#Masters/Postgraduate

[argostudies]

— 25/10/24

some recent bits and pieces :)

[pagesofjasmine]

Postgrad Life + Work From Home!

[swan-codes]

🌧 my study and daily reflections☕

☕ When I reconnected with my friend from my old uni last year, I was still in postgraduate school and feeling overwhelmed by my dissertation. I hadn't been writing consistently, and my motivation had dwindled. My friend, who happens to be a PhD researcher, shared some valuable advice with me. She suggested incorporating writing into my daily routine, starting right after waking up. Just like brushing your teeth is an instinctive action, she encouraged me to make writing a dissertation a natural part of that routine. Although it might be challenging initially, she assured me that it would gradually become easier. And she was right. I successfully passed my dissertation with a merit. So, I decided to apply this approach to my current study schedule as well.

☕ Random motivational quotes have personally been helpful to me, even if they may seem cliché. They truly made a difference in keeping me motivated. I make notes with these quotes and place them on my desk, so I'm reminded to stay focused on my progress every time I sit down to work.

☕ Studying helps me with depression. In a way, studying is kind of an escape for me, keeping me distracted from depression, but in a good way. I've noticed that I feel less and less depressed when I'm studying.

☕ Tidying up my desk before I go to bed and always ensuring that the kitchen looks tidy, including keeping the sink empty and washing dishes. Makes me feel motivated to prepare delicious food and make a cup of coffee before diving into my study time. It's exactly what I've been doing.

[[ Studying logs ]]

Sept 7 - studied for 2 hours

Sept 8 - did not study, i didn't sleep well

Sept 9 - studied for 2 hours

Sept 10 - studied for 1 hour

Sept 11 - studied for 2 hours

Sept 12 - studied for 2 hours

Sept 13 - studied for 2 hours

Sept 14 - studied for 2.5 hours

Sept 15 - studied for 1.5 hour

Sept 16 (today) - studied for 3 hours

the total number of hours from the study log: 18 hours

[perfectlyoongi-main]

remembering the time i was studying phonetics w a friend at a café and the tables around us were having a blast hearing us pronounce and fight over words lol

[socstudies]

01-10-23

tomorrow I go back to class for my second year at university !! I'm so excited !! also happy october everybody! (vent about masters applications below:)

but I know that it's going to get REAL very quickly bc I'm already overwhelmed by my workload... in addition to normal uni work, I will also be attending virtual uni open days as this time next year I will be submitting my masters applications......... what?????? ive already started to narrow down my options and do a lot of research bc I know that now and the Christmas break are the only times that I'll have to do this before I have to start writing the applications???? bc I'll be too busy during term and the summer to even think about thinking about thoughts like ?? WHAT??? I was a fresher two minutes ago and now I'm booking postgrad open days like hello???? what???? but I can't say I don't love it because it's soooopo exciting and I love my subject. I'm also aiming more ambitiously in terms of the universities I'll be applying for (will have safeties ofc) so that's VERY motivating. so yeah !! eeeee!!!!!

[admirxation]

got my masters loan… it’s too fucking real that I’m a postgraduate student now, fuck sake IM SO OLD

[essayisms]

What would you recommend to someone preparing for a Masters degree in English Literature?

[thetravelingbard]

A Weekly Aside (2)

09/21/2024

“Travel does not exist without home....If we never return to the place we started, we would just be wandering, lost. Home is a reflecting surface, a place to measure our growth and enrich us after being infused with the outside world.” - Josh Gates

I have taken up writing in the park near my house these past few weeks. I have never been especially good at consistently journaling. However, from my perspective, moving to Scotland is as good a time as any to try, try again. Anyway, today it was what could be considered “typical Scotland weather” with gray skies and horror movie-esk wind. I found myself sitting in shorts, of all things, writing again in my teal little notebook.

When writing today, I found myself considering the idea of ‘home’. I’ve always believed that home is defined by the people you lay your heart with and not so much any actual location. As I settle myself into life in Edinburgh, with love and light in my heart, I find myself missing the people stretched across several thousand miles. This is not a new phenomenon for me, do not let me fool you. Growing up I had family stretched all across the east coast. In college, some of my closest friends ranged from CST to GMT. I am no stranger to long distance friendships. Now that I am outside of the bubble of childhood and my undergraduate degree and forging my own path forward into my 20s, I find myself wishing I could share these moments with my people. It’s these moments that I thank the wonders of modern technology. I know there is endless harm the media has caused in modern society, I am by no means dissenting that. However, I will always be grateful for the ability to connect with people so effortlessly. It’s a bit like being able to bring home with you.

Retrospection aside, let’s get to the life update. This week was the first week of classes. I’ve been trying really hard to compartmentalize things and focus on only one semester at a time. I’m taking three classes this semester: International Relations Theory; Gender, Politics, and Representation; and Core Quantitative Data Analysis 1 & 2. My favorite is by far the second one. I was worried about the quantity of readings required, but so far it hasn’t been too bad. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop, haha. 

I wanted to pursue International Relations not necessarily for just laws or specific policies, but to learn about people and demographics. My background in Psychology and Communications should hardly make this a surprise. Honestly, I am interested in applying my studies, in all three courses, to people in some way or another. I hope to steer my dissertation in this direction as well. I’ve been told by probably every professor and advisor to start thinking about a potential dissertation topic, which I have been, do not worry, but beyond that…I’m trying to not get too ahead of myself. I don’t really have to begin planning until February, so I do not need to get ahead of myself. 

