1. Why did you go to grad school?

- I was teaching grade 2 in a private school for pennies, my mind was turning to gelatin, I was involved in campus/community radio and the radio folk would hang out in the grad student pub on campus. The grad students seemed to be having fun.

2. When did you go to grad school?

- I was 28 when I started.

2. What is a good reason to go to grad school?

- passion for your topic, need more intellectual challenges, you like the university environment, personal growth

3. What is a bad reason to go to grad school?

- to please your parents

4. What is the best state of mind to start grad school?

- I'm not sure you can choose your state of mind. You just do it. At the beginning of the program, it looked completely impossible to do, then you do it one step at a time. People are there to help you along the way, mostly, because they went through it. Sometimes you have to bleed..

5. What obvious and not so obvious things should I look for when choosing a program?

- funding funding funding...scholarship programs, grants, loans, jobs on campus. The grad school program that I am teaching in offers some funding to every student, these include TAships, research jobs, etc.

6. How on earth am I supposed to generate income?

- I guess the way you always have

Why did you go to grad school?

I was interested in medicine and engineering biology. This gives a few different career options, but after a fair bit of time working in a lab. After briefly considering the doctor route, I decided research was the right direction for me. I'm still not 100% set on research for life, but a PhD opens a lot of doors that a BA in biology only nudges a crack.

My other option was computing, but the current state of the bay area leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I saw those 1.3k enrollment numbers in CS and recognized that competition is only going up in an industry with eyes mainly for recent graduates. CS / IT pays well but plateaus quickly. Biology tends to have a lot more breadth in its sectors and depth to its careers.

When did you go to grad school?

Last year - now.

What is a good reason to go to grad school?

You are passionate about pursuing a research question. You enjoy independence and open projects. You want to ask questions that might not be answered on a private company's dime.

What is a bad reason to go to grad school?

You want to continue education. You want to make more money. You want to boost your resume.

What is the best state of mind to start grad school?

Excitement, you will only become more jaded after day 0. Also have an idea of fields / questions you would like to pursue, but don't expect to stick to them if they turn out not so great.

What obvious and not so obvious things should I look for when choosing a program?

Look first at the careers the program will enable for you. Look at the area that you may be making connections in. Look at both the individual labs and the program itself. I picked my school because the program itself seemed more invested in the students. The other school I was looking at felt like it had less organization and less of a community, which turned out to be incredibly important when I decided that the three candidate labs I had were all bad fits. Both had a great neighboring industry presence and I would not have considered them otherwise. Graduate school is partially about passion, but you have also got to be realistic about what it will give you.

Ask the students in the program and in the labs what they really think about it. You'd be surprised how many world-class PIs have students who hate working for them. Ask the officials what the average time to graduation is. If they don't tell you, it's probably above 6 years. Computer / soft-science work tends to be a bit quicker / less time per week, but lab work is much slower. Most time-to-graduation averages do not partition by computer vs. lab work, so keep that in mind.

How on earth am I supposed to generate income while simultaneously committing enough hours to my studies? During the school year in undergrad I worked usually less than 10 hours a week.

If you are in a PhD program, you will make a small but decent amount of money. It's not enough to go out and buy fancy cars or have a family, but it is usually enough to support yourself. Some schools match their stipend to the cost of living in the area, some don't. Some provide graduate housing that students can afford, some don't. Don't ever pick a program that you think will send you into debt. And graduate school is usually a poor choice if you are already having money troubles.

Expect to commit to the program as a full time job while you are in it. I work 40-80 hours / week and would not be able to handle any extra work outside of maybe selling hobby items online or maybe part-time tutoring / consulting in later years. This time goes to teaching, classes, and research year-round, with free time going first and foremost to activity that take care of my health.

Masters are a different beast that I can't really comment on.

I dropped out of grad school twice, so, you know, take this all with a grain of salt.

1. Why did you go to grad school?

I was dissatisfied with working in industry, and learning more math and computing were hobbies of mine.

2. When did you go to grad school?

At 28 and 32

3. What is a good reason to go to grad school?

Because despite the odds you want to work in academia.

4. What is a bad reason to go to grad school?

Because you don't like working in industry. I have been told that it used to be very different, but academia has most of the things that make working in industry suck now. Also, university administrators do not respond nearly as well to being told to fuck themselves as managers do.

5. What is the best state of mind to start grad school?

You are going to work your ass off and either pay for the privilege or be paid poorly. In return you get access to an institution's resources and people who know more about things you really want know more about than anyone else.

6. What obvious and not so obvious things should I look for when choosing a program?

Faculty working on something that interests you, or at least something you won't mind doing the grunt work for.

7. How on earth am I supposed to generate income while simultaneously committing enough hours to my studies? During the school year in undergrad I worked usually less than 10 hours a week.

Be an RA if you can, then you're getting paid to learn things, which is what you're there to do anyway. TA is easier to get, but it's a lot of boring work and very frustrating work. Never TA a calculus class.

SPRINGSKI MASTER RACE

Doneski!

yee welcome to the club :D

i love springski. i think it's very relaxing and makes me feel super positive when i come to hubski. everyone should switch to springski.

Please, Officeski. 'Cause when you're funemployed, offices seem like cool places.

The fact that you are a very accomplished musician who is not totally confident in your ability shows that you do not suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect and so are probably pretty damn good. :)

Thanks coffeesp00ns!

p.s. This post also reminded me of how great the theme song from Barney Miller was:

1. I'm in grad school now. I like going to school and my workplace is paying for my classes. It will help in my career choice, but it won't provide me with advancement. It will just enhance the skills I already have, which I suppose is a benefit for me and my workplace. I have always been in some sort of class or another most of my life. I jump at the chance to start a new class.

2. Not until my 40's.

3. I think a good reason to go to grad school is simply the desire to learn. Or, because it's required for your field.

4. Not for the paycheck.

5. Best state of mind? Interest. Be intensely interested in your chosen field of study and enjoy yourself, regardless of what you might think you will do with the degree.

6. I looked for the ability to take online courses, as well as the ability to spread the degree out over a long period of time.

7. I work full time and take one grad class at a time. I would love to quit work to go full time, but...life, and all.

Good luck. :)

coffeesp00ns, the way you described your endeavors with classical music sounds very Sisyphean. How do you break that circle? My guess is simply creating your own music on your own terms outside of that framework and enjoying the fact that you're that much better at it because of the skill and training that informs you...but maybe it's something else?

How is this for a new Hubski UI?

Interesting if it bears out. Unfortunately it doesn't seem as though the actual study can be viewed - by me anyway.

As a formerly obese person who must devote not insignificant attention to remaining fit, I would like to see more research as to why it is such an uphill effort. Just look at the relapse rates. My body does physiologically want to be obese again.

As to why it might be more difficult now than in past decades... Could be microbiome related. If so microbiome transplants might help. If this proves to be a concrete phenomenon, I'm more inclined to believe it could have more to do with compositional changes to staple foods. Obesogenic compounds might also be a thing.

The bottom line is folks seem to be having a really tough time controlling their weight, losing weight and a positively terrible time keeping lost weight off. The health benefits alone have made it well worth it for me. But there is an investment of time and attention that is honestly out of step with the expectations of the general population. I don't believe most people understand what they are up against when they embark on a significant weight loss that they of course wish to be lasting.