So, I am finally putting that art degree to good use- I'm painting my office! The walls are a bright pink and the door is going to be a chalkboard. I'll post pictures sometime next week.
In academic news, I changed advisers last week. See, upon entering grad school, we are each assigned an adviser. It is kind of like an arranged marriage, except that we can always opt out and choose a new adviser. I talked to MP about this last week, and he gave me some good advice on selecting an adviser. An adviser should be my advocate. An adviser should be responsive and reliable. An adviser should push me to do good work and reach my fullest potential. I was in agreement with MP- these were the qualities that I was looking for in a potential adviser. My other personal criteria? This hinged on personality- I also wanted someone that I felt comfortable with, who had integrity, and someone who would laugh at my jokes.
Among my grad school friends, we like to joke that choosing an adviser is a lot like dating. We meet professors, get to know them, develop working relationships with them, and then we "pop the question." I spent this last year developing professional relationships by taking classes from professors, TAing for them, and asking them to be readers on my qualifying paper. To me, these are some good ways to get to know professors and figure out who I want to work with and who would be a good adviser. Last week, I quit dragging my heels and finally made things official with LD. Since we seemed to have an informal adviser/advisee relationship since sometime last spring, popping the adviser question came as no surprise.
Some people may feel bad when they change advisers. Some are afraid of burning bridges and hurting professors' feelings. Yet, at the end of the day, I know that I had to do what is right for myself. I don't feel bad about "breaking up" with my assigned adviser because this is my grad school experience, not someone else's. MP compared choosing an adviser to grocery shopping. When we choose one brand of bread over another, we don't have to justify our purchase and tell the makers of the rejected bread brand why we didn't purchase their bread.
In academic news, I changed advisers last week. See, upon entering grad school, we are each assigned an adviser. It is kind of like an arranged marriage, except that we can always opt out and choose a new adviser. I talked to MP about this last week, and he gave me some good advice on selecting an adviser. An adviser should be my advocate. An adviser should be responsive and reliable. An adviser should push me to do good work and reach my fullest potential. I was in agreement with MP- these were the qualities that I was looking for in a potential adviser. My other personal criteria? This hinged on personality- I also wanted someone that I felt comfortable with, who had integrity, and someone who would laugh at my jokes.
Among my grad school friends, we like to joke that choosing an adviser is a lot like dating. We meet professors, get to know them, develop working relationships with them, and then we "pop the question." I spent this last year developing professional relationships by taking classes from professors, TAing for them, and asking them to be readers on my qualifying paper. To me, these are some good ways to get to know professors and figure out who I want to work with and who would be a good adviser. Last week, I quit dragging my heels and finally made things official with LD. Since we seemed to have an informal adviser/advisee relationship since sometime last spring, popping the adviser question came as no surprise.
Some people may feel bad when they change advisers. Some are afraid of burning bridges and hurting professors' feelings. Yet, at the end of the day, I know that I had to do what is right for myself. I don't feel bad about "breaking up" with my assigned adviser because this is my grad school experience, not someone else's. MP compared choosing an adviser to grocery shopping. When we choose one brand of bread over another, we don't have to justify our purchase and tell the makers of the rejected bread brand why we didn't purchase their bread.
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