The switch

I may have just made my life more difficult, but I'm pretty comfortable with the decision.

As I noted a few weeks ago, I haven't been getting much traction with the CS faculty on my thesis topic. The math faculty has been much more interested. So today, since the departments are combined at UMSL, I switched my concentration from Computer Science to Statistics.

My life is now more difficult because, all modesty aside, I'm qualified to teach the majority of UMSL's CS courses, even at the graduate level. In statistics, I'll be taking in a lot more new material. Mitigating that is the fact that the norm in the Math program is to do a lot more directed study rather than formal classroom instruction. This is a much better paradigm for me and it should allow me to focus solely on the things I don't know rather than having to sit through lectures where I already get it. Also, directed study can be tailored to fit my thesis topic, so I may save some effort there as well.

At any rate, it's new and exciting, and I'm really glad I'm making this switch. I honestly feel like I can get through just about any course on my own. What I really need from the faculty is support for my research. Now I have it.