The Craziest Thing I’ve Done during Grad School
My whole lab agreed to run... across New Hampshire
Last year, I started to get really into running, in part due to the fact that it’s a great way of relieving some of the stresses of grad school. I’ve written before about all the different ways my labmates tackle stress and how frequently I can be found trying to talk others into going for […]
A Well-Kept Secret for Finding a Job post-PhD
Reducing graduation stress by putting off your full-time job search with short-term consulting
During my PhD, I performed a lot of exit interviews with graduating students and learned that finding a job is often the most stressful part of graduating, and among the most stressful in the entire PhD. After my own defense, however, I was able to avoid some of that stress by discovering a valuable post-PhD […]
Creating my niche in grad school
How diversity and outreach initiatives helped me find my place in MIT
Imagine being in a roller coaster that’s on fire, adrift, going full speed. That was my first year at MIT. Coming straight from an undergraduate institution in Puerto Rico, it was difficult for me to get used to the fast pace in which topics were taught in a different language and to the amount of […]
On Becoming a Professional Student
How I emerged from the chaos of undergrad to embrace professionalism in my graduate career
If you are an academic masochist who constantly enjoys being over-involved and under pressure, then your undergraduate “career” was probably something like mine. My (pre-grad) college years regularly felt like a frenzied, unorganized attempt to accomplish the umpteen items on my mental to-do list. I found myself in constant triage mode when it came to […]
Ivy League Entitlement
How not to date at a high-profile school
“No.” I said. “I don’t want to.” I was standing on the street in front of a man in a suit. That man (let’s call him Ryan) was frantically trying to usher me into his apartment building. He held the door wide open, incredulous that I wouldn’t do what he wanted. “It’s not that big […]
