Capstone Project is Officially OVER!

Yesterday, my capstone group finished our report! 

The past six months of research, writing, and copious amounts of stress are officially over! 

And, I will never have another capstone report for school, ever...again. 

While we still have our presentation to give this coming week, we were able to celebrate our victory!

First, Federico, Simon, and I joined some others to celebrate in the park that is technically on campus.

Following that, I went over to a Levo League event (more on that in another post!).

And, then the second years went out for a night of Latin dancing! 

It was a great way to "cap-off" the capstone report!

Upcoming Adventures

Apart from schoolwork, internships, and the social world surrounding the MPA program, I've got a few other adventures in the works for the next few weeks!

Next weekend, I'm headed to Bucharest, Romania! Translyvania and I will be bonding for a few days as I have Veteran's Day off my internship. My fellow intern, Elaine, and I are headed over to check out the city but also taking a day trip to Dracula's Castle.

The following weekend besides doing homework, I'm attending "Fantasia: Live in Concert" at the Royal Albert Hall. Surprisingly, I still have never been inside the Hall despite having lived in South Kensington and having numerous bus routes currently that drive past the building. 

For Thanksgiving, a few interns and I are looking to take the hop west to Iceland! We should be booking out trip to Reyjeviack this week!

In early December, I snagged a cheap ticket to see Andrew Lloyd Weber's new musical, "Stephen Ward." For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of ALW especially "Phantom of the Opera." 

Weekly Recap

Phew! Another week is already gone?

Lately, I feel as if all my posts on this blog are relating to how quickly my second year of grad school is going by! It's the truth, though. I feel like I just got back from the Retreat, and now it's another Saturday. 

I celebrated Macaron Monday!

This week was jam packed with meetings relating to my capstone project including meeting with the liasion! We are putting together our final terms of reference for the six-month project, so we can officially begin conducting research, etc.

Capstone Group post client meeting

The rest of my week was spent either doing homework or at my internship. Nothing too exciting. My fellow interns and I grabbed drinks last night to celebrate the week being done. 

Check out a few other photos from my Instagram feed from this week, below: 

Fall Morning in Notting Hill

Selfridges is getting in the Christmas Spirit!

If you need me...

I'm currently trying to cut down on this workload:

Back to School: Summer Edition

School started again today. That was weird.

It is almost May, and I'm still not used to the United Kingdom higher education system. There are so many days that I wish I was already taking finals and ready for summer to start next week. Yet, here I am sitting in an EAT near campus figuring out my to-do list for the week.

Summer term consists of numerous review classes, group project presentations, end-of-term papers, and of course, exams.  It is consistent with how the end of the semesters were at Syracuse, but having an entire term devoted to it is different.  I have a paper due this Thursday on the mass media's agenda-setting role in presidential elections and how social media could disaggregate that stronghold. Next week, I have a group presentation on the decriminalization of drugs and the profits of pharmaceutical companies.  And, for fun, the week after I have a management paper due.

Exams take place in June, as I mentioned. I have three in a row with a week before the last one. I'll be done by the second week of June which leaves time for a hopeful weekend getaway before my current internship wraps up as well.

For now, though, the rain is starting to fall, and I'm in desperate need of a cup of coffee. Adios friends! 

And, so the 2nd term comes to a close.

I literally feel as if I just stepped back off the plane at Heathrow in January. 

Time flies. So quickly. 

And, yet, my second term of grad school is now officially over! 

The weeks were long with numerous STATA assignments, readings, essays, and group projects. But, as always, it will be worth it in the end. 

For now, though, I've got a five week vacation to start.

See you Monday, Dad!

End of the Semester is Upon Us

I cannot believe that the term ends in two weeks. I feel as if I just got back from my winter break at home. As usual, my spring terms just fly by. I felt like that for all four years at Syracuse.

The semester has been a long run full of many essays, STATA assignments, projects, and readings. While I have had many sleepless nights this term just like the last one, I know it will all pay off in the end. 

Since we have a five week break following the end of this term, I have started to do some exam prep and time management for that ahead of time. Getting used to the UK system of exams is going to be difficult. I am trying to get ahead in the planning as even though I plan on doing some work in the early mornings and evenings on my few weeks of travel, some days I may not be getting anything done. 

But, enough of exam talk now, I have a list of things to do before the end of the semester sprinkled among a lot of fun things. For now, here's that list as I must get back to reading: 

-2 STATA assignments to go

-1 management essay

-2 management projects (same topic, first one is non-graded, second one is)

-1 non-graded economics group project

-1 government group project

-too much reading to count

-MPA ball

-MY 23rd BIRTHDAY

-Schedule several events for the Pi Phi Alumnae Club (I'm the new Vice President of Event Planning!)

-And, so much more!

Oxford Day Trip!

