mockturtle

I hate when I hold a door for someone, and they walk straight through it without taking it... and then their friend does the same thing... and so do the people behind them. And meanwhile I'm just standing there like some kind of irritable, underdressed bellhop.

God damn that's a quite a respectable spread of admissions/interviews, congratulations. I'm definitely kicking around the idea of applying to at least a few places this fall, just in case of a miracle. It's just going to feel like a silly pointless expense, in terms of both money and time, if none of it pays off in the end, you know? For the record, I can't boast of a 3.94, more of a 3.85, but you clearly got into the places you did based on much more than that. I'm not limiting myself to top 10, exactly... but top 25, maybe? There's probably not all that much of a realistic difference there, however, in terms of likelihood of admission, so I don't know if I can consider that a great boon to my chances. I appreciate the danger of applying to only top schools, but my thinking is that I could always compromise with safeties when applying after a gap year or a few, since by that point I probably couldn't exactly expect much more.

I really needed to hear this, thank you so much. I still think my application, as it is, would still probably not stand out from the pool next year (even with all the eloquent writing and polite first impressions in the world), and I want to do something about that, but you're definitely right about the subtleties of someone's qualifications and personality not coming through in a bunch of stats.

Road trip

Time card

Game theory

Home remedies

"No doubt they were intimidated by my sweet skillz" That'z the zpirit!

Saddle sore

Delivery boy

Smoking gun

Scat man

Oh god, I recently took an exam with a guy sitting directly behind me who did this, incessantly.... With his feet shaking the back of my seat. And his awful plasticky pants squeaking. Even when I'd turn around to give him a look, he'd only give it a rest for about 30 seconds before starting up again. Stimming or not, seriously???

Double park

Wow, congrats!! And yes, I definitely do. Not to sound like a prestige-hound, but I do have my sights set kind of high for my grad school career, and some of the people I see getting turned down by these places are just lightyears ahead of me.

Name brand

Iron lung

I share a wall with a housemate who likes to sing. A lot. And loudly. Part of me finds it endearing, but I'm sorry homegirl I don't need to hear your screaming voice cracking at 10am when I'm trying to sleep in.

Hard knocks

Shot put

Another: "Expected, but blergh." I know that feeling.

I'm pretty fond of the "Bunch of nihilists..." I saw from someone trying to get into a music program (I don't know why was that the first insult they jumped to but I appreciate it). This one... evidently isn't a rejection? But: "Didn't apply, but f*ck you Stanford. Glad I didn't waste the time, money, or effort..."

Petty cash

Night light