What hours are you at grad school until?

[Sobe203]

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I'm just curious about the number of hours spent inside the building. I got the impression, from witnessing grad students at my undergrad institution, that they were there from 8 AM - 10 PM and only saw daylight when they wanted a cup of coffee.

 

[erg923]

I think I've responded to this kind of question before on here. It really just depends. If your lab is in the psychology building or not, if you TA or not, and probably most of all, where you are in your program (e.g., 1st year vs 4th year). While we have research meetings at my school, the "lab" is really a group of people at the local med center. So my time running/testing subjects and analyzing data is done there, not in the psych department. I also do not TA. You will probably spend more time physically there your first two years or so, since that is when most of the classes are. My grad school career has been equatable to a busy full time job, and I have a had great clinical experiences and a couple of pubs. Nothing extraordinary. I do not put in these 60-70/hour weeks that some others do. Then again I am not gunning to be a big researcher nor do I have formal academic career aspirations. The big research hounds are generally the ones trying to make themselves superstars while in grad school. Bottom line is alot of it is up to you and your motivations and goals.

 

[Cosmo75]

I'd say it depends as well, especially what year you are in the program. If you're on practicum, you'll at least get out of the school 🙂 But you can be in there for 12 hours. There have definitely been days that have been very long, and then there have been periods where I was able to work at home and see plenty of sunshine.

I think one thing to remember is that you have more control over your "work-life" balance than you think, even as a grad student. One thing I had to learn was how to say no. It's very hard to do sometimes, especially when really good opportunities are presented. But before you over-commit take time to evaluate if you really have the time or if you'll end up being the walking dead.

 

[Ollie123]

On campus for "about" 40 hours, though sometimes (e.g. when I start running my thesis) that will change.

I'm probably the exception here though, since I get WAYYY more work done when I'm home than I ever could in lab, so I put in probably another 20-30 hours each week at home.

You have quite a variance in grad school though. We have people here who probably put in less than 40 hours total (I have no idea how), and there are folks working alot more than me.

 

[Sobe203]

So you guys essentially have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in your grad student cubicles? Do you ever exercise?

 

[erg923]

...I never have dinner there. I live in northern California, so Laura and I love hiking trails and running in the Santa Cruz Mountains every Sunday. We also walk/run our dog everyday. Thats about as much as I do. She is an everyday gym freak though, I am not.

 

[auro]

.

 

[Ollie123]

So you guys essentially have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in your grad student cubicles? Do you ever exercise?

Nah. Many of us have set up pseudo-offices at home and eat dinner at that desk🙂

And I do exercise actually. Tennis at least once or twice a week, and the weight room another 2-3x a week.

 

[paramour]

So you guys essentially have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in your grad student cubicles? Do you ever exercise?

Wait a sec! Who gets breakfast, lunch, & dinner? 😱

 

[RayneeDeigh]

Hahaha. Breakfast is the donut and coffee I sometimes manage to grab at Tim Horton's on my way to class. Lunch may or may not be had depending on the vegetarian selections at the buffeteria that day, and dinner is usually whatever falls out of my freezer when I open it.

My goal for next year is to actually find time for regular exercise, since my first year definitely didn't lend itself well to that.

As for my first year actual campus hours, I'd say in class for 12-15 hours a week, in proseminar and/or case seminar for 2-4 hours a week, seeing clients 3-5 hours a week, and working from home for about 20-40 hours a week, though I really have no clue since it's hard to count that sort of thing. Some weeks (especially at the very beginning and very end of semesters) I was rarely there, and others we were there from 8am to 10pm five days a week.

I know some people who sit in their grad carrels and study relentlessly for hours on end, but I'm more of the sitting at home in pajamas with ice cream and my articles kind of student.

 

[Sobe203]

But if you're there from 8 AM to 10 PM, you'd have to eat there to avoid waiting until 10:30 PM. Blah, I hope I manage to eat relatively healthy things and get some exercise in when grad school starts.

 

[RayneeDeigh]

But if you're there from 8 AM to 10 PM, you'd have to eat there to avoid waiting until 10:30 PM. Blah, I hope I manage to eat relatively healthy things and get some exercise in when grad school starts.

I hate to tell you, but on the days we were there until 10 usually one of our profs ordered us pizza, haha.

