annieca

My last favorite has to be chocolate. Can't stand chocolate ice cream! Or anything with maraschino cherries because I'm allergic. My news: no news grad school wise. However, I am officially done with my last fall semester of undergraduate! I had a lovely exam on War and Society in History in a *freezing* Sports Cage where I swear there were prison guards stalking the aisles who wouldn't even let you have tissues! Fine then...I'll let the professors deal with the snot blobs on my blue book. *rolls eyes* I'm going to Cardiff for a few days where the rift of time/space is. Anyone want me to try and fast forward say, a month, for everyone and put us out of our misery?

game spinner

My poor best guy friend...he's stressed about exams (we're just finishing up first semester here in the UK) and I'm stressed about grad school letters. Of course, I'm trying to be all calm and collected about it but then when he cancelled a meeting to get some more studying in for his law final I lost it. His advice? "A minute of grumpy Ann takes sixty seconds away from happy Ann." ^^ This is why I'm happy he's coming with our trip to London because honestly he'll be the only one to be able to talk me back into reality if I get a rejection while I'm at conference.

Gotta be the Nutella! I second the Amazon idea! I really want to call South Carolina and say "PLEASE! I am going out of my mind!" But I don't think sounding like a derranged prospective student will help...

I used to have a ton of fun socks but they've got weaned out. My favorite of all time though (isn't exactly a color but...) has to be either my Easter socks with a penguin with bunny ears or my Valentine's Day ones with a ladybug that say "Love bug" on them. Had my first application nightmare last night. I dreamed that there was an email from Aber saying "Our current response time is 135.7 days." Needless to say when I woke up I checked my email! Least favorite ice cream flavor? (Good stress relief methinks!)

Or not adding the extra 'e' in Berkeley. :/ Indiana University is run by Midwesterners so it's all good if you call them "University of Indiana" though they'd prefer you didn't. Thanks everyone! Two weeks...I have a feeling I will get out of a lecture or a seminar, check my email and go beserk. Of course, I can't get my phone to send notifications for my Aber email so that's a blessing in disguise because I won't see the green flashing light and freak out. Random question for all to lighten our mood: favorite sock color?

Submitted my last app today. My stomach was literally in knots (still is) as I checked over everything. It didn't help that I had to download a free trial of Acrobat, change a jpeg into a pdf and then reduce the file size, stalk a website for an address that doesn't like to be given... all as the last little steps of my application. The stomach knots comes from the "It's my favorite school I think" and also they have the quickest turnaround in acceptance/rejections - it's around 2 weeks which is freaking amazing - so I know I'll know fairly quickly. If they don't want to tell me in 2 weeks, well, I'm here at the University now and while I don't know where the postgrad office is...I have google powers and I can find it! *evil glare* But now I AM DONE with the application process!!!! *cue happy dance* Welcome newbies! I would like to amend, for the record, that we are not *losing* our minds - we lost them a long, long time ago.

@ion_exchanger- I applied to their History and Library Science program (HiLS)

My flatmates are going to think me insane but I will definitely be doing happy dances for all of you guys as the decisions roll in. It'll be my exercise for a month or so, right? I planned a trip to Malta for the first week of my three weeks of Spring Break as an excuse to have fun, relax and see a new country. My plan was to finish my senior thesis beforehand so I could purely focus on the experience. But now I'm realizing a few of my universities' funding answers come out the end of March, early April. Does Malta have good wifi on the beaches? We are all insane and I love that we're all insane together.

My parents have always had a few unspoken rules about my life before I was even conceived. I actually think my Dad decided these and my Mom just nodded, trusting him. 1) You will graduate from college 2) You will graduate from a Master's program at the least (we want you to get a PhD but we'll start with a Master's) 3) You will get married, or have a domestic partnership or whatever your state allows and your gender preference is. 4) You will give us grandchildren in some capacity so my mother can buy cute baby clothes. So the whole "no-kids" thing isn't a problem. That, and I'm barely 20 so I think they're sure they've got time. What I love is my father is convinced I'm going to get a PhD when I'm applying to terminal Master's. Yes, at some point in my life I either want a law degree or a PhD but I don't WANT to think about this while I'm applying for Master's. So shh about that!

new age

I agree that Brown's was horrible! I hated that it told me I needed an essay but NOWHERE on the application or program website did it list a prompt. Maryland's was infuriating. I think at one point I kicked something I was so annoyed with it. And then the scanning and uploading! Seriously, I have to send you a paper copy and then wait 2-3 weeks for you to upload it and even then your system won't update so I freak out because you apparently lost my transcripts?! Favorite applications? St Andrews where it emailed me anytime something was changed. Or Aberystwyth where I could click a section was completed and it wouldn't bother me about it again.

