My department is no different: handfuls of prospective PhD students have been roaming the halls in the past few weeks. They have their usual schedules: meetings with prospective advisors, their students, etc. And, of course, they are taken out for dinner and maybe a quick tour of the campus/town.
Now, what do you think happens if one (or, gasp, more!) of these prospective PhD students are female? Can't send them to dinner with the guys, as that may be a bit awkward. Solution: send them to dinner with another female! Genius!
But lets think about this for a second. There is only a few handfuls of female grad students in my department. Even fewer of them are working on their PhDs. Of the PhD students, some are still quite new in the process, some are close to graduation and therefore busy interviewing themselves. Some have small children and have been excused from the "you can't possibly have any plans!" crowd. Many don't drive.
Who do you think this leaves on the list? Yours truly, of course! Again. How much warning do you think I got? 6 hours. Not supposed to have a life. Yay.
Out comes the usual dilemma: do I try to convince these poor souls to join my
Turns out, there really was no need for my dilemma. Of the two women I took out to dinner, woman A told me she took the free trip mainly to hit up the night clubs with a friend. Woman B had an advisor picked out and a research assistanship arranged; she had a rather realistic view on grad school, wasn't worried that her future advisor was out of town during her visit (they have met before, though), knew some of the advisor's, um, character flaws, and thought she could work around them. She wants an academic position at an R1, and going to grad school will mean entering a long-distance relationship for her.
Whatever they decide, I wish them luck. And the second one may need to be pointed to a few blogs ;)
3 comments:
Yea, I suddenly found myself being invited on social outings with a bunch of The Dudes Who Never Speak to me. Then I realized they were hosting female prospectives and I was the token vagina. Sad day.
Definitely, point #2 to the blogosphere. It's weird to think how much I depend on the blog-world these days to help me sort shit out, because we are united in academic settings. Even to just not feel alone.
I was often the token chick too, but that's ok with me, somehow. Because I was very plugged in to the social life of my department, I was always the token chick anyway, so it was nothing new when recruitment season came around.
Hermitage - I hear you!
PhizzleDizzle - I am pretty active as well, but I am becoming more aware of how much of my time goes to things like this as compared to other people in the department. Perhaps I am just under more time pressure these days!
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