I Guess I Could Mention
That since I started this whole grad school thing, there have been Major Changes in my department. When I first started, I was welcomed with open arms by Maureen, the Queen of Recreational Studying, an excellent mentor, a friend, a scholar in her own right (her work on Ren Faires and auctions is the stuff of legend. No, I'm not kidding.) She was everything you'd want your grad advisor to be.
When my world exploded that first winter, she was there to pat my arm and help me through it. When APA style was utterly baffling to me, she explained it in layman's terms so it made sense the first time. And again the second time when I couldn't remember. All was well until some bureaucratic bullshit went on and with almost no notice, she was forced into early retirement.
Now I'm stuck with Mr. Heyman, who is not a very good teacher, has no idea about how the university works for grad students and with whom (obviously) I have not bonded much. That just doesn't help.
Maureen is still helping with my thesis but in the end, my fate is up to Mr. Heyman. Maureen was replaced as Dept. Chair by a lady who still hasn't introduced herself to us. Didn't come into a class, didn't set up a reception, nothing. So as the wine cooler guys used to say, Thanks For Your Support.
4 Comments:
A crappy advisor is the French kiss of death. Or rather, it will make you wish you were dead. Or at least anywhere but dealing with him. Still, if Maureen is helping with your thesis, you should be in good shape. My experience has shown me that the bopita people will sign off with no problem if you have a go ahead from someone key who knows what he or she is talking about. Having someone to support the process is key; it can be Maureen, or another grad school person or whomever. Just so that you have someone on your side. I'd ignore the other guy and just do what you're doing: easing into working on things and seeing how it goes. Good for you. :)
1:17 PM
Advisors really do make or break things.
What I would advise, based on my experiences in Grad School and what you've posted recently, is to investigate if you could apply anything from what you've done to the degree you actually want.
I know, I know...it would see a bit odd to get a degree in Rec and English, but then you would still have the English degree. It turned out that doing the dual degrees that I did saved me about 33 credit hours (as opposed to doing them seperately).
Check it out. Find people who are in the program you really like and ask them who they go to for advice and who they think are good professors. That served me VERY well as I confirmed last night talking with three other grads of my same school (BSchool@ucd). They didn't and got stuck with bad profs.
Enough of the typical DanRamble(tm).
Love ya, Support ya, know you can do anything you put your mind to!
-dTb
5:17 PM
I would've done that all along except that SJSU doesn't let you dual enroll in grad school. Besides, I'd be about 6-7 classes + a monstrous exam + a project away from an English Master's. There is no way I'd pull all that off while Murray is young. Or that I'd even want to be away from her that much.
So it's either abandon the 2.5 years I've put into this degree, or finish it as soon as I can (meaning in however long it takes me without going insane). For now, I'll just continue working on the thesis I've already got countless hours and 43+ pages into, see where that takes me.
If it brings me back to a place where I still don't care to finish, then it does. But I should try.
5:25 PM
How many of those classes could be remote learning or are they all in-person?
Remember, Yvonne didn't go back to school until brohem and I were older. Just because the Murrita would be growing up doesn't mean that you can't still do SOMETHING. Hell, that is why you should always raise kids in teams.
I'd say to either decided to (very) slowly get the English degree as well and go ahead and finish up the current thesis now OR just finish up the current thesis. You KNOW you won't get it done once she is born.
Seriously...if you are this excited about her lovely toes (and rightly so, I might add), how much more distracted are you going to be once she is bouncing around?
Do what brings you the most happiness.
10:28 PM
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