#maybe i should be concerned that any amount of academic engagement and my mental health collapses for several hours. fuck it we bawl <3

[mashmouths]

florence welch shouldn't be allowed to write songs bc what if i listen to one and it punches a hole in my chest. no for real what do i do i'm bleeding out in my kitchen.

[realtalk-princeton]

An additional perspective on the physics major

Marty answered a question awhile back about the physics major, and another physics major who also happens to be a RCA realized that some of his/her frosh got a bit nervous about the major, so he/she also wanted to share some perspectives on the major. Here’s the link to Marty’s answer:

https://realtalk-princeton.tumblr.com/post/186555703749/marty-downsides-of-physics

Here are the RCA’s thoughts:

I really appreciated Marty’s broader statement about choosing majors that cater to your likes and dislikes rather than thinking of the “pros” and “cons” of each, but was surprised to then see it preceded by saying the physics major has many downsides. I do not believe this at all. The physics major is certainly one of the tougher tracks at Princeton, but also one of the most rewarding, and I would not necessarily call more pset hours or tougher material a “downside” if the field is something you are interested in.

To clarify, this is not a (total) rebuttal of Marty’s description. I found much of the description to be fair and unbiased, and plenty agreeable, but would like to offer a more positive connotation to what I found a somewhat negative review, to help others review the department and make a decision for themselves (I am a PHY major, and an RCA, and after hearing some expressions of concerns from zees who were originally excited about the PHY major after reading Marty’s review, hope to provide another perspective). I’ll also break it up similar to Marty:

Difficulty: pretty much what Marty said. I find physics much, much, easier than any humanities major, but that isn’t to say physics isn’t difficult—it is Princeton, after all. “It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s easier to do 20 hours of work that you want to do than 5 hours of work that you don’t.” It’s about the skillset you have and what you want to learn about. But you won’t see every pset taking 20 hours. I’ve done some in as little as 2, and as many as 24+, but that’s also pretty standard across Princeton’s concentrations.

Psets/HW: For the most part, problems will be pulled from textbooks, with a couple written by the professors or pulled from graduate entrance exams. You’ll tend to get one (or two) problem(s) that is blatant application of what is covered in class (i.e. “plug and chug”). You’ll also get some problems (idk, 3-4?) about the current topic that require a little more thinking (a little more being as little as 15 min if you have your eureka moment, and hours if not, but that’s what working in groups is for), so that you’re not just learning to regurgitate what is provided in lecture, but instead how to actually use these skills when you enter the real world…because you can be sure that the complex real-world physics you do outside the classroom isn’t going to have a pretty answer, or even one defined way of solving it, so the department is going to throw a few curveballs because there is no other way to help students practice for that sort of situation. These definitely don’t involve deriving “new math” or starting from scratch, or (as Marty put it), you certainly aren’t “lacking the necessary information”… professors cannot test you on something they haven’t taught. Instead of seeing a problem and thinking you haven’t been provided the tools to solve it, you ALREADY have all the tools you need to solve it, you just need to figure out how to use them the right way (and that is not always something that can be taught, and must sometimes be experienced to be learned. This is where many of the longer hours on physics psets come from). There is the occasional (I can think of maybe 2 or 3 up through the end of junior year) problems where the professor mistakenly assigns something where some information is truly “missing” on the student’s behalf, and when the students speak up about it, the problem is excised or compensated for in the grading. Department is also pretty decent with normalizing (they’ll do so at the end of the semester at once, rather than per test or per assignment, so seeing grades below B- is quite uncommon, but you’ll really have to crunch to get an A as opposed to an A- or B+).

Difficult times and Department: I’ll use this as a convenient segue. On those few problems where you’re struggling or your group is struggling and just can’t make any progress, I think the physics department is actually one of the BEST departments in this school for helping you overcome your current obstacle. There are always people in the department (yes, even at 2am, some follow more studentile schedules than we do) and unless you’re taking a senior elective or graduate course, 95%+ of the people in the department are equipped to help you with where you’re stuck, and will gladly do so. It just requires being proactive on your part to either 1) email someone for help, 2) set up a meeting, or 3) literally drop in to their offices unannounced, which are all a miniscule amount of effort (and yet, many still do not). This is what makes the Princeton physics department one of the best in the world, matched only by those of schools like Oxford or Cambridge – the level of undergraduate attention. Not all physics professors in Princeton to research, and NONE are allowed to do only research. Your lectures may not be too different from what you’d see in some other schools, but you now have access to some of the top people in the world in this field, and another major difference is they WANT to help you (with maybe a few notable exceptions, but every group has their bad apples). It is your choice/prerogative whether you want to make use of this resource to its full capacity, or not at all and treat the department like you would any other teaching group in high school. Talk to them about their class, their work, their lives, ask about what you can help them with (which is how I found my two JP projects), take them to dinner, and do all of these again. It is a privilege to even have the ability to do these things, and you will never TRULY struggle (or wither and die) in the department as long as you do. I don’t see this in other Princeton departments.

