Things to do as soon as you start your PhD program
1) Set up a support system around you, both academic and non-academic. Meet with your cohort, go out to grad student events, meet with your professors, and start a good relationship with your advisor. Let your family and friends know that will you need their support too as you start this new phase of your life.
2) Manage your time wisely. Being a grad student involves juggling a lot of responsibilities! Start identifying what works and doesn’t work for you, and work around your strengths and weaknesses.
3) Continue/Start networking. It’s never too early to start. Ask your advisor what conferences are good to attend, set up meetings with faculty members that you share research interests with, mingle with the advanced students and post-docs (these are good people to look for mentorship too)
4) Start looking for and applying for grants/funding. The more you do it, the better you get at it, and the higher the probability of you getting something.
5) Start looking into what you can do to build up your CV. Applying for grants is a start, but you can also start planning conference presentations and joining professional organizations.
6) Get into good writing habits. Our job as PhD students is to learn how to conduct good research, AND to be able to communicate it (after all, what good is research if nobody knows about it). Writing takes a good chunk of our time, but there is no good system in place within the PhD student process to make people good, habitual writers. Join a writing group, ask advanced students to talk to you about the writing process, and start a daily writing habit. This will really help you out in the long run!
Competition and Graduate School – Or, How Grad School is Like the Hunger Games
This semester I’ve been thinking a lot about competition and grad school. Every time I submit an application for an internship, job, or dissertation funding, I am aware of the fact that I am going up against many other students, all of us competing for a limited number of prizes. Graduate school, I’ve decided, is like the Hunger Games.
(Did you know Suzanne Collins graduated from IU? Maybe that's where she got her inspiration. Nah, just kidding!)
If you’re objecting already, hear me out! No, graduate students are not engaged in a fight to the death, but we are fighting for our academic careers: vying for this or that fellowship, struggling to win the attention of Dr. So-and-So, waging an uphill battle against the referees who review papers for publication. Our competitors in all of this are our fellow students, and they want the prize just as badly. For the most part, they are nice, innocent, and hardworking (Rue) but occasionally they can be ruthless jerks like those people from District 1. And just to complete the analogy, let’s say that the library (or lab) represents the arena. Recommendation letters and bits of helpful wisdom from our advisors = gifts from sponsors (obviously).
Graduate school can definitely take on a competitive atmosphere, but since I’m a glass-half-full kind of person, I want to point out another parallel between the Hunger Games and grad school. The people who win in the end are those who figure out how to work together.
I’m happy to say that the cooperative atmosphere in my department overshadows the competitive one. People are quick to alert each other about potential opportunities, and they are happy to share ideas and collaborate. Three times in the past year I’ve applied for the same grants that other students have their eyes on. Instead of hiding our work from each other, everyone has read each other’s applications and offered ongoing advice and support. In the end, we will all benefit from the experience – much more than if we had tried to tackle this particular battle alone. We’re like Katniss and Peeta! (minus the smooching)
And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, I hope you put down the academic articles for a few hours this summer and indulge in the Hunger Games.
Do you have kids? Finding childcare and schools in Bloomington
Once I was admitted to IU, there seemed to be an endless list of tasks that needed attending to before my family and I made the physical transition to Bloomington, such as arranging housing, setting up utilities, finding the grocery store and opening a bank account. For me, one of the foremost tasks on my list was arranging for childcare and school for my daughter and son, respectively.
When we moved here, my daughter was only 2 years old. As I quickly learned, finding childcare in Bloomington for an infant or toddler can be a challenge. This is not unlike many cities were infant care is in short supply, but if you have a young child, you should be warned that you will probably end up on several very long lists with other parents who are also looking for care for their young children. As a result, I ended up looking for alternative sources of care for my daughter. As a grad student I could not afford an in-home nanny, but I was able to find an in-home group care setting for her. To do this, I used the following website to help me with my initial search for reputable, licensed daycare providers: http://childcareindiana.org/childcareindiana/ptq.cfm. This website allows you to search by zip code and also find out what violations of state regulations, if any, a licensed provider has had in the recent past.
When my daughter turned 3 (and was potty trained), we enrolled her in the local school district’s preschool program called Ready, Set, Grow. She really thrived there. The teachers were terrific, many of which were certified in early childhood education. The program has a curricula that includes academic and social skills development. My daughter not only learned the alphabet, but also built relationships with other children with whom she attends school today.
