Graduate School

Hello All,

So gradute school is basically exactly how I thought it would be... A more serious form of college. More reading, more professionalism, more learning... It's also easier to make friends since you're with the same 10 people every week, unlike college where you rarely know who you're taking classes with. I'm actually doing the reading and enjoying some of it (but not most) and I think I'm getting along fine. I'm getting things together to get started in my research lab, which is a bit intimidating because I don't really know what I'm doing exactly and excelling in the statistics course (thank you, Dr. Ward). Overall, it's pretty normal and I don't really have much to report at this time, short of complain about other facility problems here at EMU.

Parking:
   I thought Miami had bad parking, but here it's almost impossible to find a parking spot. My first day of class I left 30 minutes early (it takes 5 minutes to get here), and was 10 minutes late to my first class. Shame on ME! I then decided leaving an hour early would be good, but knew from other students that 10am was the worst time, which put me leaving 1.5 hours before class, not a big deal though, because I have an office and lots of reading I could do to pass the time. Today however, I leave at 9:30 (1.5 hours before my class) and it took me 45 minutes to find a spot maybe a mile away. Terrible. Not to mention that I have a Staff parking pass... I talked to a faculty member and he said that they have the same problem unless you want to pay for a premium pass, which I would if I could!  I just think it would be of interest to the EMU parking division to do a better job with this! When the 1500 space parking garage is full at 9am, maybe you need to think about building something else, or giving out less parking passes. This is one thing that I miss at Miami... If I was a graduate student there, I'd get a pass, and basically be able to park right in front of the building.  Maybe ticketing will lessen the cars, maybe I'll have to get here even earlier. Choices must be made!

Overall Facility Use:
    Hearing that EMU faculty were excited to get certain things for research kind of alarmed me because these things seemed like they should already be there. An observation room for instance... Also, there are no computer labs in the psychology wing of the science building... If you want to have access to SPSS (psychological statiscal data program) you have to go to the library or hope that the lab you work in has a computer available. There isn't remote access, and homework for that class due weekly. Overall, it's just a transition for me, and there is a clear distinction in the quality of facilities from my undergrad to my graduate school, but I pay the same here, as I did there...


Other news:
    Next time I am going to discuss bridesmaid boxes. Basically, presents for my bridesmaids to ask them if they will be my bridesmaid... I am not posting this yet because those lucky girls haven't yet recieved anything... :)

Thanks For Reading

~Amanda