If Music Could Talk

revbob wrote: ↑

03 May 2021, 7:40pm

She knows some people at one school but mostly no. My wife knows someone at another school but that school has different requirements.

She should pursue some kind of conversation at the places she's applying. It's amazing how much not being just a name and some numbers on a form matters. Not just because it does make you a (semi)known quantity, but so few people do it.

revbob wrote: ↑

03 May 2021, 4:57pm

So a question for anyone who has ever applied or better yet been part of the grad school admissions process.

It turns out my kid got busted in her junior year for marijuana possession by campus cops. She got screwed over by being in a car with someone else who was holding and at the hearing the school held everyone in the car guilty.

So it shows up on her school record and she's worried she might have trouble getting into a grad program (physicians assistant). In the explanation box on the application she only had 300 characters to explain and not really enough to give her side of the story.

So what do you post grad people think/know?

If it makes you feel any better, I failed a psychology class my sophomore year in college (dealing with some significant depression - how ironic I failed a psych class) and got into the top masters program for my field.

Granted, this was the 90s and the field was social work. Oh, hey, is she going into social work? If so, that arrest might be seen as a positive!

ETA: Reading is hard. She is going to school to be a physician's assistant. It would really suck if they did hold her accountable, but hopefully she can convey her side enough in those 300 words. Good luck.

JennyB wrote: ↑

04 May 2021, 10:07am

revbob wrote: ↑

03 May 2021, 4:57pm

So a question for anyone who has ever applied or better yet been part of the grad school admissions process.

It turns out my kid got busted in her junior year for marijuana possession by campus cops. She got screwed over by being in a car with someone else who was holding and at the hearing the school held everyone in the car guilty.

So it shows up on her school record and she's worried she might have trouble getting into a grad program (physicians assistant). In the explanation box on the application she only had 300 characters to explain and not really enough to give her side of the story.

So what do you post grad people think/know?

If it makes you feel any better, I failed a psychology class my sophomore year in college (dealing with some significant depression - how ironic I failed a psych class) and got into the top masters program for my field.

Granted, this was the 90s and the field was social work. Oh, hey, is she going into social work? If so, that arrest might be seen as a positive!

ETA: Reading is hard. She is going to school to be a physician's assistant. It would really suck if they did hold her accountable, but hopefully she can convey her side enough in those 300 words. Good luck.

Hello,

It may sound silly but can she attach a document with more details? If not, I'd suggest following Doc's lead. Try to talk with a person in the department. If nothing else, email has unlimited characters. Speaking would be better in most cases.

gkbill wrote: ↑

04 May 2021, 12:54pm

JennyB wrote: ↑

04 May 2021, 10:07am

revbob wrote: ↑

03 May 2021, 4:57pm

So a question for anyone who has ever applied or better yet been part of the grad school admissions process.

It turns out my kid got busted in her junior year for marijuana possession by campus cops. She got screwed over by being in a car with someone else who was holding and at the hearing the school held everyone in the car guilty.

So it shows up on her school record and she's worried she might have trouble getting into a grad program (physicians assistant). In the explanation box on the application she only had 300 characters to explain and not really enough to give her side of the story.

So what do you post grad people think/know?

If it makes you feel any better, I failed a psychology class my sophomore year in college (dealing with some significant depression - how ironic I failed a psych class) and got into the top masters program for my field.

Granted, this was the 90s and the field was social work. Oh, hey, is she going into social work? If so, that arrest might be seen as a positive!

ETA: Reading is hard. She is going to school to be a physician's assistant. It would really suck if they did hold her accountable, but hopefully she can convey her side enough in those 300 words. Good luck.

Hello,

It may sound silly but can she attach a document with more details? If not, I'd suggest following Doc's lead. Try to talk with a person in the department. If nothing else, email has unlimited characters. Speaking would be better in most cases.

Yeah, if you're allowed to submit a document as a candidate's statement rather than enter it online, I'd include an extra page that explains the position. But if everything is done online, in boxes with character limits, that hinders that option. It was better in the old days, dang nabbit, because we worked with paper and could sneak in our character defences!

Thanks Doc, Jenny and gkbill. I will pass on the wisdom.

revbob wrote: ↑

04 May 2021, 8:04pm

Thanks Doc, Jenny and gkbill. I will pass on the wisdom.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Hey, lemme rant because the wine hasn't properly taken the edge off.