When we moved here, I also had to enroll my son in elementary school. The local school district, Monroe County Community School Corporation (or MCCSC for short), provides lots of information on their website, including how to register your child in a school: http://www.mccsc.net/subsite/dist/page/title-raw-nid-3. You will need to determine which school covers the neighborhood in which you live using the District Boundary Map and then go to that particular school to enroll your child. Although it depends on who you ask, the public schools in the area are good quality, and I have found the teachers and administrators to be very caring and interested in the welfare of students.
In sum, if you have children, get started early arranging for their day care. Although Bloomington has many wonderful options, it takes a while to find the right place for them.
Freestyle
Hey friends… I’m back on the scene like Mean Joe Green. Trying to make the green with flows unseen… I hope you enjoyed my rhymes. When I get excited my friends and I like to do spontaneous cyphers (think Eminem in 8 Mile, but far less talented). I know you’re all thinking thinking “don’t give up the day job,” and you are probably right so I won’t. But I wanted to have a little fun during this last week of classes. I’m very excited because summer is approaching and that means in a few months I will see some of your faces on campus and I cannot wait. The end of the semester can be a stressful time, but this year I hasn’t been too stressful. I think I may have hit my stride as a grad student. So in this short post I just wanted to hit you with my wonderful FREE TIP OF THE DAY. Today’s tip is simply don’t forget to have fun. This week will be full of opportunities to kick back and relax. Graduate and Professional Student Organization (GPSO) is having some great events this week like karaoke at the Bluebird and an all out bash at The Farm. I will update this post later on this week with pictures from the event. Until then friends be good to yourselves and each other. PEACE!
UPDATE 4/29/12
I didn’t take pictures at the Grad Bash or Karaoke, but I did record my friend Seth playing the Saxophone at the 40th Annual Soul Revue Concert. The footage isn’t the best but the solo rocks. He’s playing This is a man’s world by James Brown
Year in Review.
The 7 year rule came into place as of August 2011, meaning I have 7 years from that date to complete my dissertation. So this year I primarily focused on getting my data organized and ideally I am looking to have a dissertation proposal very soon. In recent years, my department has had students complete their dissertation proposal having already completed their analysis–so I am trying to do the same. From now until very early in the fall this is my main focus. Next year I start a new graduate assistantship and ideally I’ll be writing up my dissertation as well as looking into faculty position openings. It will be a very busy year, hard to say it will be the most busiest. Each year my Ph.D. program has come with its own challenges from managing time spent in classes and on class assignments, working as an instructor, research graduate assistant and generally trying to balance life. The summer is about to start though and it’s the perfect time to reenergize a bit, visit with family, and to hit the ground running in terms of setting myself up to have a great start in the fall. Steady as I go.
Getting excited?
It’s the season for acceptance letters! Are you coming to IU in the fall? If so, congratulations! The next few months are going to be exciting and hopefully not overwhelming. Don’t worry – you have time to prepare for what’s ahead, and we have some resources to help you.
Ahmed and Kuang have provided some great tips on finding housing (scroll down to check them out). If you’re still looking for options and you’re interested in communal living, you might want to consider Bloomington Cooperative Living.
The Coop has several houses – the largest is home to 14 people and the smallest is home to 5. Meals and chores are shared, and it can be a great way to save money and instantly become part of a community in Bloomington. They also sublet rooms for the summer, which might be a great option if you want to arrive in Bloomington early and get to know the town and people.
That brings me to my next point. When should you schedule your arrival? In my experience, most leases in Bloomington start between early and mid August. Many students, however, are looking to sublet their rooms for the summer, and you can rent a room for a an extra month or two if you want to arrive earlier. It’s always nice to have some time to settle in. If you sublet for the summer, you could also use that time to search for a permanent housing arrangement for the school year. Being able to check out your options in person definitely has its benefits.
To help you in your housing search, here’s another neat resource: myBloomington. This tool lets you type in a Bloomington address and gives you information on resources in the area such as parks and neighborhood associations. I just discovered my neighborhood association has a blog!
Still have questions? IU’s Graduate and Professional Student Organization (GPSO) has a checklist for new students with lots of great information. And as always, you can send us an email anytime with questions about IU or Bloomington. Just click on the link in the sidebar at the left.
