#do you want money or not???? like a phd program i get but you pay tuition for a masters.........
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It makes me fucking insane how grad programs are like oh did you not go immediately into a masters? Well you better have a good reason why or we might not think you deserve to get one bc you're not committed 🤭 omg you didn't cure cancer or solve world inequality before applying? Don't even look in our direction 🤮 it's so great you want to further your education it would really be a shame if we made it as hard as possible 👉👈
#you read the shit they want and its like okay guess i should kms would that be enough for you😭#also omg i fr need the whole 3 references needed thing explained bc a lot of people do higher education later in life#for one reason or another and i KNOW professors dont remember people past like. a year so 🤨 what then#also sorry sorry but stuff like that grinds my gears bc some of us keep our heads down and mind or business#we dont network and the whole 'you should do it for your future' idea leaves such a bad taste in my mouth bc it feels exploitative#but like sorry i suffer from crippling shyness and speaking to my professors made me feel like i should have been shot 👍#higher education is so fucked bc they make you jump through so many hoops and like. mf i am still paying you for this#do you want money or not???? like a phd program i get but you pay tuition for a masters.........#anyway. i dont think ill end up bothering bc reading requirements today made me almost cry out of frustration so👍👍👍👍#anyone else feel like everyone else is miles ahead of them and that theyre just floundering😁 woefully underprepared and#underqualified for life and suffering the consequences of being terrified to speak to people in college 👍#and also simultaneously numb to and unable to handle rejection 👍#like i could find non college courses just for personal betterment but even thinking about it fills me with hashtag shame#and it doesnt help that no matter what i do if it isnt smth exactly in line with my parents thinking theyre so judgy about it 😔#and i cant even talk to them about how i feel bc one thing about them they will make me feel sooooo much worse when🤣#they never react the way id want or expect them to its kind of hilarious like i dont even WANT to talk to them#it would be equivalent to torture for me quite frankly 👍 idk maybe ill talk through it with my friend#shes at least sort of where im at but shes also like. Doing Shit and Has Plans so.#but i think she gets me a little bit. granted i may cry and i dont really need to do that in front of her#for many reasons 😭😭 i would fr never be able to face her again#anyway. how are your nights going
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Dr. Jägermutter
Salem: Guten tag. I am Dr. Jägermutter, und zis... is my resume.
Jaune: (Reading) "Freelance huntsman business consultant and motivational coach." Hm... I don't know. Money's tight enough as it is-
Salem: I vork pro-bono.
Jaune: You're hired! ...Once I figure out what pro bobo means.
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Salem: Your financial status is an unfortunate case, but you must not let it limit yourself. To overcome zis, you vill need a full-time staff.
Jaune: Whoa...
Salem: (Gestures to the full-time staff) As you can see, gazering retired huntsmen togezer for a common goal is a bit of a skill of mine.
Jaune: Wait, but who's paying for them?
Salem: Ze Kingdom vill. Zey are all part of a vork-rehabilitation program. I call zem, "ze Knight Angels." Get it? Knight? Night?
Jaune: No, no, I get it, but this is all just so much at once...
Nora: Jaune! We found some Grimm tearing down the forest!
Ren: Very unusual for Grimm.
Pyrrha: Everyone stay calm. We'll rally together so we can-
Salem: Zer is no need. Zose vere not Grimm, but ants. Ants building und expanding upon your leader's empire.
Ren: That's... a lot to take in.
Jaune: Right?
Nora: Wow! You're like some kind of magic girl!
Salem: Nein. You are ze magic girl! (Pulls lien out of Nora's ear)
Nora: WOW!
Salem: (Places it in Nora's palm) Here you go. I suggest you place zat into a high-yield mutual fund.
Salem: (Turns away) Now if you'll excuse me, I have much vork to do.
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Salem: Ladies und gentlemen, esteemed members of ze Schnee Dust Company, Mistrali Spiders, und Torchvick gang, I have read our demands regarding Jaune Arc's tuition, und your grievances in his tardiness to repay zem.
Lil Miss: And what the hell's it to you?
Salem: A minor inconvenience zat will be remedied shortly, if you vill allow me.
Jacques: Where the hell is Jaune Arc then?!
Salem: I vill be representing Herr Arc in zese matters.
Roman: What- Who the hell are you?!
Salem: I am Dr. Salem Jägermutter, und zis is my magic murder hand. (Opens palm, Closes) So, zere is a deal on ze table. Any takers?
JLR: (Dust and ash)
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Oscar: E-E-EVICTED?! But Jaune said I was-
Salem: Herr Arc has more important tasks ahead of him und cannot be saddled by raising children. Might I suggest you stay mit Team RWBY, or stay in ze local orphanage?
Oscar: No! I don't want to-!
Salem: Zese are grown-up matters, child. Or should I say... Ozma?
Ozpin: (Shifts) Wait a moment... There's... There's something familiar about you. Almost as if... as if... Ngh...
Salem: Oho...
Salem: YOUR POWERS ARE USELESS ON ME, YOU SILLY BILLY...
Ozpin: NGH... NGH... NNNNNNGAAAH! (Falls)
Salem: You have until noon tomorrow to vacate ze premises.
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Ruby: And she just kicked Oscar out! Like she owns the place!
Pyrrha: I know, and I don't like it either, but... (Sighs) She won't let me get anywhere near Jaune. Says I'm a "weak" influence on him. Honestly, I would have done something sooner if it wasn't for Ren and Nora. They're really grown on her.
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Salem: (Outside) Vere's Nora~?
Nora: (Giggling, Sneaking around)
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Salem: So, vat did ve learn?
Ren: Uh... I learned that even though the Grimm destroyed my village, it was the bandit attacks nearby that brought them there.
Salem: Und vat vas learned?
Ren: That... humans are worse than Grimm?
Salem: Mm... It's a start.
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Salem: (Hands Nora a knife, Points) Zis man stole from your leader! Teach him vat is ze meaning of loyalty!
Nora: (Timidly approaches with a knife)
Salem: Vould you prefer ze hammer?
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Ruby: That's... really weird.
Pyrrha: I agree, but she says she has a PhD in Child Psychology, so... I can't really argue with her.
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Jaune: I'm sorry, I just don't understand what you're saying.
