In
Well so I got in somewhere, so worse comes to worse I will still get a Ph.D. It'll just have to be from UCLA, which I don't think is a good school. However, Steve Miller keeps telling me they have an excellent math program and he knows a few of the faculty members that he'll introduce me to should I choose to go there. Props to my professor connection!! :) This is the letter the math department at UCLA sent me:
"Dear Mr. Massy,
I am delighted to inform you that we have recommended you for admission to our PhD program in Mathematics for Fall 2006. You will receive an official notification from the Dean of the Graduate Division.
You have been awarded the NSF VIGRE Fellowship. This fellowship, complemented by a salary for teaching as a Teaching Assistant (TA), provides you with four years of full support at an annual salary of at least $19,000.
Additionally, we will provide you in the summer of 2007 with an further $3000 of support. If you participate in the Pre-Year 1 Summer program (8/14/06-9/22/06), you will receive an additional stipend of $3000 for your expenses. Funding during further summers will depend upon availability of funds. However, we note that for students who have passed all Qualifying Examinations, the very successful Summer Research Mentorship Program, sponsored by VIGRE, is available and can supply up to $5700 in summer support.
Full support includes a waiver of your health insurance, registration fees, and if applicable, non-resident tuition. If you are a non-California resident, state residency must be established within one year from admission. Your financial support is contingent upon maintaining Satisfactory Progress towards the degree. Additionally, this support package is contingent on continued receipt of VIGRE funding by UCLA Mathematics during 2006-2010. There is no expectation that this funding will fail since it has just been renewed for that period but we are required to mention the possibility.
UCLA Mathematics is strongly committed to instructor training as well as research training. Of course, both are essential for future academic employment. To facilitate both aspects, you will be given a reduced TA load that is, over 4 years, 50% of the normal load. Further, in years 3 and 4 of your graduate studies, full fellowship quarters may be possible. In particular, if you Advance to Candidacy by the end of your third year, you may have the opportunity to spend the fourth year as a full-time VIGRE Fellow without teaching. We generally do not offer a guarantee of support more than four years, but in recent years we have been able to fund all students in their fifth year who have Advanced to Candidacy.
We will have an Open House on Monday, March 13 with a full day of activities in which you can meet our faculty, postdoctoral students, and current graduate students. Details of this program will come in a later email message and we hope you can come.
I would be happy to discuss our graduate program or your financial support. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any faculty in your area of interest. Please copy all email correspondence to me to our Graduate Advisor, Maggie Albert (malbert@math.ucla.edu). This offer is good until April 15, 2006, but an earlier reply, even if negative, would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Don Blasius
Graduate Vice-Chair
UCLA Mathematics"
Pretty sweet deal, so I've at least got a great opportunity in front of me here I think. I mean, I will have my Ph.D. and it'll be paid for and all I have to do is teach, which I would've done for free :). I love academia. AND....the LA area has a lot of nice looking women. I think I'll be happy there, should I go.
On another topic, Victoria has out of the blue blocked me. That's fine I suppose. Lots of my friends (and a very direct ex gf lol) told me I should do that to her, and I haven't really had the heart to do it, so this is probably a blessing in disguise. I also went on this sketchy date with a girl named Shelby, who I met off hotornot and apparently has two kids. We hit it off well on the date, but we ended up back at her house and it didn't feel right. We had sex, but it was the first time that I stopped it on a girl. It just felt....wrong....you know? So I just couldn't do it. She wanted me to be her boyfriend and to go with her and her whole family to Foxwoods next weekend....and it was just all too much at once. Combining that with all this Victoria crap, and I just wasn't in the right mind. I broke it off with her this morning via email, which was a shitty thing to do. Sean says I shouldn't feel bad, and maybe I shouldn't, but I don't like to hurt other people (I guess I've been hurt enough to relate to other people's pain). So I'm feeling down about that today, despite the fact that I should be thrilled about UCLA.
