August 03, 2005
Surviving Graduate School. From the February 2005 issue of Physics World. This is really for physics graduate students, but it seems general enough for other disciplines.
I thought it was a little biased towards experimentalists, but some things also are very applicable to theory; e.g. my personal favorite is "Don't make it better than necessary." This was the single hardest thing for me to accept and I would not have made it out without resigning myself to it.
You can also share "the most important thing you learned in graduate school." The odd thing is that he's a philosopher! Whaa?
Three things that I wish I knew before coming here:
* Asking a lot of questions early on and appearing stupid initially saves yourself from looking really stupid later on.
* Investigating a potential advisor's personality before joining a group is at least as important as investigating the research area.
* Teflon stir bars melt at 330 C.
In a semi-related note, my new favorite quote from the Simpsons:
Bart: I was so bored, I cut the ponytail off of the guy in front of us. (Holds it to the back his head) Look at me, I'm a grad- student. I'm 30 years old and made six-hundred dollars last year.
Marge: Bart! Don't make fun of grad-students. They just made a terrible life choice.
Well, I can't say enough for nanocindy's second comment, except to add the note that let's say you do look it up and the report is bad: believe it and don't think you're going to be stronger than all that and you'll persevere and it will be different for you. Because maybe you're lazier than you think.
The most important thing I have learned so far is to listen to everyone you meet and find out what they know. At this point I think I can pretty much operate every kind of bloody microscope on this campus (not that that's entirely a good thing) and it's because someone suggested one idea that led to another that led to more...and someday it might turn into a paper, who knows? But knowing what's available and who operates/owns it has saved me plenty of time in the long run.
Bart: A new assistant professorship just opened up...at the University of PSYCH!
i certainly agree with "Don't make it better than necessary," as I am sure ex-Professor Martinez does. also known as publish, then modify/improve or risk having published no papers and being up for tenure review. Doh!
The article was sort of geared towards experimentalists. what would be the theoretical analog of "Build in the centre of the room"? Set up your desk in a nice corner of 9.222 in case you will have to qualify while still officing there?
great simpsons comments...they're goin' up on the door
Why don't you guys ever post stuff like this on the physics BB (physics people that is).
Well, a good word of advice for theorists, somewhat analogous to 'build in the center of the room' is to constantly be reading, and constantly be checking this site for stuff that you might be interested in doing, even if the papers don't make sense at first--it will at least give you an idea about what to look up and learn.
In essence, learn what you need to know to get to where you want to go, rather than focusing too much on some topic too early--you'll need to branch out your knowledge a ton in order to really get a feel for what's going on
once again, would have been wonderful on the physics BB.
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I reposted that article on the physics BB, thanks.
posted by splatnikGanglion at 11:40AM CST on August 03