Salem: I vas very clear; you cannot become ze leader you vish to be mitout confronting your deep-rooted fear of success! Now get into ze bag!
Jaune: ...What's in it?
Salem: Only vat you take mit you.
Jaune: (Steps in) Uh, okay? I'm, uh, standing in the bag.
Salem: ARE YOU?.
Jaune: Wait... This... This is my old kitchen back home! (Looks at Pumpkin Pete box) Oh, and here's Pumpkin Pete!
Jaune: Wait, I thought I was fixing my soul, or something? Ms.- Er, Dr. Jägermutter? Hello?
Papa Arc: Hey there, Jaune! (Wearing boxers) You're up pretty early, huh?
Jaune: (Kid) I couldn't sleep. You and Mommy were fighting again.
Papa Arc: Oh, uh, no, we weren't fighting, we were just, uh... sparring. Say, whatcha eatin there?
Jaune: (Turn) Pumpkin Pete! If Bunnerific-! (Gasps, Turns away from massive dong) B-But I don't think I like the pumpkin flavor.
Papa Arc: Yeah, I prefer the Peachy Patty, myself. She's such a cute bunny.
Jaune: (Regular age, Shutting his eyes) Blueberry Barry is my favorite, too, but he's supposed to be a bad guy... (Peeks) AGH! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME?! (Gulps, Slowly turns)
Salem: (Papa Arc's penis) This is the moment where your feelings of inadequacy first began to develop; when your father's status changed from role model and hero to rival and tormentor! (Tentacles envelop Jaune) WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Jaune: (Closes his eyes, Kid) Ngh! Rgh! P-Pyrrha, help!
Pyrrha: (Goddess appearance) I'm coming, Jaune!
Salem: NO! Do not call out to Pyrrha to save you! She and your father are the very reason you are trapped here, doomed to die with your dreams in this damnable tomb!
Jaune: (Opens his eyes, Sees Grimm RWBY)
Salem: Defeat these creatures of the dark! Fear! Self-loathing! Stinkin'-thinkin'! Und dilly-dallying! FREE YOURSELF! DESTROY THIS TEMPLE OF FAILURE!
Jaune: AAAAAAAGH! (Blinding flash of light, Standing before two marble statues)
Papa Arc: Jaune? What was that noise?
Salem: (Behind Jaune) The colossi will crush and continue to subjugate you unless you fight back! Kill them! Kill them and assume your rightful role as Leader!
Pyrrha: Jaune, let us help you.
Salem: (Transforms into a sword) DO IT! SLAY THEM WHERE THEY STAND! (Slashing about, Kills Pyrrha and Papa Arc)
Jaune: I... I did it... (Nugget hits his head) Oh! (Eats it)
Salem: (Pats his back) Ze son has become ze fazher, und ze pupil has become ze master. Rejoice, as your kingdom avaits.
Jaune: (Shoveling nuggies into his craw, Smiling)
Ruby: (Sneaks in, Steals nuggies)
Salem: Aaaaah, but who is zis tiny girl, stealing from your kingdom vat is yours?
Jaune: (Coughs, Chokes on nuggies)
Salem: (Places wallet in Jaune's mouth) Careful. Careful. (Jaune spits it out) Clearly, your experience vas so traumatizing, zat you had a seizure.
Jaune: (Covers himself) B-B-BUT WHY AM I NAKED?!
Salem: Because you have been reborn! Und your old clothes vill no longer fit you. (Reveals box) But zese vill... Und I vill need my vallet back.
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Jaune: (Wearing black armor with silver trim)
Salem: Zis suit vas hand-crafted by myself, using your measurements. Ze spandex should comfortably expand following your new vorkout routine.
Jaune: (Looks in the mirrors, Hums) Ya know what? I like it!
Salem: Ah~! (Sits, Covers her face) Es tut mir leid, I... I have become ze proud mama... (Crying, Clasps hands) I LOVE MEIN JOB~!
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Jaune: Ow! Why did you cut my hand?!
Salem: Much like how a fish needs gills to svim, a man such as yourself needs ink to write.
Jaune: Yeah, but blood? (Sighs) Whatever. What am I signing for anyways?
Salem: Your are signing to join an elite brother- und sisterhood of associates dedicated to ze destruction of mankind's truest enemy.
Jaune: Oh... Wow... Anyone I might know?
Salem: Oh, ja, (Flips page) you certainly do.
Jaune: Wait, but that's Ruby! She's my best friend!
Salem: Indeed! It is a classic friends to enemies tale!
Jaune: But that doesn't make any sense! Ruby can't be my enemy! She isn't even a-!
Jaune: (Looks at himself) Oh my god. This is... B-But I'm not-!
Salem: Aren't you?! You've lied! You cheated! You've stolen, und you have survived! Iz zis not what your heat vas telling you in your visions?! SIGN IT! BECOME WHO YOU VERE ALVAYS MEANT TO BE! KNIGHT ANGELS ARE STANDING BY FOR YOUR ORDERS! ASCEND!
Jaune: (Gulps)
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Pyrrha: (Kicks down the door) RUBY!
Ruby: AGH! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!
Pyrrha: Have you seen Jaune?!
Jaune: (Sitting on the bed) I'm right here.
Ruby: He's been sitting on my bed for, like, an hour, and hasn't said a word since.
Jaune: Pyrrha, am I... a bad leader?
Ruby: I don't think so. Pyrrha?
Pyrrha: ...Um, w-well, you, uh, have your faults, but ultimately, uh, well-
Nora: Yup!
Ren: Nora!
Pyrrha: Jaune, where's Dr. Jägermutter?
Jaune: Gone. I... I told her I appreciated the work she put in, but that I wasn't... that what she offered just wasn't for me.
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Salem: All of ze world's a stage, und ze men und vemen in it are merely players.
Tyrian: Ha ha! You said it! And you can learn more in The Bible!
#rwby#the venture bros#salem#jaune arc#pyrrha nikos#lie ren#nora valkyrie#oscar pine#ozpin#ruby rose#papa arc#tyrian callows
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What is an R1 university? What does that mean?