I really think I need to leave Brown. I've really developed some bad habits here, and I'd like a new beginning somewhere, and the status of being a grad student will help me with that I think. I can't wait to graduate.
"Dear Mr. Massy,
I am delighted to inform you that we have recommended you for admission to our PhD program in Mathematics for Fall 2006. You will receive an official notification from the Dean of the Graduate Division.
You have been awarded the NSF VIGRE Fellowship. This fellowship, complemented by a salary for teaching as a Teaching Assistant (TA), provides you with four years of full support at an annual salary of at least $19,000.
Additionally, we will provide you in the summer of 2007 with an further $3000 of support. If you participate in the Pre-Year 1 Summer program (8/14/06-9/22/06), you will receive an additional stipend of $3000 for your expenses. Funding during further summers will depend upon availability of funds. However, we note that for students who have passed all Qualifying Examinations, the very successful Summer Research Mentorship Program, sponsored by VIGRE, is available and can supply up to $5700 in summer support.
Full support includes a waiver of your health insurance, registration fees, and if applicable, non-resident tuition. If you are a non-California resident, state residency must be established within one year from admission. Your financial support is contingent upon maintaining Satisfactory Progress towards the degree. Additionally, this support package is contingent on continued receipt of VIGRE funding by UCLA Mathematics during 2006-2010. There is no expectation that this funding will fail since it has just been renewed for that period but we are required to mention the possibility.
UCLA Mathematics is strongly committed to instructor training as well as research training. Of course, both are essential for future academic employment. To facilitate both aspects, you will be given a reduced TA load that is, over 4 years, 50% of the normal load. Further, in years 3 and 4 of your graduate studies, full fellowship quarters may be possible. In particular, if you Advance to Candidacy by the end of your third year, you may have the opportunity to spend the fourth year as a full-time VIGRE Fellow without teaching. We generally do not offer a guarantee of support more than four years, but in recent years we have been able to fund all students in their fifth year who have Advanced to Candidacy.
We will have an Open House on Monday, March 13 with a full day of activities in which you can meet our faculty, postdoctoral students, and current graduate students. Details of this program will come in a later email message and we hope you can come.
I would be happy to discuss our graduate program or your financial support. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any faculty in your area of interest. Please copy all email correspondence to me to our Graduate Advisor, Maggie Albert (malbert@math.ucla.edu). This offer is good until April 15, 2006, but an earlier reply, even if negative, would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Don Blasius
Graduate Vice-Chair
UCLA Mathematics"
Pretty sweet deal, so I've at least got a great opportunity in front of me here I think. I mean, I will have my Ph.D. and it'll be paid for and all I have to do is teach, which I would've done for free :). I love academia. AND....the LA area has a lot of nice looking women. I think I'll be happy there, should I go.
On another topic, Victoria has out of the blue blocked me. That's fine I suppose. Lots of my friends (and a very direct ex gf lol) told me I should do that to her, and I haven't really had the heart to do it, so this is probably a blessing in disguise. I also went on this sketchy date with a girl named Shelby, who I met off hotornot and apparently has two kids. We hit it off well on the date, but we ended up back at her house and it didn't feel right. We had sex, but it was the first time that I stopped it on a girl. It just felt....wrong....you know? So I just couldn't do it. She wanted me to be her boyfriend and to go with her and her whole family to Foxwoods next weekend....and it was just all too much at once. Combining that with all this Victoria crap, and I just wasn't in the right mind. I broke it off with her this morning via email, which was a shitty thing to do. Sean says I shouldn't feel bad, and maybe I shouldn't, but I don't like to hurt other people (I guess I've been hurt enough to relate to other people's pain). So I'm feeling down about that today, despite the fact that I should be thrilled about UCLA.
I really think I need to leave Brown. I've really developed some bad habits here, and I'd like a new beginning somewhere, and the status of being a grad student will help me with that I think. I can't wait to graduate.