Would a posted with comment thread be the same as random thoughts? I don't think so.

TenuredVulture wrote:C'mon. It's awesome. Having hardly any money, long hours reading and writing, participating in seminars with a bunch of pretentious asshat (the guy with the scarf or hat or other clothing affectation will be the biggest douche you'll ever meet) and sucking up to professors--what can top that?

My grad school experience was very different than this, other than the not-much-money and all the reading. I actively antagonized a few of my professors (though some of them were cool), and the people in my program weren't pretentious arty types as you describe but insufferable little careerists--an army of Tracy Flicks.

It was a miserable time. I got high way too much, got laid just above not at all, watched staggering amounts of TV and spent a lot of time in the car since it was at least a half-hour each way between where I worked, where I lived, and where I went to school. Really all that was good about it (and these are, to be fair, two pretty significant things) was that in the end, the Masters probably helped me get on my career path, and I've always appreciated New York more after living in DC for those two years.

dajafi wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:C'mon. It's awesome. Having hardly any money, long hours reading and writing, participating in seminars with a bunch of pretentious asshat (the guy with the scarf or hat or other clothing affectation will be the biggest douche you'll ever meet) and sucking up to professors--what can top that?

My grad school experience was very different than this, other than the not-much-money and all the reading. I actively antagonized a few of my professors (though some of them were cool), and the people in my program weren't pretentious arty types as you describe but insufferable little careerists--an army of Tracy Flicks.

It was a miserable time. I got high way too much, got laid just above not at all, watched staggering amounts of TV and spent a lot of time in the car since it was at least a half-hour each way between where I worked, where I lived, and where I went to school. Really all that was good about it (and these are, to be fair, two pretty significant things) was that in the end, the Masters probably helped me get on my career path, and I've always appreciated New York more after living in DC for those two years.

Yeah it was different. They weren't pretentious arty types, though, they were pretentious political science types. Quips like, "Well, you know Robert Nozick would say that" were guaranteed laugh getters. We had one Tracy Flick type, but she turned out to be a rather decent human being in the end. Most grad students, when not being pretentious, are either insufferable neurotics or just generally embittered.

Also, some professors didn't seem to notice that they were tearing your ego to shreds, others seemed to enjoy it.

So TV's encouragement for me to get my shit together has been overwhelmed about 10x over by the cheery grad school stories in the thread.

But seriously, Monday.

Grotewold wrote:Just drank one of those 5-Hour Energy jawns. I'll report back.

My sister works in sports and fitness crap(actually pretty good crap for her she makes more than I). But she gave me like six boxes of the six hour energy drink(someone must have took a page out of the psychos book from There's something about Mary). They are like 60 to a box or something. I tried one. Tastes good but it really wires you.

I just give them all away. I also have have huge things of creatine and Whey I am always giving away. I should start selling this $#@!. I don't get how anyone can use whey. Creatine I will use if I ever become some workout fiend.

My god, I guess you do-gooder types had it different, because there's no way I had 2 better years of my life than at grad school. One thing that helps is not working.

jerseyhoya wrote::lol:

So TV's encouragement for me to get my $#@! together has been overwhelmed about 10x over by the cheery grad school stories in the thread.

But seriously, Monday.

I'm just not sure I get why you're interested in it. The pure pursuit of knowledge? Some career objective?

My bad time there aside, it arguably helped get me where I am now, which seems like an okay place to be. So if you see a clear purpose for it, it's probably a good idea. Just don't do it, I would suggest, for lack of any obvious alternative. (Unless you can go full ride, in which case I guess it's no harm, no foul if you hate it.)

this professor from yale gave a talk here and his research seemed straight baller, but it's yale and i suck.

Again regarding Philliesphans political topics:

"I'm stepping out of this political discussion now. I really dislike them and get mad at myself when I get involved. I have always thought a separate board for political discussions was the right solution and the lack of one here is at least partially the reason that the baseball talk online is no longer here but is over at bsg."

-Squire


I'm so glad to see someone I really respect over there say this.

dajafi wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote::lol:

So TV's encouragement for me to get my $#@! together has been overwhelmed about 10x over by the cheery grad school stories in the thread.

But seriously, Monday.

I'm just not sure I get why you're interested in it. The pure pursuit of knowledge? Some career objective?

My bad time there aside, it arguably helped get me where I am now, which seems like an okay place to be. So if you see a clear purpose for it, it's probably a good idea. Just don't do it, I would suggest, for lack of any obvious alternative. (Unless you can go full ride, in which case I guess it's no harm, no foul if you hate it.)

