I have been accepted to grad school.
No wait, no wait… It gets better…
I have been accepted at TWO of my top three choices.
I am so ecstatic I can hardly think straight. I can’t believe I found my direction, the path I think best suites me as a person and my strengths, and I get to go to school to learn more about it and obtain experience that will provide me with a job meant for me.
Here are the stats in ranks of preference –
TOP 3 (in no particular order)
Indiana University – Conditional Acceptance, Pending Faculty Interview and Assistantship Placement
University of Arkansas – ?
University of South Carolina – ACCEPTED! (Assistantship Interviews are in February, but the acceptance is official, regardless of Assistantship Placement)
IN ORDER OF REMAINING PREFERENCE
New York University – ?
University of Vermont - ?
Ohio State University – ?
Ball State University – Conditional Acceptance, Pending Faculty Interview and Assistantship Placement
Harvard University – ?
University of Denver – ?
Vanderbilt University - ?
It is still a waiting game, but I am not anxious anymore. Regardless of what other schools I am accepted at, and regardless of what assistantship I get (or if I get one, at certain schools), I know I get to go. I know I get to move forward in my career. It’s so cliché, but the future looks so bright right now, I need a pair of sunglasses
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
12.09.2010
10.05.2010
The Official Grad School Application List - 2010
Here it is! Hopefully, I will get a LOT of acceptances, and have a horribly difficult time trying to decide between such lovely programs. However, here is how they rank to me:
1. Indiana University - Bloomington, IN
2. New York University - New York, NY
3. University of South Carolina - Columbia, SC
4. University of Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR
5. Ohio State University - Columbus, OH
6. Vermont University - Burlington, VT
7. Ball State University - Muncie, IN
8. Harvard University - Cambridge, MA
9. University of Denver - Denver, CO
10. Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN
I am so excited!
1. Indiana University - Bloomington, IN
2. New York University - New York, NY
3. University of South Carolina - Columbia, SC
4. University of Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR
5. Ohio State University - Columbus, OH
6. Vermont University - Burlington, VT
7. Ball State University - Muncie, IN
8. Harvard University - Cambridge, MA
9. University of Denver - Denver, CO
10. Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN
I am so excited!
3.02.2010
Rejection #1
The first rejection came today from Hunter College in New York City. It stung a lot more than I thought it would. I opened up my email and there it was…
From: Hunter College Graduate School
Subject: Your Decision Is Available Online Now
I was terrified, but at the same time, ecstatic. It’s only March 2nd. It MUST be an acceptance, right? Of course I was wrong and after just a few seconds my dream of living and writing in New York City, which I have ached for over the past 3 years, was quickly and suddenly shattered.
It gave me a bit of a shake down. My confidence in my application materials has plummeted. My GRE scores weren’t high enough… my personal statement lacked any kind of personality… my writing samples were interesting but immature… the list keeps going.
I wonder how much longer I will feel this way. Hopefully the next bit of news I receive is positive so I don’t keep spiraling downwards.
1.01.2008
2008
So it’s a new year. 2008 has officially arrived. This is going to be a big year for me. I will be taking out my first official loan in January, turning 21 in February, and I will be finishing up my final semester of college and graduating in May. After graduation I will have to pay my first bills from college and will be renting my first real apartment.
And, the really big news is that, hopefully, I will be moving across the country in August and starting graduate school in September.
I have been toying with the idea of grad school for a while. I searched online for countless hours trying to figure out which program would fit me best. The three universities I selected were APU and UCLA in SoCal, and Northeastern, which is located in Boston. UCLA was my first choice. It is an 11-month intensive program and my dad told me I could live in his condo in Century City while I attended school so I wouldn’t have to worry about rent. I would have my master’s degree at 22 years old. But, unfortunately, I was too late. Deadlines had passed by the time I even thought about applying. Then I thought about APU. They have a great Student Affairs program, and if I worked an on-campus full-time job, it would be paid for. But I realized staying in the APU bubble would feel a little too claustrophobic. I needed something with a little distance.
Then I found Northeastern. As I read about the program, I realized how incredibly it would fit what I was looking for. When I saw that the deadline was January 15th, I was bummed. I still have yet to take my GRE, so I decided to take a year off and apply to go to grad school next year. But Northeastern was just sitting on my mind. So I browsed the website again.
Needless to say I was shocked and excited to find that the deadline to apply for the program I want to be a part of, College Student Development and Counseling, is a month later than all of the other programs and that is ONLY if I want an assistantship, which I don’t have to do. So, technically, I don’t have to send anything in until August 1st at the very latest.
