Lex DeVille's - Journey To Doctor

[xy2_]

Opinions?
How do you feel about this situation? If I would let it go, I'd enable the behavior not only by those students, but by others. However, reporting it is likely to cause extra work and potentially frustration for the instructor which could have negative side-effects for me. For now I only contacted the offenders directly. Nobody else is involved.

Hello Lex,

I wanted to share how I feel about this.

I ended up valedictorian at a 2-year undergraduate program (called a DUT in France) in CS. Very often the same thing you described here happened. One notable experience was when the entire class was struggling in a course. I did my thing and people asked for help, so I did. What ended up happening is about 1/2 of the class plagiarized my code, made a few modifications and submitted it.

At first I would feel the same way, angry and judgemental at those who used my work. I would take a moral high ground, saying that "they're going to end up nowhere anyways, so why bother helping them". After some reflection, I think the best thing is to let it go and keep on giving.

Professors are not idiots. In my case, the prof for the class recognized pretty quickly that I was the one who made the code, because I was asking questions and working on it during class, while others waited.

As for the people I helped, sure, some plagarized my work and got a free good grade. But I don't care and I let it go and move on. People have different goals and I'm not going to be the one to judge them, because I can't change them. Instead I focused on my own. Because I did so, a lot of the help I gave came back in unexpected ways later down the road, which I would have not gotten if I had burned the bridges.

People who ended up plagiarizing that time ended up coasting through school the same way. And people who didn't and asked for my help to figure it out themselves had an harder time. In the end, which approach is better? I'm not the one to judge that, and I can't change how someone approaches it, so I let it go.

 

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[lewj24]

I'm not interested in bridges with weak foundations or letting others step on me for personal gain. It's not in my nature.

Maybe you should consider changing your nature.

When you say you're not interested in building bridges with them I hope you don't mean that you think they are beneath you. These people are people. One moment of cheating doesn't mean these people aren't worth building relationships with. Who knows who these people will become and who they will be connected with in the future. Have you never cheated on anything in your life? I know I have. But I have grown. And these people may grow as well.

If that's not what you meant by your above quote then I don't understand what you were trying to say.

And to say you are being stepped on by these people is being overly dramatic. You weren't hurt in any way by what they did. If anything, it makes you look better.

It sounds like your ego is driving this thought process and maybe you should get it in check.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

And another one bites the dust! Survived Psychopharmacology (with an A of course)! On the way out I sent a thank you message to the instructor and got this back in reply:

Hi Lex,

Thank you for the kind email and thank you for being such a wonderful student. You are actually my favorite kind of student - really intelligent with a little bit of smart a$$ : P

I'm so glad you enjoyed the course and I hope to have you in another class in the future.

Now I'm in Research Design and Methods. So far it's mind-numbing but once it's out of the way, then there are only four classes remaining for the master's and I'm excited for three of them. Up next is Psychological Testing and Assessment. Then it's Psychopathology followed by Clinical and Counseling Psychology and finally the capstone course.

At this point I'm struggling to decide if I want to switch to Fielding University or stay with Ashford for the doctoral program. Ashford will cost less (especially thanks to alumni benefits) and will be easier since I already have a good grasp of expectations and also because instructors are familiar with my work.

But Fielding has specialization in Brand and Media Psychology and the courses look way more interesting than Ashford. With Ashford I would either specialize in Wellness or Industrial/Organizational psychology. Both Fielding and Ashford will allow me to finish a doctoral program in roughly the same amount of time. With Fielding I'll earn a second master's degree along the way.

It's a tough decision but I'm leaning toward Fielding due to elective offerings like:

- Brand Psychology & Transmedia Storytelling
- The Social Psychology of Narrative
- The Psychology of Mediated Meaning
- The Psychology of Neuromarketing
- Media & Political Psychology

 

[Lex DeVille]

APA writing style is so dry, but it's concise. At least there are tons of resources on how to improve your writing.

I used to hate APA but the deeper I go into the program, the more I enjoy it. I'm very surprised by the number of people in class who have no grasp of it, though. Ashford has good APA resources, and they're pointed out by instructors throughout every class so there's no reason our mid-level grad students should be so terrible at it. But among my class I would say 95-99% are aiming for the minimum, trying to scrape by to a master's in the hopes they'll get a job or a raise.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Well, if my focus aim was just to finish the education, I would stay on at Ashford.

But if you are leaning towards Fielding for its Brand and Media Psychology, especially when they are topics you already delve deep into, by all means go for it.

