Thursday, December 16, 2010

Taking another step (committee!)

Lots going on in real life that I'm not going to write about now (what else is new).

Big news for the moment is that after months of procrastinating/agonizing, I finally just sent an email to a former professor asking them to be the first member of my graduate committee. This is a big step for me; I've been writing and re-writing the email all week. I really really really hope that this person answers with a big YES, because I think that their knowledge and experience would be invaluable to me, and in a number of ways their work is closer to what I want to do than my own advisor's. In general, I'm still skeptical of the value of committees, but I can totally see how this person would fit in. Part of my anxiety about it is that if the answer is no, I can't think of anyone else even at this huge institution who would be able to fill a comparable role. Mostly I'm filling my committee because the rules say I have to, but I'd really love to work with this person more.

Anyways, that's where I'm at. Cross your fingers for me.

With the holidays coming up, maybe I'll post more, including the list of favorite R functions I've been accumulating.

Theo out.

UPDATE: Success!! Big weight off my shoulders. Now I can ask other people on my list.


3 comments:

Ethan White said...

Glad it worked out. In general I think most folks will tend to say yes if you can convince them that there is overlap in research interests and that you're not just asking them to fill a slot because "the rules say you have to."

AnnaKara said...

Anna
hi !
I was looking for something else in google and the search brought right to your page, i really hope you've got what you want. in one of your stories though i got an answer to my question, thanks for that
best
AnnaKara

Transient Theorist said...

@AnnaKara - Glad I could (unwittingly) help answer a question for you.

@Ethan - Yeah, it was less of a big deal than I built it up to be. I was mostly nervous because this one person has a reputation of turning people down/not always being open to collaboration. I think a lot of that is an understandable defense mechanism of being good with statistics.

Happy holidays!

- Theo