pears

i've gotten one acceptance email in the morning (9:00 am EST), one rejection in the late afternoon/evening (5:00 pm EST), and one acceptance after checking the website in the afternoon (around 2:00 pm MT). seems to be all over the place!

i say "best" for all non-super-formal correspondence; otherwise, i use "regards," as one of my LoR writers (who also helped me polish up my SoP to absolute perfection) informed me that it was the correct formal closing.

oh my word. the hedgie. with the berry. and the everything. AH. that reminds me of my mom's response to getting into montana: among a sea of other animals in party and cowboy hats, there was this gem! (she, too, has a penchant for tiny animals in silly outfits.) she's poking a bit of fun at me, now that i'm pretty committed to going to MT- when i was little, i had a "cowboy" phase (i also didn't understand why girls couldn't be cowboys.. guess i was a feminist before i knew what that was!), and if i weren't a spitting image of my dad, nobody would guess that i was my parents' child. they're both suburban/urban types who don't care too much for dirt; i'm the hippie lovechild of indiana jones and annie oakley. now she's convinced i'll be living out my next two-odd years living out my cowboy dreams of yesteryear.

katieliz- you're gonna be there this weekend?! okay, in that case, definitely check out baraka cafe in central square, and dali near porter square. the former is moroccan/berber food; the latter is tapas. i'm drooling just thinking about them. also, le's in harvard square is pretty good, and bergamot in somerville is awesome, but it's a bit hard to get to without a car. boston has surprisingly awesome food options! callista- i haven't! i didn't get to the fenway neck of the woods much until my senior year- didn't do too much exploring as an undergrad, since it was so easy to stay on campus out in somerville/medford.. man, now i want to go visit my alma mater just for the food!

porge1991: i totally agree with hugh10. i'm fairly new to the whole bike thing (started 4 years or so; started in boston for undergrad, but nyc was home, and now i'm in san fran) i had my saddle stolen in nyc -- naive on my part, because i didn't realize that was even a thing at the time -- but i had kryptonite's "fuhgeddaboutit" lock so my frame and wheels were always safe. i would advise getting the same lock, as well as some cables for your saddle and wheels, if you're going to be on a bike every day. cyclists can get super aggro so +1 to being defensive. as for riding for the sake of riding, there are lots of hidden gems to check out during your down time that are a pain in the rump to get to by car, bus, or train but easy to reach by bike- lots of paths by the water and whatnot. in sum, it might not be the safest place for cyclists, but it's certainly not the worst, and if it ends up not being for you, there are plenty of excellent public transportation options to fill in the gaps. edit: i should note that, under the assumption the school is in or near the memorial S-K center, that's the neck of the woods i call home, and i've found it to be relatively more pleasant and low-key for biking than, say, midtown (but then again, hell might be more appealing than biking across the 50s on a friday afternoon..).

i'm still having crazy stress dreams, but now they're about schools and jobs. at the same time. this morning i was convinced that the BLM wanted to give me a job in missoula, but i wasn't allowed to take the job unless i declined my university of montana offer (top choice). needless to say, i woke up in a cold sweat.

lights out

katieliz- if you end up at BU, there's ole! and anna's taqueria. also, i know it's not mexican food, but the somerville/medford area has some seriously delicious brazilian food, and it's really cheap. i may or may not have spent an absurd amount of money on salmoa com molho de camarao, flan, and guarana during my many finals weeks there..

was anybody the forensic anthro MA admit at university of montana? if you were, pm me! that's where i'll most likely end up so it'd be nice to get in touch with another admit, even though i'm archaeo/general.

