Final student dinner

Yesterday I had a final, closing dinner with my former classmate and my former supervisors. As a thank you towards our supervisors for the guidance they gave us and the fun times we had jumping up and down their trampoline when we had a meeting at one of their homes. 

Looking back at the six months of master thesis it has been a wonderful journey. My classmate and I had such fun working on it, with of course the necessary stress moments. In the end we were just ready with it and wanted it to be done, but now a few months later I realize that is was such an inspiring period in my life!

In those six months we have learned so much. Both my classmate and I didn't have any research skills and those weren't taught to us at our previous study. So we both struggled to get a grasp on the statistics which brought a lot of frustration. Near the end we were almost experts in descriptive statistics though! 

We both graduated on august 31th, and formally received our masters degree on January 24th. So this dinner was a final closing moment for the four of us. I hope our supervisors enjoyed the master thesis period as much as I did. Now my days as a student are truly over and I have to accept my phase in life as an employee. You never know what the future will bring, but perhaps in my career I will make a detour and do some more scientific research again. My university study really brought into sight that I really like doing this.

Ciao!

Ixis

OMG....

Got my grades yesterday, all friggin 5 of 'em! I got three times and eight and two times a nine, which is actually just amazing! Never thought tho get five grades, and I'm not really sure what they all mean, but I presume I will find out soon :) When receiving my grades I also got some feedback before making the version truly final and official. Some numbers in my tables have to be changed, but in order to do that I have to do some SPSS analyses over again. But I might already have forgotten how to perform these analysis. Well perhaps next week :) Then in october there will be a presentation for the research company. I've already mentioned twice that the only possibility (due to holiday's) is the last two weeks of october. The message back also said two times that it will be deliberated whether it can take place on a certain date in september or October. omg.... No! I'm sorry this is not possible, my supervisors is on holiday in september and she also wants to be there. 

Yesterday was the last day people could apply for the job I applied for the other day. Now, I am supposed to hear something within 5 workingdays. I'm already kind of nervous. I just really hope I will get an interview. 

Ciao!

Ixis

Graduated!

Ok, that went a lot faster than expected! I thought I was going to hand in my final concept version sunday evening and that I would still be busy with processing some feedback until wednesday. But yesterday at the university, my classmate and I were already congratulated with achieving our master's degree! Wow it is just so weird! I didn't set my mind to it yet. There is nothing left to change in my piece anymore. Ow... did I see all the spelling mistakes? No, because I saw one yesterday evening. Sh*t! I do not have my grade yet, which is also a little weird. Because normally you first get your grade after which you hear if you graduated or not. So now I'm sitting here, nothing to do anymore after six months of courses and six months of research project. It still hasn't sunk in yet. I think I will receive my final grade today or tomorrow an then somewhere in October graduation. It's just a bit unreal.....

Ciao!

Ixis

Four more days

In four days it's going to be August 31, the deadline for handing in my master thesis. I am almost finished, but still some things left to do. Of course the spelling check, correcting the management summary, checking the outline in the tables, pretty up the appendix and things like that. Pretty existing and pretty stressful. This monday one of the supervisors will be back from her vacation and by then I want to have handed in my very last concept version. However, my other supervisors en passant mentioned that maybe they are going to grade the thesis already on monday. Would be so weird being done with this research project. Those six months working on it flew by. Then again, when this is finished my days as a student are over and I'm almost ready (have to get my diploma still!) to start my professional career. But for now, four more days and than vacation!

Ciao!

Ixis

Almost done

The deadline is approaching, the end is near... and you know what, I'm probably gonna make it! :) Last week, me and my study mate were making up the balance to see where we were at. We still had some things to do concerning our analyses, literature piece and methods part. After consulting with our supervisor we were able to finish our analyses and came to the conclusion that we are on track. While waiting on the appointment with our supervisors we worked on our theoretical background and methods part, so the only thing left is answering the research questions and writing the discussion. I started with this during the weekend so today is my first day since a very long time, that I'm not doing anything for my thesis! Well, accept writing about it on my blog... It's weird and slowly it begins to sink in that after this month I'm done with it and it's finished. The metaphorical black hole is approaching when I'm graduated and have to find a job. But that's something to worry about after my holiday, cause first I'm going to Gran Canaria for a week to relax from this (sometimes) stressful half year. But before I can leave I still have to finish my master thesis first. Three weeks left till the deadline. It has to be possible.

Ciao!

Ixis

living in a student dorm

Because I'm still busy with my master thesis, whereas most other students have summer holiday, I still have to go to my university. The other day I ran into my friend's sister and after telling her my summer pursuits she offered to let me stay in her student dorm for a while. After all, she is not there as she is celebrating her holidy. Great offer and it was so kind of her to do that! I decided it would be convenient for me, since that way I could save the money for train tickets. So Last week and upcoming week i'm staying at her room in my student city. She has a really nice room and a bathroom and kitchen to herself. By bike, I'm at the university in 10 minutes, compared to the hour it takes me by train. This time I've saved, I spent on cooking, so it all comes down to the same. I really like it! At some point it's a good thing I've never done this before, because than I would no longer be willing to travel this long by train. But now I also see what I missed and could have had, a real students life. I'm grateful to my friend's sister that I now can experience this. My friend already said I would have a great time, and she was absolutely right! My master thesis is slightly progressing, deadline of end of August is progressing.

Ciao!

Ixis

Master Thesis

It's been a couple of days since I've written anything. It's been a busy weekend for me as I had to work, had two birthday parties and two days of national holiday. But today it's kind off judgment day... Well in some sense. Today is the official start of my research project for my master thesis. Really exiting and hoping that everything will go as planned. Up until now it didn't go anything as planned, but here I am, at the same point I would have been at when everything did go according to my plan (saw a nice movie by the way about the ' plan of life' each person has, called 'the adjustment bureau'. Bit weird, but also nice). Anyhow... here I am. Probably a lot more stressed tough. My questionnaire has been activated and can be filled in now. I've been made aware of a 'normal' response rate on such questionnaires of about 30%. Currently after 1 day, my response rate is 4,3%. So it has to climb bigtime. Hopefully it will.. Ok it was a short little update. 

Ciao!

Ixis

Frustration

I am currently working on my master thesis in the social medicine department and all the preparation is nearly finished. The literature has been reviewed, the online questionnaire is almost done and a fellow student and I managed to find two companies which agreed to participate in this research. So, it seemed to go well, until one of the companies decided to become a pain in the ass and started interfering with almost everything in the process. "We decided to change the distribution process and do it like this" I heard from the research company. Well I'm sorry, but that is not possible with the program we are working with. It has already taken over a week and there is still not really a solution for the distribution procedure of the online questionnaire. And this is just one example of all the minor and more major obstacle's I have to deal with. It really frustrates me. 

My classmate and I both work on the same research project, but she is supposed to report on one company and I on the other. And of course the company I'm going to report on is the one in which the most problems are. Of course I do not get my diploma for free, but a break once in a while, or just a positive answer to a new proposal would be very helpful! I think I'm a bit scared that this situation is going to affect me in a negative manner, That maybe my classmate is able to graduate and I am not, due to these difficulties. We have to deal with problems every day, but this time there is much (my master degree) at stake. So hopefully things will work out soon.

Ciao!
Ixis