Big Honor

Yesterday was the UC Davis Physics Department Picnic, where the staff honored David and three other senior undergraduates with a departmental citation for hard work. Then, Dave and one other graduating senior also received the Saxon-Patten Prize ($$), the department's highest undergraduate honor. Wow.

Dave has come so very, very far from the days when a lot of people told me I was crazy to insist that he would ever attend college and have a career.

Those discouraging days are truly behind us now. The UC Davis physics people don't even bat an eye at including David fully in their common pursuit of science. So what if he "spaces out"? Actually, a certain amount of it is required of all of them in order to think those big, scientific thoughts. So what if he stutters while explaining his ideas? It's worth being patient to see what sort of awesome science finally makes its way out of Dave's amazing brain and onto that chalkboard for all to see and benefit from. I believed the professors yesterday who told me between bites of potato salad and veggie burgers, "We're all really glad that Dave has chosen to remain with us."

It's like a giant, invisible eraser has come along and magically erased all the painful, tough years of tears. Sitting in the oak-dappled sunlight of the UC Davis arboretum, watching some grad students take my autistic son gently under their wings to teach him proper technique for sending a volleyball over the net, it finally, truly settled into the rested and ready marrow of my soul: David, my dear son, you're on a whole new path with a fresh, clean start, and the best of angels to guide you.

Ph.D... here we go!

Big Life-Changing Decisions

Wow, time has really flown by fast, so I haven't posted here in FOREVER.

First and foremost, David has decided to remain at UC Davis. Yay! He won the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, which is just great. And, we have excellent resources here to help me help him with his autism issues.

Second, after years of being focused almost exclusively on particle physics (at an unusually young age to decide something so specific), David has enjoyed his senior year condensed matter class so much that he's thinking about switching to that area of research. So, this summer, Dave's going to do a science project with one of the UC Davis condensed matter professors. This will help David clarify his decision-making process. Very exciting!

Admissions

So, first, admissions:

Wisconsin rejected him.
Rutgers admitted David with an awesome fellowship for study only (no TA, no research-- just studying his first year while he "gets his feet wet") amounting to a giant truckload of money.
Davis admitted him (yay! yay! yay!) with a tentative offer of a TA-ship, while they decide about a fellowship. Praying, praying...Davis is our first choice, not just because it would be easy on me to stay here (more resources for caretakers than other places) but because of the physics itself. David is really shining here, with this wonderful team.

Peace

GRE and Fall Quarter Grades

So, in spite of having to spend any and all free time studying for the GRE, and completing graduate school applications, Dave earned all A-pluses in fall quarter at UC Davis. Wow!

Here are Dave's GRE scores:

Writing: 4.0
Reading: 460
Math: 700
Physics: 820

Not too terrible on the language stuff, considering Dave received no extra time, so ETS disabled him there. No- studying more couldn't have helped; it has to do with his autism. It takes him twice as long as most other people to read, but when he's done, he understands the material much, much better than most...

Same with his writing-- Dave can't write fast under pressure, but with plenty of time to do so, he is a brilliant writer. I can't just technical writing, but his professors tell me he writes the best science papers and laboratory reports they've ever read. Again, wow.

Here's Dave's current admissions wish list:

UC Davis
Wisconsin -Madison
Rutgers
CalTech
UCSD
University of Arizona

Happy New Year

Well,

I'm feeling frazzled by the process of watching Dave apply for graduate schools and fellowships. The easiest thing for me is to just stay here in Davis. But, is that the best thing for David?

Thanksgiving

I'm so thankful that my son, a mathematician/scientist who, a generation ago would have been deprived of a scientific career the way the fictional Raymond Babbit was in The Rain Man, gets to be a member of the international team of scientists researching at the recently-operational Large Hadron Collider. Yay!

David is completing applications to CALTECH, UC San Diego, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rutgers, University of Arizona, and UC Davis over the coming month and a half.

Thank You, God!

GRE Prep

So, UC Davis is back in school, David has started senior year, and all graduate application activity is on hold while Dave practices for the GRE whenever he's not doing homework. Amazingly, ETS, the private corporation that gives the GRE won't be providing David his usual accomodations. They accomodate people with LH and ADHD, but not autistic people.

I guess it's just too new for them to comprehend. ETS, (and a lot of other people too), just can't "see" savant autistic people.

Yet.