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recent entries "Leading MTL to Glory" "Learning to Sail"
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May 07, 2008 PRO- crastinationToday I attended a gathering of grad students that probably won’t happen again until commencement… or maybe the next free BBQ. The comic book hero of grad students, Jorge Cham, was on campus to give a talk about the ‘power of procrastination’ and as a dutiful grad student, I’m trying to unleash that power… even though “I should be doing research”. If you were there, and you probably were if you’re a grad student, then you’d know what I’m talking about. Actually, I really am going to try to make this quick, because I REALLY should be doing research. That said it was good to step out for an hour and get a “survivor’s” point of view. Dr. Cham (yeah, surprising, he graduated) littered his talk with references to his comics in an effort to promote procrastination as a good thing. Personally, this is one grad student who he doesn’t have to convince. I wouldn’t be surprised if students go on to use what they learned while procrastinating more than what they learned from their research… But, for those who do need convincing, one part of the talk stood out to me…so much so that I wrote it down. (Btw, all grammatical correctness left my fingers the moment IM and text messaging became commonplace… but that’s for another post). The part of the talk that stood out for me was when Jorge posted the results of a UC-Berkeley conducted study on the pressures of grad student lives. The results of the study showed that: - 95% of grad students feel overwhelmed - 67% feel depressed - 10% had thoughts of suicide - 1 out of 200 students actually attempted suicide at one point Pretty sobering stats. I’m pretty terrible at stuff like this, like when they ask you to estimate the number of jelly beans in a jar; you know there are a lot, but you never thought there were THAT many. Same thing here for me, I never would’ve guessed a number so high. It’s surprising. It’s surprising to me because I think of grad student life as a vacation from real life. Yes we get paid next to nothing. Yes we have to do some research that may never work. Yes we have no windows in our lab, but… that part of it really isn’t much different than the real working world… with the exception of the salary of course. What IS different, rare and what you’ll hopefully appreciate at some point is TIME. Let me say it again. TIME. You are the owner of your own TIME. Until you retire, or are wealthy enough to choose to, you probably won’t have the luxury of setting your own schedule and doing the spontaneous. They say time is money, I happen to agree. I think we’re pretty lucky and wealthy as grad students… we just need to learn how to spend our ‘wealth’ on enough of the things we enjoy to realize it. I sometimes forget this too… until I get that call from a friend who’s already been working for 5 hours asking: “Did you just wake up?” In any case… to the grad student community at large… enjoy yourself!! I think even your advisor would say the same. So much for quick… I guess if I didn’t write this, someone else would’ve… but they’re probably just putting it off right now ;).
11 Responses To This Entry:Post A Response
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hah! i was going to write one about that talk, but i saved it for later…
Posted by: Laura on May 8th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Wow, it sounds like grad students are very depressed, suicidal folk. Maybe if they paid you guys more, it would cheer you all up!
How much DO grad students get paid, anyways?
Posted by: ninja on May 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
100K, not including the bonus. That’s what you get paid, right Fred?
Posted by: Ivan on May 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
You nailed it. It’s too bad it’s just 100K for your whole stay and not 100K/yr.
Posted by: fchen on May 11th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
ooooh, so $25K/year, roughly?
Does that include room and board?
Posted by: ninja on May 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
No, it doesn’t. And it’s a little rougher than $25K. But if you count our fully-covered tuition, it’s quite a bit more. Plus I heard that we’re going to be getting a dental plan soon. But I won’t believe it ’till my teeth are sparkling and they’ve plugged me so full of novocaine that I’ll accept anything they say without a fight.
Totally agree on the time thing, Fred!
Posted by: tgolfinopoulos on May 20th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Wait… tuition is FREE? *blink blink*
Is that always the case for grad schools?
Posted by: ninja on May 20th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
it’s pretty much the case for engineering grad schools… for the most part, if you’re not going to professional school (i.e. med, law, mba) you’ve got a decent shot at some funding
Posted by: fchen on May 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am
oh yeah, btw, i can’t wait for my teeth to get sparkling clean too…
Posted by: fchen on May 21st, 2008 at 10:03 am
DO graduate students get paid well. I think they should. But i dont think it is enough.
I agree one should save money for rough times, but how much you save depends on you.
Pointed agreed..Still i think you should ask for a raise.
Posted by: jitesh on May 23rd, 2008 at 12:38 pm
i agree, i would rather be here than in cubicle 13!
Posted by: jjohnson on May 27th, 2008 at 9:06 pm