Well, let’s try a quick review of what’s been going on recently:
- My roommate is all moved in, and things are going well. We’re already making plans as to meals to try and outings and events to have with other grads once we get to know people a little better. We’ve been watching my Firefly DVDs and both enjoying that. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched them, but I find myself introducing virtually every episode with the comment, “Oh, this is a really good one!”
- Orientation events have somewhat come and gone. The university orientation involved hundreds of new graduate students all in one room so that we could be addressed by deans and administrators with names like Sonny Power. Talk about hippie-ish. Other than some fidgeting, I survived those just fine.
- Today’s department orientation was better, being a smaller affair. It began with lunch with the faculty, and I was surprised to find that there were several faculty members who made a point of coming over to me to say hello. I definitely didn’t expect that.
- So far next semester’s courses will involve Foundations of Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics and Methods of Applied Mathematics I. I can tell how jealous you all are from here. Haven’t picked my last technical course, nor have I chosen any non-technical course for my personal consumption.
- I’m already making friends with some of the other first-years. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun together.
- To start the year out right, I’m showing Casablanca tomorrow night. Classes begin the day after.
- The department’s graduate student organization is having a special welcoming event down on the Commons this Saturday. On the flier, they put the Snakes on a Plane logo, crossed out Snakes and a Plane and wrote in Graduate Students and the Commons. The following note was also added: Honestly, which is scarier?
- After a painfully long wait tonight, I got a new cell phone and number. Those of you in my address book should expect a mass e-mail soon with my new contact info.
Ooh this is so exciting!
Do you think classes in grad school will be similar to what they were like at Case? Or will there be less lecturing/discussing and more practical work and research? I really have no idea what pre-requisites there are and what types of things one must do in order to get their Master’s degree..
Well, for one, I’m technically working on PhD, not a Master’s. I’ll be given a non-thesis Master’s along the way, but that’s not really anything people care about as long as I end up with my PhD.
So far my classes are basically lectures and recitations, very much like some of my higher level classes at Case. The expectation is that, after this year, most of my time will be spent on the research that leads to my thesis. At Cornell, there are no actual course requirements–you just take courses to prepare you for the Q-exam (known elsewhere as qualifiers) and to help you with conducting your research. But research is the primary goal of a graduate student–not classwork.