Thanks to all who responded and who continue to respond to yesterday�s entry on what borogoves called �grad school. angsty angsty angsty�� you can find comments from elgan and michl on my notes page. Borogoves� entry is here. And part I of dandlioneyes� entry is here. Part 2 is, she says, forthcoming, so stay tuned.

It�s been very interesting reading of others� experiences. As I told dandlioneyes this morning, I was struck by the similarities of frustrations.

Dandlioneyes� assessment of the attrition rate of her class made me consider my own cohort. I came in with a class of 13, the largest in my department�s memory. As far as I can tell, only 3 are tenured/tenure-track. One more transferred to another school after the first year and I don�t remember his name accurately enough to be able to trace him. One more finished a Ph.D. but has vanished from the rolls of our professional association and may have left the field. Two of us still remain officially on the department register. The other one has held a lecturer job in another state for a number of years and is a mom and as far as I know has no immediate plans to complete the degree. Of the other seven, their stories are varied. They left for a variety of reasons: disenchantment, motherhood, law school, change of heart. It would be interesting to follow up with all of them. My class was recognized as unusually cohesive. We worked and played together, studying for exams in a large group, holding weekly potluck dinners at one another�s houses.

But it is too beautiful a day to dwell on angst. One whiff of the outdoors, with its scent of lilac and lily-of-the-valley makes it impossible to feel the stress today. AJ has been particularly entertaining, walking around the house singing little songs to himself with the words not quite right, as in this example of his favorite lullaby:

Don�t you CRY!
GO TO SLEEP, LITTLE BABY!
When you WAKE!
You eat CAKE!
All the little horsies:
Backs and days,
Apples and hays
Coach and sexy little horsies.

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