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:

Anonymous said...

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

DRo said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

PlantHead said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

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

Anonymous said...

holy chicken = bright idea?

Anonymous said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Female Science Professor said...

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.

Dr. Rooster said...

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

LabMom said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Stu said...

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.