Grad students, a little motivation

[Stoysluttie1]

Now that the heat is upon us, I have resorted to writing up my research and a few articles that will be submitted for publication this coming fall. This is all because of the desire to play hard once the semester begins, for which i have no classes but am still a student, my last semester of my educational career. What a way to end it all...no classes, just some revisions and preparation for my thesis defense, which should occur sometime in November!

Skiing...what a motivation to accomplish something even if it is a few months away.

A little advice for those currently working on their MS or PhD...if you feel the urge to write and get on a roll..use it to your advantage and go with it. I have and its paying off....13 pages the last two days...with about 6 more written this morning.

So stoked...so stoked because I plan on skiing at least 20+ days in November as a reward for accomplishing my Masters.

[Oarhead]

I hear ya. I am trying to get a manuscript written so i can send it off and then get ready for my candidacy exams in the early fall. Once that is done I will sleep better and have more time to ski over the winter. One more round of data collection and then I can write up the rest of my thesis - hopefully only a year and a bit to go (although I ahve been saying that for a while.

[skier0178]

Finished my masters in december, been on the Phd since then. Managed to publish 3 papers this year, not too shabby. Should allow me to hit up mammoth 2-3 weekends/month during the season, I hope...

[Viva]

Where are yooze guys in school? What fields? I defended almost exactly 6 years ago.

[Lane Meyer]

I defended my MS in October, then moved to Hawai`i for a dream job (volcanologist) that lasted six months. Then I went to Thailand, travelled for a month, and moved to Truckee where I work for a photographer and keep searching for a geology/GIS job somewhere in Truckee/Tahoe/Reno so I can stay in the mountains and I don't have to move to a city.

Definately follow Stoy's advice and write as much as possible when you get your muse.

[skier0178]

Originally posted by Viva
Where are yooze guys in school? What fields? I defended almost exactly 6 years ago.

PhD in Computer Science at Univ. of Southern California.

[Viva]

Looks like a couple of you have gone to SC for grad school. I was at UCSD. Best of luck to all of you. Definitely an interesting time in one's life.

The writing part is amazing in that you can go months with nothing and then bang out a couple of chapters in a week. I cheated when writing my thesis in that I "borrowed" extensively from a couple of my manuscripts.

[Oarhead]

I WAS doing my masters in mechanical engineering in calgary but then it spiralled out of control to the point where I realized that I had done the vast majority of a PhD. Since they don't give AAPhD (Almost A PhD) I made the switch since I might as well get the credit considering it will only take me another year and a bit.

I am in mech eng but me research is in biomehcanincs - more specifically I can predict failure of prosthetic joints by building an extremely accurate 3D reconstruction of the internal structures from a pair of x-rays (kinda like topographic map construction but in 3D) and see if the implant moves relative to the bone over time.

I gotta go surf the net after that nerd-out session.

[Stoysluttie1]

I've got a backgroung in Horticulture and am working on my masters in Turfgrass Science, with classwork based around natural resources and water conservation.

I wouldn't say that I am cheating on my write up but am borrowing and citing a ton! Thats because a few months ago the bible of what I study was released...hard to beat the 2 best researchers in the world on your subject.