2019, Ph.D., Mathematics
"The course work and variety of courses was very strong, as were most of the speakers at seminars. I was able to learn about many fields, as well as see what makes a good or bad talk, or strong or weak research. The program helped me set very high standards for my own work and presentations, and helped me discover many fields of which I was unaware in college. My path through graduate school was absolutely not the poster-child path; it was difficult, and if not for the support of several professors, I would not have finished at all. The mathbio RTG also helped prepare me for making good presentations, as well as extracting information from papers outside my field. The Catholic community at Duke helped a lot."
"Attend seminars early; you may learn of new fields that you like much better than your original plan. Use bibliography management software, such as Zotero, to keep your paper reading organized. Use mathscinet, and know zbmath.org is a free fall back if your future job does not have a subscription. Talk to many professors, not just your advisor; this will help keep you aware of neighboring subfields, as well as provide support if you have to switch advisors for any reason."
