School

[vice]

going back to grad school to escape my current situation of a good job that i'm not fully interested in as well as the suburban hell it's trapped me in

[JewTurk]

Eagerly waiting for responses from grad schools.

Good news? Got my paper on unsupervised musical key estimation published at an IEEE conference.

Bad news? None of my graduate applications have it included and I can't append it in any way for most of them. Luckily my preferred program looks at my portfolio site, where I can include it, so that's relatively good. But all of my resumes are missing probably the most notable thing about me from an academic perspective, but oh well.

This'll be my second pub as an undergrad which I'm stoked about. But I'm more stoked on it being related to music informatics/music technology because that is where I see myself going for graduate school. Finger's crossed until March for now.

[brlmski]

thinking of taking some classes as a graduate non-matriculated student to decide if i want to take the full plunge later

[INNIT]

has anyone that has written a "statement of program/intent" for a phd program found it to be almost completely redundant? why i am outlining the contents of my dissertation when it's basically guaranteed that my research interests will change and that i am in no way bound to this document? like most things in academia, it just feels like an opportunity to posture and flex; maybe this negativity is a sign that i shouldnt go back yet

[titkitten]

i think its purpose differs discipline to discipline. in economics it’s barely read. some committees will skim just to make sure you aren’t crazy. you could ask a professor in your discipline what’s expected in the sop (or what it’s actually used for).

[norman]

Really hesitant to go back to school to finish up my bachelors. I'm only 20 credits away but when I left I was drinking so much that it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I've always despised formal education but I know it would be such a waste to put all the time in that I already have and get nothing out of it. Just not looking forward to seeing all my old teachers after 2 years and admitting I was a failure and couldnt cut it. sigh

[INNIT]

do i do my phd in edmonton where i will get crazy funding or montreal where i will get considerably less funding but ill live in montreal and not edmonton

[JewTurk]

Got pretty much waitlisted at my number one pick. They said my application is "on hold" for review and to expect a decision by April 1st. I can't find any acceptances on cafe grad for my specific program for this year. But from previous years I can see I compare pretty well save for being an American student. I guess the only difference is I wasn't asked if I would like to accept my position on the waitlist.

From what I've gathered from other Masters programs at this place they do waves of acceptance so I'm assuming the first wave went out and I wasn't in it so they e-mailed me to inform me of that. Most of the acceptances from previous years were later in March, as well.

I'm a little anxious about it mainly because I'm pretty sure I won't get immediately offered any stipend/RAship/TAship. But from talking to oterh students it seems with this program very few get offered an initial RAship or TAship and have to inquire with various labs about what positions are available. So maybe all hope is not lost on the funding front.

[106-2]

So one of my lecturers was so pleased with an essay I wrote that he's strongly suggested I should develop it further and try get it published!? What are anyone else's experience of the review process etc.? Still completely blindsided by this, as I don't think I could have really seen this coming as a second-year UG student.

p.s. if anyone fancies reading it pm me and can send a pdf maybe?

[bels]

what's the paper about

[106-2]

It's trying to explain the differential experience of power (along gendered, racialised etc. lines) through Zygmunt Bauman's idea of 'liquid modernity' and this specific quote from Deleuze and Guattari about 'hydraulic power'

[npuox]

I re,moved myslelf from school since the las time we have spoken and I am qutite happy to say it's not habening

[JewTurk]

Never got back to updating this, but, I went with the most financially beneficial program that still met all my own personal requirements/wants from the program. Reasonable size in my emphasis (70-100 in the program), a variety of research I'm interested in, a large percentage of students immediately get placed in a job in the field, and the school has a fairly strong network of job opportunities. I think ultimately this will be the best, the other more well-regarded program made me feel like an object that was only being considered for research output/performance and not so much my own personal goals for development. I'll be on a train to Rochester, NY in just under a month!

Super excited to say the least!

[INNIT]

there is no greater misery than being a sessional instructor.

[JewTurk]

9 of the 30 credits required for my M.S. degree got accepted as transfer credits from my motherother university. I'll finish in two semesters, wild.

I feel like I invested so much mental energy in just getting accepted to graduate school and moving here and to find out it'll be over so quick feels kind of like a waste? I feel like I might as well jump ship to the PhD program while I'm here. Not sure if I feel that way out of comfort or what... I feel like I barely have enough time to make it worth forming a social circle.

I applied for some longer (6 month) work co-ops on the east coast to maybe delay my graduation a bit.

