Quote from intradaybill:
No serious university out there accepts part-time PhD students, AFAIK. Please provide a link to your university program.
I went to Montana State for my undergraduate degree, then went to University of Houston for my MS in Applied Math. The University of Houston is a tier one research university, and they have a very difficult graduate program compared to the majority of other schools. Its no Princeton, but its not easy either. Coming from Montana's program I was surprised by how rigorous the program in Houston was, and I had quite a bit of difficulty adjusting.
At UH, I worked as a research assistant for a face recognition project as a supported grad. student (i.e. free tuition and a meager paycheck). I have a couple publications I was a co-author on that were accepted to conferences, and this is unusual for many MS students. I am not saying that I am "so-much-better" than anyone, I am just saying I apparently had what my professor wanted in order to work with him on projects or maybe I just got lucky. I am humble about it. Math teaches you that, actually, since you really learn logic. You learn there are other possibilities to your preconceived notions.
Now I am at UC-Denver, which has a great computational mathematics program, and is different in a good way over UH where I went before. Honestly, the requirements are easier, however they also are more realist. They don't bother to make you take preliminary tests just to be in the program on 5 textbooks worth of abstract material such as topology or algebraic geometry. Here they just make you test out of the stuff that matters so you can reasonably learn higher math. Of course this is a subjective observation.
I came here because I wanted to be closer to home while being in an urban environment. I also grew tired of being in the heat and in a dirty city full of poverty. Denver is much cleaner in my opinion, and a better place for my sanity since I can go hiking or camping whenever I want, while being able to also enjoy the benefits of an urban environment. However, I have no need to justify it to you.
When I say "part time", I mean I am taking 6 credits per semester instead of 9. Typically a graduate program consists of 9 credits per semester since the work-load is much harder over undergraduate. A typical graduate homework assignment takes about 8 hours. Undergrads typically take 15 credits per semester and spend about the same time on homework as grad students. Its just a different criteria.
However, I already satisfy about 3/5 of what I need for a PhD. I was lucky enough to have an extremely strong MS program, so all I really need to do is complete my dissertation and do some "breadth" courses.
I work full-time and go to school part-time because its expensive to go to school and have a family. My wife and I are trying to have a kid. Right now, I work for a trading platform company, and I can't mention the name because its not relevant. I am talking as myself, not for my company. Too many times people confuse individual opinions with who they work for. Before working here I spent my time in grad school, and part-time coding automated methods that aided manual trading and indicators for my friend's large Forex portfolio.
Now, I am not sure why I even bothered to respond to you since you are such a hostile person, however perhaps it helps you to understand there are people with a "normal" history behind posts on these forums. All I was concerned with is the fact that a handful of people who call themselves traders tend to be extremely hostile towards "academics", however they never bother to define what these people actually are with truth, and instead make up television-stereotype lies. Its like having a made-up enemy without fully understanding the fact that most everyone who is an "academic" is actually mostly normal.
Anyway, this is a late response. However, I
