Sing Dammit, Sociologist

It's pretty commonly known in the graduate school "angst universe" that March 15 is a drop-dead date for schools with strict (not rolling) applications deadlines sending out results for Fall admission. Ergo, the closer you get to the Ides of March, the more likely it is that you are on a wait list, or have been rejected.

I applied to nine schools. Three were my "top-tier;" schools where I had a medium-to-high level of interaction/communication with faculty before application, liked the location, the program description, and the funding structure. Five were schools that I could be interested in, but for various reasons, were not my first choices, and one was an outlier, a program that I applied to because it would allow me to do the bulk of the work I was interested in, near home, with a faculty I'd met and enjoyed- but it wasn't a Sociology program.

Well, the decision being made, I am now receiving the rest of my notifications from schools, which is sort of weird. I've been accepted to two schools, one with funding, one with no news as yet. I accepted the sure deal, for a ton of reasons, but the bottom line being it became a far-and-away favorite after my visit.

The results, so far:

U of Cincy- accepted, Master's, no funding (yet);
U of Colorado- Boulder- accepted, PhD, tuition, TA, stipend, subsidized health, fellowship (I'm going- top tier);
UC San Diego- rejected (they were ranked 7th on my list of 9)
U of Arizona- rejected (they were top-tier);
Emory University- rejected (they were top-tier);
Stony Brook- rejected (bottom-tier, very little pre-application contact);

I have not yet heard from:
Syracuse
Temple
OSU (the outlier program)

I don't care, as such- I just want the letters to end the waiting. It's a weird psychological defect, I'm sure, to have accepted an offer, and yet still wait for likely kicks in the teeth from programs you don't want to go to. But seriously, what about this undertaking speaks of sanity?

It was weird- when I got the offer from Boulder, something clicked into place- a knowing that regardless of the other news, we had selected each other. Indeed, it was difficult in the scant days after my return from the visit, to not get geeked about the program. As it was, I was looking at apartment costs and soliciting bids from movers the very day I got the good news. Love at first sight, I guess.

For fans of The Secret, some of the things I wrote on my list of desired items were; to feel that I was wanted/being recruited; a phat financial package, and a faculty of up-and-comers who took a direct interest in the success of their students. I got all of that. The rest of the list I can't fully remember and some of it remains to be seen, but it's more than a decent start. To quote my friend Gabe, "Universe?! Hey, boo...thanks!"

Things are getting that "far-out, way-too-real" feeling.

I am excited, yes. Sure. Absolutely. It is going to be an exciting change for me- a bright new chapter, blah, blah, blah. But as one student said to me during me visit, "grad school brings up all your shit."

Yup, it does.

I have this fear, probably irrational, that when I leave home, bad things happen to my family and I can't get back to them. It's happened both times I've lived apart from the inmates at Camp Freak-a-Lot. So imagine my angst yesterday when I get a call from my mom- she's in the emergency room. Again.

My mom has random ailments and spells usually when she's traveling, but luckily she works at the hospital, so she's relatively well-versed and when she's at home, she gets rock-star treatment. But it certainly didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about leaving her here to fend for herself, especially with Man still needing a kidney transplant and getting sicker every day. 

These are not older people- my mom is only 19 years older than I am...and I ain't old. But their frailties worry me- what if something happens while I'm taking my comps? At a conference?

I know, in real life, people deal with this stuff all the time. And I know there's nothing I can do to stop things from happening. But yesterday, as I booked my one-way flight to Denver in August, I felt like Alice sliding down the rabbit hole. Here. We. Go.
 

I was comparing the process of waiting on decisions for graduate school like being a contestant on The Bachelor; waiting for the damn rose. And you don't know if you're geeked over the guy holding the rose, or just conditioned to want to be picked?

So...I guess I stand here hoping I look cute enough to get a stupid flower...but if the flower comes with tuition and a stipend, cool! :)

Dear Singdammit,

I am Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Sociology at the University of Hometown. I have the pleasure of writing today to inform you that your application to the Sociology M.A. program has been accepted. Congratulations. We very much hope you can join us this fall.

The Sociology Department's Graduate Program Committee makes graduate student decisions in two steps. First, we decide whether to accept applicants, and we communicate that news -- which is why I write today. Second, we make decisions on funding, based on the resources the department has available, the number of eligible students, etc. The GPC is in the middle of working on those funding decisions, which I hope to communicate to applicants within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions, please contact me or Ms. Super Cool, who is the department's Graduate Program Coordinator.

Director Guy -- ph. 555-XXXX; director.guy@Hometown.edu
Super Cool -- ph. 555-XXXX; super.cool@Hometown.edu

Again, congratulations, and we hope we will see you at Hometown.

Sincerely,

Director Guy
Director of Graduate Studies

Acceptance #1: University of Hometown. Master's program. Funding decisions to follow.

OK, Dr. Dave, you were right.

I'm happy. This is my alma mater (twice as of June), and after all the drama of my undergrad, I so did not want to apply here.

But I am grateful for Dr. Dave and my mom, who made me apply. I'm grateful for Rhys, who put up with me all fall. And dammit if I'm not grateful for the process, which was the easiest of all the schools I applied to, and Cheryl who runs things, has been incredibly responsive.

So I'm definitely going to school next year. Yay yay yay!!! *Does a happy dance*