School

[weqe]

internship got canceled but I won a fellowship to translate east german sci fi so that's pretty tight. hoping I don't go too crazy being trapped inside not interacting w people but it should be cool !

[can-]

Remote learning sucks

[titkitten]

@can- or anyone else going through remote learning...

what can professors do to make it better? i'm starting my first semester as a professor and i need to teach an undergrad course. my school is all online for the coming semester and i'm stressed out of my mind trying to find a way to make online learning engaging and educational.

i'm not pretending i'd be either with in-person format, my teaching reviews so far has been pretty average/mediocre, but being online is definitely an added challenge.

(we aren't allowed to really have video lectures because the university is concerned about accessibility, e.g. someone may have bad internet, so the video streaming i'll be doing will have to be optional for the students, which is a whole other wrinkle.)

[UnwashedMolasses]

I'm running through an accelerated nursing course right now so I'm finishing up my summer semester. Condensing 14-week classes into 5 weeks is tough enough (MedSurg and Psych) but doing it all of it and the clinicals remote has been especially hectic. The first class was taught very well for a remote class and the second one we had to have a coordinated meeting with the professors to have them change how they were teaching it.

For us (in nursing at least), one of the biggest issues is narrowing the scope of the material. I don't know what subject you're teaching but it sounds like you're in a similar situation to what we are, which is basically no lectures at all, even on video. My professors have been doing recorded lectures over the powerpoints for the various chapters. The biggest complaint my classmates have had with our harder class is that the scope of the material is very wide, and the powerpoints and lectures basically just give overview of the chapters to read, without providing any framework for studying or for understanding what material is the priority. This resulted in us basically having to self-teach, and when that's 13 chapters in a week, it's incredibly stressful as a student.

What our first class and professor did really well was that he did pretty long recordings - typically almost an hour - over the material, and he a) presented it in a similar manner he would have in a class, not just reading it off of the slides, and b) he made it very clear what information was going to be generally useful, what information would be on the NCLEX but not on the exam, and what information we specifically needed to make sure we knew for the exam.

Without the ability to be in the classroom with the constant dialogue that creates between teacher and student, that was what most of my classmates have complained about - without any feedback on what stuff's the most important, it feels like everything is important to know, and the stress that creates is detrimental to learning any of the material at all.

The main general thing I would say is to be available to your students for questions, whether that's through e-mail or whatever web portal y'all use. With the isolation and distance and all that it makes waiting several days for an e-mail back about the material much more frustrating than it would be otherwise. Telling your students to reach out to you about anything and then showing them that you'll actually read their questions and get back to them quickly goes a long way for developing that trusting relationship that you would otherwise be developing in the classroom.

I hope this isn't too specific to nursing and that you're able to get some use out of it, but if not, I'm sorry

[brlmski]

i had committed to applying for grad school this year but quitting my stable job seems like a terrible decision. possibly it’s just another excuse though...

[schiaparelli]

i had committed to applying for grad school this year but quitting my stable job seems like a terrible decision. possibly it’s just another excuse though...

i don't know what your finances are like, your job prospects, your hopes and dreams, how you feel about your (currently) stable job vs the prospect of an uncertain but thrilling commitment to your academic/creative/intellectual dreams, however—

i just gave notice two weeks ago to go to grad school in the fall and i feel very at peace with leaving my secure job for a humanities MA that is unlikely to improve my earning potential at all. life is of uncertain length and i didn't want to postpone something very personally important to me out of fear. i really wanted to dedicate a year of my life to reading, writing, research, study, &c and i decided the risk was worth it for me.

also, emotionally: i also couldn't postpone something that's been a deeply-held dream of mine for one more year of fretful security. i found this quote on another forum, ages ago: money isn't the only thing that compounds. other things that compound: intellectual efforts towards things you care about. emotional labor invested in friends and loved ones. anxiety and self-hatred from denying something important to yourself. fear.

[fun_yunchables]

outside of economic reasons --

one of my most fond memories of grad school wasn't necessarily the work itself (although the freedom to pursue ur own research interests is soooo nice).
i loved coffee hours and having discussions on all sorts of things with students in all sorts of different departments. being able to mingle with people who are essentially pushing the boundary of human collective knowledge is, imo, an incredible opportunity! idk how it plays out in the covid work from home kind of era, but ya -- working inside a company is pretty one-tracked (and largely dominated by one kind of universal thought).

