Owlie

stranger things

Odd, because the generic "Middle Eastern" places here will do lamb, chicken or beef. No fries, though!

I'm glad you liked it!

You too? I've got G-mail set up with a "grad school" filter and label. Every so often, something pops up in that category...and then it turns out that it's some school (that I didn't apply to) advertising their information sessions. I think the cumulative stress from these occurrences may have taken a year off my life.

Pretty much my life. Mail carrier leaves, I rush out to check it, then I check my email (for the nth time), then run here to see if anyone's posted results...Then I realize that I have to wait another 24 hours. :/

dirty laundry

I'm still waiting to hear back from two schools. One interview was in mid-February, and I've heard nothing since. (No results posted here, either.) The other was two weeks ago--I can understand that, since their deadline was Feb. 15th. The first one, though, is my top choice, and I'm starting to think I'm on the unofficial waitlist, so that potentially means I won't hear anything until April or May. I'm a planner, and this is driving me crazy. Do I stay here? Move back in with my parents? Or am I going to have to organize a move across the country at the last minute? The suspense is killing me. And there hasn't been anything in the mail. (Except an electricity bill. Goody.)

basic training

Care to enlighten? The Middle Eastern restaurant near the grocery store here does very nice pita "burritos." Their garlic sauce is fantastic...

I think my computer has mastered that look. That, and I may have destroyed the F5 key...

tree house

I interviewed at Arizona a month ago, and still no word. I'm debating whether or not to call, but then that gets into the question of "do I actually want that answer?"

If you've got two admits that you're torn between, then I can see taking a little more time. I'd be happy with just one admit!

I know very little about Ontario, despite having family up there. Anyway: Parts of Cleveland are a bit grimy, but not where you're probably going to be living. The campus itself is in sort of a "cultural" area--the art and natural history museums are almost immediately off the part of campus you're going to be concerned with, as is Severance Hall (Cleveland orchestra's home). I didn't make a habit of walking around at night, but I never had a problem doing so if I needed. They've been improving police presence recently, which has certainly helped. (Granted, this was in response to quite a serious incident, but we've been getting fewer security alerts since.) Just use common sense and you should be okay. There are also free evening shuttles to take you around campus and to some of the surrounding areas, so you can avoid walking if you want to. Surrounding campus: If you go off the southern end of campus, you'll be in Cleveland Heights (where I'm living at the moment). It's pretty safe. Little Italy is also pretty safe, and lots of restaurants if you like Italian food. (Also, gelato. This is in fact a major selling point!) Cleveland Heights also has "Coventry", actually a segment of Coventry Rd that has a ton of affordable bars and restaurants, plus some odd little shops. There are some sketchy spots near campus, but there's nothing of interest there. There's also a bit of a buffer zone in the form of Little Italy and undergrad dorms (so lots of cops) on one side, and a school/Children's museum on the other. Feel free to ask if you've got any more questions!

My guess is "not necessarily." If you've been waitlisted, you may not hear until after that. Also, this year, there's probably an extremely high volume of applications, so it'll probably take longer for them to process them.

evil eye

eye lash

I'm not in your field, but if you haven't made your decision, I can give you some input on Cleveland. (I did my undergrad at Case.) It does have some things going for it. You can get by without a car within a certain radius of the university. It's very walkable and the public transport system is decent, though it has been cut back a bit due to budget woes. Campus is also pretty walkable--don't bother with the shuttles. Living here is pretty cheap. Winter is long, cold and snowy--I'm not going to cover that up. Depending on where you live, the sidewalks may or may not be impassable some days. (The area immediately around campus is fine, though.) I'd invest in a pair of hiking boots. Edit--I see you're in Toronto, so you've got the weather thing down. Coming from there, I can see why you might find Cleveland boring, but there certainly are things to do and some good restaurants. Can they put you in touch with some current grad students?

fire ball

Roast beef, lettuce, cheddar, bacon, tomato, and horseradish sauce on a segment of a nice crusty baguette...

I got the first one last week, the same day I had an interview. I was expecting it, because I'd heard nothing from them (and I knew what the interview dates were). I got back from the interview, read it, sighed, and then clicked "delete." Then I called my parents to let them know that they'd be getting a hard copy of that e-mail. I've been dealing with bouts of feeling completely inadequate since then, because while I knew it was a stretch to begin with (and then I knew I wasn't getting in when I'd heard nothing by February), getting that e-mail made it real. If I don't get into one of my top choices...I'm probably going to feel like a miserable failure of a human being, then be extremely bitter, then try to figure out what I do for another year. There will be Bailey's and chocolate in there somewhere.

I'm glad I found this place--my friends who are applying to/ are already in grad school are all single, so there aren't many people to talk to about these issues. My boyfriend and I have been together for three years. He has been very supportive through the whole application process--he proofread my essays, listened to me whine about the whole thing, helped me pick clothes out for the interviews--but I'm pretty sure he's sick of my whining about waiting. He told me at the beginning of the process that he'd move to wherever I went. He's still got another year of undergrad left (he's in engineering), so it isn't as if his life is on hold until I know where I'm going. I've got two schools that I have a shot at getting into. One is at our undergraduate institution. The other is at a school in his home state, on the other side of the country. (Yes, he did have something to do with the decision to apply there.) He'd be much happier with me at the latter once he finishes up his undergrad degree, but I don't know what his job prospects would be. We'd also have to pursue a long-distance relationship for at least that year. If I went with the former, we'd be able to live together as we have been, but he wouldn't be as happy. I guess we'll cross that bridge when I come to it. We've done the LDR thing before, when he went on co-op for eight months, but that was when I had friends close by to distract me. Ultimately, though, he doesn't factor hugely into my decision, which makes me feel a little guilty. I don't feel like I'm taking into account his feelings, even though he hasn't really said anything other than "I'll move wherever you're going."