Reflection on the movie

When I first started watching the video I was curious as to what the lab was like and how cramped it looked. Being in New York, the space was limited, but graduate students were still able to get their work done. I would have liked to have known exactly how many people worked in that lab not just the students they interviewed.

I was surprised as to the main character, Rob. I could not believe how many set backs he had in life and how he overcame them. I can definitely understand how graduate students are not able to survive on success alone, but I did not realize how independent it was. I guess I was just not aware that students don’t always pick their own projects, but they also often work independently. I feel as if the lab environment would be incredibly stressful and students would devote the majority of their time to their research in the hopes of not only publishing a paper, but also being able to graduate in a reasonable amount of time. Relating back to the articles, I now know why it is important to choose a good mentor over a project of interest. Having someone who will support you in times of failure is crucial not only in terms of sanity, but also in terms of being able to graduate in a reasonable amount of time.

I can identify with not having much of a life outside of graduate school and focusing your time mainly on research… maybe one hobby, not anything excessive. People often have different views on marriage in graduate school and people who are efficient would most likely be able to handle it. I’m not sure I would be able to be married though because not only would I neglect my spouse, but I would also (and maybe my opinion will change) prefer to spend my time training for marathons and reading novels than doing his laundry and attempting to cook (which I don’t know if that is possible considering I don’t even cook now). That is selfish of me, but it is true. I’m assuming that Kim’s fiancé in the movie was an attorney (because of her shirt) and I don’t think finances were the sole issue. I feel that time spent together as well as time in terms of graduating were both too stressful for them.

I would like to know how science graduate programs compare to graduate programs in other disciplines. Is the time spent working on a thesis comparable? I feel as if science graduate programs contain the most stress because the unknown is so great. I felt that the video did an excellent job of really stating that graduate students come into a program not really knowing what will happen.

I also did not understand the process of graduate students getting paid. I knew they were, but I also thought that students had to pay some tuition. I’m confused now as to why students would drop out. I can understand wanting to go out into the world and find a job that makes more than $24,000 a year, but I still feel that Gabe could have stuck it out.

All in all, I felt that the video not only portrayed the science graduate correctly but that it also displayed a very clear idea of perseverance and other strong character traits that are important in students pursing graduate school.