lmt007: i'm from nyc and have a small dog- i can really only speak for manhattan, but many people are very pet friendly. my dog is a "people person" (or, at least, she thinks she's a person..) with a cute face and no temper at all (well socialized as a puppy and now), so people — both with and without dogs — often approach me to meet her with a big smile. however, some people have really poorly socialized, typically spoiled dogs. they can't interact with other dogs at all: they bark, they snarl, they bite, they have aggressive body language, they lunge, etc. yikes. even my sweet little nug gets overwhelmed by certain small yapping things in pink sweaters and big bullies who snap at anything with legs. there are also dogs that are super needy, who get themselves (and sometimes their owners) kicked out of buildings for making too much noise. in sum, if your dog can handle a dog park and being alone for long periods of time in a somewhat small space, they should be okay in the city. my dog is mellow and relatively independent, so she'll never bark at something unless she thinks someone is trying to break in, and she's never aggressive towards other dogs- just a little overly friendly for the taste of some shy ones. if your dog can't be around one or many other dog(s), and/or can't be alone for a long period of time, you might want to reconsider.

night club

"cheddar blasted goldfish" g dangit. 3 words that almost have the power to make me throw my diet and usually-healthy eating habits out the window.. almost.. ..what? no. of course i'm not actively salivating all over the keyboard.

all of my fingers and toes are crossed for you, eager! your good vibes have helped me immensely so i'm sending as many as i can your way! <3

this might not be the right post to ask this question, but instead of starting a whole new thread for it, i figured i'd ask here- how typical is it for terminal MA programs (or programs that offer a terminal MA separate from their PhD programs) to have visiting weekends for accepted students? simply put, i've never been to the town or even the state one of my top choices is in. i don't have the money or the vacation time to go on my own, but it would be totally doable if i got a travel stipend, as my boss as said they're more than happy to give me time off as needed to visit schools. i haven't gotten the impression that MA programs have the funding to pay for visit weekends, though, so i'm not getting my hopes up.

well, my heart exploded into a million rainbows.

bumping this for more information!

soft kitty! (warm kitty, little ball of fur)

glad i could bring some happiness to you guys! as a little instant karma, i just received an acceptance from my top choice program, so i'm taking this as scientific proof that the calming manatee works.

just got accepted to my top choice program at montana (university of). holy smokes guys, i can't believe it! literally crying tears of joy. i really hope everyone hears good news soon, too!

congrats powertorest! that's awesome!

snaggle tooth

for your viewing pleasure, there is now a calming manatee and general goodness thread. back to incessantly refreshing my inbox and app status pages...

since we're up to our necks in the waiting process now, we've had a lot of negative vibes on this board lately, so i wanted to share one of my favorite things ever: the calming manatee. calming manatee loves you unconditionally. it wants to make sure you're nourishing your body, as well as your mind and soul. calming manatee agrees: it's totally jerky of adcomms to make you wait so long, after you put so much work into your applications. still, calming manatee is just as realistic as you are, and understands that sometimes a tasty beverage is the best solution. in general, this is now a thread full of soothing and smile-inducing things from around the interwebs. waiting and decision-making are really stressful, so i think we all owe it to ourselves to create a little refuge of good vibes to temporarily distract us all from the swirling vortex of dismay, worry, and apprehension. enjoy, friends

in the long run, for sure, but in the short term, it can be really brutal. my parents, both of whom work and are quite successful, were kind enough to put me through undergrad at an awesome private school (a scholarship paid for half of my tuition so it was manageable for them). because my field of work and study has a very limited number of paid student jobs/internships, and all of my academic year wages went to rent etc. (rent was $725-$800 monthly, plus another $50-$100 of utilities on top), the total cost of applying to grad programs ended up being somewhere around 15% of all the money i had to my name. i can break even comfortably where i'm working now, but i don't have a lot of wiggle room. i'm paying for everything out of pocket for the first year, most likely, since i'm going for a terminal MA (PhD programs aren't the right move for me at the moment for a number of reasons), so the application process alone was a major monetary setback, as far as applying for loans will go down the road. my favorite programs are out of state, too, which means i'll have a big decision to make if i get accepted to either one. i guess this was a really roundabout way of saying that for some, the application process-- let alone the entire tuition payment shindig-- can be a huge financial burden.. but i totally agree that it's worth it. an MA alone shatters my glass ceiling so i'll call it an investment, even though it will take a big chunk of my paychecks for the first couple of years to get rid of the debt.