I haven’t heard of any marketing or psych guru out there who took more formal or scientific education in such areas, which says one thing about credibility. Would be great to deepen your understanding of the Deep Magic

Is the price difference between the two options very wide? A few thousand?

About $50,000

I haven’t heard of any marketing or psych guru out there who took more formal or scientific education in such areas, which says one thing about credibility. Would be great to deepen your understanding of the Deep Magic

Apparently only like 2% of the U.S. has a doctoral degree, so that makes sense. Most of what I could learn through Fielding can be learned through Ashford by self-study. Probably the biggest difference is staff credentials and what I might learn from individual instructors through their experience-based expertise.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Sure. And I can do that, too.

At this rate we will soon have threads like "My journey to high school diploma" and "XYZ's Burger Flipping Guide: Earn 20k this Year (Yes, 2021!) & Go Sidewalk".

If you don't like what I'm doing, don't follow.

 

[ZF Lee]

For anyone who might come across this post:

This thread is called "Lex DeVille's - Journey to Doctor." It is not called, "Watch me follow someone's personal opinion (read "script") of what 'fastlane' means." I posted it to share one small part of my journey.

No school pays me for these posts. I am not part of any government organization with an incentive to push people into educational debt. I do not have courses or coaching programs aimed at people who are interested in grad school. I am not an affiliate of any college.

I have not asked anyone to follow this thread. I have not forced anyone to follow this thread. If you don't like something I do, there is no requirement to follow. Personally, I don't care if you follow or not. It makes no difference to me or any of the things I'm doing.

There is no right or wrong way to do things. Going to school does not mean the opposite of fastlane, although believing that it does IS the opposite of fastlane mindset in my opinion.

I wanted to advance my education and that's what I'm doing. I am also building several businesses. My businesses pay for my education.

There is no rule that says you can't go to school and have a business (which is why there is a truck and trailer outside of my house and a garage full of new tools as I dive into another industry without experience WHILE maintaining my education).

It's not like I'm not sharing about that progress either. Anyone with inside access can read it in my thread here.

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I don't know why some people are so worried about what everyone else on this forum is doing, or about the choices everyone makes. The forum is not anybody's F*cking babysitter.

Stop worrying about others so much. Reflect on your own situation. If you don't like how your life is, then figure out how to fix that for yourself.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing about my progress doing the things I want to do in life, enjoying the liberty I've created for myself, and pursuing entrepreneurship in whatever way I want to without following anyone else's idea of how that should be.

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Thanks for the note.
One of the important lessons I've gotten from here is to finish what you set out to do.

I have a cousin who was going to Canada to study storyboarding for films or animations.
Then he had a fallout with a girlfriend, quarrelled with his family, and decided to drop all plans and live out on his own.

No degree. And not even a stitch of marketable skills.

Nothing done, Fastlane or Slowlane.

Myself?

In the last few weeks, I found myself fighting college group assignments and client copywriting work, all in one stretch. Had to wake up cowardly team members, watch boring video lectures...and figure out how to write headlines for insurance banner ads and even LinkedIn posts, on the fly.

I was soooo tempted to give up on either, but then I remembered your thread.

I decided to push on...

The result?

Finished the college assignments. Got great grades for them.
I'm probably going to fire that client soon, if he doesn't accept my new packages (I'm generous enough to revise them for the SECOND time), but today he actually asked me if I could write more LinkedIn posts for him on a DAILY BASIS...

 

[ZF Lee]

Well done @Lex DeVille. It’s easy getting on the radar of the powers to be: help them help their audience/market/customers/etc. Better yet, be *seen* to help them. Super easy. I don’t know why more people don’t do it.

Meh to academia. You can’t join an entrepreneur society because you’re not taking a business class? What kind of weird thinking is that? Seriously, their loss, and they don’t even know how much they’re missing out.

I say go for super villainy world domination at the same time.

I find this weird as well.
In my university, you could join any club you wanted, regardless of your department.
And certain business units like Social Entrepreneurship and Experiential Learning (in my university) also allowed non-business students to take them.

In my investment club, there were folks from business, health sciences, IT...no red tape for participation.

A few clubs even offered membership cards that enabled you to get discounts from nearby eateries and outlets, but I never used them.

 

[MTF]

Thank you for sharing your experience of how it works behind the scenes. Sounds like it's not about helping people but indoctrinating them.

Get the audiobook version because it has extra commentary

What's the extra commentary about?

 

[Lex DeVille]

I just got my wrist indirectly slapped in class. My schedule is super busy right now, and I knew the only way to keep up with course work was to post several weeks of discussions ahead of time. Now we are in Week 4 and just below my discussion post is a message from the instructor that reads:

Hi -

We are in Week 2 now. Let's stay with the class and focus on the weekly concepts. If you complete work early keep it on your computer and post when the unit opens.

