Being a grad student can suck the life out of you. I know, I've been there. I love this quote I found:
What stands out to me about them is how hard they work, ALL THE TIME. They have this amazing work ethic. I used to have that, but I guess I've been influenced by a) the west coast attitude of, you have to live your life and be a person as well as a scientist, or you'll go nuts, and b) all the crap that has happened to me, reminding me that if you work your tail off and get screwed by some political thing, that is just 5 years of weekends you can't get back. Ms.PhD
This never happened to me, but I saw it happen to others. A woman who started with me at UMaine I don't think ever finished her Masters. She changed thesis ideas a few times and after two years the department cut off her funding (we were both on a very nice
NSF subsidy that let us study an work as a research assistant to our advisor). They instituted a new policy the year we started that you could be on non-TA funding for only two years. This was done to get people to finish their Masters work quickly within two years. Work and work and work.
The women I was friends with at
UMaine and when working at
Duke lamented things that us guys just couldn't get--like when to have kids. One thing was
incredibly important for the women though was having good female role models. And not just in grad school, but university, high school, and primary school. Science can be such a male-dominated career path, that having great people to be role models is key. I think this personal blog of a young post-doc is so interesting--
YoungFemaleScientist. Have a read. If you've never been in academia, it might be eye opening. And if you have daughter, like I do, it could be a good way to learn about the reality of science and grad school.
Tris Hussey is the Chief Blogging Officer for Qumana Software and Managing Director of Qumana Services. He can be reached at tris AT qumana DOT com or tris AT trishussey DOT com.
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