School Update - with an expected apology for my hiatus with an unexpected explanation

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

Sorry for the brief hiatus - life got crazier than usual lately.  Which I will detail a bit in a later post.  Just as an appetizer ... the story may involve the police, a van full of mexicans, loose cows, and a car chase.

Not necessarily in that order.

Anyway ... update on John's schooling...

John really likes the lab he's currently in.  He loves the research (eye research - something he's been interested in for years)He gets along very well with the PI, who is and would be working closely with him.  The only other grad student in the lab is graduating after 4 years (would have been 3.5 years, but she had to take a personal leave of absence for a few months) and is the most decorated and honored student on campus.  Not even exaggerating - she received about 4 different awards and scholarships at the beginning of the year.

That being  said, there's two things against her ... one, she's thinking about moving on.  She's putting out feelers to move to another university.  If that goes through, then John would have to move with her.  There is no guarantee that if she moves, that John will be able to get into the new university (especially with his record of having dropped out of medical school).  Also, he loses all kinds of contacts from this school; as well as being faced with people accusing him of "coming in the back door".  Second, he's not sure that this lab would put him where he wants to be long term.  It would be amazing for the short term 5-10 years.  But not where he wants to be in 15 years.

So, we're back to the original first lab.  It might not be as ideal in the short term - but it really is pointing him to where he wants to be in 10-20 years.  And to be honest, that is the biggest difference between John and his classmates; he knows what his final goal is.  They are focused on the here and now.  He is focused on where he wants to be.

Yesterday John signed up for his elective classes for next semester.  The lab he wants to go into requires a certain class - Genomic Medicine - and as of now he's the only one signed up for the class.  He's excited because all the people teaching the class have been some of best lecturers this semester - and having a one-on-one class would be an interesting experience!

He still has some decisions to make, and details to work out.  But at least we're headed in a specific direction.

I'd better pick up that Mandarin Rosetta Stone course again.  Something tells me it would be a good idea to learn it.

Decisions, decisions ...

John's taking his test right now; he said that he felt ready for it.  I hope that he does well!

After the test, a bunch of his classmates are going to a Korean BBQ Restaurant (John says that it's not really BBQ) to eat and do karaoke.  John really wants to go, while I'm a bit more ... ambivalent.

First, by the end of the week I'm tired.  I want to go home and get into some comfortable clothes and relax!  Going out with a bunch of people I hardly know isn't very relaxing.  Of course, then the arguement is that I won't get to know them if I stay home.

Another thing is the karaoke - I've never been before, but I know what it is, and I'm not sure I'd like it.  Not sure why - but I get way too uptight about music.  I don't know most of the music, and it really bothers me when music isn't sung properly.  I looked up a list of the top 500 karaoke songs ... and I barely knew 7 of them well enough to be able to sing them.  John and I were looking at some last night, and let's just say I didn't react well when John started singing horribly on purpose.  I don't know why it grates so badly, but it drives me up a wall!

On top of that is the whole social anxiety deal - I've been prepping myself to go to Western Day on Saturday.  That's an annual event that our church puts on.  We went last year, and I had the worst attack of anxiety yet - it took everything in me to not collapse in tears when we arrived.  I spent the entire time sitting quietly in a corner while John played flag football with the men.  It wasn't fun.

I know I *ought* to go to both... karaoke tonight and western day tomorrow.  I honestly don't want to go to either.  But I promised John I'd go to at least one of them with him.  I don't know what I'll do.

John will want to get out of the house and have fun this weekend; he always does after a test!  So, we'll see what happens!

Happy Friday! 

Lab Updates

John has decided that he does not want to work in the lab he is currently working in.  While he says it's a good lab, and one that many of his classmates are interested in, it's not a good fit for him.

Besides the fact that the lab (or the building, we're not sure which) gives him headaches, he's decided he's not that interested in that field of research.  Apparently it is one of the most difficult specialties to actually receive funding for, so it really is a declining field.  If he went into this field of research, he'd constantly be struggling to get funding, and he'd constantly be worried about being "scooped" from other labs and researchers who are trying just as hard to get funding.

More and more, he is thinking that he'll end up in the first lab he rotated through.  Although he had a rough start, he truly liked it there by the end.  Once he left and saw other labs on campus, he's realized just how great that first lab was - and how those three weeks, even with the language barrier, left him better prepared and more knowledgeable about research techniques than his classmates.

