Friday, February 18, 2011

The Graduate School Experience

As an introductory image to show my research group as part of a general discussion about grad school, careers etc., I decided to see if I could graphically depict the essence of The Graduate School Experience using only the standard menu of clip art and shapes available with PowerPoint presentation software. I found that I could get pretty far with the available images, although, for the final product, I added one non-ppt image, and in the version I showed my group (but not shown here), I added some images specific to my field/research group. Nevertheless, here is a PowerPoint Clip Art vision of The Graduate School Experience:


17 comments:

  1. LMAO. Out loud, in my office, while my colleagues stare.

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  2. This made me smile; thanks for sharing!

    But what is the trash can with the clouds over it, and the footprints in the sand? Those are the only two images that I didn't get.

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  3. I'm slightly confused at what your slide is trying to explore...or is that the whole point?

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  4. Awesome! Except the holy chicken - I'm not sure I relate with that image?

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  5. the footsteps lead to the water's edge.. ambiguous.. and funny!

    assume that trash can means ideas tossed out. clouds = confusion, depression, cloudy thoughts

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  6. holy chicken = bright idea?

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  7. There's the holy chicken, and he beget many new small chicken!

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  8. Ummm? Holy Chicken? How about a rooster crowing at dawn - as in getting up at dawn or staying up until dawn.

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  9. EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy2/18/2011 02:02:00 PM

    The mixture of exhilaration and terror found on a big coaster as a metaphor for the first year?

    Nice.

    Does it mean anything important if I was at "The Scream" more than once?

    I like the ducks in a row.

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  10. Pictures of footprints in the sand always make me think of Jesus. Or at least that motivational/spiritual saying about him carrying people.

    Maybe here it refers to the come to Jesus talk.

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  11. This is really creative and great! I'll be sharing it with my grad students. I saw the "holy chicken" as a metaphor for finally getting some results you could crow about like a rooster.

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  12. The possible spiritual aspects of the chicken eluded me, I must admit. I liked the background, and the juxtaposition of a happy rooster/chicken with a man on the moon etc., but the beauty of it is that there are so many possible interpretations, all of them strange.

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  13. Anon 8:53, I'm very confused at what your comment is trying to say.. or was that the whole point?

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  14. Oh good. I thought it meant during your defense you 'laid an egg' but since that isn't the meaning, I am happy to assume student X graduated.

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  15. Ending with a celebration? A little dishonest don't you think?

    It would be more honest to show a pile of rejection letters, a U-Haul van (to your first Postdoc), another U-Haul van (to your second postdoc), ramen noodles, then finally a cubicle as you give up on the tenure track and land that awesome $50K/year job doing programming at BigCo.

    The other 50% that land a tenure track position just go back to Start.

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  16. The other 50% that land a tenure track position just go back to Start.

    50%? Isn't that a little high? About 1 in 4 people I went to grad school with ultimately ended up with a tt job. And this is counting the people who moved abroad for a tt job, or took up a job in a teaching college. Mind you, I went to grad school in a top-10 place.

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  17. Very Good. Maybe it's just me, but the picture needs many more piles of crumpled up paper. The Scream was a good pick, but if you could find a picture, The Total Perspective Vortex would, in my mind better represent hopelessness.

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