Chapter 4: Kickstarting the Motor

Summer turned quickly to fall. I was piling on hours to graduate at mid-term. To consume the rest of my time, my thesis spawned. There was enough material in my notes to do at least three solid papers. My original concept was a discussion of the impact of shelters and halfway houses on the inner city. A necessary thread running through this was a description of how shelters, and legal aid services interacted with local and state governments.

The original topic became my senior thesis, mostly because it was easiest. I graduated. Nothing much changed, because I turned to the legal aid aspect and kept working. During winter break, the University emptied out, but I barely noticed. Over the break my graduate thesis got fat, turning into a 400 page monster. The new semester meant a new thesis adviser, Madalyne Stone. She was not amused.

People are impressed that I graduated Yale in two and a half years. You need to understand I transferred most of the core credits. In high school, I did not have a social life, so I studied. By my junior year that included courses for undergraduate credit, through the state university system. That was why I mentioned Rutgers to Winthrop. Add the summer sessions to the transferred credits and it comes out eight semesters, just like it is supposed to. I am much more proud of getting a PhD in a year and a half.