Today I got an acceptance letter from Tulane. I'm on the waiting list for funding, but the graduate chair said I was likely to get it once some offers are turned down, meaning that I'm high on the waiting list, which is good.
Now, it sounds like I have a choice of schools, but that's not quite the case. For Hawaii, I still have to come up with a way to pay for at least the first year, both tuition and living/moving expenses. I still haven't heard back from the financial aid office there, and I might have already taken out as much in student loans as I can. I would gladly sink deeper into student loan debt for my PhD, but I don't know if I'll be allowed to do such a thing. Tulane, on the other hand, will either give me full funding or none for at least the first year, and if I get no funding for the first year, there is no way for me to pay the tuition. Hawaii at least has a reasonable tuition; Tulane, as some of you may already know, does not. Now, if I get a funding offer from Tulane and I'm allowed to borrow more for Hawaii, I will have two live options in front of me, but until then, it's up in the air, with Tulane being the more likely choice since I have a chance of getting funding where I have no chance at Hawaii. I'd love to go to Hawaii, personally, but it would be hard to turn down five years of funding that doesn't include loans.
My main first choices in this endeavor were Hawaii and UC Irvine. I got rejected from Irvine, which sucks, and I might not get to go to Hawaii, so I may end up falling back on Tulane, which I actually originally applied to as a safety. From looking at the faculty and other graduate students, it looks like I'll be able to work with things that interest me (I wouldn't have applied otherwise), so it wouldn't be a total loss. It would have been cool to learn classical Chinese and work with an East/West model of consciousness. I would still be able to bring in some of that, but not to the level that I would have been able to so to the degree that I could at Hawaii.
I know it will all work out in the end, I'm just laying out the possibilities.
In other news, I finally got my hands on a certain compound I've sought for a while. I did not feel disappointed at all. There's a great deal to say about that, but I don't want to get into it.
I have a pile of exams and papers to grade, and I'll be glad to finish them, but I need to put in some serious work on my term papers this weekend as well.
Oh, and I still haven't heard from all of my schools, so there is an outside chance that I'll get into UC Berkeley still. Right now, I'm glad I got into two schools, since I only got into one last year. Furthermore, UHM and Tulane are both well-known schools, as is UBC, really, so it's not like I've lowered the bar or anything. For the first time, I can fell my PhD in reach, I just have to wait for a few more things to fall into place.
Now, it sounds like I have a choice of schools, but that's not quite the case. For Hawaii, I still have to come up with a way to pay for at least the first year, both tuition and living/moving expenses. I still haven't heard back from the financial aid office there, and I might have already taken out as much in student loans as I can. I would gladly sink deeper into student loan debt for my PhD, but I don't know if I'll be allowed to do such a thing. Tulane, on the other hand, will either give me full funding or none for at least the first year, and if I get no funding for the first year, there is no way for me to pay the tuition. Hawaii at least has a reasonable tuition; Tulane, as some of you may already know, does not. Now, if I get a funding offer from Tulane and I'm allowed to borrow more for Hawaii, I will have two live options in front of me, but until then, it's up in the air, with Tulane being the more likely choice since I have a chance of getting funding where I have no chance at Hawaii. I'd love to go to Hawaii, personally, but it would be hard to turn down five years of funding that doesn't include loans.
My main first choices in this endeavor were Hawaii and UC Irvine. I got rejected from Irvine, which sucks, and I might not get to go to Hawaii, so I may end up falling back on Tulane, which I actually originally applied to as a safety. From looking at the faculty and other graduate students, it looks like I'll be able to work with things that interest me (I wouldn't have applied otherwise), so it wouldn't be a total loss. It would have been cool to learn classical Chinese and work with an East/West model of consciousness. I would still be able to bring in some of that, but not to the level that I would have been able to so to the degree that I could at Hawaii.
I know it will all work out in the end, I'm just laying out the possibilities.
In other news, I finally got my hands on a certain compound I've sought for a while. I did not feel disappointed at all. There's a great deal to say about that, but I don't want to get into it.
I have a pile of exams and papers to grade, and I'll be glad to finish them, but I need to put in some serious work on my term papers this weekend as well.
Oh, and I still haven't heard from all of my schools, so there is an outside chance that I'll get into UC Berkeley still. Right now, I'm glad I got into two schools, since I only got into one last year. Furthermore, UHM and Tulane are both well-known schools, as is UBC, really, so it's not like I've lowered the bar or anything. For the first time, I can fell my PhD in reach, I just have to wait for a few more things to fall into place.
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the sensation of rising thrgouh singing gritty jello in a universe of light has always been the least of it's effects to me... and more than once, totall identity dissociation...