Tomorrow I am leaving for the UK. I will be doing a 1-year taught master's in math at the University of Cambridge. The program is called Part III of the Mathematics Tripos and the degree conferred is called the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics. A lot of my friends have told me they are curious about how my time in Cambridge goes, so I am planning on writing about it and posting photos here.
It feels like it has taken a long time to get to this point of departure. Late October last year, I was splitting postage with my friend Sandra to overnight our applications across the Atlantic. A few months later came the "Conditional Admission" which I accepted to continue the process. Then I was admitted to a College, which means something different from how we use the term in the US. The University of Cambridge is divided into 31 colleges and I am affiliated with Churchill, one of the relatively new ones. For graduate students like me, the college is where I live and it provides a social focus.
To complete my admission to Cambridge, I had to demonstrate by the end of July that I would have adequate funds to cover tuition and living expenses. In early July, the US Dept. of Education hadn't yet approved Cambridge to certify my federal loans. So, I had to get private loans, get admitted, and cancel the private loans when the US Dept. of Education finally got back to Cambridge around July 28. Only after I got formally admitted could I apply for my visa, which involved driving to St. Louis to get my fingerprints scanned, sending copies of what felt like every official document ever with my name on it to Chicago, and crossing my fingers and waiting. So now, finally, after all the waiting, work, and agonizing, (I think) I have all the official paperwork completed, and Sandra and I will be flying out tomorrow.
This summer has been really long, and I'm ready to stop being an unemployed bum living in my parents' house and start being a student again. Graduating seems like a really long time ago. Since then, I spent 6 weeks in Lincoln, NE at the IMMERSE program, had an ill-fated job as a cashier at Office Depot for a week and a half, visited Grinnell a few times and felt out of place when people kept asking "Aren't you supposed to be in Cambridge now?", and visited my brother in Florida. But lately I've spent a lot of time going to the gym, reading, and renting episodes of The Gilmore Girls. Early this September, I felt more jealous of the students starting fall classes at Grinnell than I ever thought possible.
So here I am, nervous and excited about my upcoming departure. I hope to be writing the next installment from my room in Cambridge.