Thanks!

Is this an official school policy? No. Is it in the course syllabus? No. So why the f*ck does it matter when I post my initial discussion post for the week? Other students don't post their initial posts or their responses until the final hour of the due date.

Perhaps someone complained? Maybe someone felt offended or inferior because they weren't willing to put in the time and effort to research and write a 1,500 word essay that exceeds the standards weeks ahead.

Does cancel culture apply to private college? There are two weeks left of class, and I haven't written discussion posts for those weeks yet. I'm tempted to do it and see what happens. To be honest, I'm struggling real hard not to make a nasty discussion post. I'm not so good at beating around the bush. What the F*ck has this world come to?

 

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[ZF Lee]

I just got my wrist indirectly slapped in class. My schedule is super busy right now, and I knew the only way to keep up with course work was to post several weeks of discussions ahead of time. Now we are in Week 4 and just below my discussion post is a message from the instructor that reads:



Is this an official school policy? No. Is it in the course syllabus? No. So why the f*ck does it matter when I post my initial discussion post for the week? Other students don't post their initial posts or their responses until the final hour of the due date.

Perhaps someone complained? Maybe someone felt offended or inferior because they weren't willing to put in the time and effort to research and write a 1,500 word essay that exceeds the standards weeks ahead.

Does cancel culture apply to private college? There are two weeks left of class, and I haven't written discussion posts for those weeks yet. I'm tempted to do it and see what happens. To be honest, I'm struggling real hard not to make a nasty discussion post. I'm not so good at beating around the bush. What the f*ck has this world come

Normally, I'd think that the instructor just wants to keep everyone's minds on one single track, so they don't get confused by new material that doesn't match the week's content.

...which would only be fine if we were STILL in high school!

On the other hand, the instructor should be THANKFUL that you are keeping up with your posts!
The top gripe that I hear from my own lecturers now is that the kids just refuse to discuss and confer with the lecturers, preferring to hide under some rock.

And it got so bad that I've sat in Zoom classes where I was one of the only six kids present...out of a typical class size of TWO-HUNDRED kids.

But if someone did REALLY complain about the posts...well...just F*ck that snowflake.
How on earth could they even pass a lower degree if they can't fire out a 1,500-word essay?

As long as the discussion posts aren't graded in any way, yeah, go ahead and hold back on the postings.
Given that other peers have been copying your posts, you might as well send out a message as such.

 

[Speed112]

In other words, you need to be an expert at critiquing research to really know if any given research provides valid results or presents useful evidence to support some theory or hypothesis.

Hey, Lex.

Love your journey through academia. Your insights mirror a lot of what I've realized through my own stint and my interactions with professors and students, save the cultural propagandizing that seems to be an American thing, at least for now.

I'd like to bring you back a bit to the idea of research design and its challenges...

Do you think research critique has potential to be a valuable niche?

As a copywriter with lots of practical experience in psychology, and probably a lot of tangential experience in many other fields (due to the nature of the job and all the research involved), one is uniquely positioned to parse through difficult topics and communicate them in a way that the intended audience better understands.

And given your observations of your fellow classmates who struggle to write 1500 word essays... Most people in academia (un)surprisingly are not.

Furthermore, the current state of scientific journalism is not just disappointing, but outright appalling, with massive politicization and even blatant misinformation. This to me signals huge NEED in the market for proper, honest, objective, interesting, and actionable scientific communication.

Did you get the same feeling while experiencing academia?

The issue is that, from what I can tell, there is a lot of incentive to be biased, with various interest groups, including states/academia authority structures themselves, their combatants, and specific industries looking for research woke points. This leads to a perceived bias even when there is none there, with all sides throwing accusations of "being funded by X" and "shilling for Y" so there is an inherent difficulty in establishing generalized authority as a communicator. Makes for an interesting barrier to entry.

I've always thought facilitating discussion and interactions between "worlds" including interdisciplinary research, but also researcher-to-consumer relations, to be a huge failure in current society... but is there market demand for such a thing? Interdisciplinary Ambassadors.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[ZF Lee]

This may not be the very last post, but I wanted to share that I pulled through in the final hour. I had dropped down to a B in the class but managed to crush my final assignments and pulled it back up to a 94.03%. It's the lowest grade I scored in any class during this program, but it's still an A. So I will graduate wth a 4.0. Now to wait for that piece of paper so we can close this out!

