Sink or Swim

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post.  I'm going to stop saying I'm going to update regularly.  If it wasn't obvious, I've been neglecting this blog because I've spent the first half of this semester in that sink or swim phase of grad school. 

Near the beginning of the semester, I had a conversation with another first-year grad student about the workload of grad school.  He asked when we were going to get a break from the homework.  I told him that we probably won't get a break until after comps in two years.  When he asked how we are supposed to have any life outside of school, I jokingly replied that we won't, but that it's okay because we will get used to having no life.  Obviously even grad students have lives outside of school, but for a few weeks, I started to question if there was more truth to that joke than I had imagined.

Fortunately, I can report that I'm getting used to the grad student workload and can squeeze in time to have fun and relax.  The biggest difference between grad school and undergrad that I've noticed is that in grad school, nearly every activity needs to be scheduled in advance.  Even if I were to work nearly continuous on homework and research, it will never be caught up to the point that I can take a day off without having anything that I could be working on.  This was a major mental hurdle I had to overcome.  The never-ending work stressed me out more than I expected.  But I learned that by scheduling in time to walk away from work, I am able to handle stress much better.  My wife and I went hiking for the first time here last weekend and I would like to make that a regular Saturday activity.  The hike made me feel much better and, because I scheduled time for it, I didn't feel like I was falling behind schedule.  I can already tell that my time management skills have improved, which is great since I'll never be able to succeed as a professor unless I can manage my time very effectively.

I know it's still pretty early for me to claim that I've gotten used to grad school work, but I can gladly say that at least I'm keeping my head above water!

Be Cooperative, Not Competitive

Academics is too competitive.  In high school, we compete for the highest GPA and PSAT/SAT/SATII/ACT/AP/IB scores so we can get into a good college and enter with enough credit that we "can totally graduate in, like, one year!"  I'll just ignore the athletic types who go to college on sports scholarships.  Once we get into college (and realize we're going to be there for at least 4 years no matter how much credit we had coming in), we compete for a high GPA and GRE/MCAT/PCAT/LSAT/OAT/DAT so we can get into a good graduate/professional school.  Once we get into graduate/professional school, we compete for a high GPA so that we can get a great residency or professional job.  At this point, most medical professionals can finally enjoy the fruits of their labor free from excessive competition.  But not so for most of the rest.  They compete for the most efficiency/research so they can make partner, get an executive promotion, or receive tenure.  By then, these people are often at least in their mid-30s.  It can't be healthy to be under so much competitive stress for that long!  If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then I guess all of the most learned members of our society are quite insane.

Does any of this excessive academic competitiveness actually help us learn better?  Of course not!  Does it make us bitter and prone to backstabbing?  Take a look into the inner politics of any professional firm or university.  Does this competition make us happy?  Probably not.  I'm quite guilty of comparing myself to students with better academic records and I certainly don't feel better afterwards.  One graduate student recently explained how she didn't feel "cut out for high quality research" after having a paper rejected from a conference with just an 18% acceptance rate.  Students even resort to prescription drugs like Adderall to improve productivity.

It seems like interdisciplinary research in universities is growing in popularity.  I'm glad to see this happen and I hope that it becomes standard.  Not only does this type of work teach all parties new things and exposes them to new perspectives, but it also can answer questions that could not be answered by experts in a single field.  My graduate studies are in a subfield that is interdisciplinary by definition and that was one of the major reasons why I chose it.  I get to really delve into the material I want to learn the most, but will also get plenty of exposure to some other fields that also interest me.  My senior year, I wrote a thesis for my humanities degree on a technical subject.  This combination of majors was new for the department, which brought plenty of challenges and rewards.  I don't know how good my thesis was compared to those who write solely within the discipline, but it was a great feeling to hear my thesis advisor say that he was unsure how to fully evaluate the quality of the thesis, but that he was happy to be a part of this unique project and learn some new things about the topic.

I would like to be a part of an academic community that discouraged competition and promoted cooperation.  If I could go back to my freshman self, I would tell myself to work hard and do the best job I could and to enjoy the process without worrying if I was near the top of my class.  All too often, I've seen ugly arguments come out of conversations after the return of graded exams.  The fact of the matter is that a student will often feel worse and perform worse if he or she feels inferior to another student.  That helps no one.  If cooperation was encouraged more, everyone (who puts in an honest effort) would learn and perform better.  After all, we tend to learn best by explaining what we learned to someone else and being corrected if necessary.  Plus, despite the cutthroat nature of some professions, we would all be happier at work if we had a genuine desire to work with each other, not against each other.  From what I understand, MIT doesn't have class rank or honors.  I, for one, would have been very happy to be without all that stress.