astreaux

Ooh, and big congrats to the North TX admit! It's great to see motion each day...

Last night I dreamed that I got decisions from Chicago, Washington, Wisconsin, and one other school (can't remember which) all on the same day. One acceptance, three rejections, all via giant, USPS-delivered glossy postcards. The acceptance included funding, but after seeing it once, I couldn't find it again (thank you for that fleeting sense of win, MIT). I lingered on one rejection in particular: a professor who explained that "fit" was poor because I clearly didn't get her Star Wars jokes. After years of mocking my nerdiest friends' sci-fi posts on Facebook, this was one night in my own personal hell. It's amusing now, but the dream's tenor was very much about the strange feeling that I still don't understand what could make or break my application to any given place. I'm not sure TV is enough of a distraction. Anyone have exhausting workout routine ideas to share?

Beyond belief

Scientific method

Social station

blue skies

Gnome Chomsky = best internet name ever.

Now, I'm an obsessive page-refresher, but this warning on Berkeley's graduate admissions site amused even me: "We will be performing system maintenance on Wednesday, January 15th, 2014 between 6am and 6:30am. There may be a brief outage during this time. Please plan accordingly." Are you guys checking for updates in the middle of the night?

Congratulations! That is wonderful news.

Hipster bar

Chocolate truffle

Rainbow Warrior

Cold reading

Adult beverage

"Informal" is what they called it. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but my sense is that it's just very early in the process and they're trying to learn a bit more than they can from a SOP about who we are as students and applicants. It's also a great opportunity to ask questions. My POI asked if I had any, and didn't seem to mind when I had a dozen.

food porn (sorry)

That was me. It was an informal interview.

Bird bath

Nope, I have nothing listed in that section either.

open sesame

My Michigan application status shows as "incomplete," so I sent them a message to see if anything was missing. For anyone else who has applied to U Mich, here is the response: "Thanks for your message. No materials are missing from your application. There seems to be an issue with our system and you, and seemingly a large number of applicants, are receiving this incomplete notice in error. I'm sorry for any confusion or anxiety it may have caused. Applications are currently under review and we expect decisions to go out in February."

Death sentence

Faulty parallelism

I've been binge-watching with a vengeance. I exhausted Netflix's supply of somewhat highbrow political thrilleramas and moved on to the most deliciously trashy one ever: Scandal. It's equal parts West Wing, Alias, and Dynasty. Highly recommend.

Central premise