Soodhalter’s Informagoriam

Next week on the popular Fox television show, “House,” Dr. House breaks the hippocratic oath and violates patient privacy laws to save a patient. Then he has a confrontation with somebody about his maverick ways; but, fortunately, the plot manages to resolve itself by the end of the show.

The other day, I was attending a meeting at work during which a vendor of medical supplies was making his grand pitch to sell us a whole integrated systems-worth of equipment. He had even brought another salesman from another division of this particular company because the level of integration involved both departments. As he was making his pitch, he explained one added perk was that he and the other salesman would both be on call should anyone need assistance with this integrated system. This salesman then stated that because he had eleven years worth of experience and the salesman from the other division had eleven years worth of experience, they have a combined twenty-two years worth of experience. I winced and then let it slide.

If I had been someone with more clout (a faculty physician, perhaps) I would have pointed out that his logic regarding years of experience is flawed. Yes, technically, when the math is worked out, these two salesmen do have a total of twenty-two person-years of experience. However, without knowing anything about these two gentlemen, I would be willing to wager dollars to donuts that they had many common individual experiences, especially in their early years of selling medical equipment. In reality, if you only take into consideration unique experiences, it probably comes out to about twelve or thirteen years of experience, not twenty-two.

I don’t know why this bothers me so much; but it may be because in the last few years, it has become quite common for television commentators to use this type of statistic. When multiple veteran announcers are calling a sports event, it is reported that they have seventy-five years of combined commentating experience. Groups of ball players and coachers have x years of combined experience. It is always technically true, but it is meaningless. One hundred one-year-old babies have 100 years of combined life experience, but I wouldn’t trust any advice they might have. Babies can’t talk! This is just the latest in a trend toward reporting of meaningless or misleading statistics in both television and real life. Over 77% of people use them in every day life. It’s really just sad.

Well, it would appear that through the test taking, essay writing, filling out of forms, and ambush style phone interviews did pay off in the end. I am going to graduate school. I have officially enrolled in a five-year program with the goal of attaining a PhD in math. Subsequently, I will insist that everyone call me doctor. Doctor Ted Lee Phillips does have a nice ring to it. That is what I will go by. I got into the math program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

To briefly recap the application process: I found programs that covered my areas of interest, wrote five essays, filled out countless forms, and managed to get transcripts from Tulane despite its state of disarray following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. I corresponded with countless professors and administrators. I received countless letters from the schools to which I applied that did not contain any information. One school sent me a letter telling me that they had pre-evaluated my application and were preparing to evaluate it, so I should wait. I received information from six or seven people (both professors and grad students) from a different program telling me about the program and about how excited they were about my application. It turns out they weren’t THAT excited in the end. I got an email from another professor telling me that I was a promising applicant. He requested a phone interview, during which I was ambushed with math questions and heavy breathing. That phone call ended in disappointment, but what can you do? I called one school after not hearing from them for a while; and after ten minutes of rustling, I was told that I had been put on a waiting list from which I will never get picked. Basically I was rejected without being rejected. So, it would appear that a certain school that, until recently, held national championships in football, baseball, and basketball simultaneously decided they were too cool to let in someone from their own state. Lousy school with its trophies and complicated shoes… In all, the final tally was two viable acceptances, a few formal rejections, one eternal waiting list, and one school that never bothered to contact me either way.

So, the final outcome left me with two options, move to Philadelphia or move to New York City. Based on the offer I got from CUNY, I figured that I probably could not afford New York City. On top of that, my Tulane math advisor has been advocating Temple to the max, and he had multiple good reasons for me to go there. In the end, all roads led to Philadelphia and Temple University, which lies within. For more information about Temple, check out their main website and this Wikipedia entry. It should be noted that while Temple’s sports mascot is the owl, much like Rice University, Temple was the first university to use the owl as a mascot. If you are near a Rice student, alumnus, or fan, this should be noted loudly and often.

Philadelphia is soon to change forever. I am presently looking for an apartment close to campus, yet in a nice area with things to do within walking distance, perhaps a place to eat every now and then. Originally the only person I was going to know up there was the younger brother of a guy I grew up with, but recently, I found out that some cousin-like members of my extended family will be moving up there around the same time as me, so there will at least be a little familiarity up there. I just bought a Lonely Planet tour book to begin getting to know the city. If you are a friend of mine, and you find yourself in Philly, drop me a line and we will get some flavored ice. I am looking forward to getting to know the city over the next five years.