Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I just scheduled my USMLE Step 1 Exam. The most important exam of med school! *dies*

June 21, 2013.

First year MPH student. Still figuring out what I want to do with my life...

Yay MPH!

Okay, I am ridiculously excited about this but I know no one else in the world is except maybe other students so: that homework that I pulled an all-nighter to finish? I just got my grade on it and I got 100%!

Of course, I am working on the next assignment for this same class and it is just a forking slog and I am getting a cold and all I want to do is lie on the couch and feel sorry for myself but the grad machine does not stop for sniffles, dammit.

I wish I was in this guy's department. I bet he is really a great thesis advisor.

Go coldandsleepy!

That's great! Now take care of that cold - even brilliant people need to look after themselves!

:)

Aaaand back to the crushing lows of grad school... I've been diligently working on the next assignment for the hard class literally since the moment it was posted. I'm less than halfway done it and pretty much out of time. Unless I want to stay up all night tomorrow to finish it!

How am I going to make this work once things start being due for my other two classes?

A bunch of stuff is going wrong with my dissertation project, and my advisor is a super hero at making me feel better about finding ways to still work with what I have & moving forward instead of getting stuck in the mire of horrible, horrible, horrible data. (I still wanted to crawl into a cave to hide out and cry all day, but I still felt better after our talk than I did before.)

Dear girl in my one class, just because you are in your final semester of coursework before starting your dissertation does not mean you get to talk down to me, or anyone else. We're both students in the same class, we are peers. This is not my first class in the program, I have 2 grad degrees, get over yourself. </rant>

So the big final part of my degree is a group project we're doing for a client. One of the members of my 3-person group is not doing a great job--just seems completely inept despite the coursework we've both had on the subject, and not spending nearly as much time on things as he needs to. Not sure what the issue is, but it's making me really, really stressed.

And I'm trying to plan a meeting with my adviser and a group member who's slacking so we can all discuss timelines and work schedules, and I have texted him twice and emailed him twice in the past 2 days trying to set up this meeting for Friday, and he's just not responding. I REALLY don't know what to do, because he needs to get things (what he's supposed to be doing and how often he should be doing it) figured out or we are all going to be screwed.

Choose a date and time that works for everyone else and just tell him that's when it is (since you couldn't get any feedback from him previously), and if he can't make it, you'll let you advisor know that he didn't participate in scheduling and then couldn't make it? That lets him know that you're dead serious about planning a time, and lets you know if he gives a shiitake at all.

Good luck. I forking hate group work pretty much all the time for reasons like this, but it is part of life.

I found him and asked him in person! I have a feeling he didn't really want to meet, and that's why he was avoiding my emails and texts.

Anyway, the meeting is mostly happening because I've told my adviser that I think he needs a hard schedule and deadlines. I am hopeful that this will be a turning point, but every time I've given this guy the benefit of the doubt it hasn't really turned out well.

Ugh, full course load with trillions of group projects and somehow I am supposed to find time to write my thesis (rough draft due in five weeks and I've got <1000 words written), not to mention I need to move to Calgary for six weeks for placement and I have nowhere to stay.

Yeah!

My advisor made me feel super shitty at the start of term by saying I would find it really really hard because I'm not a lawyer (I have a social sciences background and am now studying in a law school) but I totally showed him! Two distinctions and a merit! Feeling pretty chuffed right now.

Aaaand he texted me 10 minutes before the meeting from his girlfriend's phone saying he couldn't make it to campus. Beyond pissed off. Adviser and I wrote a strongly-worded email saying he needs to get a move on things. Pretended it was just from her, so it seems a little more official.

She's going to talk to the project coordinator to see what we can threaten him with--he needs this project to graduate, so the stakes are high.

Jeez Louise. I am so glad your advisor has your back on this. Just hearing about this guy's behavior is frustrating me.

High five! That is awesome!

I think I do better in classes where a person authoritatively tells me I have no chance of doing well. Underdoggin'!

Thanks, c&s!

I am finishing my MA in Comparative Literature this spring (I hope). I've applied to some PhD programs, and am waiting to hear the good or bad news. I had an interview with my number one pick on skype, so I am extra flustered at all times. I am distracting myself by trying new recipes--I will be attempting the PPK's Sunflower Mac this weekend, and will go get started on my own peanut-sesame soba right now....

I think I may know that girl's pretentious cousin! :D

Oh dear, so sorry to hear you're having trouble. Hang in there! Data mostly sucks (don't I know it), but you'll manage to mine a dissertation out of there, 'cause you're awesome!

I've been avoiding the graduate thread, because most of you folks seem to get so much more work done than I do, it's depressing. Maybe I should just start writing a cookbook rather than a dissertation, since I spend so much time reading and making recipes, I might as well put my money where my mind is... Oh well, slowly ploughing on, my PhD project is interesting and important and all that. Just wish it wasn't so much boring hard work sometimes.

Second term of grad school is much easier than the first. Yay! I can't believe how quickly the term is passing by. Also, I got my supervisor's permission to take an extra term on my MRP. As long as immigration stuff works out I'll be ready to conquer this masters degree.

I am irritated because I spent a long time working on a problem and the grader gave me 0 points on the question. I feel like I should've gotten at least partial credit on it, but the grader pretty much said "because your final output (an almost 300 number long matrix) doesn't exactly match mine, you get no points."

Vexing.

Heartless!

Was the problem your method or writing in the wrong values? (e.g. should've been 8, 11, 96 and you accidentally wrote 8, 11, 69)