The 9th Carnival of GRADual Progress

Greetings and welcome to the 9th Carnival of GRADual Progress!

I have decided to start and end on a positive note this time round, so with no further ado, let's move into a round-up of posts that are so helpful you can count reading them as "working" rather than "procrastination".

Tips and tricks and general helpfulness:

Psycgirl asks for tips on how to study for comps, and her readers come up with some very helpful suggestions. And when the studying isn't going so well, she survives by fantasising about life after grad school.

Now that Working Writing Wailing Mama is clear on the big issues, she discovers a new mantra that I suggest we all adopt.

Mosilager discusses the pros and cons of Windows vs Linux, especially when it comes to thesis writing.

Jim Gibbon links to a useful article on dissertating without the agony, and recommends writing before you are ready.

EA reminds us that even when you feel like you are going backwards, this is still a kind of progress. Of course, on the rare days where you wake up to find that yesterday's work is still looking good, you might as well reward yourself by going back to bed.


But a grad student carnival wouldn't be complete without some tales of angst and woe...

The dark side:

Kristen's post about a conversation with other ABDs shows that the American PhD system of coursework plus dissertation means that grad students get to experience burnout before they even start writing.

Maria's grad school applications are inducing panic.

RussianViolets is scared of her advisor, worrying that getting tenure means she has to put out or get out.

T was about to graduate, only to get a letter from the university telling her she needs four more credits.

Clevergirl wants a magic style button to solve all her formatting woes.

Video has some conversations that make her wonder why we do this to ourselves.

Breena Ronan is experiencing the joys of grad school politics, as well as the problems of putting together a committee for an interdisciplinary topic.

Anastasia has been experiencing the extra pressure of trying to draft her (symbolically structured) dissertation with a baby due any day. On top of this, she discovers that a lack of family-friendly jobs at her university means that her only options for funding next year would earn her less than a dollar an hour.

FemaleCSGradStudent has noticed that her university is playing games with her, and she doesn't want to join in. (With bonus hilarious conversation).


Finally, back to that positive note I promised to end on...

Congratulations to:

Flossie, whose comps are over. Be sure to read to the end of this post for her hilarious solution to workaholism.

Sammy, who got a teaching position for the coming year.

Twirly, who has turned in a draft of her proposal and is now spending her time writing letters to her lab equipment.

Marcia, who has completed a draft of her thesis.

Elle, who has reached two grad student milestones: submitting the first draft of her dissertation, and falling asleep in the library.

Mike Slackenerny, who is finished at last, leaving some people very disgruntled. (What do you mean, he's a fictional character? Aren't we all?)


Finally:

Apologies if I missed anyone in this round. A plea to all readers to remember to tag or email in any posts they come across that they would like to see in the next carnival. It's so much easier on the host to have submissions coming to them rather than having to seek them out themselves (and it means a broader range of topics and blogs get covered).

The next carnival will be hosted by Kisha at 10 Year Plan on or around May 15th.

Volunteers to host future carnivals would be greatly appreciated and should contact me at the email address in the sidebar on the right. You can take a look here to see what hosting is all about.