I can’t even begin to express how excited I am. I called my Uncle Jim, who lives in Hamilton, MA, and talked to him for a while about what would happen if I moved out there. My uncle is my dad’s twin brother, and I have always been extremely close with his family. He has a HUGE house and there is a kind of loft apartment that is over his garage that my two cousins have always used as a game room. Both of them are in college now and Jim told me I could LIVE THERE if I moved out for school… FOR FREE. Hamilton is only a 30-minute drive from Boston, and it is a perfect place to live until I find friends and a job and an apartment closer to Northeastern.
I freak out all of the time. I recently realized that I have anxiety. I get nervous. The thought of graduating – the idea of starting over with a life separate from everything I have grown accustomed to over the past 4 years – is terrifying. Well, WAS terrifying… until this. Now, all I can feel is a rush.
It might not work out. I might end up living in an apartment in Pasadena and just being a waitress for a while. But it is a cool thought. When I moved to New York for the summer, I came back with the decision made that living in that big city is probably not for me. But the idea that I could start over in a place I have known for so long, the idea that I could start over but still have family and somewhere safe to call home, is extremely satisfying and a great way to start out the new year.
And, the really big news is that, hopefully, I will be moving across the country in August and starting graduate school in September.
I have been toying with the idea of grad school for a while. I searched online for countless hours trying to figure out which program would fit me best. The three universities I selected were APU and UCLA in SoCal, and Northeastern, which is located in Boston. UCLA was my first choice. It is an 11-month intensive program and my dad told me I could live in his condo in Century City while I attended school so I wouldn’t have to worry about rent. I would have my master’s degree at 22 years old. But, unfortunately, I was too late. Deadlines had passed by the time I even thought about applying. Then I thought about APU. They have a great Student Affairs program, and if I worked an on-campus full-time job, it would be paid for. But I realized staying in the APU bubble would feel a little too claustrophobic. I needed something with a little distance.
Then I found Northeastern. As I read about the program, I realized how incredibly it would fit what I was looking for. When I saw that the deadline was January 15th, I was bummed. I still have yet to take my GRE, so I decided to take a year off and apply to go to grad school next year. But Northeastern was just sitting on my mind. So I browsed the website again.
Needless to say I was shocked and excited to find that the deadline to apply for the program I want to be a part of, College Student Development and Counseling, is a month later than all of the other programs and that is ONLY if I want an assistantship, which I don’t have to do. So, technically, I don’t have to send anything in until August 1st at the very latest.
I can’t even begin to express how excited I am. I called my Uncle Jim, who lives in Hamilton, MA, and talked to him for a while about what would happen if I moved out there. My uncle is my dad’s twin brother, and I have always been extremely close with his family. He has a HUGE house and there is a kind of loft apartment that is over his garage that my two cousins have always used as a game room. Both of them are in college now and Jim told me I could LIVE THERE if I moved out for school… FOR FREE. Hamilton is only a 30-minute drive from Boston, and it is a perfect place to live until I find friends and a job and an apartment closer to Northeastern.
I freak out all of the time. I recently realized that I have anxiety. I get nervous. The thought of graduating – the idea of starting over with a life separate from everything I have grown accustomed to over the past 4 years – is terrifying. Well, WAS terrifying… until this. Now, all I can feel is a rush.
It might not work out. I might end up living in an apartment in Pasadena and just being a waitress for a while. But it is a cool thought. When I moved to New York for the summer, I came back with the decision made that living in that big city is probably not for me. But the idea that I could start over in a place I have known for so long, the idea that I could start over but still have family and somewhere safe to call home, is extremely satisfying and a great way to start out the new year.
10.26.2007
Popping the Bubble
The Christian Bubble. Just about every student who has sat in chapel or engaged in a conversation with friends has heard this term. When I was in my first year or two, I honestly found it endearing. I had my Christian friends, my Christian professors, my Christian mentors, my Christian hellos and goodbyes, my Christian smile, my Christian music, my Christian life inside my Christian Bubble.
The only times I really even left the campus during my freshman year were to involve myself in activities that didn’t fit into the Christian Bubble: clubs, parties, enjoying a cig on the curb outside the baseball field. I was so wrapped up in my life on campus.
Then, New York happened. My comfort level, my bubble, completely popped. I lived in Manhattan this summer, attending classes at New York University. The original plan was to determine whether or not I was capable of placing such a large distance between my mother and I.
But in the process of removing myself from the Christian Bubble, I found my limits tested. No longer did I have my Christian support system. No longer did I have worship service. No longer did I have my Christian (insert word here). I had nothing. And it was terrifying.
After I had been an emotional mess for about two weeks, I met Michael. He was my polar opposite. Extremely tall, super skinny and flamboyantly homosexual, Michael and I hit it off and became fast friends.