Lol, well. This is going to be more Arcane Academic Detail than anyone needs to know, but an R1 university is the highest research classification that an American university can receive and generally means they're especially recognized for nation- and world-leading academics, programs, etc. In other words, it's a fairly rare and prestigious designation that a university is (generally justly) proud of receiving. The university at which I presently work is one such. We just got a celebratory email from the provost reminding us that it's the two-year anniversary of that designation, etc. As noted, they also want to get a billion dollars in fundraising for the next cycle. So the point is: this is a highly ranked private university with substantial ability and plans to attract major capital. Good, right?
Not really, because my gripe with it is that (possibly to nobody's surprise, but still) we are still being squeezed to death. My department has no money and can't get a new chair because they expect the new chair to do the same amount of work for literally 25% of the money paid to the last one. Not surprisingly, the faculty is up in arms about this and we already all have too much work because we are critically under-staffed (four professors currently, they won't approve a new tenure-track search while also cutting our budget in everything else), so nobody is in a hurry to take on even more responsibility for a giant pay cut. We are located in one of the top 10 most expensive metro areas in the country and despite being a program co-director with a PhD, I am paid barely more (literally, two dollars an hour more) than a graduate student assistant in the same department. As such, despite working full-time and managing one of the college's largest departments, I am in the "yeah here's my paypal if you feel like it, I would really appreciate it" stage of things. This is, to say the least, Incredibly Sucky, and it's not fair to anyone involved.
I am applying to a lot of new jobs, both inside and outside this university, but that is still as much as a crapshoot as it ever is. I am working on self-publishing my two existing original novels because I likewise need to make even a few more bucks to be able to consistently afford food. It's all very stupid and stressful, so. Yeah.
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this might be a weird and honestly personal question, but how do you sustain yourself n all that? youre honestly a big inspo for me, and im wondering how youre able to make money doing the things u like? do u live in ur own house n all that?
oh!! not a weird question!!!! the real answer is that i dont!! I do not make money doing the things i love like art!! im actually not a full time artist and dont even work in the creative field!!
IRL im currently a phd student studying biostatistics!!!! in my graduate program they cover our tuition and give us a part-time research assistantship, so i take care of myself via what i get paid from that and do art on the side just as a hobby!! luckily its enough to live off of....im not exactly thriving but i can pay rent for a small apartment and buy food and occasionally treat myself so i consider the place im at in life now a good place!!!
i actually do enjoy where i work and what i do and think its really cool.,...from what i hear the biostats field is a really good field to work in and has good job opportunities, and it doesn't stress me out a lot so i like it!!!!
honestly growing up, i always used to see on twitter and tumblr a lot of professional full-time artists struggling or talking about how artists/animators are treated like garbage and underpaid and tbh i didnt want the thing i love (art) to become something i hate, so i ended up finding a different career path that would allow me to be creative on the side without having to worry about it paying my bills!!
(also if anyone seeing this is very math/coding savvy, i recommend looking into biostats as a career. its fun and the job market is pretty good for us from what i hear from professors and friends who have graduated)
#but best of luck to everyone in general#this lifestyle is also a consequence of my mindset honestly#i hate doing art for money#it sucks all the joy out of it for me and im super unmotivated#which is why i dont do commissions often. because art for me is a creative outlet#and if im doing art for someone else i kinda lose that freedom and it becomes a bit of a chore#so i did something else that i was good at and had a good work-life balance so i could come home and draw on my free time!!!
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Hi. I am stuck in how to get a job I want. How did you do it? The little I know about it, sounds cool.
Ahahahaha. I'm not sure how great my job actually is, but it does give me the opportunity to chase down questions. It's also pretty good for adapting to my various neurodivergences because the hours are flexible and it's got a high tolerance for an absolutely batshit random scattering of skills.
On the other hand, it doesn't pay for shit and I spent eight years getting my PhD and making even worse money, so. And it requires so much moving. Traditionally, I should be done here within a few more years—I've already been at my current position two years but I'm doing a weird thing that is moving slowly—and then have to make an interstate or even intercontinental move. In practice, I may change careers again to avoid that: eight years of PhD in Texas left me with some pretty bad scarring, and I don't know that I have it in me to move again.
Anyway, you asked how I got here. I have a basically boring career progression for an academic: I started by working in a lab tech during undergrad, and then I applied for PhD programs during my senior year. I really should have taken another year or two to grow up some more and figure my shit out, but that's hindsight. My program was oriented around ecology, evolution, and behavior, with a distinct slant towards evolution; I worked with a behavior lab within that. I graduated in 2020, which was incredibly bad timing: normally, after you get the PhD you go work for a year or two in a lab under a senior scientist that heads the lab (a PI or Primary Investigator). Their grant pays your salary, right? But no one was hiring during COVID, because everyone good to work with I had been cultivating was hunkering down and not taking new people; they were busily sheltering existing postdocs or students in place, or the funding opportunities we had planned to pursue together dried up and were outright canceled in the wake of COVID. Not that I'm bitter. I wound up making a huge field move in order to stay in academia and keep doing work I cared about, which has meant leaving EEB and moving into neuroscience.
Less specifically, if you want to know how I got into a job I liked? I did (and do) a lot of yelling on the internet, both pseudonymously and under my real name, about the things I think and feel strongly about. One of those things went moderately viral back in 2017, and my now-boss saw it and loved it. I approached her about a potential job when my other opportunities fell through, and she had money and she made space for me. I'm extremely grateful.
In my experience, the best way to get a job you like is to talk a lot and compliment all the people you genuinely think are doing cool things. Even if you're shy—and I am, I have leveraged the hell out of the internet to do this because it takes so many fewer spoons for me than making friends in person—you gotta take the risk and spread out friendly communications with a real wide net.
Focus on finding people doing stuff you think is interesting and give them honest compliments, then ask questions. Lots of low grade positive interactions, and you want to invest more in talking to people who also talk back to you. I have had good luck with mostly approaching other low ranking new folks like me; they tend to be more surprised and delighted by compliments and then they're willing to give me a little more attention. If people don't respond I shrug and move on: the important thing is that I try to make the people around me whose work impresses me feel good about that. I am a really critical person by nature, so I work hard at deliberately looking for things to praise in the work of people around me.
Anyway, you asked how I got here, and the short answer is, I made a lot of good friends and that saved my ass when I wound up in a tight place.
