Triage at the student stage

[Julia Frugoli]

It seems to me that there are several conflicting forces here:

1) A need to have some triage early on in the graduate programs to 
relieve the overpopulation of PhDs.

2) A need for graduate students to teach the undergraduate lab sections 
that several people have commented on as being essential to a science 
degree.

3) A need for graduate students as inexpensive (monetarily, not 
emotionally or time-wise:)) research hands.

I can think of instances where a student was either accepted into a 
program, or not encouraged to leave despite evidence of unsuitability, 
because a warm body was needed to TA that 4th lab section of the Intro 
course.  While in the instances I'm thinking of, it was never the 
fundamental reason, it certainly tipped the scales. 

Just another thought to add to the discussion...


Julia Frugoli
Dartmouth College

visiting grad student at
Texas A&M University
Department of Biological Sciences
College Station, TX 77843
409-845-0663
FAX 409-847-8805

"Evil is best defined as militant ignorance."
																										Dr. M. Scott Peck