So, I'm teaching a mixed course this fall—what they're calling bimodal—with a handful of students with me in a classroom and the bulk watching via Zoom. The university has spent a prince's ransom outfitting lots of classrooms to do this. I do the proper due diligence and participate in the webinars and read the documents. I'm a good employee who also doesn't want to look like a boob in front of my students (at least for technical reasons). Last week, a week before classes begin, I went to my room to test the system. The room is a mess, suggesting that either the equipment hasn't been installed or has been looted by vandals. I assume the former and return today and, yay, the equipment has been installed. However, all the documentation says the computer terminal is supposed to default to a new system that is set up so you can control the camera and launch Zoom and all that broadcast shit. Nope, it's still in Windows mode. I have zero knowledge of what I have to do to fix this because nothing to this point has told me that's what I'll encounter. My class starts on Thursday and I really really really wanted to test the protocols and all, but that ain't happening.

I've submitted a tech support request and the Boss has used her contacts to try to move me up, but at this point I'm wary and expecting that the initial meeting will be wholly virtual. That is, I don't want to go into a classroom without working the tech first. But I'm fucking pissed off because it's clear that the university implemented this shit on widish scale without getting everything down first. And, as usual, building their documentation without consulting the users and what we need to know how to do. This shit of teaching in-person and online is stressful enough without them not getting the classrooms and how-to's in order. I can accept shit going bad because I'm fucking up—I'm not happy, but I know who to blame—but it's inexcusable to roll out this shit and not have a proper Troubleshooting document (and don't get me started on needing 20 minutes to find out who to contact about this; hey, assholes, your contact info—phone number, email, web submission—should be the most prominent part of your goddamned web page; making me hunt for it only raises my temperature).

Anyway, shit was easier when I just needed to figure out Zoom.

I recall having a professor who would religiously waste the first 20 min or so of each class trying to get his wireless mic system to work. The room wasnt even that big but waste our time he would before ultimately giving up. Nice guy on a personal level but a total boob in every other way. We would have tests that required doing some pretty advanced math but because he was too lazy he made them multiple choice. And you'd often get like two possible answers depending on how you rounded, how many significant digits you used. Total boob.

My boobery is built into the lectures!

Hello,

We really have limited the remote learning. There is still the occasional kid who get quarantined or tests positive - but we are 95% face-to-face. Doing hybrid was a huge pain and a lot more work (online learning has way too much frontloading of effort - and then the inevitable adjustments).

I feel bad for you - our students this Fall are much more engaged in the classroom as they're actually happy to be back in class. Questions and note-taking are at an all-time high - thus far!

I'm only teaching one class this fall, with around 35 students, 9 of whom are in the in-person category.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 5:56am

I'm only teaching one class this fall, with around 35 students, 9 of whom are in the in-person category.

I feel your frustration Doc. I have a family member who teaches a combo 1st & 2nd grade class, it was remote last year, but back in person this year. Lots of frustration last year with kids that young trying to Zoom classes and stay on track with their assignments.
Although the Zoom remote learning was very trying, the in person learning is very upsetting to her, too many students, not enough teachers. Class size was supposed to be capped at 20 kids, it's actually at 30, all in person. Social distancing is limited to about 14 inches between desks.

Sparky wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 8:43am

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 5:56am

I'm only teaching one class this fall, with around 35 students, 9 of whom are in the in-person category.

I feel your frustration Doc. I have a family member who teaches a combo 1st & 2nd grade class, it was remote last year, but back in person this year. Lots of frustration last year with kids that young trying to Zoom classes and stay on track with their assignments.
Although the Zoom remote learning was very trying, the in person learning is very upsetting to her, too many students, not enough teachers. Class size was supposed to be capped at 20 kids, it's actually at 30, all in person. Social distancing is limited to about 14 inches between desks.

Definitely much much worse for elementary teachers, where a big chunk of the job is just focusing attention. Teaching adults (at least they can be tried and sentenced as adults), there's an expectation of some discipline and certain tough tits if they can't be bothered to show up.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 8:59am

Sparky wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 8:43am

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Sep 2021, 5:56am

I'm only teaching one class this fall, with around 35 students, 9 of whom are in the in-person category.

I feel your frustration Doc. I have a family member who teaches a combo 1st & 2nd grade class, it was remote last year, but back in person this year. Lots of frustration last year with kids that young trying to Zoom classes and stay on track with their assignments.
Although the Zoom remote learning was very trying, the in person learning is very upsetting to her, too many students, not enough teachers. Class size was supposed to be capped at 20 kids, it's actually at 30, all in person. Social distancing is limited to about 14 inches between desks.

Definitely much much worse for elementary teachers, where a big chunk of the job is just focusing attention. Teaching adults (at least they can be tried and sentenced as adults), there's an expectation of some discipline and certain tough tits if they can't be bothered to show up.

Well, my questions were answered. Turns out that all the information that I thought referred to the computer monitor actually referred to a smaller monitor hidden by the big monitor. The bigger problem was that I could get Zoom to connect. I didn't feel too bad about that when it took the tech guy 10 minutes of experimentation as to what needed to be typed in. There are still a few curiosities about interacting with Zoom and all. But it's better than yesterday.