Gotta Have Your Patron

Not much to blog about. Still looking for part-time work over the summer. I got a call from Kaplan, but they want people who can commit for six months, because most of the people who need tutoring help need it for the SATs, which take place in October...and can I really afford to take 10 hours a week from studies next year for tutoring? So I'll talk to a prof and get back to them on Tuesday.

Had an interesting discussion with Dr. S. It seems that Dr. S. has become a patron. Either that, or as my wife says, research professors are so desperate for human contact that they'll talk to anyone. I asked him if I could ask questions over the summer, and he agreed. He recommended two really cool books (whcih I can get from the academic library) and hopefully, they'll prepare me for the class he's teaching next year.

I told him about my fears of not being able to get a 3.2 average and keep my assistantship. He said, "Listen! Everyone gets As in grad school. If you get a lot of "B"s, that's a sign that this isn't for you." He also said that I should not be trying to learn the whole of finance and mathematics, which is an impossible task -- I just need to get the "gist" of the course, and not sweat the math so much. Who knows, I might go into his speciality and if he's agreeable, dissertation help? Although I don't know much about his research specialty.

Did about 2 hours of tutoring -- and left one of the class problems sets with the tutoree. Forget it, I'm not going to call her back and try to get that. That's one of the problems with agreeing to meet someone for tutoring -- you have to keep an eye on your stuff.