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Grad School Crisis

“The grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had somewhat of a crisis with grad school.  I’ve found that I hate 1 of my classes, despise C++ (which is required for compilers), and just simply don’t have enough time to breath.  This pretty much describes a typical computer science student’s life, however, I was pushed over the edge 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, I was hit really hard, all at once.  I had 3 exams in one week, and 2 programs due.  If you’ve ever tried to write a compiler or a remote procedure program and tried to study for a test at the same time, you’ll know what I mean.  To make matters worse, CMU told me I own them $2350.  This is all because they over refunded me earlier in the semester, yet failed to realize it until 2 months later.  Not only that, but I had 150 papers to grade.

It all stacked up, and made me realize that I don’t really enjoy grad school all that much.  So, I started applying for jobs.  So far I have been rather successful with getting call backs, but, CMU has decided that they may be willing to work with me.

The grass is always greener on the other side.  If I quit grad school, I’ll wish I didn’t.  If I don’t quit grad school, I’ll wish I had.

By Jack Slingerland

Founder of Kernl.us. Working and living in Raleigh, NC. I manage teams of software engineers and work in Python, Django, TypeScript, Node.js, React+Redux, Angular, and PHP. I enjoy hanging out with my wife and kids, lifting weights, and PC gaming in my free time.