Third Year = Over

Minus some paperwork and final determination of grades for my students, my third year as a graduate student is almost over.  As a result, I now know that yes, doctoral candidates do get assigned grades for their dissertation research "course" and that our advisors just click the "A" button on the grade submission website.  Even more reason why grades don't matter to doctoral students.

In good news, my students did really well on their final exam.  Twenty-five out of seventy got a score of 90 or higher (out of 100).  As a result, at least 21 of them will get A's for the semester.  I may be able to argue a couple of more cases on Tuesday when we finalize the grades.

However, with the end of the school year comes a laundry list of things that I need to take care of.

1. I have to register for a conference my advisor wants me to attend in October.
2. I have to join SIAM, a professional organization for applied mathematicians (again, because my advisor thinks it's a good idea for networking and such).
3. I have to take the car in for the 108,000 mile service before
4. Reunion Weekend!  Now just to make it to the second weekend in June for my summer vacation.  It remains to be seen if I will bring work with me.
5. See my family's financial advisor.  My mom and aunt sold my late grandmother's condo a couple of weeks ago.  My mom cleared $65K, so she is paying $13K of my sister's student loans off and giving me the same amount.  Some will be used to open a retirement account; I'll talk to the advisor about what to do with the rest.
6. It looks like I need to prepare for a move this summer.  However, I'm not putting in a 30-day notice until paperwork is signed.
7. After the move, I need to (finally) get a passport.
8. Oh, yeah, I have that birthday thing in seventeen days.
9. And a get-together with grad school friends on June 3rd.

In any case, the performance of my students has made me really happy.  So it makes up for the not-so-happy things earlier this month.