The PhD starts and no turning back

I often get asked by students and others "where are you from?" I feel quite uneasy when I get asked this question, as my friend puts it, it's a tricky question! Mainly because, I rarely feel that I do justice to Togo in my attempts to describe my country and my culture. The description invariably falls short of providing a picture which depict it's richness and variety. Most of the time I find my self struggling to escape the stereotypes about Africa. However the question also helps me reflect on my own stereotypical views about other countries as well. A few people actually knew Togo, which I admit is somewhat comforting. Most of the inquirers would be happy with a merly Geographically locating the country for instance the fact that Togo is neighboring country to Ghana which I found to be much better known.

For a newly arriving graduate student the most pressing issues are that of housing and food infrastructure. I also have 5 year old daughter who happen to also be starting school this year. Quite interestingly the coincidence of my daughter starting kindergarten as I start my PhD has been source of many reflexions. For instance the fact she was starting a very long educative journey that would shape her and her views of he world. It strikes me that we are required some 20 years to catch up with the accumulated Human knowledge, and kids don't even realize it.

Perhaps my most insightful realization is the fact that the education system has to be community orriented there is no way that parent could bare alone the responsibilities of providing the intricate and elaborate education needed by kids today. So it seems that very young age and very old age are the two periods of human live where our vulnerability really shows the importance and the relative strength of a community versus the relative powerlessness of individualism. This observation played a crucial role in shifting my position on individualism.

3 weeks of classes went by. Already, I struggle to advance my research agenda as well as my classes. I have to admit that I can not help but feel that these two tasks sometimes seem to be somewhat conflictive. It was already brought to my attention that faculty members sometimes considered classes as a burden distracting them from their research especially in light of the fact that faculty members are mostly being judged on their research contributions not so much by their teaching. It never occurred to me before graduate school, that graduate student go through similar struggles. I am still trying to find the right balance between these two aspects of education.



The First Social event I participated to in the Computer Science Department was Meet 'n' Greet it was a wonderful event that got us to know other graduate student and literally broke the Ice among the participant.

Pre PhD peripeties

The idea to write this blog was inspired by the reading of the book "A PhD Is Not Enough: (A Guide To Survival In Science) " by Peter J. Feibelman.



This blog explores my personal graduate education experience in the United States from the International Student perspective. I am originally from Togo a country in west Africa. I completed my undergraduate studies in Canada and I applied to Rutgers the State University of New Jersey for my graduate education.

I will start telling the unfolding story of my Journey towards a PhD from my attempt to acquire my F1 (Student) Visa. I applied for the visa at the U.S. Consulate in Montreal. The visa looks something like this.



I should point out that getting a Visa is no easy process you get reminded that in this increasingly globalized world we are all but equal. In my particular case the experience prove traumatising. After I completed all of the administrative requirements to obtain my visa and informed that I was approved for an F-1 visa, I was told to come and pick up my visa on the next day. During the following days I was startled to learn that my Passport had been misplaced by the consulate and that I had to take upon myself the burden to renew my passport and come back and reapply for a F-1 Visa.

After much insistence I was than given the following letter:

The additional administrative overhead lasted two difficult months before I could finally get my visa issued.
On the weekend before class i was traveling from Montreal to New York by train. A long trip here is the Itinerary :



During the first week the headlines for on our University news paper could read that 2008 was a record braking year in term of admissions and transfer of undegrad here is what it looked like

I thought to myself that it wont be too hard to remember a couple of years later when I started my Graduates Studies. I just had to remember that record admission year. I have to admit that I am quite baffled as to why so many student would apply or transfer to Rutgers this year. Not much really happened on the first week beside registering and setting up accounts.However the major achievement was to obtain my student ID card.



The student ID on a campus serves as a passport and most importantly allows one to borrow books from the library. So there goes the first week.