Seven years
Aug. 22nd, 2003 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onefixedstarWow. I started as an undergraduate at this school in September 1996. In one week, I leave. Unbelievable.
I just took a walk around and it seems that I'm the last person here. Everyone else has gone home for the day, escaping to cooler environments or at least rooms with windows. I'm a little sad that the graduate secretary left without saying goodbye. She's on vacation next week and I move next weekend, so I won't see her again until I return to defend. She was consulting us on Wednesday about what types of food we want at the orientation supper for the new students, and I felt a pang at realizing that I won't be here to meet the new students. I feel a bit cheated because last year we only got one new student and she was an undergrad here, so I already knew her. This year we're getting eleven new students and I won't be here to meet any of them. Instead, I'll be meeting a whole department of new people and going through my own orientation, which I don't think will be nearly as much fun. I like to be exposed to new people gradually, not all at once. At least I've managed to set up an email correspondence with one of the other new students, so I won't be going in completely alone, even if I haven't yet met her face-to-face.
Speaking of orientation, I took a look this afternoon at the requirements for the PhD program I'm entering. I'd like to know what vicious person decided that it would be reasonable to require new PhD students to have their thesis supervisor selected within six months of starting and have their working topic submitted by nine months. Well, okay, if you're good they'll extend it to nine and twelve months respectively, but that still seems a bit demanding, especially since they also require us to finish eight half-courses in that time (they prefer those to be done in nine months as well, though they'll permit us to extend it to twelve). Yes, I did know the requirements when I applied. That doesn't make them any more reasonable. Most of the PhD students I know don't have their thesis topic selected until two years into their programs, after they finish their coursework and comps. It's nice to choose early and tailor your coursework to your topic, of course, but who the hell manages to figure out what reasonable and researchable topic interests them enough spend to two solid years on it nine months after they start the program? Well, apart from a few freaks, of course. ;)
This whole entry is really nothing more than a way of delaying returning to my work on Tönnies, but since it's almost supper time and since I've sworn that I won't leave here until I finish this section, I should get back to it.
I just took a walk around and it seems that I'm the last person here. Everyone else has gone home for the day, escaping to cooler environments or at least rooms with windows. I'm a little sad that the graduate secretary left without saying goodbye. She's on vacation next week and I move next weekend, so I won't see her again until I return to defend. She was consulting us on Wednesday about what types of food we want at the orientation supper for the new students, and I felt a pang at realizing that I won't be here to meet the new students. I feel a bit cheated because last year we only got one new student and she was an undergrad here, so I already knew her. This year we're getting eleven new students and I won't be here to meet any of them. Instead, I'll be meeting a whole department of new people and going through my own orientation, which I don't think will be nearly as much fun. I like to be exposed to new people gradually, not all at once. At least I've managed to set up an email correspondence with one of the other new students, so I won't be going in completely alone, even if I haven't yet met her face-to-face.
Speaking of orientation, I took a look this afternoon at the requirements for the PhD program I'm entering. I'd like to know what vicious person decided that it would be reasonable to require new PhD students to have their thesis supervisor selected within six months of starting and have their working topic submitted by nine months. Well, okay, if you're good they'll extend it to nine and twelve months respectively, but that still seems a bit demanding, especially since they also require us to finish eight half-courses in that time (they prefer those to be done in nine months as well, though they'll permit us to extend it to twelve). Yes, I did know the requirements when I applied. That doesn't make them any more reasonable. Most of the PhD students I know don't have their thesis topic selected until two years into their programs, after they finish their coursework and comps. It's nice to choose early and tailor your coursework to your topic, of course, but who the hell manages to figure out what reasonable and researchable topic interests them enough spend to two solid years on it nine months after they start the program? Well, apart from a few freaks, of course. ;)
This whole entry is really nothing more than a way of delaying returning to my work on Tönnies, but since it's almost supper time and since I've sworn that I won't leave here until I finish this section, I should get back to it.
