I've spent a lot of time thinking these past few days, and I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around how the people I attended school with for the past weeks can think the abuse from the University is acceptable.
For instance, having done gotten an BS in mathematics from my undergraduate institution and having a little bit of an obsession with numbers, I calculated the hours I spent on campus working, doing homework, etc, and how much I would have made hourly. On average, in order to do all the lab work, sieving, homework, and the paper that was required of me, I was working on something about 50 hours per week (often longer because I have no background in the subject and had to work twice as hard to catch up). I was originally given just over $5,000 to survive off of for the semester before I started raising a ruckus. So, basically, I was making just about $7 an hour. Which is lowering than federal minimum wage. Unbelievable.
Showing posts with label reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflections. Show all posts
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Deep Thoughts of the Week
Well, I'm at the end of my rope. Seriously. I'm completely exhausted, mentally, physically, and emotionally. I'm really believing this was not the right choice (I know, people will complain that I haven't even actually given it a chance, but I just *know*), and I keep telling myself it's okay, that I should stick the year out to see what happens, maybe it'll get better, blah blah blah.
When I graduated from undergrad, it was a year early which I hadn't really been expecting. I had no job experience, a weird degree that most regular people scoff at (pure mathematics), was having a rough patch relationship-wise, and absolutely couldn't find a job. I'm fairly sure it was a mix of the economy, my lack of job experience, as well as my off-the-wall B.S., but it really freaked me out. So I made the rash, split second decision to apply to grad school because I was terrified of the real world and not being able to find a job.
So I went and jumped through all of the hoops, recommendation letters, statement of purpose, took the GRE, etc etc, and applied to three schools. All in the span of about...six weeks.
When I graduated from undergrad, it was a year early which I hadn't really been expecting. I had no job experience, a weird degree that most regular people scoff at (pure mathematics), was having a rough patch relationship-wise, and absolutely couldn't find a job. I'm fairly sure it was a mix of the economy, my lack of job experience, as well as my off-the-wall B.S., but it really freaked me out. So I made the rash, split second decision to apply to grad school because I was terrified of the real world and not being able to find a job.
So I went and jumped through all of the hoops, recommendation letters, statement of purpose, took the GRE, etc etc, and applied to three schools. All in the span of about...six weeks.
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