Departmental Self Review - UCLA Academic Senate

Student Degree Objective:PHDTheappropriateness ofFactors which Factors which The nature of work as a course and otherhelp yourprogresstoward yourdegreehinder yourprogresstoward yourdegreeTA and/or GSR at UCLA,its value as part of youreducation, and the qualityof the training you receivedThe reasons why somestudents have left ourgraduate program beforecompleting their degreesThe overallintellectualquality ofyour programdegreerequirements inregard to yourcareer aspirationsAny questions you believethe review team shouldraise and/or areas theyshould examine~.::IIImy own doggeddetennination, notmuch elseadvanced graduatestudents, to be usedto conduct their ownfieldwork under thesupervision of theiradvisor.lack of gUidancefrom facultylack of faculty in myspecific researcharea who couldadvise me on what todo, what to read,who to talk tono clear idea oftimetable (oftenoperated under selfimposed deadlinesthat were notrequired)TA work is vital to gettingclassroom experience,experience with students, but isan enonnous amount of workthat takes much time away fromown work- to do a thorough jobas a good TA leaves little timefor much else so this is difficultto balance- but shoudl berequired of all grad studentsamazedthat some in programfor so long with no TA experiencethe pressure is 'intenseagain felt likethere is not muchof a communityworking on myfocus so don'tknow how toevaluate this- feellike muchresources,energy,intellectual powerbehind certainsubdisciplinesand not othersthisis obviousproblem with 4field departmentand with linguistand psych anthbeing so valuednot much is leftover for othersubdiscplinesvaluablemake the intro proseminar morehelpful in orienting new studentsinto what the dept. is all aboutand how to survive- havequarterly meetings with faCUltyand students to address keeppeople connectedvery isolating experience formany- feel like you are hiking upa huge mountain alone ... with noend in sightfeel that grad. cohort is not verydiverse and not representative ofpopulation of los angeles,california, usa, or world...11:.personal reasonssurprised by lackof politicalengagement ofdepartment as awholeoutstandingvery appropriateall students should have thierown desk space. not just some.Wednesday, May 02, 2007 Anthropology. Open·Ended Comments. Graduate Goimeil Survey. Winter 2007 Page 6 of 14