#Day job#Academia#I do love my job but it is frequently absolutely exhausting#And I fantasize about security a lot
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hey reid! i'm an undergraduate archaeology struggling to pick between two grad schools right now, and i thought you would be able to give me some advice since you are in grad school right now! one of the programs want an answer by monday, and frankly i want to make a decision this weekend too. my biggest issues are money and knowledge about the programs. one program is fully funding me for a year (is a phd program) and i know more about the positives and negatives of the department and have interacted with a lot of the students i would be working with. the other program is only giving me partal funding for a year (is a masters program) in a really expensive city, and i feel like i don't know what i am going into for the program. but! the masters program has excellent access to what i want to research compared to the other program, and would put me in the area of the work i do for networking and future jobs after the degree. i think in an ideal world, i would pick the masters program, but i just cannot get over the money. even with a second job i don't think i will be making enough per month to live in that city, and i'm not sure working over 20 hours a week is doable/recommended for graduate students because of coursework.
if you have any, any recommendations or thoughts based on the limited knowledge i've given you, i would really appreciate it. i think it would be helpful to hear from someone who isn't familiar with me, because no one is really giving me recommendations.
Hi there, dirtling! Your situation is very similar to the one I found myself in at this time last year. I had also gotten into both a PhD and a Master's program, where the PhD had significantly more funding attached while the MA program was maybe a better fit.
I chose the PhD route (and I'm personally very happy that I did), and I'll walk you through some of the factors that went into my decision.
First, the funding. I won't lie, that was a big part of it for me. I wasn't interested in putting myself into the kind of debt that the Master's would have required. We're in a field that doesn't pay much, and so paying back loans isn't the given that it is with some other professions.
As a PhD student, you have significantly more control over your own fate. The MA program I got into was going to tell me what I was going to do for my thesis. In the PhD program, I get to determine what I'm going to do and (more or less) how I'm going to do it.
I knew at the outset that a PhD was my end goal. With that in mind, in the MA program I'd have to reapply to grad schools a year and a half after the first round. I'm sure you're aware of exactly how exhausting the grad app process is, and I wasn't in a hurry to repeat that.
Psst, also, you can leave your PhD program after you get your Master's, and they'll still have paid for your education.
I do work about 20 hours/week, but that's my job as a TA, which is what covers my funding. I do not have to work an extra job, and most of my cohort also doesn't work outside of academia.
Your research is going to change as a part of grad school. With that in mind, you can be flexible (to a certain degree) about picking the program that is the "perfect" fit. You'll be able to network at different events and conferences. You can make other connections through whoever your mentor is. All of that will be harder to do if you're working another job to pay for your degree.
I'm also going to tag @wafflelovingbatgirl as my archaeology counterpoint who went the Master's route.
But ultimately, neither of us can tell you what to do. This is a big decision, and it will shape your life, but it's also not necessarily make or break. The decision you go with should be what best sets you up for success. So sit with it for a while. For me, I went into the week feeling totally conflicted, but by the weekend a pretty clear choice had emerged.
Congratulations and best of luck!
-Reid
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Any advice for getting into and getting through Masters/PhD programs? Since you're a professor and all.
well, i’m a graduate teaching fellow/adjunct professor which i promise is very different from a “real” professor, but here’s what i’ll say off the top of my head about these apps
get a professor whose terminal degree is a phd on your side! even better if they’re willing to help you go through your application closely and give you feedback on your personal statement, writing sample, etc.
in fact, send your writing for the application to as many trusted advisors as you can for feedback.
in your personal statement/statement of purpose, be as specific as possible about what your research interests are. it’s possible (even likely) that your research interests will evolve as you continue your graduate education but showing that your current interests are specific shows the committee reviewing your application that you have direction and you know what sort of thing you want your thesis or dissertation to be on (like this will of course change but i think it shows a level of maturity in your thinking about your scholarship)f
try to attend conferences and get teaching experience under your belt that you can put on your CV. i was pretty shocked that no one else in my cohort had teaching experience so it’s not *necessary* but it may be something that helps you stand out. having gone to conferences also shows that you’re serious about research and being part of the field
if you can help it DO NOT GO TO GRAD SCHOOL ON YOUR OWN DIME. especially at the phd level. if your program accepted you without giving you a fellowship then you shouldn’t be there. (i think this used to be more of a thing and has maybe dropped off). i would think that you should only be paying your way through grad school if you’re CERTAIN there’s a lucrative job on the other side of it for you. and for those of us pursuing grad degrees because we want to be professors, there usually isn’t.
if you take the GRE and your math score is low don’t worry about it if you’re going into the humanities. mine was awful and apparently they didn’t care. also, i think i took the GRE twice and did no studying in between and my verbal score shot up to 96th percentile the second time, so if you have the money it might be worth taking more than once if you think you can bump up your scores. a lot of programs are eliminating subject specific gre requirements (like a special english lit gre test or something idk i never took it) or not requiring the GRE at all. so check and see what your programs require before you invest too much time in the GRE stuff.
apply WIDELY. by that i don’t mean you should apply to a zillion places, but don’t apply to places that won’t be a good fit and don’t limit yourself by arbitrary factors like geography. i applied to places on the west coast and in the midwest and it is just sheer luck that i ended up in nyc, exactly where i wanted to be
dont be discouraged if you have to apply more than once. a LOT of this is luck of the draw and how you fit in with the current body of students and whether there are professors there who are capable of mentoring you because you share research interests
but take all that with a grain of salt because it’s just off the top of my head… and it’s been 3 years since i last did this so i’ve probably forgotten some things about the process.