I think it would be cool to be a professor. I love elections. I could teach on anything in American government, but would love to do research pouring through tons of old election results and come up with an awesome theory on something. I had a lot of fun writing my senior thesis, which was this thing on competitive primaries and their effect on statewide elections.

But mostly it's because I don't want to do campaign work anymore, and I don't know what else I'd be good at.

Also in grad school I'd learn how to use effect and affect right

yeah, i think i'm going to head down a career path that will take me back to grad school as well, probably next fall. just started mapping a plan out in my head recently and i think i'll follow it. i'll probably wind up changing my mind next week.

jeff2sf wrote:My god, I guess you do-gooder types had it different, because there's no way I had 2 better years of my life than at grad school. One thing that helps is not working.

I'm enjoying it so far. Although the real work hasn't started yet. Working at a dive bar counts as my social life, so not bad. Plus I'm trying to get in with a finance professor for a research position.

My only complaint thus far has been that the spoon feeding that I thought would stop after HS has now continued through graduate school. Tell me what to do and what you expect and then get the fuck out of my way. I don't need a 2 hour lecture on where to find acceptable reading materials to stay on top of current issues. That and I realized that I did myself a disservice by not applying to some better programs in the field (that should be a big HINT HINT against procrastination. Although the placement here is exceptional from what I've seen, the others in the program have been a little underwhelming so far. Ex: "is that a book for class", "no just some side reading", "why would you do that?").

jerseyhoya wrote:I think it would be cool to be a professor. I love elections. I could teach on anything in American government, but would love to do research pouring through tons of old election results and come up with an awesome theory on something. I had a lot of fun writing my senior thesis, which was this thing on competitive primaries and their effect on statewide elections.

But mostly it's because I don't want to do campaign work anymore, and I don't know what else I'd be good at.

It's almost creepy how much this reminds me of my original idea after college, which was to get a Ph.D in history. (Also, my senior thesis--which still might be the thing I'm proudest of in my life--was about the 1968 Democratic primary race and the "Dump Johnson" movement. Who was it that said we were the same person again?) I love history, I wanted to teach, and I thought I'd enjoy the research.

If you honestly like research and teaching, and can put up with the quantitative stuff (which Paul doesn't seem to mind), that works. (Though I still think you'd be a great PR guy for a college athletic department.)

The grad students at PSU were desperately odd enough for me to never consider grad school.

jerseyhoya wrote:

dajafi wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote::lol:

So TV's encouragement for me to get my $#@! together has been overwhelmed about 10x over by the cheery grad school stories in the thread.

But seriously, Monday.

I'm just not sure I get why you're interested in it. The pure pursuit of knowledge? Some career objective?

My bad time there aside, it arguably helped get me where I am now, which seems like an okay place to be. So if you see a clear purpose for it, it's probably a good idea. Just don't do it, I would suggest, for lack of any obvious alternative. (Unless you can go full ride, in which case I guess it's no harm, no foul if you hate it.)

I think it would be cool to be a professor. I love elections. I could teach on anything in American government, but would love to do research pouring through tons of old election results and come up with an awesome theory on something. I had a lot of fun writing my senior thesis, which was this thing on competitive primaries and their effect on statewide elections.

But mostly it's because I don't want to do campaign work anymore, and I don't know what else I'd be good at.

Dajafi is absolutely correct--you go to grad school because in order to achieve specific career goals. And it is cool to be a professor. Especially a tenured professor. Though from what the old guys tell me, it used to be cooler. Oh well.

I do a lot of teaching--more teaching than research. I don't mind. I get a handful of really great students, and the terrible ones don't show up enough to really be a problem.

I'm a theorist, but an unusual theorist who actually looks at numbers once in awhile. Real quant guys will make a typical MattS post look like stuff some guy posted on a message board. Big 10 schools tend to be pretty heavy quantitative--someone who is interested in elections would have no problem at those schools, Rochester is big time rational choice/formal modeling, as is Carnegie Mellon (not recommended for JH).

I do think that one think JH needs to be on watch for is whether his politics might not result in some alienation--he's likely to be one of a very few Republicans among grad students. However, he might find himself hanging with theorists. Even so, it's not as if he's going into a lit program. Many political scientists take the idea of unbiased research very seriously, if only as an aspirational idea.

Finally, getting into top programs depends not just on your academic record, but whether your research interests line up with someone on the faculty, even if they're not all that specific. Nowadays, thanks to the internet, doing that research is really easy.

On to arguing about Trotskyites or something

jerseyhoya wrote:On to arguing about Trotskyites or something

Trotskyists.

!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.mahalo.com/michael-jackson-alive

The Dude wrote:!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.mahalo.com/michael-jackson-alive

I'm sorry, there is no one,living or dead , who "resembles" Michael Jackson.