What is a PhD?

Just a couple of comments I got from professors recently. It's really good to start seeing some results from all the hard work.

Summer Break? Not Really

It's summer break! But, as usual, a break is not a break.

I'm taking a summer course, where we learn about communication. It's related to writing research papers and proposals, job interviews, paper presentations. I wasn't required to take this course, but I think it's a good time for that, since I'm finally starting to do some research.

I had some meetings with my advisor, and things have been very productive. Since he didn't have any ongoing research I could help with, we are starting a new research project. I wrote a research proposal, which required a lot of reading in a short period of time. And I spend weeks just downloading data.

I'm trying to do as much research as I can, because I know that once Fall comes, I will need to focus on coursework again.

So, still quite busy, but feeling pretty good so far.

I also started to exercise, taking a walk in the park sometimes, and lifting weights at home.

And the 2nd Semester is Over

Long time since I last wrote something here.

The 1st semester was absolutely crazy. Coursework was really overwhelming, with Quantitative Economic Analysis easily taking the first spot. People don't understand and don't take it seriously when I say it is hard. They think I'm just being humble, or I'm whining. No, I'm just stating the truth. It's seriously some of the hardest stuff ever. Multivariate Methods was also hard, but I liked it, it's a shame I'm not really ready to take a class of that level yet, because there is some very good stuff there. And Marketing Strategy was great. 

It was hard to select courses for the second semester, I was not able to take some courses I wanted to. Usually, because there were several courses with classes on the same days and times. I've taken Econometrics I, again in the Department of Economics and again the hardest one in the semester. But much better than Quantitative Economic Analysis, I think I really learned a lot. Decision-Making and Well-Being was a very different one, with lots of discussions about our lives, thinking about life, the universe, and everything. And Programming in R was pretty good, very focused on examples and real problems with real data. 

During the second semester, I also started to do some TA work, like proctoring, and grading exams. Grading is very time consuming, and the kind of work that it's hard to enjoy. Timing was sometimes awful, getting lots of exams to grade a few days before my own exams. But it's part of the life of a professor, so I can't really complain. 

Now, it's time to worry about the qualifying exams this month. I already wrote the paper critique, I'll present it in about 10 days, and after that take the written exams.