Carnival of GRADual Progress, 21st edition

17Sep08

Welcome to the 21st Carnival! I have to apologize for being so far behind; I have no real excuses. This edition of the carnival covers the past two months: the end of another summer and the beginning of yet another school year. Anomie has volunteered to do October’s carnival (thanks so much!) but any volunteers for the months after are always appreciated. So here we go…

Advice

Over at Almost Me (PhD), Tanya posted a great series over the course of July and August called “How to Survive Graduate School.” She discusses important resources for graduate students and the importance of time management and structure, among other things. The series has five parts, so make sure to catch all of them.

La rebelde shares some writing advice, courtesy of one of her professors.

Anomie has written a great post discussing suggestions for surviving the academic job search. Be sure to read the comments as well.

Academic worries

Over the past two months, there’ve been a lot of posts about dissertating. The Queen of West Procrastination is finding the transition back into thesis-writing after years of coursework a bit difficult. Sisyphus is in the last phases of dissertating but still finds it difficult to keep working on the finishing touches. Anastasia wonders just how long her dissertation is supposed to be.

A fairly common experience for graduate students is money troubles. Amanda at A Lady Scientist has compiled an extensive list of money saving tips when it comes to food, an area where it can be so easy to go wrong.

With another school year started, a few graduate student bloggers have written about the anxieties they feel towards teaching. Anastasia worries about losing a few students who are unable to keep up with the material and wonders whether the entire class is lost.

Work habits

Creating a daily routine and structure is probably one of the best ways to write a dissertation relatively quickly, or so people tell me. It’s obviously much easier said than done. I’ve really been struggling with sticking to a research schedule. Anomie has taken more serious measures and she’s turned a room in her house into a designated study space to kickstart her fall work.

It may be important to work steadily but working too much can often have the same effect as not working enough. Psycgirl’s putting an end to “marathon work days” to avoid burnout.

Final words…

Congratulations to FemaleCSGradStudent for finishing her PhD. Incidentally, she’s started a new blog over at Dr. T.

Filed under: carnival of gradual progress   |  2 Comments