two posts in one day...wow. i guess i'm making up for lost time.
my friend tyler was reading my tarot cards the other day (don't ask) to give me some advice about graduate school. he warned me that taking something that i enjoy and trying to force it into a career is a bad idea. i know some other people who have had this same conflict.
a family member loved math in college. she chose a major that incorporated this, but it turned out that it wasn't what she was hoping for.
another is a friend, who loved music and refused to make a career out of it. i think he regrets that decision.
uh. oh.
i always visit a website or a professor or a friend and hope they'll make decisions for me. econometrics is hard, but it's challenging and it's making me buckle down and work. that class is pushing me to be better academically, and it's showing up in other classes. i made a 100 on a calculus test today (bragging, duh).
the point is, if i'm challenging myself, and succeeding, then i'm doing something right. i'm getting my prerogatives in order. i'm spending time with friends who are fun to hang out with. i'm studying subjects that are important to me. i'm doing what i think needs to be done to make a difference, even if my part - for now - is really small.
BUT, the right track now may be the wrong track tomorrow, and vice versa. while i kill myself over grad school applications, i might read something that makes me put more time into a critical language scholarship to go study urdu or turkish. i might meet someone at a football game who wants me to work for them. i might tweet at someone who randomly sees it and offers me a job.
right now my sights are set on continuing my education, but that might change. there may be a bump; there may be a mountain.
whether it's the right way or the wrong way, i might not know until it's too late, but at least i'll be moving forward.
16 September 2010
it's starting to get real
tuesday, september 14, 4:00 PM: the single hardest hour of class i've sat through in my tenure at ole miss.
the class started with this: "so, i assume you're all familiar with logarithms."
thirty minutes later, i looked up from my scribbled notes to the professor asking, "and does anyone know the sixth assumption of the simple linear regression model?"
um...what?
so last night, i read chapter two. everything from three-dimensional graphs of heteroskedasticity to the appendices on advanced algebra.
this is all happening at the same time 1) thesis is starting to get serious, 2) graduate school application deadlines are creeping up, 3) GRE prep is underway and 4) grove season has officially started.
ruh-roh.
the class started with this: "so, i assume you're all familiar with logarithms."
thirty minutes later, i looked up from my scribbled notes to the professor asking, "and does anyone know the sixth assumption of the simple linear regression model?"
um...what?
so last night, i read chapter two. everything from three-dimensional graphs of heteroskedasticity to the appendices on advanced algebra.
this is all happening at the same time 1) thesis is starting to get serious, 2) graduate school application deadlines are creeping up, 3) GRE prep is underway and 4) grove season has officially started.
ruh-roh.
02 September 2010
chapter one of a crazy semester
with almost two weeks of senior year under my belt, i can already tell this semester is going to be wild.
my econometrics course has been really enjoyable so far. i like it so much that i'm (possibly) switching from the 400-level undergraduate class to the 600-level graduate class, which includes an extra project on a topic of my choice (i.e. my thesis, duh). yesterday, my professor, dr. mayer, offered to help me explore panel data analysis, which is different cross-sections of data over different time periods.
speaking of thesis (sort of a bad segue, but w/e), i've finally settled on a topic, thanks in no small part to dr. guo's genius recommendations. roughly, i'll be analyzing environmental track records of the various provinces and major economic centers (beijing, shanghai, shenzhen, chongqing, etc.) in china and using economic data to determine what type of industry/development is better for the environment. using statistical analyses that are kind of complex for an undergraduate, especially one who's not an economics/math/business major, i'll make recommendations to provincial governments as to what they can and should do to improve both their constituents' social well-being (including environmental health) and their economic situations.
it's kind of exciting to have a topic that i can start researching. i have the statistical yearbooks from 1995 to 2009, which gives me a solid number (15) of years to analyze. should be fun...
i'll try to keep my blog updated as my thesis progresses. hopefully i'll have time to take a short break every once in a while and share my successes, challenges and failures with the one or two people who read this.
until then,
m
my econometrics course has been really enjoyable so far. i like it so much that i'm (possibly) switching from the 400-level undergraduate class to the 600-level graduate class, which includes an extra project on a topic of my choice (i.e. my thesis, duh). yesterday, my professor, dr. mayer, offered to help me explore panel data analysis, which is different cross-sections of data over different time periods.
speaking of thesis (sort of a bad segue, but w/e), i've finally settled on a topic, thanks in no small part to dr. guo's genius recommendations. roughly, i'll be analyzing environmental track records of the various provinces and major economic centers (beijing, shanghai, shenzhen, chongqing, etc.) in china and using economic data to determine what type of industry/development is better for the environment. using statistical analyses that are kind of complex for an undergraduate, especially one who's not an economics/math/business major, i'll make recommendations to provincial governments as to what they can and should do to improve both their constituents' social well-being (including environmental health) and their economic situations.
it's kind of exciting to have a topic that i can start researching. i have the statistical yearbooks from 1995 to 2009, which gives me a solid number (15) of years to analyze. should be fun...
i'll try to keep my blog updated as my thesis progresses. hopefully i'll have time to take a short break every once in a while and share my successes, challenges and failures with the one or two people who read this.
until then,
m
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