Teaching…
Lots of folks I know view teaching as a graduate student as a vexed opportunity/ circumstance of obtaining an advanced degree. Depending on your department, you may have very few chances to teach, or more chances than you would like. There are tons of benefits to teaching, including job experience, income, and a huge sense of accomplishment. Despite the benefits, balancing teaching and research/writing/coursework can be difficult. Oh, also, teaching can be ROUGH and definitely is lots of work. I wanted to share a few lessons I’ve figured out the hard way—through hours and hours of trial and error in the classroom.
1. Classes vary, and you will probably have to change up your teaching style to match your students in a given semester. Some classes are talkative and some are quiet. Some love group work, while others just want to listen to lectures. Be prepared to vary your teaching styles, try out new things, and definitely ask for feedback from students—I usually have a miderm eval…
2. Along the same lines, some classes are great, and some, to be real, are not. There are some groups of students that for some reason just don’t mesh. It can be easy to take that personally, but don’t jump to that assumption. Take a good look at your class, and honestly assess the situation. Are you putting in too little time? Are you unavailable to students? Are you regularly unprepared? If you answer “no” to those questions, it’s probably not your fault, so you’ll just have to muddle through. But don’t despair! You will have good classes in the future!
Photo by Ben Skirvin/WFIU. Accessed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfiupublicradio/5163362832/.
3. A class is always the hardest the first time you teach it. Expect to put in hours prepping and developing assignments. The flip of that, though, is that classes are much easier the second or third time around, so save your materials—and make notes on what worked best and what you would like to update…
4. If you’re feeling intimidated by teaching—and everyone I know has felt this way—a quick shot to your confidence that should help with your class is to put on your finest teaching garb and light it up! Really, it should help you feel more professional and, for me, in any case, affords me greater confidence. Sometimes you just have to fake that you are a professional/authority figure/expert and eventually you’ll believe it, and your students will too. Fake it ‘til you make it…!
5. Finally, a note for you perfectionists out there: set boundaries on how much teaching prep you do. I have definitely lost entire weeks of reading/writing to teaching: it can absolutely can take over… So you have to remember that you are also here to research and write; don’t let that side of grad school suffer. Limit the hours you can use to prep, and force yourself to be efficient and to prioritize what really needs to be done (i.e. do you really need all those hilarious photos for the PowerPoint? Probably not.).
Here’s hoping that you have a blast with teaching… It is part of the vocation for most of us and while some are more “natural” at it—in the sense of having a defined teaching style that affords someone confidence and students a good learning experience—everyone I know is always working to becoming a better teacher. It takes work and, like with most things, if at first you don’t succeed try, and try again!
Looking for a place to live in Bloomington
If you have accepted an offer from IU, you should use the last bit of time between now and when you move to Bloomington to relax and try to spend as much time as possible with your family and friends. On the other hand, you want to be prepared and start making arrangements for life in Bloomington so you don’t feel lost when you move here. Housing is one thing that you need to start thinking about before you come.
When looking for housing, ask yourself these questions: Do you want to live by yourself or share an apartment/rental house with one or more roommates to cut down your cost of living? Do you have dependents who will move with you to Bloomington? Do you need a day-care/nannies for your children? Do you want to have pets? I would recommend on-campus housing if you anticipate living here without a car, with your children, or having to work late nights in the lab. There is an excellent transportation system in Bloomington consisting of both IU campus bus and city buses that go by all the on-campus apartments as well as the major grocery stores. There is also two day-cares located on-campus. If you work requires some night hours in the lab, you could request safety escort for free (http://safety.indiana.edu/).
There are several ways of looking for housing in Bloomington:
1. Apartment guide: It has a website as well as hard copies of housing info that you can pick up from grocery stores like Kroger.
2. Craigslist: Useful for sublets and roommates
3. OneStart: Once you have created an IU username and passphrase, you can log on to OneStart.iu.edu and go to the classifieds where you can post and search other peoples’ postings regarding sublets and roommates. This is how I found the apartment that I’m currently live in.
4. If there is an particular area of town that you like to live in, walk around and you’ll find phone numbers to call for rental inquiries.
If you choose to live off-campus, make sure you ask around about the property management’s reputation. Good luck!
Where to live in Bloomington?!?
