Stefanie's Shoes

Why are we getting so much rain? Where's the snow? It's been in the mid-30's for awhile. I am not complaining, the cold gets to me, but it doesn't feel like MN. I feel bad for all the Colorado travelers with yet another blizzard.

I am still getting over a cold that hit me on Christmas Eve. Well, at least it didn't hit me during finals week. By the way, I am still waiting for my Real Analysis grade. I have gotten all the rest of my grades. Despite being sick, I have still spent time with my family and friends. I warned them that I'm sick, but they still want to see me. :-)

I hope you all have a safe new year. I am going to Jeremy's cabin for the New Year. I just want to get away. He is excited to go ice fishing. I tried that once last winter, and I got bored after about 5 minutes. We are going to take our dogs up there so they can run around on the ice. This will be Wilbur's (our Jack Russell Terrier) first time on the ice. Eve (our Great Dane/Black Lab) loves running on the ice.

Happy New Year!

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been a couple weeks since I have been able to write, so I am happy to finally have time to write some more. The semester is finished! I had my last final yesterday afternoon.

My Survival Analysis take-home final was fun and I have a good feeling about it. I was able to answer both questions (recall there were only two questions). I did a lot of SAS programming to answer that final. I had to write a bunch of SAS macros to get my program to loop. It was fun! I did a lot of this type of programming at my previous job. I had to do some statistical tests which I used "R" to answer. I felt really good submitting this final on Monday.

My Real Analysis final was really tough and very long! It was 7 problems with multiple parts to all but two of the problems, and some of the parts had multiple questions within them. I was really stressed and felt depressed about this exam. I got it done, but I don't have the good vibe which I had with Survival Analysis final. I am taking this class S-N (Satisfactory, Non-satisfactory), which I thought was the same as Pass-Fail, but it's not! They don't have Pass-Fail here. S-N grading scheme for "satisfactory" is basically a C or higher. I am anxious to see my grade in this class, but very scared!

My Stat Theory final was worth 40% of my final grade in this class, so it was sort of nerve-racking to know this going into the test. I got through this test yesterday afternoon and feel decent about it. I don't feel great about, but decent. I felt better about this test than I did any of the prior tests in this class. I love this class, but am nervous to find out my grade. I really want to do well in it, hence I am very nervous.

The class I was auditing, Correlated Data, only had one exam, which was the final. I didn't take this test because I don't get a grade in this class. The professor emailed us. He has graded all the exams. For final grades he gave 12 A's and 14 A-'s. Wow! The students in the class are impressive and these grades are well deserved. I would recommend this class to anyone interested. The professor is fair, and has empathy for the students. He actually dedicated a class as a study session for the final, where the class could discuss the different topis covered in class (student lead).

Next semester I am registered to take Stat Theory II, Clinical Trials, and Statistical Learning & Data Mining (at Ph.D. level). I am not taking Real Analysis II. I just am not sure about this class. A lot of the topics we discussed in Real Analysis were interesting but the level to which we discussed them was maybe not that applicable to me. We discussed really bizarre functions and things which we would not encounter very often in biostatistics, at least that is what I think right now. So, I agree that Real Analysis is important, but the class is probably more in depth than I initally thought.

In non-school related things:

• I am excited to get snow tomorrow! They are guessing 2-4 inches. It was sleeting out when I left home this morning. We have really only got a dusting of snow so far this semester, so having a white Christmas is exciting news.


• I got to see my grandma yesterday. She has dimentia, and is staying at a Alzheimers ward of a nursing home because she needs constant care. Last time I saw her was Thanksgiving, and she was sleeping the whole time. She has lost a drastic amount a weight. Yesterday she was wide awake, and mostly coherent. I have been looking forward to seeing her, and made it a plan since Thanksgiving that I would see her as soon as I get a chance to break away from things (i.e., after finals).


• Our Christmas tree is still not adorned with ornaments. Jeremy, my husband, wanted to wait for me to decorate our tree. I just haven't had the time to dig out the ornaments from our storage under our stairs. Finally, we can decorate our tree!


• I can finally go Christmas shopping!


• Thank you to Jeremy for your patience this semester!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What's new? Well, just 5 more days of classes until finals! That's the best news, but I have three assignments to get done in that time frame. Also, I have my take-home final in Survival Analysis to work on, which we got last week. On the positive side of things, my Survival Analysis class is canceled tomorrow (because we made up the class last week). I have rearranged my work schedule so tomorrow I don't have to come to campus! Chances are I will anyways, to see my T.A. during her office hours.

We got back our Real Analysis test (midterm) on Monday. I might add, that this is nearly 2.5 weeks after we submitted it. Let's just say the class median grade on the midterm was 60%. Enough said. I can see why it took so long to get back the test, the professor hand wrote much of the solution on everyone's test (or at least from the point they went wrong).

My Stat Theory is starting to resemble my Real Analysis math class more and more. We are discussing convergence of sequences of random variables, which is what we just finished discussing in Real Analysis. Only the Stat Theory class has a more statistical aspect since we are assuming some common distribution of the random variables. The Stat Theory homework looks interesting and quite challenging too. We shall see. I plan to spend the evening working on Stat Theory.

I can't wait until I get a break from school. It's so nerve racking knowing that these finals count for a big chuck on your grade. My Stat Theory final is worth 40% of my final grade, my Real Analysis final is worth 30% of my final grade, and my Survival Analysis final is worth 20% of our grade.

In other non-school related aspects of my life, we just put up a (fake) Christmas tree yesterday. It's nice how the fake trees now come with lights already strung around them. It makes it easy to put up. My husband had to shop for the Christmas tree by himself this year since I am so overwhelmed with school right now. I am so jealous of him and all of those people out there whose primary concern this time of year is their family and what to buy everyone. I have not had one second to think about it. Since my last final is on December 20th, and I have to work the days following it, it leaves hardly any time to shop. My family is coming to my home this year for Christmas. That means I need to do some cleaning too.

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)