Statistically Significant

Another week in the life of Hoxie.

Saturday was the big day: the Mathematics GRE! I woke up bright and early, rode my bike down to Roxbury Community College, and hunkered down in a flimsy folding chair, six sharpened #2 pencils and my trusty math eraser ready to go. I went pretty much exactly the way I thought it would: I could solve the problems based on material I had covered in classes, and I struggled with the problems based on material I had never seen. Unfortunately, the ratio of (complex analysis + set/group theory + abstract algebra + number theory):(calculus + linear algebra + differential equations) was higher than what I was expecting, so I was forced to skip more questions than I had on the 4 practice tests I took. The good news is that it’s over, plus my mathematics skills have been honed considerably in the month.

After three years of sitting hunched over my 13″ Macbook monitor and resting my wrists on its sharp edges, I decided to upgrade my tech setup. Between the Apple store and Newegg, I acquired some little Logitech speakers, a big 23″ monitor + Apple DVI video adapter, a 1.5 terabyte external hard drive, a USB hub, and an Apple keyboard. Not bad for less than $500! Leaving the battery out of my laptop essentially turns it into a desktop that can easily provide portable computing if necessary, though I don’t find myself making statistics house calls very often. (A pic of the new setup)

The quest to complete grad school apps continues! The NSF Fellowship application has become my main focus because its deadline is a good 2 weeks before my earliest grad school app deadline. Ideally, I’ll be almost done with the entire process by November 1. Won’t that be nice…

Another week in the life of Hoxie.

The good news is that, with about a week to go before the GRE, I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’m not going to ace it, considering I’ve never studied a couple of the topics on the test (and there are more questions than there is time to realistically solve them all), but I should do well enough and solve the questions I’m prepared to solve correctly. I’ll mostly be doing practice problems this week, keeping my skills fresh and trying to expose myself to as many types of problems and creative/easy solutions as possible.

I’m also feeling pretty good about grad school. All letter of recommendation work has been done, and I’ve organized everything I need to do into one big Google Doc list. I’ve always been good about keeping my CV up to date, and after noticing a couple of years ago that Berkeley wanted a list of all courses+textbooks+grades+descriptions, I kept one updated throughout my time at BU. My biggest task is just editing various paragraphs about my background, my time at BU, my work and summer experiences, my goals for grad school, and my thoughts on my future into whatever format different institutions are looking for. At the undergraduate level, people wanted to know about my triumphs over adversity, my life-changing experiences, my puppy-rescue efforts, etc. At the graduate level, people just want to know whether or not I’m good at math. The essays aren’t quite as exciting (I have some great puppy rescue stories), but they’re certainly easier to write and more reusable.

I’m aiming to be done with all of this by November 1. The first deadline is November 15, followed by mid-December and even January deadlines. It’s gonna feel good to be done.

In other news, I had my first bike wipeout this week. It was a cold, dark, rainy night and I was coasting down a little hill. When I tried to brake and turn at the bottom, I blinked and was suddenly sprawled on the ground, my bike on top of me, wheels still spinning comically. Aside from a bruise on my hip and a nice scrape on my elbow, everything’s fine. It was bound to happen, and it could have been a lot worse.

And today, I decided to exist mostly off the grid, inspired partly by a survivalist book I’m reading and partly by my general frustration with how much time I was on the Intertubes. Aside from a couple of text messages, the wireless router was unplugged and my phone was on silent for most of the day. (This post is brought to you courtesy of homing pigeon.) My roommates were even out of town this weekend, so I had the place to myself. It was great. I had a relaxing, productive day where I could just focus on the task at hand. I even had some time to sit outside in the sun reading an interesting book I found on one of our bookshelves. I’m seriously considering declaring one day each weekend an “off the grid” day.