On Saturday, Jenny and I escaped away from the stress of schoolwork to Oxford.  We both had never been, and the trip was a task on my 101 in 1001 days list!

Paddington Bear at Paddington Station 

We grabbed a 10:30am train to Oxford. The fares were fairly cheap. I had my rail card which saves a lot of money throughout the year, but even Jenny's was not that expensive without a rail card. The journey took about an hour, and the Oxford train station is about a 10 minute walk from the city center. While we figured we had planned enough time to do everything including Blenheim Palace, we eventually decided to save Blenheim Palace for another trip up to save time traveling to there and back. 

 We spent the day wandering around the various colleges and historical buildings of the campus and the town.  We were sure to pay for the admission into the Divinity School! What I loved about the Oxford campus was that it was sprinkled throughout the city center! It was nice also seeing a real campus at the same time. I must say that I do miss having a quad made of grass (no offense, LSE).

View from the lunch table 

For lunch, we stopped at a cafe overlooking Christ Church Cathedral.  

After warming our bellies with English breakfast tea and a delicious lunch, we ventured back outside to check out Christ Church, the Great Hall, and the grounds.

For all my Harry Potter loving fans, the image below is for you:

We ended the day with trying tea at the oldest coffee house in England. We chose to get tea over coffee because we wanted to have the traditional scones and clotted cream for the afternoon snack. If you are in Oxford, be sure to check out the Grand Cafe. It's worth the wait to get a table!

Overall, the day trip was well worth it! We got to see so many of the famous Oxford buildings and planned out things we want to do the next time we sneak away from Londontown!

Have you ever been to Oxford? What are your favorite parts of the town? 

Lent Term Begins!

Ahhhhh...the smell of a new semester! 

Or, term as they call it over here.

Lent Term officially begins today. While my schedule and courses stay the same for the semester, I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine. My day consists of my usual four hours of econometrics for Monday, but I'm actually really looking forward to dealing with STATA and problem sets today!  

One change that I will see with my courses this semester is that my economics class will begin to focus on macroeconomics until final exams. As for everything else, I will be interning with the internship that I landed at the start of the Michalmas Term. It was delayed starting, but I'm looking forward to having a few other things in my life besides math and game theory!

If you will excuse me now, I need to get coffee and get to work!

Returning to Londontown...

Well, break is over at home at least. 

I enjoyed my time home with my family. 

I caught up on a lot of sleep, made plenty of study guides, caught up on some television, and even got to read for pleasure. If you know me, I don't already watch a lot of television, so it was a big deal for those episodes that I did miss...

I'm off to London today. Typical journey begins. Flying out of Syracuse, a layover in NYC, and then landing in London early GMT. 

Stay tuned for my news once I return to my favorite city.

Image Source

End of Michaelmas Term

As I sit here writing this blog post, I've got the last bit of laundry drying and trying to decide what I really need for three weeks at home. Honestly, I still cannot believe I've been done with my first term of graduate school since Wednesday. Time sure does fly when you were trying to balance the heaviest course load known to man, an internship, and a general life. But, here, I am...December 16th, and finished.

The last week of term consisted of a final STATA problem set of the term, government group project, economics homework, and a management working group outline for a project. All of that was on top of the usual reading for the week, final activities, etc. Yet, all of it got done. Monday night, I only slept four hours, and Tuesday resulted in a 30 minute nap at my desk around 6am. But, if you know me, that's usual. I'm the type of person to just stay up and putter through. 

As you saw from an earlier post this week, I got to go to the Mumford and Sons concert on Tuesday. Still on cloud nine...even though it is Sunday now. Wednesday evening, the girls and I grabbed drinks at the George celebrating our freedom for a month and then went for a quick bite to eat.  More to come on Thursday- Sunday activities...

Honestly, as I look back now, time flew by. I'm a new person with a new outlook on different career options,  math, and life, itself. Tomorrow, as I board my two planes to go home, I'm excited for a break, but already counting down the days till I'm back! 

Look Back on the Past 2 Weeks

As I have been slow to post, I figured that some of you may be interested to see the adventures that I have been embarking on!

8th- First Day of Class and my Internship!

9th- MPASA Marketplace. MPASA is a student organization designed specifically for MPA students. I joined the career team, the social team, and the Public Sphere. I also was able to meet up with my friend John from Syracuse. He's on a Marshall Scholarship here, just finished a Master's, and has started his second. 

11th- After staying up to watch Biden in the VP debate, I went to a Careers in Public Policy event to hear about public service careers in the UK. In the evening, we had our first Policy in Practice Seminar for the MPA programme. Our Dean of the Institute presented on the creation of public policy. 

12th- Had my first wine club meeting! Tons of fun, met some great new people, and looking forward to the rest of wine club. 

13th- Went to Greenwich, the Dickens Inn, and spent the evening in making sure I wasn't getting sick. 