A few weeks later, I mentioned to him something I had heard at a church I was attending in Brooklyn. His mouth dropped. “You’re a Christian?” he asked. We didn’t talk any more about it that day, but one muggy, rainy afternoon, while we were holed up in the library, he began to ask me about God. Of course, having no real experience in this sort of situation, I stammered over my words and probably made way too many mistakes, but Michael just sat there listening to me.
When I was done talking, he said, “You know, every Christian I have ever met has made me feel like I was defective for being gay, like I had an incurable disease. I thought that was just what Christians believed. Why aren’t you like that?” I told him that I loved and cared about him because that is the kind of person God made me, that I wanted to be his friend to show him God’s love, and that my personal, ultimate goal was not to ‘cure’ him or make him straight but to show him the mercy and grace of a relationship with Christ (although, I am sure it didn’t come out so eloquently.)
He was astonished. He literally could not grasp the concept of a Christian loving that way.
How sad is that?
Sojourners’ Magazine profiled APU in an article titled “Bursting the Christian Bubble,” an article about the Ministry and Service Office and how members of our university are attempting to live their lives in a way that better reflects Christ rather than in a way that reflects their bank accounts, skin color or class. The article was pretty accurate in describing the way APU used to be and the changes that have been made in the past five or six years that have allowed APU to have a bigger impact on the surrounding community.
When I hear about what Azusa thinks of APU, I either hear “People in Azusa hate APU because the only people they care about are themselves,” or “People in Azusa love APU because they bring so much business to the area.”
I am sorry, but that is completely unacceptable. It is our responsibility as Christians to show the love of Christ to all people. It is our responsibility to provide for those who have been placed in situations more difficult than our own. And it is our job to love others in a humble, selfless way regardless of the outcome.
In the magazine it says, “Students are disturbed by their own ignorance and privilege and the deafening silences of their churches that often fail to connect the implications of injustice with active faith.”
We should be disturbed. But not simply by our own ignorance, but by the ignorance of generations before us that caused people to believe things like my friend Michael.
Matthew 28:18 says “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations…” But before we can use all of the training and Bible classes and hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have spent on an education, before we can make disciples, we must GO. Go downstairs if you live off campus and befriend your neighbors. Go down the street to the elementary school and get involved. Go somewhere!
Don’t allow yourselves to get caught up in the Christian Bubble. Force yourselves to follow God’s command, to love on others, and to serve in the way Christ did, so that maybe someday, if someone comes to Azusa to take summer classes, gets to chatting with an Azusa resident and builds a loving friendship, they won’t ever have to hear “I didn’t realize Christians were like that.”
The only times I really even left the campus during my freshman year were to involve myself in activities that didn’t fit into the Christian Bubble: clubs, parties, enjoying a cig on the curb outside the baseball field. I was so wrapped up in my life on campus.
Then, New York happened. My comfort level, my bubble, completely popped. I lived in Manhattan this summer, attending classes at New York University. The original plan was to determine whether or not I was capable of placing such a large distance between my mother and I.
But in the process of removing myself from the Christian Bubble, I found my limits tested. No longer did I have my Christian support system. No longer did I have worship service. No longer did I have my Christian (insert word here). I had nothing. And it was terrifying.
After I had been an emotional mess for about two weeks, I met Michael. He was my polar opposite. Extremely tall, super skinny and flamboyantly homosexual, Michael and I hit it off and became fast friends.
A few weeks later, I mentioned to him something I had heard at a church I was attending in Brooklyn. His mouth dropped. “You’re a Christian?” he asked. We didn’t talk any more about it that day, but one muggy, rainy afternoon, while we were holed up in the library, he began to ask me about God. Of course, having no real experience in this sort of situation, I stammered over my words and probably made way too many mistakes, but Michael just sat there listening to me.
When I was done talking, he said, “You know, every Christian I have ever met has made me feel like I was defective for being gay, like I had an incurable disease. I thought that was just what Christians believed. Why aren’t you like that?” I told him that I loved and cared about him because that is the kind of person God made me, that I wanted to be his friend to show him God’s love, and that my personal, ultimate goal was not to ‘cure’ him or make him straight but to show him the mercy and grace of a relationship with Christ (although, I am sure it didn’t come out so eloquently.)
He was astonished. He literally could not grasp the concept of a Christian loving that way.
How sad is that?
Sojourners’ Magazine profiled APU in an article titled “Bursting the Christian Bubble,” an article about the Ministry and Service Office and how members of our university are attempting to live their lives in a way that better reflects Christ rather than in a way that reflects their bank accounts, skin color or class. The article was pretty accurate in describing the way APU used to be and the changes that have been made in the past five or six years that have allowed APU to have a bigger impact on the surrounding community.
