Kind of. Here is a transcript of the message I received from them:
Hi Ms. Weingarten,
Thank you for the message. Once AGU's Ocean Sciences meeting finishes, I'll start planning my trip to visit the department.
Great!
With that said, I'm curious about my status as an applicant. I have not received any word regarding the department's decision to accept, reject, or even interview me.
We don’t do formal interviews, but you are one of the applications Dr Blanken has identified that he is interested in and so that is why he is inviting you to visit. You are correct that we have not communicated with you about acceptance. I don’t have all the pieces – the committee is giving me only a few names at a time, so you are still in the “holding” pattern. A lot of the delay we have at this time of year is that faculty are waiting to hear from another applicant – perhaps because they have limited funding. Applicants don’t have to answer until April 15. I don’t know what the committee of Peter Blanken is doing but my guess is it is something along those lines and we all just have to wait it out.
Would you be able to provide any information on the matter? Going off your previous message, I would assume that I've at least been granted an interview, but I want to be sure be continuing any further. Thank you very much.
You should probably talk to Peter directly about your status, but he is obviously interested or he would not be inviting you. We only have about 7-8 of these travel awards each year and he picked you! Coming to visit is kind of like him interviewing you and you interviewing us……
Hope this helps you. When is the AGU conference?
Karen
My questions are underlined and purple-ish. So yeah. I'm looking for a ticket there now because Dr. Blanken recommended that I visit over my Spring Break since he'll be traveling and whatnot.