The Material: I agree with Marty that most of what you learn is not the stuff that people get excited about. We just aren’t that smart or experienced yet, you will spend all 4 years at Princeton merely building the tools to put in a toolbox, rather than using them, because there is just that much physics needed to start making exciting progress nowadays. Like Marty said, physics is very different than pop science videos, but that doesn’t have to mean the excitement can’t be found. You should look for the connections in how things from your different classes over weeks and semesters work together (and I agree this can get very hard when you’re stressing over short-term pset or exam performance). I also agree that you lose it if you don’t use it—I too have embarrassingly stumbled on the basics when push comes to shove, but for the most part people within the field understand this point too. Most everyone is making sure you understand concepts, how things link together, and how to approach problems rather than that you have an encyclopedic knowledge of equations and facts.

I also blatantly disagree that physics majors have to take a lot of classes. We have very few classes we actually have to take (I think 8?) and a few more (I think 4?) that are departmental prerequisites that can be skipped (if you’re lucky or wicked smart) or cross-satisfied with other similar classes you’re interested in, if you’re willing to go into the department and talk about it (again, this goes with the engaging the department to its fullest extent and being proactive, like was said above). We have so much room for electives that I could have been a double major if Princeton allowed it.

Marty covers mental health, undergraduate groups, and independent work very well, so I won’t keep blabbing on it. Physics is great about being open with hardship, and there are definitely times that everyone feels like they’re a dummy. Don’t get caught up in those moments, and appreciate what you learned from them afterwards. Use the opportunity to work with all the other kids that are interested in the topic like you, make new friends, and learn together. It can even be fun (sometimes) and misery is mitigated in company – some of my best friends here are people I started with studying and working with, and our relationship is now based very little off that though we still do so.

I also disagree strongly with Marty’s final paragraph. I don’t recommend shying away from physics, I’d recommend trying it if you’re interested and doing it if that’s what you want to do (if you’re doing it because that’s what you think smart people do, that’s a different matter). It keeps so many doors open for post-college plans, I’ve worked in CS, ORFE, data analysis, defense, non-academic research, and research jobs, and all of them hire physicists post-college. So “not like it’ll do you a lot of good for post college plans” is a very warped view.

So basically my main takeaway is the department is going to be what you put into it. Go in with a positive attitude and be excited about what it can offer, and use this to be proactive and you’ll likely do just fine in the department (and even, dareisay, like it, from time to time?) I’m with Marty for saying if this writing doesn’t appeal to you, you probably won’t want to be a physics major, but don’t be afraid to be one just because of some longer pset hours or whatever you hear floating around (I find it a rule of thumb that many PHY, and Princeton students in general, love to complain, I know I do, so take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Their experience will not be yours, only you can determine that). Reach out to the contributors if you’d like to talk to me about this too, I’d be happy to talk. And please read both my and Marty’s reviews, as I’ve written this to be in tandem with Marty’s. Thanks.

If any readers want to talk about physics, the writer who wrote this bit is willing to be connected.

Response from Marty:

This is really great and I’m glad it’s here, but I definitely didn’t mean my post to be an overall negative review of the department. The question explicitly asked about downsides, so I wrote about that, but I could’ve written an equally long post about upsides. Sorry if anyone was discouraged by what I wrote. It also seems like this rebuttal misunderstood some of the points I made, so apologies for anyone who was misled. 

[j0shripley]

Opinion Series

Josh Ripley

Fish Burton

ENGL 2010

April 12, 2020

Opinion Series

For my Opinion Series paper, I decided to write off some of the articles I have already read. The first perspective I choose to write from is the point of view of a transgender individual, the next one is written from the perspective of a middle class family found in Utah, while the final one is written from the perspective of a homeless man addicted opiates.

