I gave a party and it was OK
Tonight I gave a party for the students from my undergraduate class last Spring, plus the grad students in Shu Hua’s lab. It was really nice because I haven’t seen some of the students from the Spring yet, and it was strange to have school suddenly stop in the way that it did. It was also nice because I didn’t have to do any of the work, I just paid for it. The two students who are standing did all the work of buying pizza and fruit and soft drinks. I had all the undergraduates, who are seniors now, go around and describe what they plan to do after graduation. Most of them have been accepted into graduate programs at BNU without having to take the entrance exams, so their future is set (and they have time to help with me research during this trip). A few have to take the exam but plan to go to graduate school; two plan to apply to U.S. graduate schools right away and several others plan to do that in the future; one plans to work and another to work for a year or two before applying to graduate school, and one (only one) doesn’t know what she wants to do. I would say there was noticeably less angst than there would be if I asked a similar question of a group of seniors at UIUC. There were about 30 people all together. After that, I went around and talked to the students, and I put together a slide show of some of my pictures from the Spring and from this trip that looped on a projector connected to my laptop.