Duke is Beauty

Went on another campus visit last weekend. It was Duke University's turn this time around. Unlike Cornell they had a weekend where they brought in all of the prospective graduate students. I thought this was nice since you got a chance to mingle with your potential classmates as well as talk to the professors.

I got into Durham around 2pm on Friday and was picked up at the airport by one of the graduate students. I found it funny that she also said that you could easily find the math department on any campus by looking for the ugliest building. I suppose this is just a well known fact. However, the math building wasn't that "ugly", but that's probably because it is shared with the physics department as well. Unlike the visit to Cornell, this time we were put in an hotel that was relatively close to campus (and the university hospital). After we dropped our stuff off in our rooms there was time for us to sit in on one of the classes. It was a modeling class and they were talking about certain kinds of optimization problems. I was able to follow much of what was being said, though I wish I remembered more multivariable calculus.

After the class it was tea time. Apparently the graduate students and faculty have "tea" (really snacks) at 4pm each day. This was nice since I got to meet some of the other graduate students as well a professor. When tea time was over there was still a little time until dinner so we were taken back to the hotel to relax a little. It was at this time that I discovered that I can't send text messages while I'm in North Carolina (and South Carolina as well) for no apparent reason. I'm able to receive text messages and phone calls which is just weired. So if I do end up choosing to attend Duke I will have to find a new cell provider. Not sure if it's T-mobile or just my phone, everyone else had a different provider so not much help there.

The most exciting part of the visit was meeting my "twin". She was a University of Florida graduate and is currently doing research in probability. Wait, things get even better. So you remember the Denny's commercial about the "nannerpuss". The banana octopus that attacks pancakes, well apparently I was the only person (other than her friends she had told) that had ever seen this ad. It also doesn't hurt that we are almost the same height and both drive Hondas.

There was no shortage of food for the weekend. It almost got to the point that just hearing the phrase "there is food in the [location] for you" made me vomit. On Friday, the graduate students took us to a restaurant called Tyler's. Originally we had planned to eat at the Mellow Mushroom but things didn't quite work out that way. The food was alright, nothing special. However, the atmosphere made the dinner unforgettable. At this dinner I learned that 2 of the other students had received the same offer from NYU as me, admission without financial support. Seeing as how none of us are super wealthy there is no way we can afford to pay for at least a year of a PhD program AND to live in NYC.
After dinner we spent about 10min. outside in the cold deciding what to do next. Some of us ended up going to a local bar to watch the Duke basketball game, while others called it a night and went back to the hotel.

On Saturday some of the professors and graduate students gave talk about their research. The overall set up was pure mathematics talks before lunch and applied after. Naturally, I was more interested in the applied talk, especially the ones concerning probability. However, I found some of the pure talks nice. I even learned a little topology by the end of it all. There were a couple presentations on Mathematical Biology, and I must say that they made me wish that I had given that particular area a little more consideration earlier on in my undergraduate years.

At this point you should be able to conclude that I enjoyed the visit. This isn't going to make my decision any easier. Well I will keep you 'posted' (what a nice pun, even if I do say so myself).