[fun_yunchables]

i just finished my phd (cool i'm dr. funyuns now) and lemme give u my thoughts

if ur paying for ur masters just graduate asap imo

the phd is a huge mental burden and honestly if i wasn't so goddam stubborn i probably wouldnt have finished mine. unless u want to work in research or a field that requires phd, there's really no payoff other than ur satisfying ur own curiosity, and lemme tell u, u'll leave the program with more questions than answers...

im jaded but if i were in ur shoes i'd:
1. graduate asap
2. find a job + start investing!!!
3. enjoy ur 20s while u still can
4. hydrate and use sunscreen

if u r still curious abt a phd you can always do it later. investing money earlier is at this point more important and honestly i wish i had more money/was smarter to invest earlier

[kickingthefly]

-i've always thought academia ludicrously overrated, unless you're going into that world yourself.
-will you enjoy your 20s more in school or actually doing a job? enjoyable + decnetly paid jobs are not so easy to come by (im not talking about working for some bs tech company mission statement here)
- we prob need to consult uncle bela, but investing right now seems very tricky. it seems common sense to me not to rush into shares after a 10 year bull market.

[bels]

You're probably still better off putting the money into a low yield cash savings account 5 years ago, rather than putting the same amount in high performing shares in 5 years time, surely? Anything else is just trying to time the market.

[INNIT]

whenever i have a "job" (notice how we all define job as big girl/boy free market privatized i work for a company, "JOB"; the 14 hours per day phd students work to meet deadlines and maintain grants/funding is NOT A JOB) i just want to be in university
whenever im in university i just want to have a job (that is, i want the free time that 9-5s afford aka i want to work less hard)

i do think that academia is a bit overrated (except everyone actually shits on academia so maybe its not), but i also do not like the conventional wisdom of "just get a job" because it reeks of the most normative way to achieve happiness that i can possibly imagine (i.e. make money become "stable"). that said, i do think students should take breaks between degrees and at least test the waters.

[kickingthefly]

yeah im with yunchables on this, i do think avoiding corporate life is a privilege- it's not one i can afford (at least the way i want to live). like i work at an art gallery, but to maintain even a (to me) decent life in a european capital i do various corporate side hustles. this explains why all star curators are white people in artisanal glasses frames: they're mostly fairly intellectually inert but guess what teen friends, wealth privilege is real and thriving.
i think my point is, i take a perverse pride in the fact i can do ok in the grubby corporate world, this could also be a brown thing (corporate wealth rinsing as act of brown self care)

[INNIT]

ah, fair enough. i guess i was thinking "why is a job a corporate job" because this attitude obviously devalues other kinds of labor (working class, intellectual, etc.). but yeah, i understand how, as you and yunchable pointed out, privilege factors in and many people are precarious and just need the various benefits that corporate life affords. still, im not convinced "get a job" isnt a form of cruel optimism.

edit: rhizomatic

[kickingthefly]

i used to tell artists who complained their conceptual work had zero sales value/part time 'adjunct lecturer' jobs were shit that they should get into plumbing/electricals as a side gig. but lets face it no sensitive teen is going to actually do that.

[weqe]

thought i'd have fun and take interesting creative classes this semester and it turn out they're even more work than boring writing stuff !

[vice]

really regretting going back to grad school now after being reintroduced to the background anxiety of always having work to do, and the acute anxiety leading up to exams

[JewTurk]

After the first semester of grad school, I'm pretty stoked to be looking at the finish line so close. I definitely don't want to stay in academia unless it's involved with something more pure maths.

Got a job as an ML engineer at a company in Boulder, CO. I'll get to live somewhere I've always wanted to live doing work that I'm interested in. I'm unbelievably less stressed now. And I'll have the flatirons in my backyard to climb.

/woohoo/ dreams do come true. I was getting nervous I'd be taking a job at a defense company or something of the like.

[weqe]

could do tech writing all summer could translate east german sci fi n not have to pay two rents how important are internships rly

[brlmski]

i feel like i gotta go back to school to advance down my current career path but i don’t wanna

[can-]

can’t wait to be done w school !!! 14 months

[popcorn]

just finished my undergrad civil engineering degree at microsoft teams university,
this feedback on my philosophy independent study is maybe the best I felt in my 4 years?

wish I could hug december 2017's noah

[vice]

finished first year of electrical engineering grad school and got all A's. i know grades don't really matter for phd's but i feel good knowing that i have a good handle on material that i'm gonna need for the next few years.