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Is Grad School Worth It?
Is grad school worth it? You probably typed this in a few times while either applying for school or while actually being in school. Honestly, the answer is always going to be “it depends”. Every situation is extremely different and going to graduate school can be 100% worth it and 100% a waste of your…
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Interesting Halloween Facts
This post may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Halloween is Sunday, so it’s a perfect time to blog about some cool facts that I have learned. Some of these I learned a long time ago in elementary school when learning useless facts like these was actual a…
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Love the Journey
This post may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page “I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.”-Anna Quindlen I have a pretty bad problem of always thinking about the…
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Working On The Weekend
This post may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Working weekends while your friends and family are doing fun stuff can be depressing. You work so hard during the week just to see that you are still behind and can’t enjoy two days off of work. But, it…
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Handling a Rude/Mean Advisor
This post may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I have a friend who is in the last year of her PhD. She has been working extremely hard lately because her advisor is asking a lot from her. Unfortunately, it’s a bit overwhelming for her. Her advisor, who…
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Dealing with Office/Lab Mates
This post may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page If you are in a grad program, more than likely you are going to be getting an office somewhere close to your adviser. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, my office is on another floor…
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Feeling Old in Grad School
This post about feeling old in grad school may contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I know, I know, I am not that old, but I still feel old on campus. I turned 29 last Saturday which is pretty awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my 20’s,…
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When You Feel Stuck: Experiments
There comes a time in every grad program where you just don’t really know what to do. This could be while you are doing experiments, studying for exams, looking for jobs, really just anything. Currently, I am feel stuck on a problem trying to justify results that I am getting from an experiment. The results…
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A Typical Day as A Grad Student
This post about a typical day a Grad Student may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I wanted to share a typical day as a grad student. This is my typical day and may vary significantly based on many factors. These include deadlines, your adviser, when you wake…
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Pros and Cons of Grad School
This post about the pros and cons of grad school may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Grad school is a huge investment. You will spend many years and many paychecks paying for a few years of education. Before you even consider doing grad school, take the time…
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10 Facts about Grad School
This post titled “10 Facts about Grad School” may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I thought I would add something fun to my collection of blogs today. There are hundreds of facts that can be posted about grad school, but I want to focus on 10. These…
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Write Often in Grad School
This is really the first time in my life where I have been eager to write almost every day. I was never a writing. In fact, writing was my least favorite activity, right behind getting my teeth pulled. Grad school changed that completely. I remember the first semester of my PhD research, I was taking…
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Things Not To Tell a Law Student
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I am surrounded by law students. My friend’s girlfriend is a law student, same with my other friend’s roommate, my roommate is, and my girlfriend is a lawyer. By default, that makes me a lawyer, right? It is funny…
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Does GPA Matter in Grad School?
If you are just starting off grad school, this might be one of the questions that you may be asking yourself or others. I guarantee that you will either get a yes or no answer and it will be fairly split among your colleges. I have spent a ton of time in grad school and…
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Publishing Your First Manuscript
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I think one of the hardest parts about a PhD is putting forth so much effort into one thing and having someone tell you it is wrong or it is not good enough. Talk about breaking you down and…
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Dealing With The “Lab Ghosts”
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page If you do research in a lab, you will be fairly familiar with lab ghosts. Every time an experiment goes wrong, it’s because of the ghost that haunts my building. It’s not because of me and my mistake. No….never!…
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Best YouTube Study Music Playlists
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I often listen to very calming music to help me focus on work as well as calm the anxiety that I feel from said work. It’s amazing how simple tasks can become so complicated because of anxiety. Study music…
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Take Vacation in Grad School
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I’m writing this because I am in desperate need of a vacation, and you probably are too. I am finishing my qualifying exams next week. The exam consisted of writing a proposal, defending the proposal, and taking 5 written…
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What to Expect On the First Day of Grad School
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Today is the first day of the fall semester which means multiple things. 1) Freshman and sophomores will be lost. 2) There will be a new influx of grad students. I want to focus on the second point lol.…
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Is Grad School Hard?
