Now try the agony of not being in grad school.
You know I think I shall always wish to be a student.
The Agony of Grad School
21–27 of 27 posts
Re: The Agony of Grad School
#22Re: The Agony of Grad School
#23The author sounds extremely stressed. To some extent, this is the big learning of the PhD program that I learned a touch too late : be self directed and manage your time. This line jumped out at me "I could not concentrate. There was too much noise and interruption in my head." I think that there are a variety of meditation techniques that could help you. There is a feedback loop in the brain and I recently saw a talk from a stanford prof detailing how certain kinds of meditation can actually reinforce the executive control process in the brain. The basic types were concentrating on something (e.g. breath) or concentrating on nothing... Here is the substance of the talk by the same fellow : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6Q0G1iHBI Good luck, keep cool and find a good task management program!
Re: The Agony of Grad School
#24Grad school for me is like this: class, sleep, write, and no social life. I question some of the assignments, but find the content interesting. I just wonder sometimes what other people (ladies) my age are doing. I assume marriage, dating, or having children. I do not think of myself as abnormal for not taking that route, but instead realize I just do not have time for these things at the moment.
I feel similarly. But I worry that I'll wake up one morning and be 50, not having stopped feeling that way.
Re: The Agony of Grad School
#25Once you get past the initial 2 years of classes, grad school (PhD) is the exact opposite: virtually no interruptions, with vast blocks of time to manage as you will. I often go a few days without having a single interruption -- no meetings, no phone calls, no other annoying tasks to break my concentration.
This is one of the greatest things about grad school, and I think unique among most professions -- I'll miss it once I graduate and have to find a "real" job.
Re: The Agony of Grad School
#26I feel bad for the guy, but I think his problem is a bit of a personal issue. He should seek out help from a doctor on how to manage his attention disorder. Lots of people make it through graduate school while teaching and taking multiple classes. It isn't easy, but it certainly isn't impossible.
I agree. The default first year for many students requires 3 core courses, not to mention prep time for a qualifying exam or two. I've increasingly noticed that I can only handle 3 activities in grad school: 3 classes and no research, 1 class and some research, 0 classes and lots of research, or 1 job, 1 class, and little research.
Re: The Agony of Grad School
#27Now try the agony of not being in grad school.
Did you find the work world even more time-fragmented than grad school? Hmm, the post comes down to saying that grad school is run on the manager's schedule rather than the maker's schedule. http://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
> Did you find the work world even more time-fragmented than grad school?
Precisely. (Though I know of grad school only through second-hand accounts, it still sounds like Valhalla when compared with nearly any kind of ordinary work I can think of.)