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!

A Whole Lot of Work...

My last post was 10 days ago. 

I have finally finished the last assignment in what could be called a midterm period at LSE. Except...none of my essays, presentations, or assignments in the last two weeks were graded. They are all formative assignments. So, I'll get feedback in terms of writing, preparation for the final summative papers, and general comments of my understanding of the course load. But, let's just say...phew! I'm tired!

Last week, I had a paper due in my media policy class. I wrote a short analysis about the increasing access to broadband in the United States and how educational policies aimed at teachers in secondary schools needs to change. It was actually a lot more interesting that I thought it would be! It might be a topic for my final essay. I also had a paper due in my US legislative politics class last week. That one was about the electoral connection! 

This week...I had an outline due for my final paper in my information systems for the public sector class. I'm writing on the organizational structures of two different web councils in the US federal agency structure and how those organizations effect the delivery of digital services to citizens. The graded essay is due in April (bit early), so I'm looking forward to getting that feedback right away! 

And, tomorrow, I have a presentation about the deliberation process in Congress for my US legislative politics class. 

Can we say "Katie needs coffee?" 

If you're wondering how everything else is going at school...

Our capstone project final presentation has been set for March 18th. It's the day after my birthday, so double the celebrations! We're aiming to have the entire 15,000 word report written by the end of this weekend. 

As for my policy paper, I changed my topic and focus, but I like my new idea much better. Plus, I think it will be much more feasible to write about. 

LSE is pushing me to the extreme, again. But, I am still glad that I chose the rigor of my program and the school. I know it's all going to be worth it once I finish in a few months!

While I'm in the air...

As I'm flying back to England today, I won't get a chance to post anything. Besides, posting about my layover in Newark is nothing too exciting.

Until I land in England and get back into the swing of things, check out an article I wrote earlier this summer for the MPA policy blog!

Brief Discussion of the Latest Civic Engagement Reports

Final Week of Michaelmas Term

Time flies when you are in grad school. 

I always thought that phrase was true for my four years at Syracuse, but I find myself wishing time would slow down even more now, that I'm at LSE.  I landed in London on September 17th, and next week, December 17th, I'm flying home for winter break. It literally feels like that I just moved in the other day- with lugging my numerous bags full of purchases to make my flat "me." Yet, here we are. The final week of the first term of grad school under my belt, well almost. 

I've been going to school for 12 weeks straight now. Most other programs have been only going for 10 weeks, but since we had our pre-semester math camp, life hasn't slowed down since September 24th. Hard work pays off. I find myself much more confident approaching math related solutions in my courses, econometrics has become my favorite course, and I'm not as stressed as I was at the beginning. Friendships have been solidified, the main bartender at the George knows me, and I have my usual daily routine worked out.  

But, I've got to say, I need a break. 

Over break, I plan on doing a lot of review for all four of the courses as well as begin to work ahead and look at past final exams. Without taking finals this semester, I've only had some work graded with much it being formative. STATA problem sets have helped me wrap my head around concepts of heteroskedasticity, collinerarity, B subscript zero, and omitted variable bias, but mastering still has to come. Break will also be good as I can see my family, attend a basketball game as an alumni, sleep, and just relax. 

Yet, before my head and body officially agree that it is break time, I've got to get through this week. Here's the schedule for the final week:

Looks fairly tame? Huh?

I've got two group projects due this week. One that is presented in class and graded on the spot. The other, we present, receive feedback, and submit the final project after making changes. I'm going to see Mumford and Sons this week, juggle a group dinner, attend two holiday parties, and get to one birthday bash. All of that is in addition to STATA, weekly economics homework, meetings and sleep. 

But, you know what? Why not finish with a bang?

"Spoonful of Sugar"

Well, if you cannot tell from the title of this blog, I've come down with my usual fall cold/sinus infection. The weather, lack of sleep, and being around my peers who have also been sick contributed to my sickness for the past few days. Thankfully, today, I'm finally feeling better. Surviving on OTC medicine I brought from the US, it was clear that I should have registered with the NHS earlier on. I'll be doing that next week, so if I get sick again, I can at least get some prescription medicine.

Despite being under the weather, I've had a fairly busy week. Monday-Wednesday, I had something due in all my classes. For the most part, the assignments that have been due aren't graded. A lot of them are for feedback which is nice, especially with economics! We had our first big STATA problem set due this week in econometrics. That could be graded since three of them are randomly chosen and averaged to make up a percentage of my final grade.

Outside of classes and trying to get over my sickness, I've joined the LSE Think Tank Society. I'm a committee member with helping to organize a roundtables around US politics due to my background. It should be fairly interesting to work on for the entire year. This weekend, the first years are having a MPA BBQ which I'll be attending along with trying to get ahead in some of my reading. It's not a secret-grad school is hard!

Sorry for the quick update, but I'm off to the Public Sphere Journal meeting! It's a journal just for MPA students to contribute too!