14th -Had high tea with Nicole off a GroupOn. Stay tuned for a blog post about that!

15th- We had our second Policy in Practice Seminar for the MPA Programme. We heard from Craig Calhoun, LSE's New Director. 

17th- Went to the Welcome Reception for LSE's New Director, Craig Calhoun. 

Settling into a Routine

Apologies for the delay in posting. As you can imagine now that the semester has started, my hours of free time to blog, watch my favorite television episodes, and sleep, in some instances, has been limited. Now that week two is wrapping down, I can honestly say that I am settling into a routine of classes, homework, networking events, etc.  It doesn't go without saying that the first two weeks have been stressful enough already, but I love it. Being challenged is something that I've always wanted out of academia, and LSE sure does know how to do that.

As for a routine, it's important to note that for everyday of the work/school week, I'm up by 6:30/7 everyday and go to bed around 2/3. You and I can both do the math on that. It's clearly preparation for my future political campaign. Thank goodness for weekends and those occasional 10 minute naps on the tube.  Here's my class schedule:

Mondays: 

10:00-12:00 - EC455: Econometrics Lecture

14:00-15:00- EC455: Econometrics Seminar

with the option of a help-session in the evening for STATA, a statistical program 

Tuesdays:

9:00- 11:00- EC440: Microeconomics/Macroeconomics

13:00- 14:30- GV478: Political Science and Public Policy Seminar

EC440 help session in the evening

Wednesdays:

11:00- 12:00- EC440: Seminar

14:00- 17:00- MG419: Management Class

Thursdays:

Day off currently. This will be the day where I will intern the most!

Fridays:

10:00- 12:00- GV478: Political Science and Public Policy Lecture

All in all, I have a lot of free time to do work for my remote internship, read (a lot!), and go to Starbucks.  With having class in the morning, I feel accomplished by midday. It's been a bit different as I have never had class really before 9 or 10 at Syracuse with the exception of one or two classes.  The Starbucks on campus knows my order when I stroll in around 8 or 9 each morning to get a last minute review session before class each day. I've started to find my favorite areas to do work in. 

The homework load has been a lot. I expected it to be a lot, and it certainly met those expectations. We have problem sets for our main core courses with EC455 ones being graded randomly to make up a percentage of my final grade. We found the fun news today that EC440 problem sets will only be graded to provide feedback, and that the entire grade for the class will be based on the final. It's a lot to think about, but my goal will be to stay on top of everything as best as I can to save trouble come May and June when I'm studying. Back to the books, I go!

Courses!

Now that the school year has officially started, we can get down to business discussing what I will be taking for the next year. Unlike the United States, our semesters do not mean I get to take different courses each semester. Instead, the concentration of the classes are spread across both the Michaelmas/Lent terms with exams falling in the summer term. Most grades for all courses are decided on those exams in the summer term. The advantage of this is I will not have as many assignments as frequent- no weekly blog entries, no papers every two weeks, etc. I will also get a month or so off following the Lent term. One of the hardest things that I am facing is that without a lot of continuous assignments, or midterms,  it'd be easy to forget about a reading assignment. I'll be using time management to its fullest these next two years. 

My program requires us to take four units during our first year as a student. All of us have to take three basic courses. Micro/macro economics, Econometrics, and a political science course.  My stream is the only one that his the required course for the stream to be taken in the second year. My required course is more economics, and it would be foolish to try to take it without a solid background. Thus, my choice to fulfill my last unit was a little hard. I could take two half-unit courses, or I could take one of the other streams' required courses.  In the end after a lot of thinking, talking to my advisor, and going to the newly founded MPA course fair, I chose to take a class on public management. Ideally, it should be a base for further work in the government. 

I've copied the course descriptions from the LSE website! Take a look!

(All of these are taken directly from the LSE website here: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/units/IPA/MPA_PEP.aspx. No copyright infringement or lack of source.)

GV478: Political Science and Public Policy

• In this course we develop tools to analyse important political phenomena including elections, legislative bargaining, lobbying, bureaucracy, civil conflict, and international relations. We focus on game theory as a way of understanding strategic interactions among political actors. Students will learn basic game theoretical concepts and apply them to a variety of political contexts; these tools should be useful both for explaining existing political outcomes and for designing interventions to achieve desired future outcomes.

