Posted on behalf of Materials Girl
This is the final part of a three-post series
Being a chemist is not the only thing that evokes an “Oh!” or “Wow…” response – so does being an upperclassman still living in the dorms. We are swamped with freshmen and sophomores, and it has become an internal game for me to single out the new students. They tend to be more talkative and wide-eyed, not to mention garbed in trendy, clique-d, or “fashionable” attire from high school. Perhaps it is imagination, but they also seem to have an aura of being lost.
Still, it is not my place to consider myself much better those younger students, even if I never had problems with drastic change and separation anxiety. In a fleeting two years, my graduating class has progressed from being in their place, and in another two some of us will be there again. Like the current undergrad "noobs"*, I will have to find my place in a new, graduate circle and attempt to find out what to do with myself in the academic world. Ultimately, we all leave the stressful, but relatively safe, bubble of academia and plunge headlong into a new career.
How did you start, through what have you progressed, and to where are you heading?
*Internet lingo for a newcomer. From “newbie” to “newb” to “noob”. 🙂
I started as a Chemistry major at UC Riverside, and I am currently a PhD student at UC Berkeley with delusions of being a professor in the future.
Does anyone else feel the Materials Girl’ posts are a delightful change from the status quo but an odd direction for the Nature Editors to take none the less?
Mitch
Hey Mitch – we have added some different voices to the blog, NPG editors will still continue to contribute, but we wanted to get a cross-section of the chemistry community writing for us as well – we now have an undergrad (Materials Girl), a grad student (Sugar Daddy), a newly minted assistant prof (Rookie Rocky), someone who works in industry (10 Miles from Academia), and someone who was a chemist, but gave it all up (Confessions of a former chemist). Not everyone will sound the same – which is a good thing – and hopefully we can reach a wider audience this way. Is it really so odd?
I think it is a good idea. I just wouldn’t of predicted the move.
And anything I couldn’t see a mile away must be odd, right? 🙂
Mitch
I started at Caltech, I’m still at Caltech, and I want to be a professor at Caltech.
CIT for life!
Have been – I started out premed, changed to biochemistry, then decided, no, chemistry all the way. Then I added a physics and math minor. The best thing ever was [is] learning how to think more and differently.
Am Now – the applications are going out and next fall I will have met the one and only best friend/worst enemy combo, my graduate advisor. (best friend, since his/her “needs” come first, worst enemy…well we’ve all heard the stories).
Future work – My greatest excitement right now is in the opportunity to learn, combine, apply,repeat.