There is one person in the cohort who eats healthy no matter what. I guess it can be done it'll just take a lot of energy and planning.

 

[Thrak]

I don't mean to threadjack, but while we're on the subject of time, what are winter/summer "breaks" like for PhD students? Obviously, it's not like undergrad when it's "time off" but is the workload lessened at least? Or is it pretty much the same, with research being the lion's share of the day?

 

[Ollie123]

It varies.

I'm actually doing more work than I did during much of the school year, but that's due to a combination of factors that may not apply to everyone.

Even then, I DO have more flexibility in my schedule over summers, so I can take days off here and there with less concern that I'm "falling behind" whereas my schedule is pretty set during the semesters.

Some people barely do anything over summers other than see a couple clients and maybe teach a class. Most people take a week or two off. No one leaves for the whole summer.

 

[JockNerd]

I try to maintain my visibility in the building, so I'm generally there from 8 or 9 in the morning until 5 or so in the evening. There's typically lunch in there and often either a gym or tanning/reading break. That varies by week though.

After 5 I'm usually home, but there's typically 1-5 more hours of work there before bed. I also work for 4-10 hours each sat and sun, depending.

I lift five times a week and rarely had to give that up in my first year. You can definitely fit it in if you make it happen. I had to give up most of my gaming to do it 😛

There are ways to save time; I bake 7 chicken breasts at a time, and make a huge pot of rice. Tupperware it and throw in veggies as I feel like it. Voila, food for a few days.

Grad school COULD work you 24/7, but you can have pretty good control over it, depending on your lab.

 

[myelin]

Wait, we're supposed to show our faces in the building? oops...

No really, my advisor and I chat over Skype so I don't have to go to his office much.

 

[RayneeDeigh]

I don't mean to threadjack, but while we're on the subject of time, what are winter/summer "breaks" like for PhD students? Obviously, it's not like undergrad when it's "time off" but is the workload lessened at least? Or is it pretty much the same, with research being the lion's share of the day?

well I've only done my first year but for winter break I worked on client reports and had the rest of my time to myself for about 2 weeks. This summer I have a full-time clerkship so I'm doing clinical work 4 days a week, research 1 day a week, and weekends are mine to do as I please.

 

[JockNerd]

I was reading something about the characteristics of "Grad school superstars" when I was doing my paranoid pre-class internet readings. The first tip was to actually be present in the building most of the time. My department head told us the same thing on our first day, and I've heard profs talking about the students who just disappear after classes 😛

I actually got a HUGE break this summer; my adviser is going on sabbatical and we're not collecting new data because of that. But, I've still been spending time writing up two ongoing projects and one pet project, and doing readings for my diss and other things, so you never really get away.

 

[Ollie123]

I was reading something about the characteristics of "Grad school superstars" when I was doing my paranoid pre-class internet readings. The first tip was to actually be present in the building most of the time. My department head told us the same thing on our first day, and I've heard profs talking about the students who just disappear after classes 😛
.

I'm hoping exceptions are made here since my lab is off campus - I almost never see anyone other than my labmates outside of class🙂

I think its good to be available during the hours when other people are around for meetings and the like. Though I can honestly say I feel like additional face-time means MUCH less productivity, so its a trade-off. At least at my lab, I will be constantly distracted by other students who just want to chat, have RAs coming in to ask random questions, etc. so in terms of actual work I'll get almost nothing done relative to what I can at home.

 

[erg923]

I remeber being shocked when I got an invite from a 3rd year student to the 1st annual "Beer Olympics" party..... Our program has thrown several large themed parties throughout the year....perhaps this is unusual in othe programs....

 

[JockNerd]

I think its good to be available during the hours when other people are around for meetings and the like. Though I can honestly say I feel like additional face-time means MUCH less productivity, so its a trade-off. At least at my lab, I will be constantly distracted by other students who just want to chat, have RAs coming in to ask random questions, etc. so in terms of actual work I'll get almost nothing done relative to what I can at home.

I think a good thing to do to accomplish this is to join committees that appeal to you. I'm on three committees and it's working out well. You get time with your profs, you get to influence department policy, and being a good department citizen looks good on your CV and can help you set up connections. You can research the committees beforehand to make sure you don't get into some massive eddy of a time-sucking vortex. Plus, officially or unofficially, department service is often looked at when you're going up for department awards 😎