GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

Ahhh I miss Essex. Obviously, I was only an MA student so I don't know much about how everything worked for faculty, but I loved the culture there. It was inclusive and supportive and intellectually exciting to a much greater degree than other places I've studied. I mean, clearly I enjoy that democratic feel, that includes students in so many activities...others may prefer somewhere more hierarchical or something else that I can't quite find the word for, but, yeah, it's a great place to be a student and, I think, to work as well. Though, as you say, likely being transformed by the same pressures as every where else.

I find that article really interesting. I completely get that it seems unreasonable for people to be contactable constantly, but I really don’t think that this is confined to academia, at all. I never switch my phone off, and reply to emails all evening, weekend, and on holiday. I would never dare not. And while I work in an unusual place, this is the situation most of my friends these days seem to be in. I think it’s more symptomatic of how crazily important work has generally now become to people, and how competitive all industries are now becoming to progress in.

I find that article really interesting. I completely get that it seems unreasonable for people to be contactable constantly, but I really don’t think that this is confined to academia, at all. I never switch my phone off, and reply to emails all evening, weekend, and on holiday. I would never dare not. And while I work in an unusual place, this is the situation most of my friends these days seem to be in. I think it’s more symptomatic of how crazily important work has generally now become to people, and how competitive all industries are now becoming to progress in.

I find that article really interesting. I completely get that it seems unreasonable for people to be contactable constantly, but I really don’t think that this is confined to academia, at all. I never switch my phone off, and reply to emails all evening, weekend, and on holiday. I would never dare not. And while I work in an unusual place, this is the situation most of my friends these days seem to be in. I think it’s more symptomatic of how crazily important work has generally now become to people, and how competitive all industries are now becoming to progress in.

Going to be at St. John's College for the next three years.

Of course an inferior college to a certain sauce-named college, but still pretty good

Nah, I jest. Congrats! A great college. So much money lying around St John's

Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant!

Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant!

Also, St. Hilda's is having a summer wine exchange with Worcester later in the term so I'll finally get a chance to see your college!

X

Ooh are you a Hildabeast?

Yes, I am.

Hooray! I think I might have known that, but I'd forgotten. Excellent college I was there for 4 years.

I don't think I'd realised that you'd been there! Were you there as an undergrad? And you're right, an excellent college indeed. It's definitely coming into its own this term- that picturesque riverside position is making me feel bad for all the times I wished I was at a college with the traditional quad layout! Plus, Hilda's certainly knows how to throw a good ball.

Speechless

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/04/overcrowded-off-campus-housing-boston-puts-students-risk-even-landlords-cash/mCsUmZ0FpocJoFrRBM99YP/story.html

Euugh. Yep, housing here is an absolute nightmare. Fires are shockingly common (to someone from the UK)...mostly, it seems, because of the amount of wooden structure housing around. Triple deckers are the classic Boston style, but they can be a serious fire risk. The student housing market is awful, the housing stock is low in Boston, because it's a mostly low rise city and there isn't much land on which to build anything new. Landlords have the pick of 250,000 students, and they can pretty much charge what they like.
I live in a less undergraddy part of Allston/Brighton, the neighborhood much of that article talks about, and I viewed some truly shocking places when I was trying to find a place at short notice last year when our apartment purchase fell through (another effect of the student rental market -the buyers market moves so fast and prices increase so fast that assessments cannot keep up with market value...actually we were buying an apartment in a triple decker, as the neighborhood we love is full of them).

Are students from Harvard/MIT also concerned by this problem? (I mean these unis maybe offer better support to their students).

It was really special to be back where we all met, including the happy couple