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A Day in the Life of a Graduate Student and Ann Arborite

May 15, 2013 | By Diane Calinski, Ph.D. Candidate, Pharmacology

Diane Calinski is a Ph.D. candidate in the Pharmacology Department at the University of Michigan. She will be graduating shortly, and currently spends most of her time completing the remaining experiments for her dissertation and filling out job applications. Diane aspires to obtain a faculty position at a professional school (such as a college of pharmacy), and direct her efforts to teaching and mentoring students. My Ride. Can't beat free parking! My men preparing me…

Candidate Stango Goes to Washington; Or, Adventures in the Archives

May 10, 2013 | By Marie Stango, Ph.D. Student, History

As a Ph.D. Candidate in History, I'm working on the intersections between the history of American antislavery and the history of families. My dissertation traces the journey of African American families as they migrated from North America to West Africa during the early nineteenth century, locating settlers and missionaries as they established new lives for themselves in the American colonies at Liberia. These migrants often kept in close contact with family members that remained in…

Thank You from Your Graduate Student Body President

May 8, 2013 | By Michael Benson, President, Rackham Student Government

Fellow Graduate Students, Three years ago, you elected me to serve as your President and each year since then, you've re-elected me along with a set of wonderful vice presidents to serve you. Over the course of the last year, your graduate student government achieved a great deal on your behalf including: allocating over $16,000 to graduate student organizations to host a variety of cultural, educational, and other interesting events and programs; hosting many events…

We’re Flattered, but Please Make the Articles Stop

April 30, 2013 | By Amy Pistone, Ph.D. Student, Classical Studies

Every few weeks or so, someone writes another article about how humanities Ph.D. programs are a bad choice and how grad students are either victims who have been bamboozled into a dead-end career in a dying field or are the children of privilege or—my personal favorite—a drain on society. And while it is certainly hard to choose a favorite among such a long list of choices, the most recent incarnation of this popular pastime is…

A Day in the Life of a Grad Student Mom

April 25, 2013 | By Luciana Aenasoaie, Ph.D. Student, Anthropology and History

5:42 am “Wake up, mama! Mama, wake up! Wake up! Wake UP!” I hide my head in the comforter as I try to convince Aida, my two-year-old daughter, that we still have 18 minutes of sleep left. After serious negotiations, I give up. We slowly make our way to the kitchen where I press the magic button on the coffee maker, warm up Aida’s milk and cereal, and slice a banana. As the microwave beeps,…

Newest Member of the ‘Just Married’ Wagon

April 23, 2013 | By Laura Fernandes, Ph.D. Student, Biostatistics

I have been on a hiatus since my last blog post. Coming here to U-M five years ago, I expected to graduate with a Ph.D. before changing my marital status but sometimes the least expected relationships happen at the most unexpected times. As though being a graduate student is not tough enough, I took on the additional role of planning a wedding! If you have read some of my earlier posts, you will know that…

Living the American Dream as a Graduate Student

April 18, 2013 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

We survived the Vietnam War, and now I’m a graduate student living the American Dream. I am a first generation graduate student. But before that, I am also a first generation college student, first generation American-born, and first generation child of a pair of refugees from the Vietnam War. The most interesting story from this list is that of my parents, sister, and brother surviving the war and surviving the escape to America to live…

Why GEO Matters to Me

April 16, 2013 | By Spencer Hawkins, Ph.D. Student, Comparative Literature

In previous posts, I have made it clear how grateful I am to the people with whom I work and the programs with which I engage at U-M. I also appreciate that the university is able to attract such brilliant and hard-working scholars and to provide us with outstanding resources for non-classroom learning. I have benefited, for instance, from travel grants and conference funding, and learned tons from brilliant people at CRLT and Sweetland about…

Student to Student Video: Balancing Work and Life in Graduate School

April 15, 2013 | By Natalie Bartolacci, Program Manager, Rackham Graduate School

Feeling overwhelmed by your personal and academic responsibilities? Check out interviews with current students about how they manage the many responsibilities of life in graduate school: Rackham’s student bloggers took on the topic of “Balance” and a summary of their tips is available on the Graduate School Blog, as well as the bloggers’s original posts on the topic.

Finding a Balance

April 9, 2013 | By Amy Pistone, Ph.D. Student, Classical Studies

I’ve noticed that there’s a really interesting divide in the sort of polite small-talk that goes on when I meet new people. When I meet someone, conversations tend to involve some variation of the “Oh, so what do you do?” question, and we each talk about where we work and what we do professionally. Then, if I’m talking to someone who isn’t in academia, things eventually move toward the “So what else do you like…

True Confessions of a Graduate Student Neat Freak

April 4, 2013 | By Leslie Rott, Ph.D. Student, Sociology

This is the second in a series of “true confession” posts. The first one was about my addiction to coffee. Now onto my addiction to keeping things organized… When I get really stressed, something key to keeping me sane is a clean and well-organized living space. I feel so much better when everything is in its place and the floors are sparkling. There is something about having a tidy space that makes it easier for…

My Disillusionment, and How I Consequently Made Friends in Graduate School

March 14, 2013 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

I was having a talk with my bestie about making friends in graduate school. I’ve been in my program for close to 3 years now, since I came straight out of college. She worked for a couple years and then went back to graduate school for architecture this past fall. I experienced this too when I started, but recently she’s been telling me about her work-life balance and/or mid-life crisis of spending all her time…

Book Review of Graduate Study for the 21st Century

March 7, 2013 | By Spencer Hawkins, Ph.D. Student, Comparative Literature

When we read books with “how to” in the title, we generally want the reading to end quickly and with efficient results. We would rather be able to perform adequately without reading a whole book first. In Gregory Colón Semenza’s words of advice on writing, “every scholar appreciates a solid index,” since we often need only a few pieces of information from a book (98). With its solid index and clear structure, Semenza has written…

True Confessions of a Graduate Student Coffee Addict

February 25, 2013 | By Leslie Rott, Ph.D. Student, Sociology

This is the first in a series of “true confession” posts… There are several things in my graduate student life/career that I can’t live without: My computer, highlighters, notebooks, and binders, all of the obvious student essentials. But there’s something more than those things. Something that I need on a daily basis practically just to function. COFFEE!!! Ask my sister or boyfriend or anyone who has had the displeasure of interacting with me in the…

Conferences Offer an Opportunity to Recharge One’s Academic Batteries

February 14, 2013 | By Amy Pistone, Ph.D. Student, Classical Studies

I love what I study. I really, truly do. And I also love teaching. But there does come a point in the semester when I’m really tired. It’s around the point where papers are ominously looming in the future and sleep is an increasingly rare commodity. This usually happens to coincide with the times when my students need the most pre-finals help, but my own classes and research also need the most help. And because…

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