Very few (if any) of his classmates are interested in that first lab.  All of them (John included) had heard negative things about the lab.  But John traced all those negative things back to one grad student in the lab, whose initial research didn't work out, and ended up in a position in the lab that she hates.  And the things in the lab that she hates, are things that John actually kinda likes.  She's been scaring grad students away from this lab - a lab with plenty of money, resources, and a willingness to teach a grad student - for the past 3-4 years.  The PI of the lab is beside himself; he can't understand why no one is going into his lab.

The PI met with John on the last day of his three-week rotation, and promised him three things: 

1. John will graduate in 4-5 years.
2. John will be researching something that matters, with great possibilities for getting published in high-profile journals.
3. John will not have to worry about money.  If John wants to research something that costs a million dollars, they can do that.

The neat thing about this lab is that it approaches research differently than most other labs on campus (Indeed, most of research nowadays).  Most scientists and researchers come up with a hypothesis, and then collect data to prove their hypothesis correct (or incorrect, as it sometimes happens).  This lab collects the data first, and then analyzes the data to come up with the hypothesis.  Which honestly makes much more sense than the normal method to me.

Another cool thing?  The primary language in the lab is Mandarin Chinese.  John and I have been interested in learning Chinese for the past two years - we've got the Rosetta Stone Mandarin software that we've been going through off and on for about a year now.  There is no better place in this country to learn Mandarin than in a lab populated primarily by native Mandarin speakers.  If John could leave grad school with a good degree and knowing Mandarin ... that would be so amazing, and would make him stand out to no end.

We also learned that two of the researchers in that lab live about two houses down from us.  We haven't actually met them yet, but if John does go in that lab, I'm sure we will at some point.

So ... now John's approaching his next few lab rotations as though they need to prove to him that they are better than that first lab.  Right now?  That seems a rather high goal to reach.

Rambling at the end of the week

We made 60 sugar cookies last night ... well, we almost made 60 cookies.  They are currently chilling in the fridge, and still need to be baked in the oven.  Besides my brief panic attack that the recipe called for powdered sugar instead of regular sugar like I had thought ... it went well.  I'll make another few batches tonight while baking.  I did take some pictures - but my camera battery died before I could finish.  It's charging now.

Today is John's last day in his first lab rotation, and they're taking him out to some Italian place downtown for lunch.  Neither one of us have been there before, so he'll have to scout it out and see if we should go there together sometime.  We were talking about the lab and his experiences in the lab.  Yes, it was a good lab, and he could work in that lab.  But, rules or no, English is not the main language in that lab.  Even in the three weeks he was there, he'd come home frustrated because he'd made a mistake because he didn't understand what someone told him.  He doesn't need that additional barrier for the next 4-5 years.

He's super excited about his next lab - I think it's diabetes research - and from what he's heard, this lab will work him a lot harder than the first one.  On the one hand, this is good; he's been a bit bored lately.  On the other, he probably won't be able to get as much studying done during the afternoon, and will have to study more in the evenings.

I've been trying to find a good podcast to listen to while at work.  For some reason, I haven't really wanted to listen to music lately.  Let me just say ... Itunes is not user friendly at all when it comes to podcasts.  It's impossible to peruse or find ratings easily.

Either that, or I'm completely useless when it comes to Itunes.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  Baking makes me happy.  Happier than cooking, anyway.  It's nice to have something really good as a result of your efforts.

Let's get ready to .... bake!

It's Cookie Time!!!

Actually, John and I are going to be spending the next few days baking as many cookies as we can.  John volunteered me to bake 4 dozen cookies for a GSO event on Saturday (the Graduate Student Organization Fall Festival), and then signed me up to bring something to a luncheon at church on Sunday.  Monday, we're having a lunch party at work to celebrate Boss's day and two office birthdays for the month of October.

So ... Cookies for everyone!

Yesterday I picked up some ingredients and handy tools to help us make a bunch of cookies - like a cookie cooling rack.  I'd been using the rack from my toaster oven, but that's not really ideal.  I also tried to find some cookie cutters, but either Publix doesn't stock cookie cutters or I was looking in all the wrong places.  Maybe I can get John to run to the drugstore to pick some up.

Since John is the one that volunteered me - I've roped him into helping me bake.  Tonight we're going to make up a whole bunch of cookie batter to chill overnight.  Friday night we're going to actually bake everything, and possibly create more batter.

Thankfully we don't have to decorate the cookies - the whole point is to have cookies for people to decorate at the fair.

I'm super excited.  I will try to remember to take pictures so that I can post pictures with the recipe.

Cooler Weather and Test Days

One test down ... one to go!

John seemed exceptionally pleased with how the test went.  He could hardly keep the grin off his face when I saw him after the test.  Although that could be because I was offering him some of the cookies that I made this weekend.  Gingerbread Orange Cookies.