Aside from that, I’ve been really just trying to adjust to a new routine. I went to a female singing group this Thursday that I am optimistic about as well. I forgot how much I love singing in a choir. Once my tutorials (smaller groups based on the lectures) start this upcoming week, I’m hoping to get a better grasp onto what my schedule is going to be looking like. I’ve also been applying to jobs like crazy, but haven’t had any luck so far. Finger’s crossed! 

Cherish those you call home, wherever they are. 

<3 Serena

[teanicolae]

my second Master's Degree is officially COMPLETE!! these past two years at Warwick University were a rich immersion in the art of poetry & in the practice of literary translation. milestones achieved have been:

completing my dissertation, entitled "Rendering Sacred Texts: Ethics and the Question of Untranslatability", in which i explored the practice of translating sacred texts and the intricate issues it presents in the field of translation studies, mainly posed by the dilemma that is the hypothesis of an intrinsically sacred quality to languages such as Sanskrit or Latin. i argued that in the case of non-dual traditions, the subsequent question, of whether translation would defile the text, is incongruent with the philosophy & cosmology the text is rooted in. i used the Lalitāsahasranāma, a central hymn of Śrīvidyā, as a case-study.

conducting my poetic research centred on bhakti or devotional poetry, a genre of Indian poetry which worships the Divine as the Beloved. i worked on two bhakti collections: "odes to the Monsoon One" and "the Monsoon One and the pilgrim", which explore a woman’s mystical journey. written as a response to the lingering legacy of female exclusion from spirituality that is present literature, the poetry rebels against misogynistic religious texts thematically, through female-centred imagery deifying the demonised body, through the subversion of elements of oppression such as motifs of marriage. the Divine is worshipped in my poems as a lover. i argued that for as long as remnants of a religious culture exclusive of women persist in South Asian literature and practice, for so long will bhakti poetry be needed for devotional rebuttal.

more on this soon! i am hoping for these to be published in 2024 or 2025. 

i extend my gratitude to my extraordinary professors: my supervisors Dr. Jodie Kim & Rosalind Harvey; Professor David Morley, as well as Dr. Chantal Wright, who generously & expertly encouraged and guided me, as well as expressed genuine interest in my work - interest which i especially appreciated when my work took unconventional routes!

as this chapter ends, a new one at Edinburgh begins! onward!

[jamesscarstairs]

anyone that’s doing a masters in the uk, particularly those funded by student finance wales, what was your loan process like?? and if you’ve started repaying it, is there a huge disparity between your undergrad and postgrad loan repayment scheme??

[argostudies]

— 04/10/24

you know how you read one paper and suddenly acquire about five more because of citations…? yeah.

[mariesstudying]

I realised I never mentioned that 1) I graduated from my undergraduate degree!!!!! and 2) I’m starting my masters degree in the autumn!!!!

ik this isn’t really a study focused account anymore, I’m basically just posting about the hunger games and jane austen with some other books thrown in the mix but here we are, starting this autumn I’ll be a postgraduate student

[keepthisholykiss]

I am officially 1-month postgrad and because I found it VERY hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I was in grad school I want to share what has changed since. Here's everything I have noticed or that's changed for me in the 30 days I've officially been a person with a master's degree.

I am making crafts, art, and writing. I found it very difficult to write or make anything when in grad school. But as of like 2 weeks or so ago I have made a fairly large pile of crafts and have plans for more. I don't feel too scared to do it now and it doesn't feel like too much pressure to relax.

I have signed my first publishing agreement. This was something in-progress before I graduated but my essays will be published (currently a tentative agreement for 5 minimum) in the next year. I have a stack of about 10 abstracts to submit also and think by 2025 I'll probably have 15ish publications out or coming up.

My migraines halved. I have a chronic migraine condition that has no "known" cause. I am on monthly injections to prevent them and I take acute meds with every migraine I get. My migraines are roughly 1/2 as frequent as when I started grad school.

I don't want to cry or die 24/7. My grad school experience was so bad that I found it very hard to not crumble into a pile of dirt 24/7. A decent portion of this was the specific issues of my school and what happened during my program. While all my woes aren't cured, a large amount of them are. I did not realize how much of my stress was grad school, it was at least 3x as much as I thought.

My chronic health issues have largely gotten worse. In particular my bladder disease and endometriosis. I had my second ever excision surgery vaguely planned for sometime in the next year, I had to move that date up to ASAP. My body lost a lot of its stressed which caused my chronic health issues to come rushing back even harder it was like holding a plate for 2 years. Your hand wouldn't hurt in the end but the minute you let go of the plate you discover you have developed carpal tunnel.

I won't do updates like this very often but when I was in grad school it was so hard to conceptualize my life after graduation. I looked for posts like this and I hope this can help someone or just amuse someone. I'll probably do like a 6 month and 1 year update too!

[crowley1990]

I think I should just drop out of college. For real. I don’t want to do a thesis anymore.

[a-curious-studyblr]

28/7/23 - I set today as my last day in the lab for my master's! Ran my final SDS gel and did some more biochem fluorescence assays (that still aren't working but oh well). So for the next month, I'll be in dissertation-writing mode