GradHacker

How to prepare for research abroad.

While my last post focused on the written aspect of comprehensive exams, for many graduate students there is another, equally dreaded component: the oral examination.

18 ways you can get better sleep.

Cutting back on sleep is never ever a good solution.

If you’re lucky enough to have a teaching assistantship, you know that summer classes can be an extremely rewarding experience.

In a perfect world, I would grow and raise my own food and cook every meal that I ate from scratch. I enjoy cooking because it’s so rewarding to eat something you made and that you know all the ingredients that go into it. But grad school has challenged my love of cooking in many ways.

As I write this, I am stuck in a small town in Ohio after an accident on the freeway on my way home from a conference. (I hit a semi wheel that came off a truck and smashed my car’s suspension system. I’m fine but, sadly, my car is not.) Whether it’s a semi wheel, a sick child or spouse, our own illness, family issues, or something else, at some point in our academic career, life gets in the way of our work.

I'm really bad at chess. My little brother was always amazing at the game, and was somehow always a few steps in front of me. I'd snag one of his knights, and this would cause him to capture my queen and put me in check. I had always thought that the reason he was so good was because he cheated or knew some trick to the game that I didn't. It was the same way with Risk. While I focused on conquering countries with funny names, he conquered everything else... and eventually me.