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ok so.
i am sick
i have been Sick sick since Christmas night (had symptoms before then but was sleepless and miserable and came up snotty on the 26th) and while it is not covid i was incredibly fatigued for a good chunk of time
probably at least in part because my sleep goes to hell when i'm sick. the record looks like sleep the 25th: no. 26th: yes! 27th: no. 28th: no. 29th: yes (mostly! managed to sleep for four straight hours and caught a total of ~9 hours)
in addition to being sick always being unfun, i also like...should've been doing graduate apps? but instead i was drowning in tissues and insomnia??
so it would be great to. like. do things today
- pay credit card bill
- laundry
- fill in the professor/interest/goals paragraphs for SoP [2], ask someone to skim grammar?, call it fine because it's the same basic bones as the PhD SoP you *actually* cared about that got you into two MA programs and also. like. there's no way you aren't getting into this school. write words and chill tf out. just crib the goals from [redacted] if you have to, they're basically still accurate and this is hardly legally binding
- skim "standard" WS just in case of errors; upload to [2]; upload other things; pay money; apply
- reply to emails (personal account--1, general account--2?) (do i need to reschedule my Tuesday appointment on account of my cold? probably wouldn't hurt to send a quick email)
- figure out if [3] doesn't send notification emails for rec letters or if i need to email my guys like "yeah sorry they need you to click another button"
- [4] WS 1 + WS 2--discuss with another human being re: whole picture
- talk out [4] SoP
- skim [4] scholarship websites so you can write the supplemental things decently well
- fix [payment thing]?
theoretically doing things for [3] would be nice but. also. latest deadline. triage mode. c'mon
- buy your cousin a giftcard omfg
also today will involve holiday celebrations hopefully. so that's nice. sorry for all the sick tho
...i don't want to think about this but my granddad is in the ICU (doing fine apparently??) and so if i want my mom's help, which i do, i should try to get it earlier rather than later just. in case. yeah. i. yeah.
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Do you have any advice for someone who will be applying to grad school soon? I want to eventually get a PhD and teach, but it's so scary to think about organizing myself enough to do the applications and I also barely know where to begin. Any advice is welcome!!
Also p.s. i love your fics <3
Thank you so much!! I will try my best! Disclaimer: I only know how it is in the U.S., but I do have a fair amount of friends/acquaintances who have gone to grad school in various fields, so I think I have a pretty wide range of experiences to go off of besides my own.
BIG first thing: find programs that will either pay for your degree or otherwise offer you some kind of excellent financial aid situation. It is almost never worth it to get yourself into some kind of hellish student loan situation. If you want to teach there might be some kind of government forgiveness thing but even those can be unwieldy, so just watch out and stay on top of it.
But, going off of that, and this is just my personal opinion, but don't bother applying anywhere you don't actually want to go just because the money is good or it's prestigious or whatever. You're already going to be mildly miserable a lot of the time while doing your PhD, you might as well do it in a place you can tolerate. Figure out what's most important to your own success--for me, I absolutely have to like my professors or I will really struggle. Other considerations fall below this.
Someone will probably have a suggestion specific to your field for how many schools you should apply to to maximize your chances, so you can build a list of schools you're interested in based on that vague estimate to start looking into, but I also think there's something to be said for drawing the line at a certain point where it's not worth it, and you might be better off getting some kind of work experience for a year or two and then trying again. I actually applied to graduate school right out of college, which would have been a DISASTER if I had gone LOL.
BIG second thing, just based on my personal foibles, reach out to some professors/mentors/employers/whatever with whom you've had a good relationship in the past (if you haven't spoken recently), ask them how they're doing, and update them on what you've been up to and that you're thinking about pursuing your PhD. This is especially important if you've been out of school for awhile, but it's good to get into the habit of periodically touching base with professional contacts even if you're still in school. You're going to need letters of recommendation, AND you're going to keep needing references for various things, and it's good if you don't have to cold call people you haven't spoken to in a long time once you already need something.
Note that calling up esp. professors you haven't kept in touch with is usually fine! People generally want to help you! It will just make you feel less awkward if you've kept in touch ahead of time. It's great if the person has some connection to your field, but IMO it's better if the person just knows and likes you and can speak honestly to your merits.
I also personally had a huge issue just wrangling the people who agreed to write me letters of recommendation to like, do it, and use the website submission thing correctly, in time for the submission deadlines LOL, and I felt SO awkward reminding them about it but was also going INSANE as the deadlines approached. This was honestly one of the most stressful parts of the whole process for me, and you might find you want to apply for an internship or grant or something early on before you've really connected with your new profs and need these references AGAIN, so my advice is just try to get some people who are willing to help you lined up ASAP so perhaps you can avoid this particular nightmare. 2 minimum, but 3-5 is ideal.
As for organizing everything, it's definitely time-consuming, but there's also something kind of gratifying about it. When you go through the trouble of gathering together every mildly relevant or impressive thing you've ever done in your life, you'll be like, wow, I did some cool stuff actually :). Note that you never know what admissions will find interesting about you, so don't count anything out right off the bat--my school loved that I have a background in music, while my German degree continues to be pretty much irrelevant LOL. If you're still in or just out of school there's probably someone whose job it is to help you with e.g. how to put together a grad school resume or read over your personal essays or w/e, so definitely take advantage if that exists, but you can absolutely do it yourself if not, no sweat!
Though I would recommend finding someone, like maybe one of those past profs/mentors/etc. I mentioned, to look over your personal essays for you just so there's another pair of eyes on them. Personal essays were the SECOND most stressful part of the whole process for me because I HATE writing personal essays LOL! But having someone tell me what kind of narrative law schools are looking for helped me to refocus my writing and feel slightly less insane about it.
Finally, always remember, don't sell yourself short!! In any application process you want to play up your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, but don't hold yourself back based on the weakest points in your application. Apply for things you really want to do or that would be really beneficial for you even if you don't think you'll get them--you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and this applies to every aspect of your life btw!
I hope some of this was at least mildly helpful! I wish you all the best in your journey! Grad school is great and such a rewarding--
#exciting tag for answered asks#grad school nonsense#personal#let's see if tumblr dot website destroys the formatting#i'm going insane it literally just MOVED my readmore#just#MOVED it
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I applaud anyone that pursues academia past a bachelor's. I used to want to get a phd myself back in the day but I laugh about that now so strap in for a story time.
I was halfway through my bachelor's degree, and I was in the process of researching where to apply for a masters. I wanted that to be abroad. And I wanted it to be some sort of political science or something like that. Which was completely unrelated to my literature degree pursuit at the time. But I didn't care, I simply wanted to help fix the world and work as a diplomat or work for the UN.