Congrats!
Also waiting for my own degree cert to come in the mail.
My CGPA got cut down by shitty group members (and my own disillusionment with studies), but I imagine it could have been worse.

I have two weeks remaining toward this degree and I have my first B in a class. Our latest assignment was more bullshit and I got fed up with it and turned in four pages of snarky bullshit of my own. Apparently, the instructor didn't appreciate that.

I may not make an A in this class and I'm okay with that. I am 110% done at this point with zero intentions of continuing toward a Ph.D. This is likely the last time I will ever attend college. So I will finish up these two weeks, and finally free up some time in my life while I wait for my piece of paper in the mail.

Despite the nonsense, it wasn't all bad. I gained access to some useful resources through the school that allowed me to further my own learning beyond the classroom. I also made a few new connections and friends.

In the next post, I'll wrap things up with a picture of my diploma (hopefully) and we'll call it a day on this thread.

For anyone who parrots the phrase 'bu-bu-bu-but the degree/Masters should be a back-up plan!', they better read this thread and think twice.

But picking a Masters isn't even the worst part.
My concerns are more about the fact that I hear too many of my friends taking up Psychology because its the 'in-thing' or 'wide industry options' or 'easier than engineering'- and they enter that field of study not knowing the travesty that Lex faced even in higher academia.

No matter how much I try to urge them to at least pick classical fields like engineering, finance or computer science, they just go their way...

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

And um, when do we get to read that fascinating final paper? Asking for a friend.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

SQUEEEEEEE I’m so excited for youuuuu!! I hope it’s a good college!

 

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[OleksiyRybakov]

At this rate we will soon have threads like "My journey to high school diploma" and "XYZ's Burger Flipping Guide: Earn 20k this Year (Yes, 2021!) & Go Sidewalk".

I feel inspired to start such a Sidewalk thread. But instead of flipping burgers I'd like to flip crypto.

Anyway, well done, Lex!

 

[Lex DeVille]

Wrapping up the first week, the workload was heavy, but not too bad.

Instructor
So far the instructor seems unavailable. I responded to her initial discussion and received no response back from her despite asking questions. Oh well.

Students
The students are living up to expectations from the previous post. Only one other student posted an introduction of the correct length. Only one other student replied to any other students in the class, and those replies were a sentence long. All introductions and replies are due by tomorrow.

On a bright note, the posts and replies are clearly by a higher caliber of person than in my previous college. Most appear to be working-class professionals with lengthy 20+ year careers in their fields. Some already hold doctoral degrees in other fields.

Dissertation
I need to begin thinking about this now, even though I'm only at the beginning of this journey. What problem will I cover? How will covering that problem benefit me in the future?

Specialization
It's a toss-up between social psychology and I/O psychology. I'm not sure which one will serve me better for credibility in the future. It kind of depends on what path my career takes. I lean toward I/O being more useful, while social psych will probably be more interesting.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Isn't that normal in the academic world? Academic language is notorious for pretending to be smart by writing in a complex way and using the most obscure synonyms for simple words.

At my previous college, it was a good day if the students capitalized the word "i" and put a period at the end of a sentence.

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

I don't have much interaction with the rest of the class. Seems like interaction takes a back seat to the course content (which is kind of nice). I would enjoy interacting with other students, but usually, it feels superficial. Seems like everyone is just too busy to get involved.

I get that and I’m sorry for it, especially for you because you’re paying to attend. I had to hunt down really smart active (on forums) women one by one and invite them to telegram to have small online “enclaves”.

It was the only way I could fulfill my need for deep intellectual discussion. I have friends from CiRCE Institute and friends from Davenant House and a friend who worked at CERN. Most of them know two languages at least. Right now I run two groups. I never make one larger than 7 ppl. I’m never the smartest in the group but that’s what makes it lovely ya know?

Being an extravert (well 52% of me lol) can be a blessing.. since I don’t have any qualms about just reaching out and saying hi I can invite ppl who otherwise wouldn’t engage. Every single one of my intellectual friends is an introvert. I had to break the ice first. I had to be the host of the online party.

There’s a Twitter guy who did a similar thing. He wrote letters and then started his own stoic/philosophy book discussion group. I can’t remember his nickname. Anyhoo.. all that to say it can be done. Maybe not with 20 yr olds, but I’d be willing to bet that there are some extremely brilliant men who would love to have a solid friendship built on intellectual pursuits.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I'm close to my breaking point. Five hours invested into solving a single problem on this week's assignment and I still have no idea if my answer is correct. What sucks is I won't allow myself to give up and take the L on it. I want to know how it works, but the explanations aren't clear. I'm about ready to hire a freelance statistician tutor. This is insane. It's so bad I even developed a migraine. I'm out for now. Heading to a theme park. Hopefully, the problem solves itself by the time I return.