The first perspective I am writing on with the transgender individual is based off of a study that was conducted in Minnesota back in 2016. The article talked about how transgender youth have a 10% higher chance than their peers to have experienced some homelessness before 11th grade. From the perspective of Transgender youth, one of two things can run through your mind. One side, depending on your support system, you could see running away and becoming homeless as a viable option. If you don’t feel love at home then why stay there? On the other hand, the other emotion they could experience is fear, fear that their choice is going to get them kicked out or become socially excluded. This fear could drive you to run from any potential danger or ill feelings that could come as a result of people's response to your personal decision. At first you might think, what’s the big deal? 10% isn’t that much, but when you start putting names to the faces you realize that for a group of people to have a higher chance of being on the streets because of their gender preference doesn’t seem right. For them, a scary part of being homeless is the illness that can follow, especially common in adolescence. “Homelessness is associated with adverse outcomes in youth, including poor mental and physical health, high risk health behaviors, poor cognitive and academic functioning, and emergency room visits and hospitalizations” (Eisenberg 1) This is found in the article I mentioned at the beginning titled “Homelessness experiences and gender identity in a population-based sample of adolescents.” When children leave home the last thing they are thinking about is the potential health risks that come with being out all the time. As I said before I believe there are 2 paths when it comes to a transgender individual thinking about homelessness, it is either an option for escape, or they are filled with the fear of being kicked out and being forced to live on their own in order to survive emotionally, while in fact, causing more harm to themselves then good.

The next perspective I am writing on is the middle class family in Utah looking at homelessness. You see it as something that could never really happen to you, you make enough money, have a strong enough family, and friends in the community to help when you need it. But of course there are many stories of people being struck with some random event that crippled them out of nowhere. It’s an issue that doesn’t seem possible, and at the same time, there’s a fair amount of people that think they did it to themselves. It’s easy to look from the outside in, being raised in a family that has never struggled too much financially with no serious health concerns and be like, “why don’t they just get a job?,”or “ They have to be addicted to drugs.” or “How does anybody get to that point? Just budget.” When the reality of the situation is that it isn’t always that easy. There are a lot of different things that can happen in order to end up on the streets. Utah’s homeless numbers aren’t too high or alarming and for the amount of judgmental people there are, there are also people wanting to help. It is not uncommon to run into people that care enough to either give food, money, or clothing to help those in need. Instinctively, most of us are filled with compassion when we see people in need. This was the cause of the original plan set forth in Utah that minimalized homelessness by 90%. “Utah and other states are discovering that by investing in people’s most basic needs, they are better able to address the other factors that lead to homelessness. And they are doing so with less money. Lloyd Pendleton, the director of Utah’s Homeless Task Force, was not always a believer in the state’s current method of addressing homelessness, initially saying the idea was “totally unrealistic.” But now he says that prioritizing a home for those without has drastically changed the way the state can deal with other factors, including unemployment.” This is from an article written about how Utah has successfully dropped their chronic homeless rate so drastically. When I asked my father about his views on homeless individuals he said, “You know, just the other week I saw a mother and son out in front of Walmart holding their cardboard sign. It was hard for me, as a father, to sit there and not picture your sister and her 1 year old. So i went inside and bought them food, diapers, and clothing.” To me this is proof of what most respectful citizens think of when they see a family struggling, despite what happens to get people to the point of being homeless, you instantly feel some sort of remorse and a desire to help.

The last point of view I am writing from is that of a homeless man addicted to opiates.  Looking from the outside in, it is easy to judge someone from the place they are at currently. It is easy to look at a mangled man on the road with a cardboard sign, long white hair, and gross teeth, and say “I’m helping him by not giving him money because he will only spend it on drugs.” When in reality we don’t know what they have been through in their lives, we don’t know how they were raised or what health issues they have faced, or the state of their mental health. You can’t look at someone and instantly know their life story. As I sat thinking about it, there were many things I didn’t initially consider when it came to being homeless. For instance, how are you going to find clean water or afford to keep looking clean if you don’t have toiletries? While trying to put myself in one of their shoes, I thought about how tough it would be to sit there and beg for help while people walked by and you know exactly what some people are thinking. You know some people will look at you and tell their kids “stay away from him.” or use you as an example of why they should stay in school. I wonder where your family would be at that point, how many bridges must’ve been affected by your use to ultimately not have anyone to turn to. Or maybe they are there for you but the amount of shame and disgust you feel in yourself keeps you from reaching out, not wanting someone to worry about you. I can’t imagine being in a situation where people won’t even consider giving you cash because they don’t think you have the sense to buy the basic necessities, toothpaste, water, food, and soap. It would be tough to be such a slave to a drug that you can’t accurately discern what your immediate purchase would be. The aches and craving you would feel would seem insurmountable. But you are addicted to the point where you think you could quit if you wanted to, or that quitting is impossible because when you hit your withdrawals you feel as if you will explode from the pressure in your body. I’d be wishing for any aid possible, but would feel hopeless that anyone would care enough to help me. Everyone has their own issues. In response to the rising opioid use in Boston, an article was written about some recent technology to help that says, “BHCHP delivers a full spectrum of primary care, mental health and addiction services. It recognizes that behavioral healthcare is an essential element of quality integrated care. The care model at BHCHP united behavioral health clinicians, case managers, physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses in close collaboration. They provide low-threshold engagement and constant care to individuals in a variety of settings, including on the streets, in shelter-based clinics, hospitals or supportive housing.” This would be the hope I was longing for and would finally give me a push to get my life on track and that the road back was possible.