Anyway, during my research I found out that it costs anywhere between $100-$500 just to apply for a masters program. Which was hella expensive for me living in a country where $300 was the average salary. I joked with friends that I would need to sell a kidney just for a few applications. Fortunately I had a plan for the tuition and other expenses part of studying. There's a government program that pays for everything as long as you get accepted to one of the top universities according to the Shanghai ranking. In return, all you gotta do is graduate on time and then go back home to spend double the time it took you to graduate working in my country. It was the perfect plan! Especially since all those universities had three separate price points, depending on where you're coming from (I'm talking about the European universities that had one really cheap price for locals, second slightly more expensive for other EU members, and third ridiculously high for the rest of the world)
So I started saving up money for those applications about a year before I was supposed to apply. And started looking into the documentation I would need to apply to the universities and to the government program. Meanwhile, my parents tried to dissuade me from studying anything remotely connected to politics saying I'm not cut out to be as cold blooded as the politicians in our country are. I'd wanted to pursue politics for my bachelor's but they negotiated with me to first get a degree in something I would have an easier time finding a job with locally (jokes on them the market has been oversaturated for over a decade before this conversation happened, they just didn't know), and then pursue politics. Just to have a sort of backup if things go bad in any way. And I reluctantly agreed.
But when my last year of my studies started, all the application prices increased. I started thinking about maybe taking a gap year after I graduate and working my ass off to get enough money to apply to 4-5 different schools. I then met my now husband. Him and his family had far more connections to various people than my family did and I got to learn more about that government program behind the scenes. What I learned was that in 99% of cases, the only requirement to be accepted is nepotism. Around that time I learned of a kid in my neighborhood getting accepted in the program for an undergraduate degree. Because his dad was higher up the political food chain in my country. There wasn't an option for an undergraduate degree for the rest of the country. Just masters and phds. Which immediately ruined all of the ideas and plans I had made and made me incredibly disillusioned with the whole thing I intended to do. My now husband also told me he wanted to pursue political science when he entered academia, but he had a different approach. He was in a forensic science program at the time and was thinking about a masters from the local university. He got disillusioned when he saw the amount of crime and corruption in his current studies. While the professors were teaching students all the laws, they were also actively breaking them. He was so disillusioned he ended up transferring from that department to another school to study computer science.
The cherry on top, for me, was the fact that this was all happening around 2015/16 when the Me Too movement was in full swing, and stories started showing up on the amount of sexism women in academia deal with on a daily basis. Along with a couple of other disgusting political things I learned that happened locally.
Immediately no. The whole messy endeavor. Immediately no.
These days I'm looking to move to an EU country, so that if my future kid wants to pursue the degrees I wanted, or any other ones, they would have a lower barrier of entry. I mean that along with the functional educational, medical and legal systems which are nonexistent here as I've demonstrated through the stories I've shared lmao
But I greatly admire anyone who's able to do all that. They are the people that are changing the world in so many different and exciting ways through their discoveries and I'm grateful for them. <3
MK
APPLICATION FEES ARE SO STUPID??? they're not that high at least for places im applying to but it feels so weird to pay just for an opportunity to get in, when there's so many barriers you'd face later! I hope things turn out better everywhere because it's disgusting how closely education ties in with politics. some fields should be absolutely free and safe from any sort of political agenda
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11/29/2023
Got some all-time pretty winter skies around here.
Positive thing: Therapy was especially good, I had my last class presentation, and I had Secret Santa with my classmates.
I threw my scarf over my alien plushie and they really looked so comfy. Just like me fr.
I spent more time than I probably should've looking on Japanese websites for a DVD set of 逃げ恥 but they're all expensive and region locked anyway. I do have a DVD player that plays region locked DVDs but it's back at my dad's place, so I gave up on that quest after a while.
I also looked more deeply into the MEXT Research Scholarship. Put shortly, it's a scholarship that pays for you to go to Japan and do research or do a doctoral program. I think I really want to go for it when I can. The idea of living in Japan for a few years, literally being paid to get a PhD, and even getting a stipend and travel expenses paid, all sounds very good to me.
I think the soonest I could do that is 2026 due to how the application opening time lines up with the time I graduate. So I have time to keep studying Japanese and figuring out what else is needed. It also gives me time to get some work to save up money and set other affairs in order.
In the meantime, I'll focus on getting through grad school. Hopefully with less J-Drama induced distractions.
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im sorry, you are 22 and were already a phd candidate??
LOL this got long sorry!!! u get my evil academic origin story anon congrats
yeah! i wanted to be a professor for a while (like, most of high school, and then my freshman year of college i became disillusioned abt my original field choice but by junior year i had stumbled into a new field i was passionate abt and decided teaching was the dream again) so in my senior year of college i applied to a bunch of cs phd programs
idk how other fields/countries work but basically like if you apply and you dont have a masters already it just takes longer (5 years on average instead of ~4 or something)! and a lot of the programs i applied to preferred that you didnt have a masters already. so it's less impressive maybe than it sounds on paper?
i also wanna say i was one of three ppl from my friend group going straight into phds after graduating (not even counting my med school hopeful friends. or regular masters friends) so i also feel like it's not that uncommon?? maybe covid made it more common. i also went to a like ~high end~ research uni full of nerds. and was in with the nerd athletes (distance runners) so im like biased
i spent the fall semester of senior year applying to grad school, and the spring semester getting my heart broken by grad school decisions LOL
i got into one program but it was literally like. top 5 in the country for what i wanted to do. so i accepted, bc i made my undergrad decision based on prestige and that worked out like absurdly well for me lol. and then i had a mental breakdown the weekend of graduation and realized i didnt want to grind out a phd in a field that doesnt treat ppl like me (queer women w learning disabilities from lower class backgrounds... lmfao....) kindly for like no money in the middle of nowhere far from anyone i know + love when i could (in theory) get a well-paying job (or at least more survivable than 30k/year) and find satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from things like. spending time with my friends. traveling. having money for my hobbies. etc etc.
