Dear all,

I have a wonderful colleague at Stanford who became a close personal friend. We discuss stress and mental illness. He wrote this beautiful piece that he shared with me and allowed me to put on this blog. 

Mental health as a common good

Dear all,

Happy fall y'all. It's hard to imagine it's nearly the end of October. I'm writing this by candle light as our power is out here in California. My partner is hunting for a generator as ours just broke. But I have 38% battery left on my laptop and that will be enough for another WZZN. As always, WZZN is a braindump blog: I just write what comes to mind without editing later. A disclaimer of sorts...

I recently met a graduate student who, looking a bit stressed, asked if I had any advice for him. The problem, he said, was that he had grown tired of learning. What to do he asked me, when the desire to learn has left you?

This week I met with recently admitted graduate students. We talked about research, the various programs on campus, and choices. These students are really lucky: they have more than enough choices for graduate school. You would think that in a situation like that, the students are very relaxed. What can possibly go wrong if you have the opportunity to not just study at one good school, but multiple. But no, there is significant stress amongst them because of one misconception, the misconception that life can be optimized. 

How do you deal with these little voices in your head that whisper to you, particularly just when you want to get some needed sleep, about all the things you still have to do, all the things you did not do that day you should have done, and all the mistakes that you made.

We are 3 weeks into the new quarter and around me there are plenty students with a severe case of the first quarter jitters. These are affecting more students this year than before, I have noticed. Probably to do with the feeling of discomfort and anxiety around the heartbreaking events of the last three weeks: Puerto Rico, Las Vegas and the Wine Country fires that are pretty close to home (for example, one of our MS students is a fireman in Sebastopol and has been on duty this last week). 

In my dreams, we (at ICME and partner departments) can accommodate all passionate and dedicated students who are interested in studying with us. Alas, the admissions rate is small. So, what is a prospective graduate student to do to increase his/her chances of getting accepted? Quora is full of questions like this, and if you are such a prospective student I recommend that you spend a bit of time exploring answers there, as not all graduate programs are organized in the same way. 

Emails

(ps although some of this blog is applicable to prospective students also, the advice re finding the actual advisor is tailored to graduate students already on campus)

This blog is about the search for the perfect advisor who gives you the perfect project that will revolutionize your field and launch your illustrious academic career.  If only.