Tasks
1. register for winter courses — these things never go smoothly, do they? but oh well, after all the minor disasters, I’m all signed up for all the courses I want to take!
2. work work work
3. teach
Trappings
skirt — thrifted blouse — Loft, thrifted sweater — vintage boots — Civico 10 tights — Target
Tales
I didn’t really need a prop for these pictures, but I didn’t want to let me coffee cup go…
In other news, potential / beginner grad students, let me say this: make friends, as soon as you can, with your department’s graduate secretary. These underappreciated lynchpins can literally be lifesavers and sanity savers. Case in point: this morning I registered for winter term courses. My PhD is in English with an emphasis in Folklore, so I am allowed to take courses in the English department and the Folklore department. And yet, the computer has a hard time remembering this. So when I woke up this morning and dutifully entered the course registration numbers, the system wouldn’t let me register. Le sigh. Away I went to my email, shooting off a message to the graduate secretary who got back to me within minutes and fixed the problem. The moral of the story: I tried to register, couldn’t register, and was saved by the secretary — all before 9 am. Blamo! So props to you, Mike my Grad Secretary! You made my whole week better.
Stumbled upon your blog, saw this post and had to chime in with a big ABSOLUTELY! i am a phd student in ethnomusicology and the department secretaries have been my best resource. not only do they fix registration/paperwork snafus, but margie has been the grad secretary for so long, she’s actually helpful in prepping for exams or negotiating the faculty. i remember my panic attack before comps (we all have at least one, right?) and margie sitting me down while i was waiting for a meeting with my advisor to talk through my study habits, and the resources she had to help (old tests, plus advice on how to use them). seriously, an invaluable resource and, in my case, two of my favorite people to say hi to!
*courses, of course
I registered for spring semester courses yesterday afternoon. We have an odd system where English PhD students are assigned a time slot at which to register; as a result, cources are often filled by the time one gets the chance to register.
Luckily, this did not happen to me this year! I’ll be happily up to my ears in three courses of British Lit from three consecutive centuries! Glorious.