Money matters: Part 1
Making the most of your stipend
Financial stress is often assumed to be an unavoidable part of the graduate student experience. But does it have to be that way? With a bit of planning and discipline, I have been able to save up enough money to pay off my undergraduate student loans, fund a retirement account, buy a new phone, and […]
In defense of quitting
What I learned from almost ruining my first semester of grad school by overcommitting
If a hacker were to break into my phone at the beginning of September and read through my notes, this is the first one they would find: I think MIT is full of people who have a hard time saying no to exciting opportunities, and I am no exception. I’ve been following a roughly 4 […]
Whales of quals
Prioritizing my mental health over qualifying exams
This is my story of how I prioritized my mental health over qualifying exams. When I was studying for quals1, my phone kept autocorrecting quals to whales. I thought it was funny and poetic, because the stress of quals felt like a whale on me. Before reading this, I want to mention that what you […]
How leaving MIT convinced me to stay
Navigating academia and industry as a grad student
Industry or academia? It’s a question at the forefront of many MIT grad students’ minds. I first found myself at this crossroads at the end of my undergraduate career, unsure whether I wanted to follow the path of a practicing engineer or that of an academic researcher.
From procrastination to productivity
How I Found Motivation in a Remote Semester
A few months after receiving the exciting news that I’d been admitted to MIT, I was informed that my semester of grad school would be fully online. Little did I know that it would turn out much worse than I could’ve ever anticipated. Don’t get me wrong, remote learning has many advantages. There is no […]