EC440: Micro and Macro Economics

• An introductory graduate course providing an economics background suitable for high-level public policy-making. The emphasis is on acquiring sound models and methods suitable for appraising policy-making issues and applicable in a wide variety of contexts. The first term (MT) covers microeconomics and the second term (LT) covers macroeconomics.
• MT: Microeconomics: Week 1: Demand and Supply in Competitive Markets. Week 2: Consumer Optimisation: Demand for Goods. Week 3: Consumer Optimisation and Labor Supply. Week 4: Firms' Optimisation the Supply of Goods and the Demand for Labour. Week 5: Monopoly. Week 6: Uncertainty and Insurance. Week 7: Markets and Asymmetric Information. Week 8: Monopolistic Competition and Game Theory. Week 9: Externalities in Consumption and Production. Week 10: Public Goods.
• LT: Macroeconomics: Week 1: Growth and poverty. Week 2: Institutions and economic performance. Week 3: Regulation and economic performance. Week 4: Human capital and growth. Week 5: Productivity and innovation. Week 6: Unemployment. Week 7: Finance and economic performance. Week 8: Openness and economic performance. Week 9: Economic fluctuations. Week 10: Stabilization and reform.

EC455: Quantitative Approaches and Policy Analysis

• The course introduces students to the quantitative evaluation of public policies with the help of regression based evaluation methods, cost-benefit analysis and computable general equilibrium modelling. The first six weeks of the course introduce students to basic multiple regression analysis including hypothesis testing, modelling of non-linear relationships, and dummy variables. From week 7 of MT the course covers a number of regression based evaluation methods to assess the casual effectiveness of policy interventions. These include the use of randomized experiments, natural or quasi-experiments, panel data, difference-in-differences estimation, instrumental variables, matching and regression discontinuity designs. The final part of the course provides an overview over cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis and an introduction to the use of computable equilibrium models to assess policy interventions.

MG419: Public Management- Strategy, Innovation, and Delivery

• The course develops the perspectives, knowledge, and intellectual skill required for rational discourse about intelligent practical action in the core public sector. In Michaelmas Term, the course focuses on the design of organizational strategies in public sector contexts. This general issue is subdivided into the design of organizational strategies for start-up, realignment, and success-sustaining transitions. In Lent Term, the course delves specifically into scholarship and teaching cases about the design and operation of practices whose logic is to perform three functions instrumental to sustained organizational achievement: strategy development, developing innovative capabilities, and delivery (encompassing both production and management control). Overall, the course provides a foundation for further coursework about management in the public sector as well as the ability to engage constructively and critically in the development of public management practice.

Math Camp.

My past week has been renamed as math camp. As my pre-semester math review course begins for the second week tomorrow, I must say that math camp has been both easy and intense. Highs and lows of remembering basic concepts from high school to those moments where I said, "I just had to choose taking language over math at Syracuse." Nevertheless, it's been a good review as these concepts we have spent numerous hours on in lectures, seminars, and problem sets are the base for the classes this semester. After all, it is the London School of Economics.

My week was pretty basic since I did spend most of time either in class or at home doing homework. Several nights, I was left frustrated because I never took calculus. And, I don't know if you have ever had to learn basic concepts that should be taught over a year in a week, but I have. I'm surviving, though. Our test is this coming Friday and will be used only for advice on harder level economics courses...

I did have some fun during the week.

After all, all work and no play, makes Katie a dull person. 

I was able to check out a lot of campus this week including a lot of the restaurants both on and off. I discovered the Fleet River Bakery with three girls in my program for lunch one day. Let's just say that you can't beat seven pounds for a fish sandwich, potatoes, and a huge hot chocolate.  Also finally made it to Lincoln's Inn Fields. It's a park on campus which has the potential for outdoor reading sessions when it isn't raining out.

Lincoln Inn's Fields

The highlight of Monday- Friday was my Thursday. After morning class and lunch, I headed over to Syracuse London! It was a weird and good feeling to be back inside Faraday. I spent an hour or so catching up with the director as well as a few staff members I really got to know while I was there. I'm going to be volunteering as a student guide and on some other events in the future as well as try to begin to form an official SU alumni group in London.

Thursday evening after a math seminar, I headed back to Syracuse London for an Encompass film event. For those who don't know, I participated as one of the US delegates in the Fall 2010 Encompass Journey of Understanding.  The film event was a new recruiting video to get more to apply to this life-changing experience. What was great about the program was that I was able to be reunited with two people who were a part of the program that I haven't seen in two years. Nicole was there as well- she did the program with me.

Aisha was still in high school when she participated in the program, but now she is interning with Encompass, and Ericka was the US/UK coordinator for 2010.  I was also able to meet the new Syracuse students selected for the amazing experience this summer.

I'm featured with Aisha on the Encompass Business Card!

And, the best ending to my Thursday evening was being reunited with my favorite professor, Wolfgang! I knew he was teaching on Thursday evenings, so I saw him briefly during a fire drill. We talked only for a few minutes, but it was great being able to talk to one of the biggest influences on my life. He provided so much support during the grad school process to my capstone, and when I was applying to be  a Remembrance Scholar. He and I are getting coffee in the coming weeks which will be great!

Wolfgang and I in Belfast, 2010.