School concerns

Classes begin on Tuesday.  And, with the beginning of a new semester and completely new chapter of my life, the nervousness, anxiety, and self-doubt have begun to set in.

Three of the four of my readings for comparative politics have been completed, and with each of them, my uneasiness has grown.  I was never trained in the science of quantitative analysis in politics, and Binghamton (and many research institutions, in fact) stresses such analysis for its PhD students.  Yes, I am also a mathematics major, so I understand how to work with numbers and logic.  However, I never took a statistics class, which seems to be the favoured research method among political scientists.

I wondered and do wonder if I can model something in the political arena using differential equations, similar to what I did for my summer fellows research...though that was modeling an ecological system.  Still...it is something I am thinking about.

Will I be able to live up to the expectations of my new professors?  Of my fellow students?  While my academic record would say that I should be able to, I always doubt myself.  I am my harshest critic, after all.

Regardless, I can't wait for classes to start again.  I really can't.

Switching topics a little...

I would like to have an opportunity to live in the United Kingdom after I graduate.  However, my interest in U.S. government severely casts doubt on whether or not that is an attainable goal.  I do not think that the United Kingdom will really have many jobs available for a person who decided to specialize in the American political system.  In my head, I rectify this problem when I claim that I will make my minor specialization British government, but I need to clear a few hurdles before I am able to make that a reality.

Finding a professor who will spot me, so to say, in my efforts to immerse myself in the British system will not be an easy task, I fear.  While there are many comparativists at my institution, I don't think any of them specialize in the United Kingdom, and I don't know if they will have the same desire as I do to learn about it.

But...I may even be more interested in British politics than American.  (Which is saying quite a bit; let's just say I am really bummed about having no American government classes this semester.)

I wonder if I am thinking about this too soon, since I need to get the degree first.  But it still makes me very nervous.