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minnares

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Everything posted by minnares

  1. I'm wondering who else has applied to JHU's English department. Care to share anything you know about your application process? Contacts in the department? Just talk about the school? I looked around the boards and couldn't find a thread for the Hopkins Jays. Thought I'd start one. ~ m
  2. OK, I'm asking. I've seen 4 folks on the acceptance feed announce they've been accepted to UNC Chapel Hill since January 4th. Can those of us still waiting hear about how that went down for you (the phone call, the email, whatever you're willing to share)? Also, if you don't mind sharing your stats, I'd be grateful. I'm starting to get itchy waiting. I want to get in there SO badly. ~ m
  3. I applied to Cornell (upstate NY), but honestly felt like anywhere around NYC was such a huge thing to ask of my family already. Columbia is a loooong shot for me. I'll probably pee my pants if I get in there or lose control of other functions. I'm really hoping for Bloomington because my dad lives 45 minutes north of there. My boys adore him. So it'd be good all around. AND my DH just got a line on a job in Indy. So... maybe everything will fall into place. I'd be thrilled with any of these programs, but I know that Bloomington and Chapel Hill would be the easiest moves for my kids, which is fine. I will factor them into this decision throughout the process. I'm starting to lose hope for Chapel Hill today though. Another person posted that they'd been accepted for English. That makes 4 just on this board . ~ m
  4. I might have to pick your brain about places to live and how you're doing your move (that is if the heavens open up and angels sing and Columbia picks me). ~ m
  5. If all goes according to plan (it seldom does, just sayin'), we plan to move the first week of July, or at least drive out. Best case scenario, we'd already have our new house picked out. We're hoping to find buyers that will let us rent back from them until the move date. I figured that'd give us the entire month of July to get there, settle in, unpack some, get my kids registered in school, etc. ~ m
  6. Oh, no! Nightmare. My husband had a labradoodle sitting on his foot for an entire flight from Paris to Greece once. It wasn't so bad . At least his foot was warm. LOL. Yeah, I thought about flying the animals, but they both have heart conditions (so much potential irony and literary value in having pets with broken hearts, let me tell you). Think it's going to be easier, at least for the Beagle, to just ride it out on the seat in the back of the van. He loves to ride in the car. It's like Beagle crack for him. The cat will need meds, but I think once we're on the road for a while she'll settle down. We have two vehicles to get across country, so it'll literally be a caravan with an animal in each car. Good times. At least my sons are older are fairly self sufficient. Can't imagine doing this with little ones and pets. My hat's off to anyone who might be doing that, since we all seem to be in a similar boat. ~m
  7. Thanks Nighthob . After the shellacking I received in the Purdue/Bloomington thread as "welcome" to the boards, it's nice to hear someone knows I'm not the devil. LOL . When I saw the Ball State rejections in Proctology going up yesterday on the results thread, I oddly knew how that felt. I almost wanted the AW part to be harder because the math was next. I was all pumped up from pounding out those essays, and my confidence was through the roof. Then I sat down to 45 minutes of pure hell. Uncool. By the time the verbal rolled around, I was essentially a sweaty, quivvering mass of fear. BAH ETS! BAH GRE! BAH to all the acronyms that try to put any of us in a box and define us by a number. Let's just say that I have the Indigo Girls "Closer to Fine" on a continuous loop on my iPod these days. We, all of us, have accomplished so very much. Something in the neighborhood of 25% of the country receives a bachelors degree. That in itself makes what everyone here has accomplished so far HUGE. Add to that all of the astronomical GPAs, GREs, people writing us LORs, even if we don't get accepted, I think we need to keep in mind how accomplished we are already and take our affirmation from that. This AW section of the test is indeed just one more hoop, people. This too shall pass. We will all know soon enough. As my son likes to say (quoting Anger Management), oooozfrabah! ~ m
  8. @Branwen: I've got fur children too: a geriatric Beagle and a primadonna Seal Point Siamese We're going to the traveling circus. The idea of 3,000 miles in a car with my yowling Siamese does not appeal to me, but I love her. I'll be seeing about some happy pills to knock her out for certain. @pea-jay: We might end doing the NY thing, too, which terrifies and exhilarates me at the same time. Have you ever lived there before? ~ m
  9. Oh fauxtog, muffin-palooza sounds fantastic. I want to join that. I've been cooking my way through Martha Stewart's Casserole Calendar. Everything has cups and cups of cheese in it. Eggs-cellent . ~ m
  10. Aquina is right. The AW is looks for a formulaic essay structure (think 1-2-3 Quick & Easy like some of you might have learned in high school). And from what I could glean in the books and online, they look at length, number of paragraphs. Also, did you know that ETS posts the complete list of all potential GRE AW questions on their website? You can print it out, though it is pages and pages long. If you do so, you'll note that the questions revolve around the same type of questions. They're stock questions worded differently. For example, one of their favorites is essentially why does art matter. Another is science over religion. I'd read the questions and thought up stock answer in advance. I wound up getting both of these options on the test, regurgitated my prior thinking, and got 6. Typing quickly helps too. I'm a paralegal, so my essays were in the 9-10 paragraph range, when the books say they look for 5-6. So I suspect they just give it a cursory glance for length, structure, and maybe one solid read through. That's your score. And as others have said, I suspect it's just one more way to cut if it comes down to the wire. If your writing sample, SoP, and LORs are strong, then this might not come into play much. I got a horrible math score on the GRE (still in the 50%, so TECHNICALY average, but lower than I'd hoped after all that studying for it), and I'm telling myself it won't matter much. Honestly, who knows? At this point, I'm wondering if we should start reading tea leaves, throwing the bones, and trying augury. ~ m
  11. @origin415: Did you locate all the Superman dolls in the Seinfeld episodes? ~ m
  12. For me, Harvard, but only because I've had this pie in the sky dream of going there since my folks brought me a sweatshirt back from a trip when I was 8 Honestly, though, I think the best fit for me would be WUSTL, Brown, or Hopkins. The other three would be amazing to be accepted to, but I don't expect it at all. I'm honestly not sure what I'll do if I actually do get an offer from any one of them. I also have to consider good locations for my kids to attend school and DH to have a job transfer. So I've modified the dream somewhat, but that's OK too. ~m
  13. OK, I had to go back and look up the "Duke rant." Woooooow. @expressionista: Did you see the subsequent rejection posts for Ball State? Equally humorous. ~ m
  14. You're not the only nutcase by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think it's exceedingly sane to fill the void (or The Lull) with other activities. Here's a list of a few of mine: 1. Cleaned out the garage and organized it. 2. Painted my kitchen and one of sons' rooms. 3. Sold a bunch of stuff on Craigslist. 4. Met with our realtor. 5. Met with our contractor to have the kitchen countertops fixed (one of our sons set down a hot kettle and left a scorch mark). 6. Inviting LOTS of friends over for big dinners. 7. Movie marathons. 8. Extra sleep (before I get none for 7 years). 9. Reading as many books on my GoodReads "to read" list as humanly possible (before what I read is dictated to me for 7 years). 10. Made a moving binder in preparation for the family journey across country. That's all I can think of right now. That and eating WAY more than I should and MUCH less healthier stuff (like chocolate peanut butter ice cream and homemade chicken pot pie). ~ m
  15. Thank you so much for this LadyL, and congratulations to you after so much time spent waiting and hoping. Get get 'em, good woman! ~ m
  16. @gken: LOL! I was thinking of Columbia! Got my Cs mixed up. Yes, Ithaca. Very different. ~m
  17. I am, BandB. I also worked full time and did my BA at night, at a Pac10 school, but still... I completed my first two years of course work in 9 months by attending two community colleges at the same time (in order to get around their credit limits), and then transferred in. So that worries me. I worry about having three transcripts. I worry about not having some of the classes I would have LOVED to take during the day if I'd been able. What's CLEP? I'd never heard of that. The upside was that I got a stellar, amazing woman for my faculty advisor who had earned her PhD in her 40s from UofO. She took me in hand and really did everything she could to find opportunities with me, like my one fellowship. But still, I know there were other things I missed by not being on campus. It is what it is. Que sera sera. The die is cast. Etc. and all of that cliched blather But there was something about being one of the only students heading onto campus in the dark every night as all the younger students headed out that kind of hurt. I realize that doing this later in life is the result of my choices, though, so I'm just rolling with it. I honestly don't know what more I could have done given my situation, and I'm trying to make peace with it. ~ m
  18. Just wanted to send you a hello. If you'd ever like to talk about your experience, I am a willing ear. Be well hon.

