brunch

Accepted to the University of Georgia! I got that acceptance in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting it. I'm pretty excited, but I won't let myself get too worked up until I hear about funding.

I agree with those saying that it's celebratory. How is it conceited to tell people (who are supposed to be your friends) how happy and excited you are about the new direction your life is about to take? It'd be one thing if your post said "Oh, I got into grad school. I guess that's cool, but I didn't expect any less." But I assume most "I was accepted!!!!" posts are expressing shock/glee/gratitude. Sure, I'm a little jealous of my close friend for getting into one of my top schools, but I don't think he's a conceited asshole for not hiding the news until the day he pops off to another state.

Got the exact same thing from Minnesota. Maybe I'll see you there!

I just realized after browsing the results page that my discipline doesn't tend to send out results until MARCH. I think only two people or so have heard anything from schools in my discipline this year. Ugh. This torture is going to last me another month. I was checking the status of one of my applications today, though, and I see this: Grad School Status Domestic Ready for Decision Department Status: Decision made and sent to Grad school What? Why won't they tell me what decision they made? WHY?

"A 4.0 undergrad GPA? Ooh-la-la! Oh wait, it's from Stupid Idiots R Us University. Getting a 4.0 there is like managing not to poop yourself!" "But oh, look, she did interesting work with a prestigious foreign university!" "Yeah, but she's never been published. If her work there were so great, she would've gotten something publishable out of it. And look, her GRE scores are just okay. They'd probably fly at Stupid Idiots R Us University, but not HERE where we're GOOD AT STUFF." "Well, her recommenders seem to love her! But... I've never heard of any of them. Are they really professors, or just her uncles?" "And her SOP is just paranoid ramblings. Did she even edit this? Is this a Livejournal entry or something? Plus, she thinks that living in a foreign country is even worth mentioning! It has nothing to do with her field of study! And she jumped majors like the Fonz jumps sharks! Plus, she studied three languages, but she's not good at ANY of them! We need someone more focused than this!" "And look, her research interests don't REALLY match up with those of anyone working here. Why did she even apply here? Does she even know who we are? Does she even know who SHE is? Are we all just figments of her imagination, tormenting her in a waking nightmare?" "Hmm. Let's just put her at the bottom of the 'waitlist' pile and not tell her. If by some horrible twist of fate we actually accept her, we won't give her any funding. We certainly don't want her teaching impressionable undergrads or messing up anybody's research, either."