The past month I’ve talking to many people about grad/professional school and goals and the like. Everyone I’ve talked is at various stages of degrees, from undergrads to almost finished PhDs. One conversation in particular inspired this post; someone was interested in completing a program because of the end result: a doctorate. I’m not convinced [...]

Last night, I received a rather peculiar email from the professor of the physics class I was taking. He wanted to know what my background was, because after checking my transcript (which seems like a weird move to me albeit I’m guessing legal), he found that there was no physics classes there. I explained things [...]

Summer school has picked up its pace, now that I’m in two classes. I’m lucky that the material is somewhat familiar; one of the nice things about education school is that I’ve encountered many of the idea before but am given space to think about them or hear the in more eloquent fashion. However, the [...]

My fall semester schedule has its good points and its bad points. I’m taking a dissertation proposal writing class, particle physics, a class on Web 2.0′s uses in the classroom, and a class on higher education. +I can return to Najmat’s class! -I have an incredibly busy Wednesday, consisting of 8 hours of class. +I’m [...]

Today I met with my surrogate advisor (a person who works in the engineering department with lots of physics ties) again to discuss dissertation stuff. Basically, coming up with a topic that I can complete within four years that is strong research. My actual advisor is very intelligent and helpful, but what I want to [...]

For my qualitative research project, I’ve been talking to physics students. Although I have a big pile of transcribing to do (2.5 hours of recorded goodness), I’ve begun noticing a pattern through the interviews. The pattern is a lack of confidence from the people I talked to. In my experience with physics, the culture lends [...]

Dr. Tae is featured on the front of the Chicago Reader website. I met him during my time in physics grad school; he was an adjunct professor. Because of his work on the Tony Hawk video game and his unique position of being both a physicist and skateboarder, the Reader decided to write about him. [...]

A huge difference between my education grad experience, thus far, and my experience in physics grad school is that I’m mostly by myself, without a pack. I have become accustomed to having the same group of classmates in my classes. Particularly in undergrad, where I was pretty close many people, it was nice to have [...]

Even with the holiday Monday, I feel ever so slightly behind on life. Photos and adjustments to my costume haven’t happened yet, because school, MassRaqs, and Bharatanatyam are taking up time. Yesterday, I had 6 hours back to back of lecture, which was a bit hard to sit through. Not impossible, but I was definitely [...]

As of Thursday, I have begun what should be my final degree: my doctorate. The last week has been a crazy rush of stuff. My thesis work from my masters was riddled with issues from the school and department, making my completion long and laborious beyond what it should have been. I honestly felt like [...]