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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
The Hell of Academia
I am so frustrated I could scream! I think the one
thing about this masters degree defense I've dreaded more than anything else was
the scheduling. I've always heard nightmares about students trying to get their
committee members to agree on a single two-hour window for the actual
defense.
I am so frustrated I could scream! I think the one
thing about this masters degree defense I've dreaded more than anything else was
the scheduling. I've always heard nightmares about students trying to get their
committee members to agree on a single two-hour window for the actual
defense.
When I first started querying my committee I discovered two people were out of the country on sabbatical and a third was retired and off traveling for vacation. I worked with the department secretary (who has been my only truly helpful resource) to rearrange my committee, and this last week it was time to actually schedule the defense.
So one person (my "outside" committee member who isn't in the department) is not answering my emails. I discover that he's actually on vacation in New Zealand until the 3rd of December. I find out who his secretary is and explain that I can't wait until the 3rd to schedule the defense because it has to be scheduled at least 7 days in advance, and after December 12th it's too late. She tells me that either December 8th or 10th will work, so I thank her and work on reaching the other professors. After a day I hear back that either day will work, so I call that secretary back to make a confirmation.
Then she tells me she had made and error and neither of those two days will work, and it must either be December 5th or 12th. So I get back to calling the other professors so see if those days will work. This morning I learn that one professor can't make the 12th, so it's the 5th or never.
Which puts me in another pickle. I'm supposed to lock-in the date at least 7 days before the defense. Because of the Thanksgiving vacation that means that I must have the defense time locked-in in today. I spend the entire day sending emails and phoning the department secretary, but she's apparently not in today.
So here's my predicament: the only day I can defend is the 5th. But the latest I could lock-in the 5th was today, and that wasn't able to happen. Nobody is going to be available for the next four days, so I wont even be able to talk to anybody until Monday to find out if we'll be able to move forward with the December 5th defense anyway. But I need to be in Colorado a few days before the defense. I figured I would start driving home this weekend, but now it'll mean that I'll be driving home when in fact I might not be allowed to defend and get forced to drive back to Los Angeles with nothing gained.
It's so frustrating because if either (a) I'd known the one professor was on vacation in fucking New Zealand so I could have gotten things moving sooner or (b) his secretary hadn't given me two bogus days to start scheduling with or (c) I had been able to hear from the other professor that he couldn't do the 12th until this morning or (d) the department secretary was in today I would have been fine.
And you know what? This is the same fucking moronic academic behavior that drove me so nuts as to leave the university and abandon my degree in the first place! I resent that I have wasted this much time and energy just to appease a bunch of useless wankers whose only job seems to be setting obstacles in my way. It's a huge stupid arrogant hazing ritual, and I think our whole higher-education system is in the toilet because of it.
Not that I'm feeling angry or anything! So now I get to spend the weekend refining a paper and creating overhead slides for a presentation that I won't know until Monday or Tuesday whether I'll even get to defend.
AAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! My biggest regret in my life was ever enrolling in graduate school!
When I first started querying my committee I discovered two people were out of the country on sabbatical and a third was retired and off traveling for vacation. I worked with the department secretary (who has been my only truly helpful resource) to rearrange my committee, and this last week it was time to actually schedule the defense.
So one person (my "outside" committee member who isn't in the department) is not answering my emails. I discover that he's actually on vacation in New Zealand until the 3rd of December. I find out who his secretary is and explain that I can't wait until the 3rd to schedule the defense because it has to be scheduled at least 7 days in advance, and after December 12th it's too late. She tells me that either December 8th or 10th will work, so I thank her and work on reaching the other professors. After a day I hear back that either day will work, so I call that secretary back to make a confirmation.
Then she tells me she had made and error and neither of those two days will work, and it must either be December 5th or 12th. So I get back to calling the other professors so see if those days will work. This morning I learn that one professor can't make the 12th, so it's the 5th or never.
Which puts me in another pickle. I'm supposed to lock-in the date at least 7 days before the defense. Because of the Thanksgiving vacation that means that I must have the defense time locked-in in today. I spend the entire day sending emails and phoning the department secretary, but she's apparently not in today.
So here's my predicament: the only day I can defend is the 5th. But the latest I could lock-in the 5th was today, and that wasn't able to happen. Nobody is going to be available for the next four days, so I wont even be able to talk to anybody until Monday to find out if we'll be able to move forward with the December 5th defense anyway. But I need to be in Colorado a few days before the defense. I figured I would start driving home this weekend, but now it'll mean that I'll be driving home when in fact I might not be allowed to defend and get forced to drive back to Los Angeles with nothing gained.
It's so frustrating because if either (a) I'd known the one professor was on vacation in fucking New Zealand so I could have gotten things moving sooner or (b) his secretary hadn't given me two bogus days to start scheduling with or (c) I had been able to hear from the other professor that he couldn't do the 12th until this morning or (d) the department secretary was in today I would have been fine.
And you know what? This is the same fucking moronic academic behavior that drove me so nuts as to leave the university and abandon my degree in the first place! I resent that I have wasted this much time and energy just to appease a bunch of useless wankers whose only job seems to be setting obstacles in my way. It's a huge stupid arrogant hazing ritual, and I think our whole higher-education system is in the toilet because of it.
Not that I'm feeling angry or anything! So now I get to spend the weekend refining a paper and creating overhead slides for a presentation that I won't know until Monday or Tuesday whether I'll even get to defend.
AAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! My biggest regret in my life was ever enrolling in graduate school!
Posted: Wed - November 26, 2003 at 05:47 PM