I love my committee

I went around to some of the committee members today...you know to let them know that I'm still alive and breathing and working. Well I just love the committee because they all reacted quite differently to the advancement to candidacy (ABD-all but dissertation-it took 3.5 years to get here).

Committee Person 1 (Jones)-Oh Congratulations, when are you getting out of here?
Me (thinking: I like the way you think)-Next year maybe?
CP1-Yeah you should be able to get out of here next year
Me (thinking: Man, I really like the way you think)

Committee Person 2 (Wasserman-head of Stats)-What the heck is this?
Me-To advance to candidacy.
CP2-Why do you need this? Your going to be a Statistician when you grow up.
Me-Just sign it.

Me-Can you please sign this form?
Head of Committee (West)-(No vocal response but I got a smile and a signature) :)

Its in!!! (as long as the graduate secretary doesn't lose it-which is highly likely to occur, I should have made a copy).

Nomination to Candidacy

All I need is a sheet signed by the advisory committee...I definitely have all the requirements. Anyone want to bet me that my main advisor will balk at this?

Masters Update.

Getting a master while doing a doctorate...its interesting. Yes, I have to confess the masters is sometimes more fun and part of this is because you learn real world applications. (I only have one more class as of next week when the semester ends!) Or maybe its because I'm in the Statistics department. I can't really be sure, but this semester I have learned so much about consulting statistics. I really hate classes but I feel this class is one of the most valuable classes I have had in my four years at IU. Someone comes in with their project all excited and in less than 5 minutes our class will probably give you some sort of prescription like: you did it wrong and you have to redo it. Of course its a little bit nicer than that but most of the time people just aren't thinking about their question, they have some kind of really complicated analysis that doesn't need to be done, what they are saying really doesn't make any sense, and as a consultant you just listen for awhile until you can start to make sense of it. Its fun-I actually enjoying writing up the statistical reports for people to read over and to top it all off, there are so many other collaborative opportunities that I could take advantage of...if I wasn't trying to get through the doctorate program as well. In any case, its fun and definitely something that I could do after school if this whole academia thing doesn't work out. It also pays more-which shouldn't be a reason to switch fields for anything but having a 40 hour work week and time to do other stuff and only analyzing data...what a life. One more year of work...I can't wait!

Kinda over it...rant for the day.

I'm over people who can't and won't communicate. It is frustrating beyond belief and I'm sick of trying and not having any reciprocation. Grow some social skills...I think you're old enough to have some.