Throwback Thursday to January 2016!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

crookedkingdom:

i am having a terrible time!!!!!!!!

now i am more invested in these hypothetical questions i will never research than i am in my actual thesis what the FUCK

i am having a terrible time!!!!!!!!

tormentedintellectual:

anyone else finding the torment relentless

On the menu for this weekend:

• Design survey questionnaire for factor analysis (I’m doing a research study to determine why so few math students are using online tutoring at my institution)
• Get approval from Institutional Research department to deploy my survey
• Diddle around with Tableau (I want to build a faculty-facing data dashboard breaking down tutoring utilization at my institution)

Y’all, I think I’m doing it! I think I’m growing into a baby data scientist!

I think that, for me, part of the appeal of data analytics / data science is the aspect of seeking structure in chaos. My executive functioning skills have been especially suffering during work-from-home times, but my graduate studies are helping me build the skills to take the chaos and disorder and translate it into an organized format that can then be analyzed, optimized, and used to better-understand the big picture.

Since I’m still floating around in survive-then-thrive mode, I don’t yet have the time to put together any helpful tips for others to consider; however, doing so is ultimately my major goal for this blog. Some topics I’ve already been learning and hope to address soon via new content are:

• Identifying reliable research via 6 key characteristics
• Building a strong hypothesis for a research study
• Designing effective research methods
• Understanding key concepts in beginner database management and design

Skills I haven’t learned yet but eventually want to share:

• Programming in R
• Programming in SQL
• …and likely SO much more

Ya know, in this day and age I’m extraglad to be going into a field that’s all about evidence-based decision making. Until now, I never really thought about my grad focus (business analytics / data science) in the context of current events, but now that I am, it seems fitting.

My first assignment in one of my classes is all about evaluating the quality/reliability of research — a skill I began to develop in high school but lost strength in over time. I’ve almost certainly been guilty of accidentally sharing misinformation via unfounded claims and weak research studies because social media makes it too darn easy to pass info along without a second thought. All this to say that I’m glad I’ll be more equipped to hold myself accountable for thinking critically about information before passing it along to others.

So… Throughout the last 6 months, I’ve been coordinating with a teaching faculty member on a BIG mandatory tutoring project that he began to support the subject of his dissertation. Today, he told me that my name will be included in any research he publishes for the dissertation! Holy cow, am I excited! I might even get to take part in writing the conclusion. This might be smol beans but I’m stoked nonetheless!

Goals for January 13th

Professional

• Attend Writing Center Director’s Day Out (Completed at 12:00 pm)
• Send out draft schedule (Completed at 2:00 pm)
• Finalize first week tutor reflection questions

Academic

• Set up financial aid direct deposit
• Spend 1hr learning SQL for data science
• Review web campus requirements to ensure I’m on-track to start

Personal

• Relax and enjoy Stardew Valley for 1hr (but no longer) (Completed at 7:30 pm)
• Spend 1hr reading for leisure / book club
• Spend 1hr on a walk without using social media (Completed at 1:30 pm)

Goals for January 6th

• Cope, because sometimes we do just need to focus inwards before we can focus outwards

That’s it. There are not any other goals for today, and that’s perfectly okay.

Working from home means spending all day working on a thesis right? I cannot wait to be back in the lab.

3.1.19 //

[[REDACTED]] university straight up told me that decisions will likely take another week to come out but that sure as hell isn’t gonna stop me from obsessively refreshing my inbox regardless!

In lieu of getting an appropriate amount of sleep I’ve just decided to double down on my caffeine intake.

Me: is it wrong to persecute senior faculty?

Tristan: it depends on what they’ve done

Me: it’s more what they haven’t done. Which is my bidding.

I am organizing for the coming academic semester, and I found a checklist/study guide from the last semester. Don’t forget to make studying fun! I’m a visual learner, and I use a lot of colors to make my notes more interesting to comprehend.