A set diagram depicts the places where different groups of objects overlap. Example: in the United States, there are about 1,700 professional football players, and thousands of people pursuing PhDs in math. On an overcast day in late winter, that place is the Norbert Wiener Common Room in MIT's Department of Mathematics, where John Urschel is sitting at a table, chatting. Urschel is an offensive lineman with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, a three-year pro with 40 regular- season games played and a couple of playoff starts on his football résumé. He is also a doctoral candidate in math at MIT who has passed his qualifying exams and has nine published or accepted research papers on his academic résumé.

A set diagram depicts the places where different groups of objects overlap. Example: in the United States, there are about 1,700 professional football players, and thousands of people pursuing PhDs in math. On an overcast day in late winter, that place is the Norbert Wiener Common Room in MIT's Department of Mathematics, where John Urschel is sitting at a table, chatting. Urschel is an offensive lineman with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, a three-year pro with 40 regular- season games played and a couple of playoff starts on his football résumé. He is also a doctoral candidate in math at MIT who has passed his qualifying exams and has nine published or accepted research papers on his academic résumé.

In his two seasons with the Ravens, John Urschel has started at three positions -- left guard, center, and right guard. Now, he's back in school trying to earn a third degree. As a collegiate standout at Penn State, Urschel earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree in math there, and was working on a second master's in math education when he was a fifth-year senior. That meant teaching classes on top of his football workload. But the balance was never an issue for Urschel, one he said in his first minicamp with the Ravens was one he enjoyed.