So, I promised my soon to be advisor that I would make the process as painless for her as possible. She is a busy woman and she hasn’t got all day. So, I filled out the paperwork so that it requires only her signature, then we’re good to go. And we then sat down and ended up shooting the breeze for at least half an hour. We talked about my goals, my feelings about grad school, etc, etc. I was straight up with her and told her I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t necessary for a return to a job I’d very much enjoyed. She was straight up honest too, no sugar coating. When I said I didn’t want to be a full on prof in a research institution because I didn’t want the research pressure, she made frenzied faces and self strangling gestures, then said I was so lucky I wasn’t her husband. We talked about my interests, and how they’ve changed. I talked about my possible interest in a PhD program, and she asked me why, then picked apart my reasons. We talked for at least 15 minutes about homo stuff, and she didn’t even blink, just kept relating. I mentioned burning my notes for the introductory course in the field she got her PhD in. We both went to CMU. We’ve both lived in the Bay Area. And she was frank that UMN wasn’t a top notch institution and she talked about the culture differences between here and CMU. (They make you sweat for it at CMU.) I told her honestly that her class was the only one I really cared about or felt challenged in this semester. She said the other profs saw her reading list for the class and wanted to know if she was trying to kill her students and she told them “No, I want to make them feel it.”
She’s likely the prof I will have the most classes with during my time at UMN. 1 this semester and 2 next makes for three. I’ve had no prof for more than one class up to this point, and I expect that I will have at most one other duplicate next semester.
So, here’s to her, and here’s to making the best of an *enh* situation.
Our situations, while both pretty *enh*, are also much more … you’ve got a new and exciting adviser (and new and exciting friends, I might add). And I’ve got it pretty good too, in all.
Here’s to her!
It is not in the weight; it is in the balance. -me
Yay for awesome advisors!! Congrats — she does indeed sound great.
I’m always glad to hear of education professionals who understand both parts of their job description. She sounds like a rare gem. Here’s to her indeed.