Transition

Wow, we've really been quiet around here! Time to dust off this blog with a fresh post.

For those of you who don't read my blog, I'm nearing the end of my sentence tenure in grad school with my defense scheduled for December. It was difficult to decide on a date for plenty of science/work schedule reasons, but money played into it too. I wanted to keep as many employment options available as I could. So, I'm defending too late to graduate in the fall term, but with the defense over I'll be able to start a post-doc at the start of the year if I get one. And if not, I might be able to get a teaching assistantship since I won't have graduated, and there's actually still one tiny course requirement that I have to fulfill (but I could do it remotely if need be).

Thanks to some of the good advice I've gotten here and elsewhere, I've been able to save up some money to tide me over in case I end up with a gap in employment. If I do get a job lined up before I defend, however, I'm totally booking a vacation!

Lest you think I've forgotten that students in the sciences might have it comparatively easy, I'm sure it's completely different in fields where you have to pay tuition and don't get a stipend, or fields where you have to do an internship. Anybody care to share another view?