practical cat

Especially over the weekend. But my skepticism is surely not going to prevent me from obsessing about it. I did also go though the Buffalo results for the last several years and they do seem to be absurdly fast. Weep weep weep.

Yes, definitely.

I decided Interfolio wasn't worth the cost for me since more than half of my schools don't accept it or prefer not to use it. I think if there's going to be a next time, I would reconsider just out of kindness to the people who submitted ten times this year but, honestly, it would've caused me more trouble than the slight panic about that one ten days late letter.

One of my recommenders is submitting letters in no particular order at sporadic times. (I'm assuming she has brilliant logic behind what looks go me like using a random number generator to pick which letters to submit.) She's had a few several (eta: 10) days late and all that really did was make me twitchy. (I only sent her one reminder email when I hadn't heard from her in about a month but I know her to have an unconventional approach to rules -- she doesn't like them -- and trust that she always comes through anyway. What other people need to do to get those letters in may differ.) Anyway, this became all about me real fast but I hope my anecdote gives you some comfort. And pretty much every school gets that the only person you can control is you and that a late recommendation is not all your control. A lot of professors who have written a million letters know this and let the looser deadlines suit them without realizing to let us know that they have a plan and it's not entirely out of control.

I feel like GradCafe is more Island of Misfit Toys than a congregation of perfect people. I say that with love, as a misfit toy.

I didn't because I'm trying not to draw too much attention to the fact that my thesis was done within my advisor's department/discipline. But I'm having an especially difficult time managing my interdisciplinarity.

Yes. Or at least that's what Berkeley's "countdown to due date" clock indicated. I would assume it's the timezone of the school unless they specify otherwise?

Serious application fatigue and I have about half as many in as you do. I kind of stalled out one day this week and now I'm paying for that.

I mean, I think you can get to know professors quite well in any environment and the ones that try are probably going to be the same people who are competitive no matter what, you know? I had plenty of classes with professors who literally wouldn't recognize me WHILE I was in their class but the English departments at even the big schools can be quite cozy because it's not a lecture-based field for the most part (most of my English classes were professors teaching 15-30 student classes) and even lectures are often quite interactive. People who aren't going to make an impression aren't, no matter the size of the class.

For me, I'm pretty naturally hyper-competitive so I think that environment would push me too far. I'm leaving myself a few options on The List of programs that probably foster pretty damn competitive environments (um, hi again, Harvard, you're getting a lot of attention this year) but crossed off any where a professor who, again knows me quite well, told me that it wouldn't be healthy. The programs I wasn't explicitly warned against are the ones where I'm willing to see for myself, pending an acceptance. I don't want to undo all the work I've done over the last couple of years in learning to be kinder to myself.

Things that only have a 2% chance of happening still happen reliably about 2% of the time! We're not playing "best of 100" with this. ... Is what I keep telling myself to justify this entire endeavor.

One of mine is. But, yeah. Cornell is 5pm. I'm honestly going to try to get them done Friday morning because I would rather actually enjoy myself this weekend. I'll save the Boston schools for next week though. And on Chicago and Columbia -- it's the environments. Columbia's a godawful fit anyway. And I had this big long spreadsheet with point values assigned to different things and Chicago kind of barely didn't make the final cut.

FAVORITE DOCTOR EVERYONE GO: Eleven. Love you, Matt Smith. Even though the show got pretty derailed lately.

I was told by someone I trust very much, "Do not apply to Chicago or Columbia." And I'm already applying only to programs where I go "just who do I think I am???" with each submission, so. Don't need my list of rejections to be longer, you know? And I can assume from Harvard's rejection what Chicago's would feel like, I think. Anyway, I've made a last minute decision to apply to another school by the 15 so I'll be at that until 11:59pm Saturday, I fear.

I want to follow up on Brown: I did get emailed (twice) upon submitting my app, just several (four) hours later.

I've not gotten anything from Brown either. Which is mostly just weird because Wisconsin is still sending me follow-ups 10 days post submission.

Yeah. I think the overwhelming theory with Dollhouse at the time was that Whedon was suffering at the hands of the evil FOX folks. The first five have really very little in common with what follows.

They don't mix well either. Also, I forgot to mention that Ann Arbor is a terrible-rotten-no-good-very-bad place to have a car. Parking is outrageous/nonexistent. It IS a walkable city, it's just tough to leave without one.

Dollhouse is great (after those first five terrible, terrible episodes), Angel is the best.

Ahhhh, this is the perfect time to ask questions about A2 because I am sooooo procrastinate-y right now. Population is roughly 120,000, which is the amount of people that the Big House holds, and it's really not a big city by any stretch of the imagination. There aren't really nearby big cities. Travel into Detroit is not terribly challenging, there are buses. It's really rough to get to Lansing. Toledo's not far. Canada's accessible. But, other than getting to Ypsi or Detroit or around the city itself, there is no public transportation. Michigan is all about the car. Ann Arbor is like some weird hybrid of an attempt to be a big city and an attempt to be a small, quirky town. (And kind of fails at both.) Main St has restaurants that pretend to be posh but the best food is on campus (also: Zingerman's). There're good theaters and then there's the Art Fair (the worst week of the year) and a farmer's market over in Kerrytown (Kerrytown is great) but the markets in Ypsi are better. The bars in the area are pretty great and, as I mentioned, Michigan's microbreweries are really amazing. Ann Arbor in the summer is really quiet and feels like a small Michigan town. We're really into our squirrels, if that says anything.

I've been knitting non-stop for the past four months. God help me if I get into Vanderbilt. (Most of my apps are distributed such that I won't have to give up on my winters and warm wooly things. It actually makes Vanderbilt pretty special. I am willing to give up my snow for them.)

I'm feeling like I'm stalling out at the halfway submitted point. Is this week over yet?

Also, bad letter(s) of rec. I think all of the other things could be overlooked but truly unfavorable letters would probably be the end.

You can also find zumba videos all over the internet (free!) and those can be pretty fun.

OK, OK, but season four. Here's the thing. After the part where season 3 was all about beating a simple and embodied version of the Patriarchy (the Mayor), season four was, in the beginning, in part about learning about some of the problems of second wave feminism. Seasons two-three were about men and fathers, seasons four-five were about women and mothers. I am so into Maggie Walsh as Big Bad, you guys. (Adam + the Initiative = Big Mistake) Also, let's not forget the beauty of Beer Bad, Something Blue, Superstar, and Restless (in addition to Hush). Seven though? That was utter crap. ETA: yeah, the Buffy/any vampire situation was pretty awful but Buffy/Spike is the literal worst.