Piled higher & Deeper

[ajawa_took]

  to quote my mother, "Getting a Ph.D. isn't like getting married, nor even like buying a house: it only happens once in your life!"
  which in itself is not the right measure of importance, or else every moment would be equally important, which may be true, but isn't what my mother meant.
  nevertheless, it feels like a significant event, which is

Comments

Dr. Alice

[sliva_lv]

congrats!!

"milestone" vs "accomplishment" -- yes, can't agree more.

so when exactly are you leaving? more importantly, are you coming to Boston?

[ztbb]

congratulations!

where are you headed next year?

University of Illinois, Chicago

[ajawa_took]

which is most pleasing.
i'll get more weather, but less trees.
a couple grown-up model-theorists (and more at nearby UIUC and Notre Dame) and a horde of algebraic geometers of all ages, most of them logic-friendly.

Re: University of Illinois, Chicago

[migolorin]

and, for a while at least, a couple of other model theory postdocs too!

[jtwonderdog]

hmmm, you can always get another Ph.D. At least you wouldn't need to split assets with your first Ph.D.

also, there's nothing wrong with "distance traveled" markers. They certainly beat "distance not traveled" markers.

I do agree that the "Ph.D. as accomplishment" paradigm is a little foreign to me. I can point to "I proved this theorem" or a "I gave this good talk" or "I taught this undergrad what a derivative is" and call that an accomplishment, whereas the Ph.D. is more a hoop to jump through, though admittedly, it is on fire and suspended above a pool full of sharks (with lazers on their heads), metaphorically speaking.

[krasnoludek]

This is a public university. We can only afford sea bass.

[jtwonderdog]

Is it too much to ask for frickin' sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads?

[easwaran]

My qual felt more like a significant rite of passage than I imagine the PhD itself will be (but I'm still a year away I suppose). At least, it did in the hour or two beforehand. But I agree generally - at this point, I feel relatively settled into academic life, and the PhD will just be a transition point, while the qual marked the transition from mainly learning in class to mainly learning by reading a bunch of things and talking my ideas about them over with people informally.

[rezoner]

You can try do it twice, but it hurts :)

[fclbrokle]

Congratulations!

I will see you in Chicago --- the Mathcampers around there are really accumulating. :)

[fclbrokle]

And it may not be an accomplishment, per se, but I can still wish that I'd crossed that milepost. :)