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"At first, I didn’t tell anyone. I faked the funk. I didn’t want their pity. I didn’t want them saying, 'well I’m so sorry,' while thinking, 'glad it wasn’t me.'"

I won't be confined by other people's notions of who I am and what I should do. I'm starting to feel free.

People don't leave because they can't cut it; they leave because they find some other place that welcomes them, lets them express themselves, and rewards them according to their merits.

Family and friends are welcome to attend the final defense, and that's a good thing.

Micella Phoenix Dewhyse, Ph.D. -- now postdoc extraordinaire -- navigates the world of science at at U.S. national lab.

I've found motivation, desperation, and rage to comfort me in my later years.

Tallying every offense, every problem, every worry--and keeping them in mind-- creates crazy, ugly people with ulcers and bad attitudes.

My haggard "I'm tired, overworked, and just want to be quiet right now" look has, I've learned recently, been misinterpreted as a "get the heck away from me, I'm angry" look. I hadn't the slightest idea.

"This is probably why I won't be going into hardcore academia; I value my time, my family, and my friends far too much to be ruled by my job."

If I'm a competitive student, with a very good record and lots of promise, my decision on what grad school to attend will probably depend on pay, faculty, and facilities. In that order.

The funny thing is, there seems to be a myriad of attitudes around me about this wretched exam.

As Dwight Eisenhower once said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." The same may be said for careers.

To choose a career path without first examining all the options--in detail--would be to sell myself short. I intend to be as mindful as possible about the steps I take once I leave graduate school.

Peering in from the outside, the research lab I visited for about a month provided a completely different research experience than what I was used to in the United States.

"Integrity and honesty are the foundations upon which scientific inquiry and discovery are built. Trust allows us to believe what others have done and to use the results of others to drive our own research."

The change from the dull delirium and insane drama that characterized my first year and half of graduate school has been welcome.

Daphne never struck me as the type of person who would stop doing something just because she wasn't happy.

In grad school, a certain amount of failure is inevitable.

Just getting started, it can be hard to keep my long-term objectives in mind.

What you don't always think about when starting graduate school is that sometimes the choice to go to graduate school--especially when you haven't already met that special someone--can delay or impede your social progress, even as it advances your career.