Monday, May 9, 2016
Update
I finished the first year, passed the qualls - two on the first go and the last on the second - and the general, and started research with James Oxley. This summer, I'll be working on Google Summer of Code, except for the short hiatus to the Netherlands for the workshop on structure in graphs and matroids.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Day of Doom
So its been a while since I last updated Y'all. I'm now in Louisiana. Getting here was exciting. When I was at the airport during a layover I got an email saying that I wasn't graduating at my undergraduate university. It was some bug in the system, and after talking to my adviser and the department chair It all got taken care of and there was nothing wrong.
I met members of my ward (what my church calls a congregation) before I met anyone in my department. They were all super nice, but every time someone used the word "Y'all" I got taken aback. We don't use that where I am from. I got moved into my apartment. It is nice, but I don't think that I would choose the same place. I wish that I would have applied early to the graduate student housing. But its OK.
On Monday I got to meet some of the other grad students. We have an orientation program called Geaux (pronounced go) that lasts two weeks. I enjoyed it a lot, it was nice joking around with people that had a similar background to me, and the friendships that started to develop are starting to be really important.
During the Geaux program Jesse Levitt talked to us about being grad students and for maybe the first time since I was 12 I started to feel like an adult.
I wasn't expecting at all having professors tell us that we should call them by their first names, nor was I expecting the students in the classes that I was working with to address me by "mam." After the initial shock I tried to be more open and connecting and they call me that less.
Let me get on to why I entitled this post the Day of Doom.
It wasn't really that bad, but sometimes I like to aggrandize my thoughts. We got our first homework assignments at the end of last week, and since Monday was Labor Day, I figured I could put of starting it till then. That wasn't the best plan. I ended up staying at Lockett Hall Wednesday night till 10:00 PM and Thursday night till 1:00 AM. Then I woke up this morning at 3:00 AM and have been working constantly, (except for a few food beaks and traveling to places breaks) from then till now. I got most of it done but didn't finish a Topology homework problem. But other that it was fairly good work. I typed my homework in a program called LaTeX. This made it take longer than it otherwise would have. Part of me never wants to "TeX" up another assignment, and part of me wants to always do it. So we will see which part of me ends up wining.
I'll write a post in a bit about what my first impressions of my teachers were.
So its been a while since I last updated Y'all. I'm now in Louisiana. Getting here was exciting. When I was at the airport during a layover I got an email saying that I wasn't graduating at my undergraduate university. It was some bug in the system, and after talking to my adviser and the department chair It all got taken care of and there was nothing wrong.
I met members of my ward (what my church calls a congregation) before I met anyone in my department. They were all super nice, but every time someone used the word "Y'all" I got taken aback. We don't use that where I am from. I got moved into my apartment. It is nice, but I don't think that I would choose the same place. I wish that I would have applied early to the graduate student housing. But its OK.
On Monday I got to meet some of the other grad students. We have an orientation program called Geaux (pronounced go) that lasts two weeks. I enjoyed it a lot, it was nice joking around with people that had a similar background to me, and the friendships that started to develop are starting to be really important.
During the Geaux program Jesse Levitt talked to us about being grad students and for maybe the first time since I was 12 I started to feel like an adult.
I wasn't expecting at all having professors tell us that we should call them by their first names, nor was I expecting the students in the classes that I was working with to address me by "mam." After the initial shock I tried to be more open and connecting and they call me that less.
Let me get on to why I entitled this post the Day of Doom.
It wasn't really that bad, but sometimes I like to aggrandize my thoughts. We got our first homework assignments at the end of last week, and since Monday was Labor Day, I figured I could put of starting it till then. That wasn't the best plan. I ended up staying at Lockett Hall Wednesday night till 10:00 PM and Thursday night till 1:00 AM. Then I woke up this morning at 3:00 AM and have been working constantly, (except for a few food beaks and traveling to places breaks) from then till now. I got most of it done but didn't finish a Topology homework problem. But other that it was fairly good work. I typed my homework in a program called LaTeX. This made it take longer than it otherwise would have. Part of me never wants to "TeX" up another assignment, and part of me wants to always do it. So we will see which part of me ends up wining.
I'll write a post in a bit about what my first impressions of my teachers were.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Getting Ready
I recently got accepted to Louisiana State University in the PHD Math program. I'm planning on going into Algebra. Most of the time when I tell people that they mention that they took algebra in high school, or wonder how someone can go into algebra when it has been around for so long. Well, the type of algebra that I'm going into is not exactly the same as high school. In fact it is much more interesting. Here is a video that explains a little about abstract algebra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfyeaOlbMvU.
So now I am getting ready.
So yesterday I bought my textbooks. I needed three for my first semester. In total it cost just under $200. I can't get over the feeling that I spend much more on textbooks than they are worth. But at least the pain is over for a few more months. I tend to buy my books early. That way I can start to read them before class starts. Especially with hard classes I find this to be useful. Sometimes you need just a few extra days or weeks or months to be able to be OK with some of the crazy math concepts that are taught in a semester.
I still need to find a place to live, decide when to leave and make travel arrangements, find out when institute is, and study for the qualifier.
So now I am getting ready.
So yesterday I bought my textbooks. I needed three for my first semester. In total it cost just under $200. I can't get over the feeling that I spend much more on textbooks than they are worth. But at least the pain is over for a few more months. I tend to buy my books early. That way I can start to read them before class starts. Especially with hard classes I find this to be useful. Sometimes you need just a few extra days or weeks or months to be able to be OK with some of the crazy math concepts that are taught in a semester.
I still need to find a place to live, decide when to leave and make travel arrangements, find out when institute is, and study for the qualifier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)