• she/her

healthcare bureaucrat in philly, v adhd, orthodox jew, ect ect, im love my wife



I do feel extremely imposter complex (and also a bit of "oh wait is this a scam") over the fact that my first course in this masters program was an intro to compsci and my second course is a stats 101. like. those are undergrad courses not grad school courses lmao it cuts when people say im in grad school

but like. aaa it's something I really love about this program and this field. the field is such that this program is explicitly "you are coming to us because while doing your job in your own field of expertise you found yourself needing to use data science tools, and now you want to master the tools instead of just cobbling them together slapdash". the architect of the program was a psychology professor for this university that had to teach himself data science to solve some problems the university was facing, got pissed off at the process of self teaching, and started this degree with a "nobody should have to go through that" mindset

like. everyone is coming here from somewhere else and that rules! it also means that the degree can't be the "culmination and continuation of years of study" like other programs, it has to begin with a few months of catching people up to speed.

as someone who deeply values both accessibility of knowledge and diversity of thought this is really, really good to see and is heartening that if I can move into this field I will be surrounded by people whose backgrounds are so different from mine. it won't be stifling. that is something one finds in administrative work, in healthcare, and in social services that I was really hoping to not loose when moving into datasci

tangential to this is that this program is built from a primary precept of "you have a high level professional career already and are coming to this after maybe multiple decades away from school", also built from the fact that the architect has ADHD/dyslexcia (fucking rules that I haven't had to ask for any accessibility accommodations because they're already built in).

most assignments are optional (but like, why are you here if you don't do them), tests can be retaken unlimited times and are both open book + untimed (because in the real world we'll have google and the only time limit is a deadline weeks out). you cannot progress past them if you do not make above a B which is a great balance to that flexibility. those two things alone are things I have always dreamed of receiving as accommodations but never could hope for, and it shows in that my current grade is an A+ while in my undergrad I think I made above an 80 maybe once every other semester even in similar intro courses lmao

also the lectures are broken up into 5-15 minute chunks each with very clear "this is what will be covered" so I can hop in and out and I can follow along without having to suss out the point or organize an unorganized ramble

speaking of ramble, im rambling. but yeah no I just am so happy here and so grateful for what this man has done. I wish I hadn't ADHD'd my way into missing the deadline to, in course reviews, tell him how glad I am to feel my ADHD accommodated lmao

also??? I made an A+ while on a sub theraputic dose of adhd meds like, fuck, how?? it's absurd haha


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @numberonebug's post:

If it helps the imposter syndrome, the biggest course I took in my first year of my PhD program... was also a catch-up class on cell biology/biochemistry.

I majored in biochemistry & took extra courses in cell bio. Needless to say, I slept through most of that class. :P

Pinned Tags