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A compilation of stories, telescopes, internship resources, and other things radio astronomy.

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Graduate School: Applying, Living, Thesising

The Professional Student is a blog about everything grad school from the application process to my experiences living as a grad student, being a parent in grad school, and researching the role of chemistry in the evolution of our universe.

Filtering by Category: Student life

Road Trip to Grad School: Day 1

Olivia Wilkins

Total distance on Day 1: 316.3 miles
Total distance so far: 316.3 miles

Greetings from Snowshoe, West Virginia! Alex, Günther, and I are about to go to bed in preparation of a long day of driving tomorrow. This is the first of (hopefully only) five nights on our road trip, and it is the only strictly planned day; we're leaving the rest of our trip flexible in case we are feeling especially energetic or in need of an early night.

Our day started with breakfast with my parents in New Oxford, after which we headed back to their place to do some last-minute packing. Around 10:00, we were finally ready to hit the road!

After saying our good-byes to my dad, mom, and sister (my brother was conveniently at college, avoiding the waterworks), we made a pit stop in New Oxford square to say goodbye to Alex's parents.

The first stop on our trip was Starbucks in Chambersburg at the Route 30/I-81 junction. This particular Starbucks is perhaps the most inconvenient stop to make. The building and lot look like they must have belonged to a used car business, and getting back on to 30 before proceeding to 81 can be a real pain. Nevertheless, this stop is tradition.

To our dismay, Starbucks was no longer Starbucks; the used car lot site was now the future home of a Daily Grind. We still had to make the irritating turn-around to get back to 81. We proceeded to Sheetz for coffee instead. Of course, as soon as we pulled out of Sheetz, Güni woke from his nap. Thankfully, he was happily chatting until we got to the West Virginia welcome center along 81 south of Hagerstown, Maryland, where we stopped for him to eat.

We continued down 81 to Staunton, Virginia, where we stopped for "lunch" (at 3:00 p.m.) at The Depot Grille. They have awesome iced tea—which was most refreshing—and some of the best burgers. I recommend the bacon and cheddar bison burger; it is mouth-watering good!

Bonus: tables at The Depot have paper table coverings and handfuls of crayons for coloring entertainment pre-food.

After Staunton, we headed west on Route 250 through the mountains and into West Virginia. Turning south at Bartow, we headed to Green Bank. As the Green Bank Telescope can into view, I could not help but grin. Naturally, we stopped at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where my journey in astrochemistry began 17 years ago when I saw my first radio telescope.

After dropping our bag off at the Inn at Snowshoe, we headed up to Foxfire Grille for some pulled pork sandwiches (while Güni chomped on his blanket).

Now, we sleep, in the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), where cell phone service and WiFi are hard to come by (at least legally). Tomorrow, we leave the NRQZ and head west!

1 Comment
categories Student life
tags RT2GS, Travel

Factors that should (not) influence where you go to grad school

Olivia Wilkins

Over the past couple of months, I've been struggling with where to go to graduate school. I had no "safety schools," so narrowing down my list of schools was virtually impossible. I only applied to schools where I could pursue my research interests (astrochemistry) under people for whom I wanted to work. Trying to decide over research that all sounded interesting and people who all seemed supportive and excited about what they did made choosing where to decline more difficult than where to accept. In the end, I decided to accept where my heart told me to go (cheesy, I know).

But first, I had to consider some non-academic factors.

  1. Location of the nearest Taco Bell(s). My husband and I love ourselves some late night Taco Bell with our video games.
  2. Likelihood of snow days. Northeast: brutally cold all winter; Southwest: very warm all winter; South: Flurries = snow day!; Midwest: Everywhere else in the country is wimpy when it comes to snow.
  3. Number of smileys in emails from PIs... because nothing says good advisor like a smiley face.
  4. School mascot, because even though you don't care about sports in grad school, family will still probably buy you T-shirts branded with some cartoon animal.
  5. Local "exoctic" (?) cuisine. Sushi burritos anyone?
  6. Likelihood of seeing your favorite band/artist perform. Especially if they are a local or regional artist.
  7. Available internet services. Will you be stuck with Comcast or do you get to upgrade to Google Fiber?
  8. Whose office might be down the hall. Can you catch someone else's genius if you shake their hand enough times (which I definitely need because I had to look up "geniusness" to learn that it is not a real word...)?
  9. Proximity of conventions. And I mean conventions like BlizzCon or ComicCon.
  10. Chance of your residence or department catching on fire/crumbling in an earthquake/breaking off into the ocean/being ravaged by some other natural disaster. Okay, for places like southern California, maybe this should be an actual concern.


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categories Applying to grad school, Student life

Occupation: Student

Olivia Wilkins

  For the seven years I've been legally allowed to work, my occupation has always been listed as "student". This is a status I will retain for at least five-and-a-half more years as I evolve from mere holder of a BS into a PhD candidate. This means that I will have been a student for the majority of my life until I am 40. I'm what you could call a professional student.

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categories Student life