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!