My three and a half years at Brown were an exciting time. Brown was one of only two or three universities with a program in Applied Mathematics. There were about 4 years worth of potential graduate students ready to begin or continue their graduate work, so in a sense we all represented the top quarter of a normal graduate class. After the first year I was a part time Research Assistant working on contracts with the Office of Naval Research. About half a dozen of us had desks in a large room. We worked on similar research problems, took many of the same classes, and were a very cohesive group. We would quiz each other as we prepared for final exams, and (later) as we each prepared for our final Oral Exam.
My three and a half years at Brown were an exciting time. Brown was one of only two or three universities with a program in Applied Mathematics. There were about 4 years worth of potential graduate students ready to begin or continue their graduate work, so in a sense we all represented the top quarter of a normal graduate class. After the first year I was a part time Research Assistant working on contracts with the Office of Naval Research. About half a dozen of us had desks in a large room. We worked on similar research problems, took many of the same classes, and were a very cohesive group. We would quiz each other as we prepared for final exams, and (later) as we each prepared for our final Oral Exam.