Via Physics Buzz, The things I didn’t believe in graduate school

Graduate school is a hazing ritual, designed to make sure you really truly want to be allowed through the gates into the Ivory Tower. Those who don’t want it hard enough, generally can’t make it through the gauntlet of tests, homework sets, research walls and periodic failures of weather, equipment, software, satellites, and sometimes all of the above. (I experienced all of the above.)
Nonetheless, there are certain things I deeply miss. Today for some reason, I have both journal clubs and observing on my mind. These are two things I never really realized would go away to the degree that they have, and I feel like an entire part of my life was amputated when I wasn’t watching.

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What I hadn’t realized in my return to academia was how little time life as an academic would leave me to just learn. As a graduate student, I remember being aware that the journal clubs were only occupied by postdocs and graduate students. Our advisor (the faculty member who said to us – go off and form a journal club!) would ask us for summaries of what we learned. I hadn’t realized this was his way of identifying cool new papers rather then his way of checking up on us. I remember noticing that the seminars on various sub-fields (stars, galaxies, planets…) were often empty of faculty, with everyone only showing up for the weekly out of town colloquium speakers.

I concur about a lot of the assessment of grad school. It doesn’t just boil down to being smart — obviously there’s a threshold there, but being stubborn enough to slog your way through it all is another component. I almost packed it in at one point, at the point right after my best friend died, the IRS started hassling me (because the grad school “forgot” to tag my fellowship as such, so the IRS assumed it was self-employment income, and claimed I owed them $1500) and then my advisor reminding me that 40 hours a week doesn’t cut it in grad school. Yeah, I know, I’m a little distracted at the moment.

We tried starting up a journal club at work a few years ago, but it didn’t last. It’s not just academia that leaves little time for other pursuits. One thing I’ve noticed is that in the six months I’ve been blogging I’ve been more aware of other research and have done more journal reading than in the last several years.