Apartment living lessons learned

Over the weekend I was talking with a 2nd year grad student from the program I just graduated from about living in an apartment. It was fun mutually complaining about space and sharing the little bit of space you might get with a room mate. Which lead to the I think I need my own space to really be successful in grad school. I am the biggest advocate for having your own space where you can move about as you wish.
Here is my list of why you should live alone while in grad school:
You can live acording to some mythical clock so you can finish projects
You can eat when, what, and where ever you want
You can wear pjs all day even if you aren't sick
You can alternate between writing, having a dance party, and back to writing in 15 mins
No one wants to hear you talking in your sleep about Chickering's 7 Vectors
You don't have to explain your obsession with postit notes
You can leave books all over the floor
You only have your self to blame when you procrastinated

Now here is a tip on where and what to look for in an apartment close to campus:
Be close but not too close - any where that has more students then non students gets a little out of hand.
If you walk up to the leasing office and there are beer bottles in the planters, walk away.
Never move to a unit that has any major destractors within ear or eye shot (pool, tennis court, volleyball, community laundry, main entry gates, major streets)
Check out the community at random hours of the day just to get a feel for it.
Make sure a grocery store (or in my case a Target) is within walking distance.
Meet people who live there
Walk around after a tour, you see different things when you are on your own.


I have horror stories of apartment living and shopping. I have had crazy neighbors. But through it all I learned and lived. Good luck!

After a crazy semester... I am done!

Way too much went on this semester. I am exhausted. I passed Comps, finished my eportfolio, had Rites of Passage, and Graduated! I can't believe it is over just like that.

At the beginning of May I never thought I would make it this far and now it is over and gone! Wow! It goes by so fast!

Hopefully I can continue this blog as I move into job searching so I can document my transitional experiences!

Comps & other scary sounding things

So I haven't blogged during this experience as much as I wanted to. But I think I might need it now. I am taking my Master's Comprehensive exam in 14 weeks. All the course work, reading, memorizing, and notetaking leads up to that moment. A little dramatic, but true!

I am thinking about how to best prepare myself.

I wrote a note during our first class meeting this last week that said "Organize notes and readings by themes - Like student subpopulation, student development theory, research methods, and courses - Then cross code with post-its."

This made sense then but now as I sit here with my notes, 8 colors of post-its, and 4 binders, I am thinking I took this too far!

My first class meeting was our seminar course (ie prepare & practice for comps). The next course is our fieldwork course. Our fieldwork profs, sense the tension in the room, asked what was up with us. We all went around sharing how we felt overwhelmed and underprepared for Comps. They went on to tell us that we know the material. We just need to strengthen our connections. So I draw from my Psych undergrad days that it is like practicing anything. The more you do it the easier it is. Much like muscle memory, I need to get back to finding & building connections.

Maybe these notebooks aren't the craziest idea. I probably should just dial back the complexity. I will let you know how it goes!

My Comps study group has committed our Saturdays to each other to work together refreshing and I think we will need to delve back into using Google Docs to collaborate.

This post by @KevinRGuidry is a great example of the collaborative benefits of Google Docs (http://mistakengoal.com/blog/2010/07/26/quals-and-google-docs/)