This question, more than most, seems like it is really hard to answer abstractly: the best places for me to live are certainly not the best places for lots of undergrads who are as invested in partying as taking classes! So, with that as the backdrop, here’s a few things to consider:
(1) I’d strongly encourage you to look into campus housing for your first year at IUB. Personally, I lived in an IUB apartment building for my first year, which was a really great thing for me: I got to live close to (but far enough away from) campus, didn’t have to deal with the hassle of setting up utilities, and figured out where I wanted to live next. Which brings me to…
(2) Bloomington has lots of neighborhoods and several neat living possibilities!
- The South side of Bloomington has several apartments and condos that can be rented for as low as around $500/month (and as high as $1K/month). My impression is that the South side has more working professionals: it is a relatively nice and quiet area with people who get to bed at a reasonable hour and get to work early. It may not be a terrible idea to take out a loan and buy a condo if you’re planning on being here in Bloomington for four-five years…
- The East Side is mainly stand-alone homes and is very family-oriented. Lots of faculty live on the East side of town, and while it has a broad range of homes (including some that run for $1mil on the market), it is usually beyond graduate students’ paychecks.
- The area around the IUB Stadium is pretty hectic! It is renown for partying: don’t be surprised to find that someone mistook your stoop for a urinal at three in the AM if you ultimately decide this is the area for you!
- There is a fair amount of IUB housing that is available to faculty/ staff/ students on/around campus, including spacious apartments on/around N. Fess, on 10th street (Tulip Tree), and on 3rd street (Campus View). Because they’re located at different places—though usually close to campus—they have different feels, though they’re generally fairly quiet and usually within a 10 minute walk of campus.
Hope these thoughts help—feel free to comment if you’d like any more specific suggestions!
Being a Muslim in Bloomington
I’d like to share a bit with you about “religious diversity” here at IUB. In particular, I’d like to share with you a bit about being a (Sunni) Muslim here in Bloomington. For starters, Bloomington is a pretty liberal place in the sense that it has a lot of well-intentioned folks—some of whom have a hard time understanding the idea of American-Muslim-ness. Generally speaking, though, I’ve only ever heard a few stories of out-and-out prejudice against Muslims as Muslims—of the three I can recall one was expressly against a muhajibba (someone who wears hijab) and the other two were directed against Muslims in the world. With that as the backdrop, it is worth noting that: (1) Considering how big it is, Bloomington has a lot of Muslims—from all walks of life and from around the world—far more than most towns the size of Bloomington; (2) if you’re used to living in a city with a big Muslim population (e.g. a Philly, Deerborn, NYC, etc.) prepare to feel somewhat isolated and deprived of a variety of halal options. That said, one of my favorite restaurants serves halal meat (<http://www.restaurantanatolia.com/>) and there are at least three other halal options in Bloomington for folks who like to eat out. And, I should add, we’re not so far from Indianapolis (about an hour by car), where you can find a lot more variety in the way of halal food…
There are definitely useful resources for Bloomington-based Muslims. There is, of course, the “Islamic Center of Bloomington,” which plays an important role in the lives of many Bloomington Muslims <http://www.icob.org/gl/public_html/>. There’s also the Muslim Student Union on campus (used to be an MSA but is no longer—long story about which details are sketchy and scant), which has become an increasingly open and welcoming space <http://www.indiana.edu/~msuweb/>. The MSU facilitates “campus jumah” that is open to everyone who doesn’t feel like attending—or can’t attend—jumah at the masjid. Moreover, the MSU office is open to all IUB faculty, staff, and students who want a place to pray on campus. Personally, I really appreciate the enthusiasm and openness of the MSU—the spaces they create are open to all Muslims, regardless of theological positions (i.e. there are many Shi’a who attend campus jumah, we’ve even had Shi’a give the khutbah and lead prayer), gender, and ethnicity/race. I’m not sure how the MSU would do with “out” Muslims, but, as far as I know, to date this has not been a practical question. If attending jumah here in Bloomington gets tiring, you can always try to get up to Indy, where there are several masajid with a range of orientations—including a WD Muhammad masjid, a few Salafi-oriented masajid, and the ISNA headquarters—such that you should be able to find a place you feel comfortable with. To sum up, then: my impression is that practicing Muslims in Bloomington are certainly exposed to various modes of prejudice that mobilize Islamophobic tropes, but Bloomington offers practicing Muslims a few worship-communities and a broad range of Muslims to befriend… Hope this helps!