Monday, January 30, 2017

Start of the Last semester

As December came to a close, a sense of excitement and dread filled the brisk two days of winter in New Orleans. The source of the mix of emotions was the start of our last semester of my Master's program at Tulane. Although the exams and hard core studying was not missed, I did miss seeing my class and the professors. These months will be the last months to get to know everyone before we head off to whatever the future plans for us.

As many of my other classmates, I chose to pursue the non-thesis route which means we had nine courses in store for us. As intimidating as it sounds, it turned out to not me as daunting since five of the nine were presentation or seminar classes. All of the courses are interesting so far. One course is endocrine pharmacology and the student presentations are less traditional and usually gets the whole class involved and enjoying themselves. We also moving into the neurology block, which I find complex and interesting. Most of the mechanisms of the brain are still poorly understood yet there are still drugs out there for diseases of the brain. They may not be cures or the best but it is a start and it helps in understanding the brain more. In my undergraduate studies, I learned that some of the psychiatric drugs were discovered by luck and accident, which is amazing that science involves a lot of serendipity.

January Hours: 16
Semester total: 16