 

[Andy Black]

I'm close to my breaking point. Five hours invested into solving a single problem on this week's assignment and I still have no idea if my answer is correct. What sucks is I won't allow myself to give up and take the L on it. I want to know how it works, but the explanations aren't clear. I'm about ready to hire a freelance statistician tutor. This is insane. It's so bad I even developed a migraine. I'm out for now. Heading to a theme park. Hopefully, the problem solves itself by the time I return.

Sometimes sleeping on it makes it crystal clear in the morning.

Sounds like you could indeed hire a tutor and move forward faster and easier.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Nice! That's a great score.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Things are off to a poor start in advanced statistics.

I forgot about a course requirements quiz and by the time I remembered it, I was several hours behind the due date. So I was late. I scored 10/10 points, and it doesn't appear any points were removed for lateness.

Then I took this week's open-book quiz. It was extremely hard. Even though it was open-book I couldn't look up the answers.

Virtually all of the questions were word puzzles and there was a time limit. Despite reviewing the week's material and using up most of the 90 minutes, I only managed 36 out of 50... so a F*cking 72%. Wow. I basically failed.

What's worse is the quiz doesn't explain why the answers were incorrect. It doesn't provide correct answers either. So I didn't understand the questions or didn't interpret them correctly, but there is no way to correct my mistakes except to review the material and try to understand what I failed to understand the first time... FML

College is horse shit.

I still have multiple assignments due this week.

My frustration levels are at an all-time high.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Are you able to see the professor to go through the mistakes you made? Colleges often do "office hours" or tutorials you can book with instructors / professors...

Yes, that is what I am doing. First, I'm reviewing all of the material to try and come up with the correct answers on my own. But then I will present that to the professor to confirm or get an additional explanation.

 

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[Antifragile]

Are you happy, yes or no?

Answer: it depends on the mark you give me for this assignment. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Well, I think I've correctly solved each problem I missed.

After getting feedback from my instructor, I resolved all problems correctly except the first one.

The more significant issue is I don't know that I could have solved these problems within the 90-minute timeframe even if I had paid greater attention to detail.

It took longer than 90 minutes to come up with my revised answers for the 7 questions because I had to spend time on research and comprehension.

I don't have a solid strategy for how to survive this class yet. Given enough time, I can solve the problems. But under the pressure of a clock, I struggle, because I need time to work through everything, review my notes, and connect all of the dots.

Even after reviewing, I still concluded an incorrect answer for the first problem.

If I don't find a better way to prepare for these damn tests, I may have to push my PSI CHI application back a class. Grr.

 

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[Antifragile]

Given enough time, I can solve the problems. But under the pressure of a clock, I struggle,

Kind of like entrepreneurship and life…

 

[Vinz]

I've clawed my way back to a 91.15% (A) in class.

Mom came over the other night. She asked how classes were going and I gave her an update.

She said, "You know, you don't have to get an A every time."

I know it, but I don't see the point in college if I'm not there to be the best I can be.

She doesn't understand that mindset though. For her, college was just a path to a raise. Something she had to check off her to-do list for a promotion.

For me, it's about being someone who was a failure piece of shit in high school holding the first Ph.D. in the family. It's about rising to new heights against all odds because I can.

I don't want to come to the end of my life, look back and say, "I should've did that."

Just... "I did that."

I'm at the halfway point in this class. 1.5 classes remain until the next big milestone.

You will be an awesome example to your entire family !
That's the fastlane way of doing things.

 

[Roli]

I've clawed my way back to a 91.15% (A) in class.

Mom came over the other night. She asked how classes were going and I gave her an update.

She said, "You know, you don't have to get an A every time."

I know it, but I don't see the point in college if I'm not there to be the best I can be.

She doesn't understand that mindset though. For her, college was just a path to a raise. Something she had to check off her to-do list for a promotion.

For me, it's about being someone who was a failure piece of shit in high school holding the first Ph.D. in the family. It's about rising to new heights against all odds because I can.

I don't want to come to the end of my life, look back and say, "I should've did that."

Just... "I did that."

I'm at the halfway point in this class. 1.5 classes remain until the next big milestone.

The diversity of your drive is extremely impressive, I salute you.

Is this full time or are you still grinding your other stuff?

 

[Roli]

I wake up between 2-3 am.

Christ on a bike! What time do you go to sleep?

 

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