  19. Yep! I think we've found our tribe If nothing else, isn't is comforting to know you are not alone in this process, this dream, this nontraditional way of living life? Kind of wonderful, actually. There is never only one path. ~ m
  20. @AlecBaldwin: That was so well put I'm tempted to print it out and hang it next to my monitor. Thank you for that. @callmelilyb: My husband pointed out that there are many folks who professors who really have no business teaching. We've all encountered them. I figure if they can make it into a PhD program, so can we There are SO many programs, and from the looks of this board, everyone here has more than sufficient background going for them. I agree with you that despair is a bit premature, if tempting to bend to. ~ m
  21. That's just like me with Bloomington. My dad lives 45 minutes north of there. I was actually born in Lafeyette when my dad was doing his PhD in Physics at Purdue All in all, it wouldn't be bad for my kids to live close to their grandfather either. Maybe things really do work out how they are supposed to? I'm super, super excited for you about the Graduate Fellowship. That is wonderful! ~ m
  22. Sounds like a blast, callmelilyb. I'll bring the 5th. (or we could throw an "OMG we actually got IN to Columbia party"? There's still hope!) ~ m
  23. LOL! Too funny. You mean that money wasn't black mail to keep the nature of my pathetic math GRE score hush hush? ~ m
  24. Wow. Here I thought I was all alone in this crazy dream. You guys just made me feel simultaneously so much better and almost wanting to cry. So this can be done. It can; it's just SO much added work. And I suppose that since we all want this so badly that makes it worth it. To those with smaller children, my hat is off to you (here you can even have my hat). I can't imagine doing this with little ones. Mine are 13 (twins) and almost 18, and that's terrifying enough. @UnlikelyGrad: You are in EXACTLY the right place. This is why I started this thread. I suspected there were stories of this nature floating around these boards. I am so sorry to hear your move and transition have been a struggle. My husband made a similar offer because he feels like I can't give up my dream. We had a separation a few years back, and I just won't do that again. I won't. I would walk away from this dream before I would do it again. My kids need me, even as teenagers. This is not in any way to disparage your choice, but to empathize with your situation. It's one I've been wrestling with the possibility of having to make, as well. My heart goes out to you. I sincerely hope that you get your family all in one place with you and soon. @khamylak: How about a whole 5th for moving with a family? LOL! For the rest of you, how have you (or will you) juggle the move? Do any of you have a house to sell? What are your spouses doing in terms of their jobs and that transition? ~ m
  25. @MP: The dream indeed. And then there's that whole living on or around Manhattan thing . My faculty advisors and favorite prof were push, push, pushing me to apply there. I'm also too timid to contact them. The one time I did contact them it was like getting my wrist slapped. Maybe that should tell us something? I hope actually being a grad student there wouldn't have a similar tone. ~ m
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