We're all freaking out because we're not all PhD. I'm looking at getting a terminal Master's that decides around February, for example. Also, because the sciences are hearing and that's just annoying to hear from one school/one program and then say "Why can't I hear yet?" And lastly, because this is a HUGE deal to most of us and if anyone on this board is like me (and I imagine they are), they don't like the guessing game while their futures are in some else's hands.

St Andrews, that was just CRUEL! I checked my email this morning and had an email from St Andrews. So of course, I got really excited and started to read it. "Following your recent application to St Andrews, we are writing to give you some information about what you can expect to happen over the coming months..." Not cool! Not cool at all! Why do they tempt and torture our souls like this?

Congrats on submitting the application to Oxford! It's suppose to be gorgeous - or so people keep telling me. I haven't visited yet. :/ I got an email from one of my recommenders today saying sure he'd send me the letter but he doesn't really want to. I said, in the most polite terms I could manage, "That's fine. But you have to print it on letterhead, pay international postage and it's NOT what the school WANTS". We'll see how he responds. Hopefully with an attachment and then I can submit my last app. *sigh* Keep our heads up fellow troopers!

@crackerjacktiming - Nope. It was snail mail. The letter was dated January 2nd. Actually, on Indiana's website I have absolutely no clue how it shows I'm accepted. Weird.

A lovely conversation with my sister tonight: "So I'm going to be freaking out because I'm in London in a committee of over one hundred delegates and frantically checking my phone. But I can't do it during caucus or even short coffee breaks because no one wants Australia to come in with mascara running down her face because X school said they didn't want her." So what does my sister say? "That is so you to a tee. The freaking out bit." To be fair, I wasn't freaked out until the LOR debacle and then my first acceptance. Now that one school has accepted me my mind goes "WHY doesn't everyone else?!" It's going to be a long month until the programs tell me. :/

Stroke 9's "Washin' + Wonderin'" on my Last.fm station. I can't listen to Pandora here in the UK so I found a better alternative that also works in the US!

@Sio68 - The official deadline so we can get housing is the end of February. However, the sooner I get my application in, the sooner I hear (they have a two-week turnaround). Hmm...interesting to the historiography. I'm a huge historiography fan. Foucault and Stoddart - I love, love them. I'm using Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities as a basis for my thesis. But I feel weird, in my introduction saying "intro THESIS" and then "Much of the literature is economic or politically based..." Especially since there *isn't* a lot of literature on my topic per se. I'm writing about Slovak emigre opinions on the Velvet Divorce but much of my literature is just about the Velvet Divorce. I'm a post-Cold War historian if that helps. Thanks! And I would be interested to see what others think.

Two questions - 1 completely grad school app related, the other, not so much. 1) I had emailed a colleague about sending me his LOR so I can submit it for an application. I emailed him over a week ago. At what point is it acceptable to send a follow up? He just needs to attach the letter to an email and I'll do all the rest. 2) Don't pelt me with fruit for asking this but... where does your historiography go in your thesis? Do you put it immediately after your thesis but before your historical context or where? My historical context also happens to be my first chapter so I'm not entirely sure where I need to throw in my historiography bit so it seems to make sense. Many hugs and cups of hot tea to everyone waiting!

Public History and Library Science University: Small, private liberal arts (1 year abroad at semi-well known British university) GPA: 3.795 GRE: 157V/150Q/4.0 Two internships at archives (one at American History museum), at least 1 excellent LOR Honors student Assisted professor on 3 books and several articles Applying: Indiana (History), IUPUI (History and Library Science), Brown (Public Humanities), South Carolina (Public History and Library Science), Maryland (Public History and Library Science), Aberystwyth University (Library Science), St Andrews (Peace and Conflit Studies) And for you guys... Get into two, one funded, one not, reject two and waitlist 1. Just a guess.

I got the "What do you want to do after [MA/MLIS] graduation?" speech from my father a couple of days ago. Dad, let me focus on the fact my applications are JUST in and I need to know what CONTINENT I'll be on before I start making after-graduation plans. My Dad should be the most accepting of almost anyone...he's gone through the grad school process. :/

Don't even get me started on Pinterest...

For me it's a combination of many things. Spending far too much time drinking and catching up on being a teenager that I missed while being a teenager. Working on my honors senior thesis, working on research for London MUN. But only the first two are really guilty pleasures. My true guilty pleasure? Watching The Newsroom.

Because I really don't want to read anymore books on my dissertation topic (articles yes, books, no) I'm rereading The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde is pure genius.