Works Cited

Eisenberg, Marla E., et al. “Homelessness Experiences and Gender Identity in a Population-Based Sample of Adolescents.” Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 16, Dec. 2019. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.100986.

Laine, Samantha. “How Utah Reduced Homelessness by More than 90 Percent.” The Christian Science Monitor, 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbro&AN=edsbro.A412252911&site=eds-live.

Netsmart. “Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Partners with Netsmart to Address the Opioid Crisis.” Business Wire (English), 2019 May 11AD. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=bizwire.bw092956424&site=eds-live.

[oselatra]

Is Arkansas Works working?

Federal Medicaid agency says Arkansas needs better plan to evaluate work requirement. Operating on the theory that employment fosters personal independence and better health outcomes, the Arkansas Department of Human Services now requires that certain nonelderly adults who receive Medicaid benefits must report their work hours to the state. The Arkansas DHS, in turn, is required to show the federal agency overseeing Medicaid that its theory is working. Under the terms of the state’s agreement with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the DHS must commission an independent evaluation to measure whether the policy meets its goals in the years ahead. But, although the work requirement started June 1, the state has yet to begin searching for an evaluator, in part because the CMS has yet to approve Arkansas’s draft evaluation design. On Nov. 1, the CMS sent Arkansas a letter saying the state’s proposed evaluation design “should be better articulated and strengthened” in a variety of areas and requesting revisions. The CMS said the state’s proposed “evaluation outcomes are not well defined and outcome measures are not specified,” among other flaws. That means Arkansas is likely many months away from beginning to evaluate the work requirement policy, despite the fact that it has terminated coverage for at least 8,500 Medicaid beneficiaries in the last two months alone. In mid-October, DHS spokeswoman Amy Webb said by email that the state submitted its draft evaluation design to the CMS in May and revised it in August. “Since it is still under review with CMS, [a request for proposal] has not been issued for the work and community engagement requirement. DHS is in the process of developing a procurement based on the proposed evaluation plan, pending final CMS final approval,” Webb wrote. The DHS provided the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network with the draft evaluation design upon request in October. (Since then, it has been made public on Medicaid.gov.) Judy Solomon, a senior fellow at the progressive-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., said Arkansas’s draft appeared to “fall short” in a number of ways. “I’m kind of not surprised that it hasn’t been approved, because despite my disagreement with CMS [under] the Trump administration allowing these [work requirements], they do seem to at least have some seriousness about … having evaluations that make sense,” Solomon said. Arkansas’s first-in-the-nation work rule requires certain beneficiaries ages 19-49 who are on Arkansas Works, the state’s Medicaid expansion program for low-income adults, to report 80 hours of work activities each month, report an exemption or lose their insurance. Most people within that age range — such as parents with dependent children in the home — qualify for an exemption. School hours count toward the requirement, as do a limited amount of volunteer and job search hours. The DHS terminated coverage for approximately 8,500 nonelderly adults in September and October who were noncompliant for three months. That doesn’t necessarily mean those 8,500 people weren’t working or attending school — just that they didn’t report their work hours to the DHS through an online portal. Both DHS data and independent research show the majority of Medicaid expansion beneficiaries are already working. If a beneficiary’s coverage is terminated, he or she is locked out of Arkansas Works for the rest of the calendar year. The work requirement has sparked vigorous debate. Are people who have lost their Arkansas Works insurance finding coverage elsewhere — such as with an employer — or are they simply remaining uninsured? Does a work requirement incentivize employment and lead to better health outcomes or does it arbitrarily punish the poor and make them less healthy? Such questions are more than academic, because the policy is by definition an experiment. It was created under a type of federal waiver issued by the CMS — known as a Section 1115 demonstration — that is intended to foster state-level innovations in Medicaid. The terms and conditions attached to the waiver amendment that created the work requirement say Arkansas must contract with an independent entity to evaluate the program. Although work requirements are sometimes attached to programs