I meant to make them for his classmates, but John and I ate so many this weekend that we didn't have enough for his classmates this morning!  So, I brought them into work for my co-workers ... and all the cookies were gone by 10:30.  And I'm still having people poking their heads in my office asking if there are any more cookies left.

I think I may make another batch.  And now not just because I have to take pictures!

We've been leaving the bathroom window open at night the past week or so - it's an easy way to cool the house down and air out the house.  But last night we had the first cold front of the season come through, and we woke up this morning shivering!  I'm totally loving the cooler weather!  I've made chili that is currently home cooking in the crock pot - Yum!!

Perhaps I'll be able to talk John into lighting the fire sometime this week!  

This time, it's different

I am feeling exceptionally optimistic today.  I'm sure part of it is just feeling well again, and part of it is the huge coke that I drank at lunch.  But another part is that it's Thursday, which means the weekend is almost here!  The weather is cooling off from the normal 90+ degree weather!  My job is more relaxed than it's been in over a year!  And now that both John and I are bringing in a paycheck, finances are not as pressing!

John is so happy in his program right now - even with the lab rotation not being quite to his liking.  He remarked at lunch today that he's been getting a lot of excellent study time in lately, and he's a bit concerned about not being able to sustain it and getting burnt out.  I told him I didn't think it was a problem.

He got burnt out in medical school.  In medical school he was told that he absolutely had to study every day all day - if he wasn't he was doing something wrong.  He had no control over his own schedule - it was always "study, study, study or fail."

Now, the only point is to get through the classes.  The classes are the basics before the labs, which are really important.  He study's for the classes, not for the purpose of studying.  He's in charge of his schedule.  He sets aside good chunks of time to get some studying done.

Yes, he's studying a lot.  But because he's keeping up with his schedule, he was not overwhelmed when he got sick last week and did nothing (school-wise) for three days.  He was able to go to church, to go to Bible Study, to play some computer games, to do extracurricular things.  Grad school is not ruling his life right now. 

There will be times when his blocks of study time are more or less effective than others.  That's normal.  But do I think his current schedule is unsustainable?  No.  Not as long as he continues to schedule the breaks and can get up and walk away from everything; to give himself a true mental and physical break from school; and come back refreshed.

That's what is different this time. 

I am so incredibly happy to see him succeeding, and being happy where he is.

Grad School Triumvirate

My father got his doctorate through online courses about 2 years ago.  He was the first on my side of the family to not only attend a graduate degree program, but to receive his degree. 

I have no experience or expectations of grad school besides that it's supposed to be hard.

Both of John's parents went grad school.  His dad graduated with a DVM degree, and his mom with a PhD degree.  John's brother graduated with an MD degree.  Higher degree programs and graduate school is no stranger to his family. 

Thankfully, we can depend on John's parents to understand and help us through the various pressures and stresses of graduate school.

The biggest decision John has to make in the next year is what to focus his research on.  John's parents came up with a list of three things that make up an ideal program.  Best case scenario: your research has all three things.  But whichever program you choose, it must have at least two of them.


I.  A Good Mentor/Primary Investigator

•  You must have a mentor who will actually mentor you; one who will teach and advise you.  Your mentor must be someone that you can work alongside with; someone who will push you to succeed and encourage you when it's hard.  

• You do not want a mentor whose personality clashes with yours, or who is rarely in the lab, or who cannot explain or teach anything.  This is a person who will have a definite, direct influence over your career as a grad student - make sure it's someone you can work with.

II.  Fascinating Research

•  You must choose your focus based on what interests you.  You will be researching that topic for the next 3-6+ years; if you aren't interested in it, you will have a difficult time putting out quality work.  Whereas if you find the research intriguing, you are pursuing the research based on your own interest, not just as a job or to get a degree.

III.  A High Graduation Rate

• You should examine the research lab you are interested in and see how long the students generally stay in that lab.  Your mentor may be amazing and the research rewarding, but if it takes the students in that lab about 10 years before they graduate ... that needs to be considered.  
• You should look for a lab with a reasonable graduation rate; 3-5 years.  You can (and should) also look into what the graduates of that lab go on to do.  Are they successful once they graduate?  Or are they now flipping burgers?

John gets to rotate between three labs this fall, and two additional labs in the spring.  The whole program is designed to help him find the perfect fit for him in his research.  Last week he narrowed his (long) list of labs he was interested in down to five.

Since he wanted to leave his final rotation open in case he wanted to repeat any lab rotation, we needed to narrow the list down one more.  So, we placed each lab up against those three principles.

Four of them met all three.  One only met two.  That made the decision much easier!

John starts his first lab rotation on Monday.  I hope he likes it!