r/alias • u/Vast_Mushroom_9656 • 18d ago

Sydney's Grad School Education...

Re-watching Alias S1E1 for the first time in a while. Just realized that Sydney's in grad school for literature or such, and yet her class has like 40 people in it? Seems a bit far-fetched lol

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u/quycksilver 17d ago

I was in that PhD program at UCLA at the time. Trust me when I say that our experience was nothing like Sidney’s, though I too aspired to write a paper on Fitzgerald with soul.

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u/Vast_Mushroom_9656 17d ago

Haha you mean your professors didn't give you time off to go look for Rambaldi artifacts in Serbia?

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u/quycksilver 17d ago

Any artifacts we felt the need to hunt had to searched for between terms—and on our own dime!

And we didn’t take essay tests in blue books either 🙃

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u/StephenHunterUK 13d ago

Historically, recruitment at Cambridge or Oxford has been an MI6 thing, but usually involving a professor talent spotting you, and asking you if you are interested in a certain opportunity during a supervision i.e. a private meeting. Eventually you find out it's for the Secret Intelligence Service.

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u/freelancing47 18d ago

Why? Not familiar with English masters sizes. But seemed legit knowing some other programs?

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u/Vast_Mushroom_9656 17d ago

Usually smaller, 8-15, maybe max 20. It's such a minor detail, but I thought it was interesting

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u/freelancing47 16d ago

And the prof never let you finish writing an exam past the deadline, no matter what you were saying.

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u/basicotter 13d ago

Most professors don’t have students who are immensely skilled spies heavily trained in coercion and manipulation.