such as welfare or food stamps, no other state has imposed such a rule on Medicaid coverage. (A work requirement in Kentucky was blocked by a federal judge earlier this year, and a group of plaintiffs in Arkansas have filed suit on similar grounds.) On March 5, CMS Director Seema Verma granted Arkansas its requested waiver amendment. The federal agency told Arkansas DHS Director Cindy Gillespie in a letter that the DHS must “test whether coupling the requirement for certain beneficiaries to engage in and report work or other community engagement activities with meaningful incentives to encourage compliance will lead to improved health outcomes and greater independence.” In its rationale for allowing Arkansas to proceed with the work requirement, the CMS said the program was “likely to assist in improving health outcomes” because employment is “correlated with improved health and wellness.” But the draft evaluation design that the Arkansas DHS submitted to the CMS did not propose testing the hypothesis that the policy would improve health outcomes. Instead, it says, the evaluation will address “three core questions”: Whether or not work requirements “promote personal responsibility and work,” “encourage movement up the economic ladder” and “facilitate transitions” from Medicaid to other types of insurance. The work requirement will “resemble an income security program” and should be evaluated as such, the draft design says. The state’s RFP will be limited to bidders who “have demonstrated experience in evaluating the impact of work requirements on participation in income security programs.” Solomon said Arkansas’s draft “[doesn’t] even raise the question of, ‘Well, maybe if we’re taking coverage away from people, it’s going to make them less able to work, or it’s going to make them less healthy.’ … Why are they looking at this like it’s not a health program?” The Nov. 1 letter from the CMS raised similar concerns about the state’s lack of a plan to assess what happens to people who lose coverage. “Is disenrollment for noncompliance with community engagement requirements … associated with poorer health outcomes?” the letter asked. The CMS suggested that Arkansas should specify measures that “should capture important features of expected outcomes such as increased employment … and improved health (e.g.: self-reported physical/mental health, other measures of health care utilization).” Asked in October why health outcomes were not the focus of the DHS’ proposed experimental design, Webb responded by email. “It is widely recognized that employment improves an individual’s health: Work has a positive influence on an individual’s health and security; Returning to work has significant health benefits, especially mental health benefits. … People who work live longer and healthier lives,” she wrote. She also said the evaluation would survey former beneficiaries who lost coverage and remained uninsured. “The survey will include relevant questions from the National Health Insurance Survey such as an individual’s regular source of care, whether an individual did not receive care because of an inability to pay, and their self-evaluation of their health condition, etc.,” Webb wrote. Solomon noted that the draft evaluation design only proposes looking at the estimated 69,000 Arkansas Works beneficiaries who were not initially exempt from the work requirement. That’s “a very short-sighted way of doing things,” she said, considering many people move in and out of work. The Nov. 1 letter from the CMS noted the same issue: “The draft evaluation design does not include any discussion of [exempt] comparison groups.” The letter also urged the state to develop a longitudinal survey to track former beneficiaries “for several years” so as to “understand employment, income, health status, and coverage transitions over time.” Solomon said her biggest concern about the evaluation was timing, considering thousands of Arkansans were losing coverage every month. “Where is the RFP? … If you don’t have a final plan and you have people losing coverage left and right, how are you going to get baseline data?” she asked. MaryBeth Musumeci, an associate director at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said states with 1115 demonstration waivers often submit their evaluation designs after the fact. That may not be ideal from a research perspective, but it’s “not uncommon” in the Medicaid world, she said. However, the coverage losses in Arkansas make evaluation particularly urgent. “I think the concern particularly about what’s going on in Arkansas is because of the disenrollment that’s occurred in the last couple months. ... 8,500 people having lost coverage, and not having, as far as the public knows, an evaluation plan in place,” Musumeci said. This reporting is made possible in part by a yearlong fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported by The Commonwealth Fund. It is published here courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Find out more at arknews.org. Is Arkansas Works working?