The graduate school application dance is about to begin

Day 754 of 1000

Something very interesting happened to Lorena last week.  An acquaintance noticed that Kelly was pretty stressed about something.  The something happened to be the proofs-based Linear Algebra class she is taking this semester.  It is a hard graduate level class taught be a internationally well-known applied mathematics professor at NCSU.  The acquaintance’s told Lorena her daughter-in-law’s doctoral degree was much tougher than anything Kelly might be doing and that Kelly should not get so stressed.  We laughed about it later.

We do not know whether or not that engineering degree was difficult, but we do know that what Kelly is doing is about as hard as it gets.  If she can handle this class, she can handle just about anything.  Some people struggle less with this complex material than Kelly.  She has to work hard and long to understand the material, but she is getting it.  Engineering degrees have more to do with the application of math and less to do with its theoretical underpinnings.

It is possible to memorize your way through many if not most engineering classes, even at the graduate level.  That is not true for most math classes.  You have to learn think in math. Paradigm shifts must occur to “get” the material and pass the class.  Engineering degrees are not as focused on memorization and regurgitation of material as liberal arts, law, medicine, biology, and the social science, but they are not like Physics, Chemistry, and Math either.

The conversation was mostly interesting because of the vicarious posturing about something for which the pontificator was wholly unqualified.  I think that is the way it is with the respect to graduate education in general.  People do not realize that even very difficult graduate degrees have more to do with persistence than perspicacity.  So in the spirit of persistence, the kids are taking the next step.  Today they are spending the morning taking a practice GRE test.  GRE stands for “Graduate Record Examination”.  It is the most commonly accepted graduate school application test.

They will take the real thing two weeks from today.  Then, they will start applying to graduate schools.  I will write more about that as they move through the process.