Grad Student Life Beyond Fieldwork: Part 1 (Classes)
Riding in a boat in sunny South Florida, observing wildlife, being immersed in nature: all of these could describe someone’s vacation plans or a typical day of fieldwork for a FCE grad student. Although being a FCE grad student may at times sound enviable, there are numerous other aspects of grad student life, both positive and negative, which I plan to cover in a four-part series. First, I will focus on the classes we have to take. What people think our average day looks like The real average day of a FCE student While our main goals are to conduct research, publish our work and write dissertations, we are still students who must take classes. Since there is no “Everglades” major offered at any university, FCE grad students are scattered across many departments. At FIU , where a majority of FCE grad students are enrolled, students conducting Everglades-related research are majoring in Environmental Studies, Geoscience, Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology and probably 9 other majors I ...