so i dropped out like right on the deadline for signing up for classes/seminar/research groups. and then they kept me on the email list anyways so i was tormented for a few months by what couldve been which was Great for feeling secure in this life changing choice i made more or less on an emotional whim that deviated from a life plan i had had since i was 15
and then i spent 6 months unemployed bc the tech world is imploding . LOL . but i have a job offer now for something that's really meaningful to me that'll allow me to use my skills to help people AND it'll pay me more than double what my phd stipend was. so alls well that ends well or something
#if anyone ever wants to chat comp sci. or making strange illogical decisions abt their life and academia. hit me up <3#this is kind of a long post sorry but i felt like i needed to make it clear that it's not like.#idk to me it's just a fact and like a kind of waste of time and energy and a Lot of emotional turmoil that i spent figuring out my life#essentially aimlessly but desperately grasping onto any path that made sense#rather than anything impressive if that makes sense#like i enrolled in a phd program. was 'sponsored' so to speak by a prof. had a placement in a lab. had funding and everything.#but then had a mental breakdown. and dropped out before even moving there (thank god)#ask
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Okay mama personal question
I wanna do child/teen counselling and forensic…so the thing is I’d have to move all across the globe to pursue it but I’ve been seeing all these people on the net saying that it’s not been paying them well and stuff and ofc money is not my first concern but if I move across and leave my family will I be able to sustain myself comfortably?! And do we get a good placement after masters? Or is it like medical that it’s gonna take years to build coz I think I wanna get a phD too
Also can u actually pursue both counselling and forensic???
PS : I gotta start applying to college next month and this year is sooooo bad nearly 80% of my batch flunked mid terms plus I don’t wanna leave home tbh but I kind of want to get out there :(
You definitely don’t make a lot starting out. Here are my thoughts. If your goal is to be therapist and you want to be successsful and have a good income. You have to get your masters and you have to get licensed. The money comes in when you’re liscensed and that means you can work in private practices where commercial insurances are paying the bigger bucks. You can easily make over 100k in the field with all the degrees.
It is a huge decision and a massive commitment so I would really consider it before you do it.
I’ll talk to you through what my experience looked like
Undergrad degree in psychology with a minor in sociology (4 years)
Masters degree in clinical mental health counseling (2.5 years)
In my masters program, I have to complete 350 hours of unpaid practicum, 650 hours of internship. That equals out to about 40 hours a week in internship on top of five classes.
In my school, to graduate I had to pass the CPCE.
Then after you graduate, you need to take the NCE which is the National Counselors Exam and pass that - that’s about a 300 question exam that I studied about nine months for
Then after you pass your NCE you have to then get 3000 supervised hours of work (about 2.5 years) before you can apply to be an LPC.
I just became an LPC this summer and I’m 28.
My college did not set me up with a job.
PhD is a good idea depending on what you want to do with it. I am planning to start my PhD program when I turn 30 and get it in counselor education so that I can be a professor and teach.
The reason LPC makes money and an unlicensed therapist with a masters doesn’t is because insurance will not pay nonlisenced therapist, thus private practice won’t hire you unless the company accepts medicad and Medicare which pay bare minimum or out of pocket pay.
As for what you’re planning to do.. I am a child and family therapist.
I did all of my internship and practicum at a children’s psychiatric hospital
And all my supervised hours in an agency that does family therapy funded through the state
Any type of specialize means more education, trainings, certifications, etc…
I am certified grief counselor but I had to take endless trainings for it.
As for the forensic side, I’m not sure what job you’re thinking out and I’m not knowledgeable on that side.
This isn’t trying to steer you away from the profession.
However, even though I would do it all over again, I wish someone would have told me how fucking difficult it was going to be.
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what did you study in college & did that help you with what you’re doing as a career now? Any advice for a gal struggling through undergrad trying to go to grad school?
behind the cut - this reads more like a collection of thoughts, i feel very unqualified to give advice!
about me and my degrees:
i studied english and creative writing in college, which according to articles i've read, almost nobody does anymore. the liberal arts are a field that's cleared out at dusk after all the players have gone home -- or to STEM fields, in this case.
the job i'm in now is entirely based on my degree -- can't have this job without it. but i've been part time for ten years, because getting a full-time job is a crapshoot, and part time pay is shit. but the time i tried to switch jobs, i got so profoundly depressed (in the clinical sense) i had to go back to this job. i'm just trying to embed myself until they hire me full time.
english grad school is, moreover, unlike many graduate school programs because (functionally) nobody goes unless they’re getting it for free, which means needing a fellowship or grad assistant program that pays for everything and awards you a small (unlivable) stipend. the second option is what i did. (essentially they’re training you to be a college professor, and you’re studying for free and getting food money.) fellowships usually pay more but are more competitive — but the process of getting into grad school for english or creative writing is equally a crapshoot. the first year i tried, i didn’t get in; the second year, i applied to more schools and a couple of them took the bait. i picked the school that gave me the best package.
bottom line is, it would really depend on your program. i have zero knowledge of other fields, sadly, because almost everyone i know who did grad school was in english like me. of the english MA/PhD people i know, they've worked in publishing, teaching, writing, and coypediting. so the fields have all been english adjacent, because typically you don't get a grad degree in a field unless you're committed to it.
(some people just daisy-chain MFA programs. they go from one to the other, living on fellowships. you can get multiple grad degrees. i once met a guy at a party who was even going for his postdoc at MIT. that's real commitment to the grad life.)
i don't regret my degrees or graduate school -- i had a great time in both. however, i also got out with no debt, since college was cheaper then and i got scholarships to schools that weren't exactly high brow. i also just really enjoyed being in school because it suits my habits and personality, and i was studying something i loved. a lot of people very much do not feel that way -- if you're struggling... :(
there was also nothing else i could've effectively studied. i am only competent in liberal arts. if i'd taken a STEM track, i'd have failed out or had a nervous breakdown from not understanding my classes. no joke.
advice, such as it is:
i was reading an article about the ratio of people who regret their degrees, and people tend to regret it the most due to two factors: debt obtaining it and hire-ability afterward. yeah, no surprises there.
for advice pertaining to your specific field, i'd ask your professors -- they had to go to grad school, obviously, so they'd be more knowledgeable about what it's like. if there are younger professors around, that might be more helpful, since their experiences would be more recent. unless the older ones have kept up with the times, a lot about the job market, and academia, has changed in the last 20 - 30 years. is there any teacher you'd feel comfortable talking about it with?
i'd also be clear to yourself on why you want to go to grad school. if you're already considering it, you probably have heard all this before/know it already, because grad school isn't a common thing -- i just have to say it anyway. i don't know why you, specifically, are struggling with undergrad or if you even want to disclose the reasons, but even though i'm primed for academia and was studying what i enjoyed, grad school was tough. in undergrad there's typically a lot more leeway, but in grad school they do not let anybody fuck around. everybody is an A student. they're dead serious, and you (general you) can get kicked out for poor performance, especially if you're getting money from the school to even be there. not to say you're the fuck-around-and-find-out-type -- i definitely wasn't -- just that it adds pressure. i didn't even go for the PhD but stopped at the MA track. so i would just advise caution in the deliberation. if debt is an issue, for example, and your chosen degree would only add to it, i would be very clear on the finances.
of course, take all this advice with the caveat that it's entirely based on my experiences and perspective, and i don't consider myself to be a very wise or practical person! i just muddle along.
