Grad student Q&A

Grad school

There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions

~Charles Steinmetz~

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Over the weeks, there has been a GREAT debate about the benefits of grad school versus professional experience at BrazenCareerist.com. People were very passionate about this topic.  Some can see both sides, while others firmly argue for or against one side.  I see both sides.  Graduate school was and is the best option for me. BUT I work for Industry.  I see the best of both worlds.

This week, Andrew at Wordpost.com interviewed the lovely Cali wherein she Defended Grad School.  Miss Caligater is one of my favorite grad school friends I’ve never met (in real life).  And I agree with every point she made in her interview. Now… stop. Go read the interview.

That post got me thinking (like most great posts out there): What might YOU want to know about my time in grad school?  What questions do you have about my decision to walk away from managing a hotel spa and becoming a makeup artist to attend grad school and pursue a career in Human Factors Psychology?

So… here’s the deal.  Over the next 6 weeks, I will answer all of your questions!  I know, I know, it’s so spread out.  But here’s the thing… I have SO much writing to do the before Spring Break and I think I need to make good grades, prepare for professional conferences and collect data for my thesis before I really get rolling on weekly blog posts.  I think if I can answer your questions every week, it will help guide the discussion here.

This IS about connecting with people.  I want to get to know you.

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What do YOU want to know about grad school?

Here are some example questions I’ve gotten since I’ve been in school:

  • How do I decide what assignments take priority each day?
  • How did I live on 4 hours of sleep for a year?
  • How many people become alcoholics, gain weight, get divorced, or are hospitalized due to stress?
  • What have my favorite graduate course has been?
  • What is the difference between a split-plot ANOVA, hierarchical regression and point biserial correlation?
  • WTF does Human Factors has to do with the Navy?
  • Have you ever wanted to quit?
  • Wait… you were a makeup artist and could have been a spa manager and are now going to spend the next 4 years in school? Are you insane? (that counts as two questions, btw)

You can leave your questions in the comments section here.

You can Tweet @ or DM me on Twitter.

You can email me: alexandra.proaps@gmail.com

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I will leave you with a little video produced by a Human Factors lab at the University of Cincinnati.

Human Factors Vigilance, Perception and Performance Rap

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIoToBCSOfM]

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6 thoughts on “Grad student Q&A”

  1. Pingback: Grad student Q & A – Now gimme money « the Tao of Grad School

  2. How did you make that leap from making the decision to leave a full time job and pursue your degree and was it a hard transition? I’ve been accpeted into a full time Masters program (but have the option of doing it part time online as well). Its been a while since I’ve just been a student and Im unsure how I feel about giving up my professional job to become a full time student again.

  3. Pingback: Grad student Q & A – contacting potential advisors « the Tao of Grad School

  4. I think those of us who have so many things (stressful things) going on in our lives need that one thing that calms us, cements us down, brings us back from our “crazy”.

    What is something that you use to help keep you focused on your overall goal and big picture?

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