[weqe]

gonna be a real great time graduating this winter, impending collapse of the us in a corona/eviction crisis aside idk who's planning on hiring technical writers when 40+% unemployment hits. should have studied agriculture or something lmao

[popcorn]

Just got the offer to interview with the company I've most wanted to work with, in the city, since I heard about the company this Winter, 2 weeks before the city shut down.
There aren't many architectural-engineering companies at all, and I definitely fit with this one.
The principal I was just talking to was *very* warm though, made a comment about me being way ahead of the curve with soft skills and whatnot, and said "that's a sophisticated concern" after one of my questions.

This, all, has been going way, way better than I expected; for myself and for the matter that the city is still healing. Or alternatively the city is not healing, because America likes to enjoy its global economic hegemony by leaving half of the city under imminent threat of eviction.

Anyway. This is also my first interview for a structural engineering company, so now I'm worrying my pretty little head about technical questions and experience with engineering projects (I did one internship, most people do two, and mine didn't really trust me with design work).
I feel like a basketball player who's too short for point guard- I'm great at a lot of things, but I'm also missing something very important.

[INNIT]

remote teaching is fucking stressful

[mooncorp]

i wrote a note to myself the other day, it started like

i really want to drop out of school
i cant commit
lol
fml

it ended like

i want to show my commitment and discipline because school will really help me shine. i know i can do it all. this is my life. i am living my life. i am unhappy with the way i have been living my life, but i am in control to change all of that. to be aware. to practice awareness, to reach the truth.
i am in control. i know what i need to do. i will do it. future me has my back always.

[archangel666]

anyone have experience writing Statement of Purposes..? I don't even know what the purpose of existence is... jk. but really. why are we still here?
im applying to grad School, if anyone could maybe give me some pointers on my sop or just in general examples of successful sop.. that would be greatly appreciated.

[rjbman]

why are we here?

it's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? why are we here? are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? or is there really a god watching everything, with a plan for us and stuff? i dunno, but it keeps me up at night

what? i meant why are we out here, in this canyon?

[INNIT]

anyone have experience writing Statement of Purposes..? I don't even know what the purpose of existence is... jk. but really. why are we still here?
im applying to grad School, if anyone could maybe give me some pointers on my sop or just in general examples of successful sop.. that would be greatly appreciated.

If you're applying to a grad program in the Arts/Humanities, the statement is just pure posturing. You basically just make up a bunch of stuff and give fake chapter break downs and such. If you're interested in any fields that are trendy rn name drop them. Even if you aren't interested in those fields, name drop them. If you've won any grant money mention that (the less the school has to worry about funding you, the higher your chances of getting admitted; this game is about CASH). Make sure the whole thing is drenched in fake sincerity and give an emotional yet tasteful account of your "academic journey." Awkwardly email professors from the institution that you're applying to and ask them if they will supervise you and then if they say yes mention that in the statement. actually, just name drop as many profs in the department that you're applying to as possible. one of them will be on the graduate studies committee and will be flattered and will admit you. Get a professor from undergrad to look it over.

disclaimer: my statements all had like a 50% success rate and the entire process seemed completely random.

[titkitten]

anyone have experience writing Statement of Purposes..? I don't even know what the purpose of existence is... jk. but really. why are we still here?
im applying to grad School, if anyone could maybe give me some pointers on my sop or just in general examples of successful sop.. that would be greatly appreciated.

I think it’s highly dependent on your field and you should try to ask (as many as possible) people on your field who have done it themselves (e.g. grad students you know, professors, etc). If you’re applying for economics, you can pm me. I also know a few chemists if you want me to connect them with you haha

Although in general what INNIT said was right, it’s a very inconsequential part of the file for most programs as far as I can tell.

[JewTurk]

Pulse check on the school people:

Anyone have any changes in their career path this year? I've only been doing industry stuff for almost a year now and I'm already ready to go back to school. I just don't know if I can justify the career outcomes that are most likely. I can't tell if my desire to be back in school is a comfort move or what. I just enjoy math so much it's the only thing that keeps my attention these days.

I think if I went and did adjunct positions I would float between contracts and indefinitely and have to move to a different state every 2-3 years and be putting almost nothing into retirement/savings. I don't see how that could be a sustainable pursuit. And then the threat of my department shuttering on short notice would be forever in the back of my head...

[sonofjacob]

desperately trying to get into grad school to try to switch from engineering to software/data science. maybe a bad move job security-wise but i can't see myself ever enjoying working at a traditional engineering firm. getting through these last few semesters of soil mechanics and concrete structural design has been painful..

applying strictly to course-based programs to stay as far away as possible from actual academia though

[kickingthefly]

i have to give a reference to someone for grad school (art & politics), i dont suppose anyone has any pointers or examples pls? like i dont even know how much i'm supposed to write... a paragraph? a page??