I just finished writing up my Methods chapter. While I am behind my initial timeline, I do console myself with the fact that I’ve written two chapters in about a month’s time, all while working on other projects, working, and intermittently feeling like shit. My current (and arguably more realistic) timeline has me writing my lit review between today and the 25th, and turning it in to my advisor on the 26th or 27th. I realize this is probably excessively ambitious on my part, but I really feel like it’s possible. This very well may involve me shutting out the world and doing very little in the way of socializing, but so be it.
After finally scanning the conference program for a roundtable that I’m doing in April, I discovered that I’m not expected to upload my paper before the conference, although I’m “encouraged to do so.” Meh. Right now I’m more concerned about finding a hotel room that isn’t an arm and a fucking leg. It’s all well and good for fully tenured profs whose departments reimburse their professional travel, but for us broke grad students, this is always bad news. Why can’t professional organizations have conferences in places that don’t have hotels that ordinarily charge $200+ per night?! A rundown of the locations of the last few conferences for this organization is nothing short of ridiculous: New York, Chicago, San Francisco…et cetera. When you account for flights, hotel, registration, food, and other travel expenses, you’re looking at spending around $1000, most likely more.
I’ll stop complaining, because at least my half-rate paper got accepted, and it’s another line on my vita. As I gear up for the job hunt, I really can’t underestimate how important this kind of exposure can be. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
Yeah, conference travel can be tough on the budget for grad students. Does your department give you any conference support? Any chance to apply for funding from the conference organization, or hooking up with other grad students to save on the hotel room?
The thing is, I have a conference in Europe this summer, and since you can only apply once per academic year, I’m apply for funding for that trip rather than this upcoming trip.
I’m going to try to find a roommate for the hotel so that I can split the cost w/ someone. The cheapest rooms are around $170/night, so that would be hugely helpful! Hopefully my next few conference trips won’t be so wallet draining!