Graduate Orientation for UBC Mathematics
10:00AM Monday, August 29, 2011
Welcoming remarks
- Rachel Kuske, Head of the department
- Greg Martin, Graduate Advisor for the department
Learn the Ropes
Scan the Horizon
- Alejandro Adem, Director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS): www.pims.math.ca
Your advisor
- Keep lines of communication open; meet with him/her with some frequency
- Our best guess as to who will become your research supervisor; still, if your interests lead you to a different area, it's not a sign of disloyalty to discuss switching to a new supervisor with them both
- Responsible for your RA funding
Apply Yourself
- Michael Ward, Member of the Steering Committee for the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IAM) — www.iam.ubc.ca
Learn stuff
- Take courses
- M.Sc.: Aim for 3 (or more) courses per semester
- Ph.D.: Should take at least 4 courses beyond the M.Sc.
- Register early and often!
- Keep your advisor or supervisor in the loop, and ask his/her advice
- Go to colloquia and research seminars
- Department colloquium: Fridays, 3PM
- IAM colloquium: Mondays, 3PM
- Seminars: see the Events or Research tabs on the department web site
- Talks will sometimes be over your head (less so in the colloquia). This happens to us too. The exposure is good in the long run.
Do your job
- Professional expectations. Check your email every day and respond promptly.
- Rajiv Gupta, Undergraduate Chair of our department
- Keqin Liu, TA assignments and evaluation
- Mark Maclean, Math Tutorial Centre
- Teaching your own course is possible, after completing MATH 599 (Mathematical Teaching Techniques) with Fok-Shuen Leung
Have a life
- Talk to other (math) graduate students
- Outdoor activities
- Life in the big city
- Math will be a full-time job and then some; but work-life balance is important too
Remarks by David Kohler
President of the Math Graduates Committee (MGC): www.math.ubc.ca/~GradComm
Remarks by Jamie Paris
Vice-President, Academic & External Affairs of the Graduate Student Society of UBC Vancouver: www.gss.ubc.ca
Upcoming events
- Tuesday–Wednesday, August 30–31: TA training organized by Fok-Shuen Leung (also Mark Maclean, Vincent Chan, David Kohler, Tom Milnor, and David Steinberg)
- Attendance is mandatory for all new TAs
- Keep your nametags from today
- Thursday, September 1: FoGS/GSS Orientation (see FoGS web site)
- Friday, September 2: departmental Qualifying Exam
- Excellent diagnostic tool for selecting first-semester courses (M.Sc. and Ph.D. students)
- No downside whatsoever to not passing the first time
- You can still register (see Lee)
- Tuesday, September 6: New teacher orientation by Steph van Willigenburg and Rajiv Gupta
- Tuesday, September 6: Classes begin (but most courses start on Wednesday, September 7)
- Friday, September 9: Department welcome reception (including introducing new graduate students)
- Monday, September 12: IAM welcome event
- Friday, September 16: Deadline for Vanier Fellowship applications
- Tuesday, September 20: Deadline for NSERC and Affiliated Fellowship applications
Right now
- "Trade show" for graduate math courses, from 10:45–11:45 AM: wander among several rooms in the Math building. A great time to meet professors in courses you know you will take, find out about courses you're considering taking, and be enticed by courses you never heard of
- Rooms 103, 104, 105, 202, 203, 204, and 225 (this building)
- Which courses are where? Posted outside each of the trade show rooms
- There is such a thing as a free lunch: 11:45 AM (early birds get stuck with worms!) in room 125 of the Math building