LaTeX Starting Writing 4.5in from Top of Page

[Maxwell]

Hey guys,

I have been searching for an answer to this question for quite some time and I have found nothing. This should be pretty simple, yet for some frustrating reason, I can not get it to work.

I want to start some writing 4.5 inches from the top of the page. I am doing:

\begin{center}
\singlespacing
\vspace{4.5in}
Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for\\
the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering\\
in the Graduate School of\\
Stony Brook University\\
State University of New York\\
2009\\

\vskip .5 in

September 7, 2009\\

\vskip 1 in

a, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in

b, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in 

c, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in 

\normalsize

\end{center}

However, the first \vspace{4.5in} command gets completely ignored. I have tried the following:

%\hspace{4.5in}
%\vskip 4.5 in
%\topskip 4.5 in

And none of those commands work. I've even tried adding \bigskips in order to trick it into adding blank lines. Didn't work.

I do not use LaTeX very much, but I do need to get this page set up.

Does anyone have an idea as to why this is not working?

I am beyond frustrated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[las3rjock]

Here's a hack that seems to make it work:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace}
\begin{document}
[B]\ \vspace{4.5in}[/B]
\begin{center}
\singlespacing
Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for\\
the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering\\
in the Graduate School of\\
Stony Brook University\\
State University of New York\\
2009\\

\vskip .5 in

September 7, 2009\\

\vskip 1 in

a, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in

b, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in 

c, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University\\
\vskip 0.15 in 

\normalsize

\end{center}
\end{document}

I moved the "\vspace{4.5in}" command out of the "center" environment, and I prefixed it with a "\ " to create a paragraph containing a single space, so that there is something to vspace from.

 

[junglebeast]

And here's a much less hackish way (unless you only wanted on the first page?):

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage[left=1.25in,top=1.125in,bottom=1.125in,right=1.25in,nohead]{geometry}

 

[Maxwell]

Yeah, I need it on only one page.

I used the command \vspace*{3.1in}, which semi-works.

4.5 inches is more like 6 inches, but 3.1 inches works out to 4.5 inches. I believe this might be because of the header for the document type I'm using, but I don't really feel like figuring it out right now!

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[Maxwell]

Edit - Solved it. LaTeX is a pain to get used to, but once you do, it's worth it!