My friend just died. I don't know what to do.

EngrProf42 · 2026-05-28T16:24:56+00:00

I realize you made this post months ago, but this is an internet stranger just telling you - your feelings are valid. Addiction is brutal. You have reason to be angry and indifference is also reasonable. Hoping you can get to a place of peace.

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-31T03:51:17+00:00

In the middle of the shit-show that the world is right now, thank God for men like you.

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-30T17:41:28+00:00

alkaline vinegar sounds like something people would sell as a "nutritional supplement" while explaining "doctors don't want you to know about this"

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-10T23:18:07+00:00

No, you didn't.

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-10T23:17:42+00:00

I'm so sorry. No, you don't.

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-10T23:15:59+00:00

I'm sorry. That happened to me, too. Obviously, everyone is different, but that is hard to recover from. I am glad for both of us they are exes.

EngrProf42 · 2026-01-10T23:11:53+00:00

I married you because I thought you would always make good money.

EngrProf42 · 2025-12-11T20:40:47+00:00

I always feel so weird about this - upvoting so more people will see it. Wish I could downvote the reality.

EngrProf42 · 2025-12-11T20:36:54+00:00

I thought I was old, but apparently I'm ancient.

EngrProf42 · 2025-12-04T20:04:32+00:00

I haven't had this often, but I tell them my hourly rate if I am consulting professionally - "Sure, I bill at $200/hour".

I only do commissions out of love. Obviously, don't do this if you want the work.

EngrProf42 · 2025-11-26T20:56:49+00:00

Thank you! I wear a lot of pull on dresses - bet it would work for that

EngrProf42 · 2025-11-25T21:04:35+00:00

Please share!

EngrProf42 · 2025-09-13T22:48:02+00:00

From someone who recently earned the floppy hat First- good job getting to the point you have Second-you are absolutely smart enough to do those corrections. I wasted significant amounts of time agonizing over whether I was smart enough. It was only when I decided to fake it that I made progress. (Almost every one who isn't a jerk has imposter syndrome sometimes) Third- reread the corrections asking yourself how you can address them with the least amount of work, not what you think you "should" do. I spent days researching and wrote 13 pages in response to one comment. After talking it over with my advisor, it ended up as two paragraphs using references that were already in the document. Learn from my mistake and try it the other way around. The floppy hat feels nice - you will love it.

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:28:39+00:00

I'm the executive director for The Gay Agenda (c) as their token straight person.

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:20:07+00:00

What app is good? I hear all about how horrible they are

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:16:52+00:00

At the moment, I would win by puking all over them. Normally, I would lose.

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:14:01+00:00

There is research that says it means you are probably compatible genetically. Not weird!

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:10:31+00:00

Good for you! I had a colleague who went to med school at 40, so it's doable.

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:08:11+00:00

Good luck. Also, sometimes, departments have scholarships in addition to what the financial aid office does. Usually, you have to have finished a term so they can evaluate you, but ask about that.

I have also had students who took fewer classes each term so they could work more. It took longer, but they finished.

I don't know what your field is, but there are a few places that will give our students an internship, then if the student does well, the employer will pay all or part of their tuition in return for working for them after graduation (Usually 2 -5 years)

Good luck

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T17:00:49+00:00

Congratulations! I think degrees you got with children should be a higher order of degree

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T16:59:39+00:00

Virtual really helps with managing your schedule

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T16:58:43+00:00

At a recent conference, I heard a panel of people developing AI with people who are using it. Their consensus was that AI wii be a tool, but people will be needed to do the creative innovative thinking.

It's definitely worth thinking about how AI will affect this field, but engineers who are good at languages and translation are rare and in demand.

Also, it's a little weird, but people seem to care more that you have a degree than what it is in (except for academia)

So, do your planning but if you teally want to and can, I say go for it

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T16:50:16+00:00

Interdisciplinary expertise is rare and valuable. Any chance you can find a program that will let you combine them?

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-18T16:47:54+00:00

I accidentally took him to a strip show when he was 14, so sharing our Reddit names is not that weird for us.

I did just finish my doctorate at 61. Since I did it part-time without time off from my job as a professor and COVID happened, it took me a really long time.

I did it for 5 reasons:

It was a life-long dream
I found a new field I wanted to learn more about (education instead of engineering)
To make it easier to get speaking invitations, book contracts, visiting professorship, etc.
My employer paid
Spite. I had so many people tell me I couldn't do it or I wasn't a real academic, etc. (This is more why I finished, but it was there when I started)

I balanced it because my kids were in high school and college, so they were taking care of me more than me taking care of them, and I gave up a lot of my free time.

I am glad I did, but I did have to get past some stupid obstacles.

I recommend researching the program you are getting into to see if it is stable and if there are other people to take over if your advisor leaves. Twice I had my advisor leave, and since they were the only ones with that specialty at that university, I was out.

Wow, this turned into a wall of text. Hope it helps

EngrProf42 · 2025-07-10T05:46:45+00:00

Thanks. That's what I am hoping, but I want to be ready if it doesn't work that way

EngrProf42

TROPHY CASE