A Tale of Perseverance: Overcoming Challenges in Graduate School

[Moonbear]

3 months is 13 weeks or 65 working days. If I were you, I would make sure I was the first person to arrive and the last person to leave on every single one of those 65 days.

Working days? Grad school doesn't operate on 5-day weeks. I'd suggest being the first to arrive and last to leave for every single one of the 90 days of this second chance. If that doesn't cut it, then it's time to face up to needing to find a change of path. You started out young, and people change as they mature. You might just realize in a few years that getting kicked out of grad school was the best thing that ever happened to you when you find something you really enjoy so much more.

 

[Borek]

3 months is more than 90 days, unless you happen to start before March 1^st on a non-leap year

 

[Vanadium 50]

Working days? Grad school doesn't operate on 5-day weeks.

I figured I'd let him ease into it.

 

[Moonbear]

3 months is more than 90 days, unless you happen to start before March 1^st on a non-leap year

The first or last weekend probably doesn't count.

But, I think the point is clear. I don't feel sorry for grad students who complain they aren't able to make the progress their committee expects of them if I don't ever see them in the lab on weekends or evenings. The coursework is a full time job and the research is a full time job. When you have two full time jobs, that means you have to work evenings and weekends to get it all done.

 

[G01]

Even as an undergrad working on my senior project, I have found myself in the lab at hours "normal people" would have gone home.

I agree with the previous points

1.I also would not have taken you back if I was in the school's place, since you have shown time and time again, that you are a waste of their money and a waste of a position they could have given to a much more productive student.

2. That said, you HAVE to prove me wrong if you want to succeed this time around. Show them that you will no longer waste their time or the position they are giving you. Take MB's advice and work evenings and weekends.

If you really enjoy the work, then this shouldn't be a problem. If you don't enjoy the work, then I have no idea why you want to go back into physics, since it obviously isn't what you want/expect it to be.

Good luck to you.

 

[PowerIso]

Thanks for all the advice, and sorry for resurrecting such an ancient thread. I've decided to return to school after working as an office manager and hating every nanosecond of it. The school is going to put me on three months probation and let me work in a research lab outside of the physics department. Based on my performance in that lab, they'll either reinstate me as a physics graduate student or give me the royal boot. Is this something you would have done?

Yes, I would've returned back to school, but that is because I love studying what I study. It doesn't matter what we would've done, but rather what is best for you. Are you going back to school just because you have no idea what else to do? If so, then I don't see many things changing for you. However, if somewhere, in your heart, you want to keep studying physics then I wish you well and hope your work habits improve.

 

[jhicks]

What an interesting thread. It rings home a bit when I read triangleman's plight. Ever since I was a second semester undergrad I've questioned why I'm in college studying EE given I interned and hated every day of it and worked in a lab for over a year but struggled to find the motivation to work on anything lab-oriented, but interestingly enough here I am working on my PhD. Frankly, I'm pretty sure the only reason I started EE was because it was accepted by my peers to be the absolute hardest degree. Anyway, like him I had a tough run-in with video games early on and averaged around 8 hours a day over 3 years. I remember taking abstract algebra as a freshman after "the game" came out and getting my first C, and then withdrawing from a couple classes and being so mad at myself but still unwilling to quit and rewarding myself with "the game" every time I did minor things well.

There never was a point where I resolved to do better, but over time I was humiliated more and more at falling short of every goal I set for myself. I channeled this sentiment into doing better toward the end, but I can't say that I am proud of anything I did in undergrad even though apparently it was enough to get into a top 10 grad school. I am still extremely disappointed in myself though - regardless of what some admissions committee thinks - because in my eyes you're not even close to an engineer if you haven't built something with your hands.

Triangleman, I wish you the best in finding yourself. If you fail again, I am honest-to-god suggesting that you join the military. During undergrad I worked for a year with a guy who had been discharged after a few years and his work ethic was absolutely astounding. He told me all these stories about how he was a typical bad-attitude-no-work-ethic kid in a bad part of town and I was in disbelief.

 

[mal4mac]

Join the military and get sent to Iraq? Die in a stupid war based on the lies of Tony Blair and George Bush? What sense does that make? If you need discipline why not become a physics teacher? The best way to learn anything is to teach it - and you have to teach discipline to kids or they will make your life a misery. Also, you can't get away with skiving off to play video games if there's a class waiting...

 

[jhicks]

Join the military and get sent to Iraq? Die in a stupid war based on the lies of Tony Blair and George Bush? What sense does that make?

You know there are more jobs in the military than just infantry. You don't think a physics degree might qualify him for some of those jobs?

If you need discipline why not become a physics teacher? The best way to learn anything is to teach it - and you have to teach discipline to kids or they will make your life a misery.

So learn particle physics by teaching semester 1 of mechanics over and over? Who doesn't make sense now! I'm not arguing teaching isn't a tough job, but it's still not severe enough that one would be forced to learn discipline.

 

[mal4mac]

So learn particle physics by teaching semester 1 of mechanics over and over? Who doesn't make sense now! I'm not arguing teaching isn't a tough job, but it's still not severe enough that one would be forced to learn discipline.

I meant that he might learn discipline by teaching discipline, not that he could learn advanced physics by teaching basic physics. The regimented school day, and a reasonably strict headmaster, should also impose some discipline on him. After all, he didn't flunk high school, so school discipline was enough for him as a school student. How do you know such a regime would not be severe enough as a teacher?

Anyway he could try that, or other civvy jobs. For instance, working in front-line IT support/call centre work would necessitate being 'on the job' 9 to 5, and force him to stop playing computer games. If all that fails then it's either 'the street', prison, or the army. Then I would suggest the army...

 

[th3plan]

No offense , but i personally find it hilarious how u keep referencing yourself as the 2nd coming of Christ. I did this, and i was top in that, and in the end you got nothing to show for it , So ha! I really don't like people who brag.

 

[triangleman]

No offense , but i personally find it hilarious how u keep referencing yourself as the 2nd coming of Christ. I did this, and i was top in that, and in the end you got nothing to show for it , So ha! I really don't like people who brag.

This looks like a "you got what you deserved"-type reply with little advice: about 95% of the responses were very helpful and provided some direction on what career plan to take. Yes--I made a major error in the beginning and am now being given a second chance at the cost of spending 4 + 4 + 4 years in school. I didn't mean to come across as boastful in that original thread. If you thought I did, sorry.