didn’t give me a choice…and now I’m glad because I would have hated it there.
[2] I changed PEDOT grades, and my power conversion efficiencies went up by, like, an order of magnitude! But the PEDOT I was using worked well for the previously-characterized system I started with…
First of all… congrats on passing the exams. Secondly, grading will eventually ends (it will right?..right?)
As for the classes, me think is a good thing. We don’t have this here…So, I kinda envy you.
Last but not least, you will definately enjoy your experience as a postgrad. Cherish every moment… :>
See you around.
Don’t know if it’s accurate, but people when I was applying to grad school (about 15 years ago) complained that UC-Berkeley accepted more grad students than they actually had research space for to provide TAs for courses, and they got rid of those who didn’t. I didn’t see any evidence of that when I visited (and wasn’t smart or daring enough to ask), but my visit wasn’t all that happy, anyway.
Your experience is consistent with mine (though from the other end) – I went to a school where my knowledge was good enough but my lack of research experience and situational and self-awareness were showstoppers. If I had gone to a lower-tier school, I might have been able to sort them out in time to make my graduate career better than it was. Even with the lots of things that depress me about graduate school, I still learned a lot and did lots of things I remember with (what passes for) joy.
Yep, you’re happy. It shows in your whole entry. Good for you. Enjoy it to the extreme. This is your last chance to be responsibley irresponsible – you can’t do that in a post-doc or a job and live to tell about it.
Happiness depends on how well research is going and how much sunlight I get. Projects are currently on an upswing, and even when they’re not…it’s almost always nice outside here. (Of course, there are also other important factors that contribute to a good mood, like beer and kittens and adequate caffeine intake.)
Really bad seasonal depression is why I’m here and not at Northwestern, which I also liked a lot. If Dylan got a free iPod, can I get a free sunlamp when I graduate and move somewhere cloudier?
You take the good you take the bad
you take them both and there you have
the facts of life
the facts of life…
There’s a time you’ve got to go
and show your grow’n and now you know
the facts of life
the facts of life!
You live without cash but with tons of bad luck
Your buddies croaked in damn low tunnels
As you wound up alone and you are only a poor hobo
For all this you deserve at least a fancy funeral
One day you slip under a car and it will be over for you
To where you rode off no-one will learn afterwards
Here the sun’s not rising, the roads don’t lead back
Devil throws the switch and lowers the gates behind you
t’s 70-some degrees and sunny almost every day Heh heh.
http://ncweb-north.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm
First thing every morning.
1) Santa Ana winds: 30 mph sustained, 40 C, 5% humidity. A sky so cerulean clean that god shrugs in disgust. Then your underbritches crumble.
2) El Niño rains. You know it’s wet when the ark founders and mountains slide.
3) Social activism and corruption. You may well be one of the two score or so Californians earning a living on the books. We’ll confiscate your money toward more deserving purposes.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2841085503_8cf9ac5a1a.jpg
4-story, $1 billion high school – sequentially named Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, Belmont Learning Center, Vista Hermosa Learning Center, Central Los Angeles High School 11, City West project . “17 million toxic gas mitigation system that costs $250,000 a year to operate.”
so i’m trading tornados, ice storms, blizzards, flash flooding and DISGUSTINGLY MUGGY midwest summers for…earthquakes (not here in at least the last 10 years), a little wind and rain, and fire (which you don’t even mention but is the only thing on the list that actually frightens me)? meh. still 70 and sunny enough outside that i’m not hibernating.
and there’s some corruption in state government? this is nothing new–do you not know where i’m from? at least this state isn’t owned and operated by coal interests.
I have a paternal itch in me. TAing or marriage?
what, for me? or for YOU?
bit soon for that, I know.
Not to threadjack (okay, maybe to threadjack), but it appears that Keith Fagnou died this week due to complications from H1N1. This is really sad- he was young and a great chemist.
Derek Lowe has a post up on it. That is a kick in the pants (for me – it’s quite a bit worse for his wife and three munchkins, and the people who worked for and with him).
He was doing neat stuff, without retractions.
he WAS young. i feel bad for his children–they’re so young
Beer + Grading = Manageable
Have you considered grading papers INSIDE the glovebox with giant hands? Two hates make a love, right?
or: hate grading papers + hate chromatography = love running columns with shredded lab reports as stationary phase?
I suggest the opposite method: combining the disgusting with the pleasure – like a good cough syrup. Get rested, and on a Sunday late morning start your breakfast by opening a good bottle of red (first have three glasses – or five), put on your a favorite Scandinavian metal band and crank up on the volume to eleven, then get the test answer pile and a red ink marker and you will see you can hammer through the whole stack like Thor (who does not give a shit about hurting the human feelings) .
The ambitious, pompous types who substitute knowledge for prevarication in the test answers will likely get shafted that way – which is another wonderful thing about grading exams plastered and short-tempered. .
I like this idea, but you greatly overestimate my tolerance…three glasses and I’m no longer able to see straight…
I forgot – It cost too much, staying human. (But it will not matter in the long run.)
YES on the choosing a place that you like vs. a place that is higher in rankings. I am so glad I went to U of Washington over Northwestern. There were few synthetic inorganic people and I wanted some time away from terrible Chicago weather. Though part of that reasoning is that I’d love to eventually settle down in Chicago. I do love my hometown.
However, in Seattle, I still do believe in rain. Oh yes. But I no longer believe in ice storms or tornadoes. Everyone freaks out here if there’s snow or a thunderstorm. It’s pretty amusing.
Ice storms. I. HATE. ice storms. It is the one thing, weather-wise, I will miss the least when I leave Illinois.
but they’re SOOOOO PRETTY!!! and you can build forts in the trees under all the icy branches and…
oh. you didn’t grow up with them. no wonder you’re not a fan
driving in freezing rain – fuck that. I will take hurricanes, fire-ants and elderly inconsiderate NYC expats before icestorms
How about giant flying cockroaches?
I get many questions on how cold is Russia – well, not too cold. At least it’s dry and we don’t get the ice storms. Something like that happened once and it was beautiful.
Moscow winter became very mild, for a city so far north (56°N). In trying to keep 10–15 million people warm it became a giant hot plate. It has become common for the snow to almost completely melt at least once throughout the winter. Sure, for about a week it may drop under –20 °C and, much less often, under –30°C, but it’s really not that bad, because it’s dry. Most of the time it stays between 0 and –15.