#laventadorn replies#as always with advice i have no idea if this was helpful#i feel like i'm all doom and gloom here but i dont want to say 'oh yes it's fun!' and completely scrub out the huge commitment aspect#there are lots of grad school horror stories#i don't actually have any tho - other than the times i did cringe stuff#if you want me to counterbalance this with more details on how it was *nice* i can do that too!
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i hope this isn’t an intrusive question but do you think it’s worth getting your phd?
not an intrusive question at all! for me personally? yes, definitely! a lot goes into that though.
(this is my perspective as someone in a US doctoral program, some things that shape my opinions are different or irrelevant in other countries)
for one thing, i just genuinely really enjoy what i do day to day in the program, so it feels like a good way to spend 5+ years for that alone. a lot of people do phd programs because they need the degree for the jobs they want afterwards, but they don't like grad school. conversations i have with my peers in that position make it sound like they think it's worth it, but they have to remind themselves pretty much daily of why it's worth it, because they hate the process. by contrast, i just. think grad school is fun. it's hard in different ways from how college is hard, and it's isolating, and there's a lot of pressure because everyone around you is high-achieving, and you have to be super self-directed and deal with a lot of Academics With Issues all the time, and you're never really sure what is expected of you and whether it's expected of you right now or at some indefinite point later in the future when someone will randomly tell you "you're doing great but i notice that you've never done [huge thing you've never heard of], which makes you look kinda bad lol," and you spend a lot of time having existential crises.
but. i don't mind all that lol. i'm enthusiastic about what i'm researching, and i like being in a place with a lot of academic and artistic resources, and i like being around people who care about learning and share a lot of my values, and people here mostly get it about my pronouns/queerness in ways that i've had more trouble with in other kinds of settings, and tbh i enjoy the particular stresses of academia. so, on a day-to-day basis i'm having fun, which makes it feel more worth it to me than stuff that pays better or where you can see more immediate payoffs of your work or whatever.
(i'm also lucky that i'm in a department that has a good and supportive culture, which helps a TON. plus i love my advisor and have a great working relationship with her. that's huge. people who have bad relationships with their advisors have a much worse time and it's probably a lot less worth it for them)
financially, i'm in a field that is able to pay me in exchange for teaching. it's a kind of pathetic amount of money, but it at least takes care of most of my basic living expenses. that isn't the case for everyone in every field at every school, though, and the financial hit of making little to know money for at least a handful of years is definitely something to consider. i'm not guaranteed a job in my field after i finish the program, but there's a pretty good chance i'll be able to find something that pays me decently well when i'm done, which makes it somewhat more tolerable to be making so little now — the less security people feel that they'll be able to find something that pays better when they're done makes a huge impact on how worth it it probably feels to people. i also worked for a few years while living with family before starting my phd program, so i have a bit of savings to fall back on when the money i get from teaching can't cut it. people who come straight out of college are in a totally different position from me, especially depending on their field, and that will make a huge difference as to whether it's worth it.
the years spent working were also at a university, so i had a really good feel for what being in this environment would be like and if i could stand it for 5+ more years. it gave me some time to figure out if grad school was really the move for me, what kinds of jobs it would set me up for, if i would enjoy it while i was doing it, what things i needed in a program to be happy in it, etc. so that helps make it worth it; i picked a thing i knew i would like and that i knew would set me up for various trajectories i was interested in after finishing the program.
doctoral programs definitely give people a lot of skills, regardless of the type of program...whether that means that people will end up able to do things with those skills that they like/care about/value is a question. whether they really had to be in a phd program to get those skills is another question. but you sure will get hella skills lol
i also just. idk. value what i do. it's kind of fiddly little bullshit but i think it matters. or, i think it could matter. or, i don't care about things mattering as much i should. or, it matters to me. something related to that. anyway, that helps a lot too :p
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can I ask for ur thoughts on grad school and why u want to go cuz I’m getting so many conflicting opinions (and I guess I want one more? lol)
hahaa uhhh well. i might not be helpful here...i mean i didn't even think about grad school seriously until my senior year bc it felt so impractical but then i TA'ed and loved it and i liked working on my thesis and i've been working on these tár essays nonstop in my spare time and i love the work and a couple professors have told me i have the personality for it so.....
idk. grad school is generally Not A Good Idea logically if you're just looking at money or whatever (and a phd or masters is absolutely a scam if you have to pay for it by the way) and you gotta be super committed to the lifestyle and find a program with professors that you love but if you feel all that then like....idk don't count on getting a job in academia but? i just want to do it bc i love learning and i want to do it for the rest of my life and a phd will give me the tools i want to do that even if i end up going into a think tank or research for a newspaper or whatever the fuck you know?
lmao tldr i also got and still get a shit ton of conflicting opinions about it so i decided that i'm basically just saying fuck it and going after what makes me happy! which is apparently might be a phd in literature or film or gender studies (i'm p interdiscplinary at the moment lol) and it still kind of makes me want to throw up if i think about it too hard but fuck it we ball
tbh my only Advice not knowing anything abt anyone's situation is that if you're even thinking about it just try to get a bunch of recommendation letters from profs as soon as you can bc that's the hardest thing to get years down the line so just have them in the back pocket in case u know
#sorry this was an absollute word vomit i honestly don't know what i'm doing i'm just? following the path i seem to accidentally be on lol#who knows what even is my life at this point#answered#cluelesscher
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