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Is grad school hard? I typed this exact question into google maybe a hundred times prior to accepting my offer from UF. I had come from an engineering background and knew how hard that was, but I always assumed…
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Here Come the Freshman!
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Whether you want to admit it or not, you are old. Being in grad school, you are probably 23 at the youngest, which is kind of old compared to the 18-19 year old’s that have just taken over your…
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How to Prepare for Your Qualifying Exam
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page The two words that cause so much anxiety for grad students, “qualifying exam”. This is also known as the entrance exam to candidacy. Basically, it’s an exam, created by a committee of professors, that tests your knowledge and skills.…
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Before Starting Grad School
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page You have probably seen quite a few of these articles where they tell you the # number of things that they wish they knew before (blank). This is going to be one of those posts but with information that…
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How to Survive the First Year of Grad School
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I am currently in my 4th? 5th year of graduate school, I think. Honestly I have been in school for so long that I really don’t know what year I am in, but that’s fine. Today, we are going…
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Zoom to Classroom: The Great Transition During Covid
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Every single news outlet has something saying how a different variant of Covid is spreading all over the world. You have some news channels saying that it’s “just like the flu” while others say that you are guaranteed to…
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Habits of a Successful Graduate Student
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Surviving grad school can be a tricky thing to do. You will be faced with a significant amount of road blocks in the 2-8 years that you are in school for. Some of these roadblocks are easy to traverse…
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Oral Qualifying Presentation: Grad School Stress
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Today, I had my proposal presentation. Forty minutes of presenting, followed by an hour and a half of questions from my committee members. I am honestly surprised that I even slept last night due to the crippling anxiety from…
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Having a Part-Time Job in Grad School:6 Jobs for Busy Grad Students
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page You started grad school and realized that you are poor, but you have the hopes of not being poor one day! Your stipend is the only income that you will unless you work another job. Now, I want to…
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Top 7 Phone Apps That All Grad Students Need Right Now
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page We are a society that is obsessed with our phones. Everyday I walk across campus to my office and every single person I see is on their phone, doing something that seems to be the most important thing in…
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Tips on Giving Presentations in Grad School
This post about giving presentations in grad school may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Some say that the scariest thing you will do in life is give grad school presentations. Something about standing in front of a ton of people and talking scares the pants off of…
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Giving Presentations in Grad School
Some say that the scariest thing you will do in life is give presentations. Something about standing in front of a ton of people and talking scares the pants off of most people. I remember talking to a few of my classmates and they brought up that Speech class was one of the only classes…
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You Are Good Enough
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page Often, in grad school, you will feel inadequate. You will feel like a failure, like someone that doesn’t deserve the degree you’re going to get. This is normal. We all feel this way and that is the wonderful part of growing…
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Graduate School Hacks
I am going to just have fun with this blog and see where it goes. These are a few ” grad school hacks” that I do which has made my PhD much more fun. Grad School Hacks Interreact with as many professors as possible. Get to know them on a personal level. Professors are great…
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Must Haves When Going Back to Grad School, or School in General
It is Summer B semester currently and the freshman are back in full force. This will be the first time that colleges will have people back in full, at least here in Florida at least, and that might be scary for a few people. I honestly don’t want people to come back because the gym…
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Grad School Must Haves
This post about grad school must haves contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page It is Summer B semester currently and the freshman are back in full force. This will be the first time that colleges will have people back in full, at least here in Florida at least, and that…
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Audible Books You Must Listen To-Update for 2026
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page I am not the biggest fan of reading. In fact, I can probably count on one hand the amount of books I have read in the past 10 years. I know, I know, it is quite sad but I lack the…
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What I do
So I have been working on an EPA funded project that deals with lead contamination in environmental settings, particularly potable water sources. The ultimate goal is to build upon a modelling system that predicts how sick a child will get from lead exposure in household settings. Our team deals with the lead that comes from…