A first-generation Ph.D. student describes her struggles (opinion)
By Bailey B. Smolarek But as I sat patiently waiting to see what would happen, my friend took matters into her own hands. She attended the class on the first day, walked up to the professor, introduced herself, explained she would like to take the course and asked to be taken off the wait list. And just like that, she was in. Not Knowing the Rules Another instance in graduate school when I didn’t know what to do was when a professor was unkind to me. I didn’t know how to respond to this professor, so I ended up asking my mother for advice. Her response was simple: “Sometimes bosses aren’t nice.” That was it. But my mother did not go to college. My mother does not have Ph.D. In working-class culture, school is often viewed as a job. So it makes complete sense that my mom saw this professor as my boss and passed along the sound advice that bosses aren’t always nice and I should learn to…