When I hear about what Azusa thinks of APU, I either hear “People in Azusa hate APU because the only people they care about are themselves,” or “People in Azusa love APU because they bring so much business to the area.”
I am sorry, but that is completely unacceptable. It is our responsibility as Christians to show the love of Christ to all people. It is our responsibility to provide for those who have been placed in situations more difficult than our own. And it is our job to love others in a humble, selfless way regardless of the outcome.
In the magazine it says, “Students are disturbed by their own ignorance and privilege and the deafening silences of their churches that often fail to connect the implications of injustice with active faith.”
We should be disturbed. But not simply by our own ignorance, but by the ignorance of generations before us that caused people to believe things like my friend Michael.
Matthew 28:18 says “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations…” But before we can use all of the training and Bible classes and hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have spent on an education, before we can make disciples, we must GO. Go downstairs if you live off campus and befriend your neighbors. Go down the street to the elementary school and get involved. Go somewhere!
Don’t allow yourselves to get caught up in the Christian Bubble. Force yourselves to follow God’s command, to love on others, and to serve in the way Christ did, so that maybe someday, if someone comes to Azusa to take summer classes, gets to chatting with an Azusa resident and builds a loving friendship, they won’t ever have to hear “I didn’t realize Christians were like that.”
10.02.2007
Crazies and New York
I lived in New York City this summer. One girl that I became really close with, Jessica, well... things didn't end in any sort of positive way. And my stomach has been sick about it since the day I flew home.
I met Jess the way I meet most people... I hunt them down. I pick someone out and think "he/she looks interesting... I am going to try and be friends." And we did become friends. I somehow managed to pull her out of her little bubble. We would take the subway down to SoHo and eat at Momir's every Sunday night, we trekked all over the city together, went shopping, had a little too much to drink (on a number of occasions), sat in the park for hours and read and laughed and talked about the most randomness things life has to offer.
One of my strengths, however, is 'woo.' For those of you who don't know, people with 'woo' like to meet new peeps, get to know them and then meet new people. Now, don't get me wrong... it's not like friends get less important. There is just an urge there to continue befriending new people. I am never just satisfied with the friendships I have. I always want new ones and exciting ones. I want to meet people who challenge me and make me grow.
Well, this aspect of me did not sit well with Jess. She became extremely possesive, got angry when I made plans with someone else and basically cried to me one day because I was the only friend she had and I wasn't there enough for her.
Lets be honest... I freaked. I started spending a lot of time alone and at work. And during my free time, I was hanging out with my gay friend Michael or cooling off in the library reading. I just needed a little space. We had gone from hanging out after class to hanging out all day every day whenever we weren't in class or I wasn't at work. TOO MUCH! I cannot handle that much of one person.
After about 2-3 weeks of being missing, I called her up to see how she was doing. She was rude and got off the phone quickly. About a week later, I decided to see if she was reading where she and I normally hung out in Washington Square Park. SHE WAS! So I sat down and started chatting. But something was different. She was extremely cold and blocked off. After about 15 minutes, her walls broke down again, and everything seemed back to normal. I told her I was going out of town for the weekend to Boston, but we should hang out when I get back.
Reader's Digest Version: She called me 2 times when I she knew I was in Boston. I called her when I got back to see if we could make dinner plans before I moved back to Cali. She called me 3 times (within 1 hour). Then sent me a text saying "Never mind have a safe trip home." That is how it ended.
And I don't understand why I am still unsettled about it. Maybe it is because I knew she had emotional problems but didn't try to understand them better. Maybe it is because I knew at one moment that I needed a break from her when all she really needed was someone to love her. Maybe it is just because I am a person who needs closure. But I am still sick about it. I called her this morning to see how she was doing and she didn't answer. I hope she is doing okay.
I met Jess the way I meet most people... I hunt them down. I pick someone out and think "he/she looks interesting... I am going to try and be friends." And we did become friends. I somehow managed to pull her out of her little bubble. We would take the subway down to SoHo and eat at Momir's every Sunday night, we trekked all over the city together, went shopping, had a little too much to drink (on a number of occasions), sat in the park for hours and read and laughed and talked about the most randomness things life has to offer.
One of my strengths, however, is 'woo.' For those of you who don't know, people with 'woo' like to meet new peeps, get to know them and then meet new people. Now, don't get me wrong... it's not like friends get less important. There is just an urge there to continue befriending new people. I am never just satisfied with the friendships I have. I always want new ones and exciting ones. I want to meet people who challenge me and make me grow.
Well, this aspect of me did not sit well with Jess. She became extremely possesive, got angry when I made plans with someone else and basically cried to me one day because I was the only friend she had and I wasn't there enough for her.
Lets be honest... I freaked. I started spending a lot of time alone and at work. And during my free time, I was hanging out with my gay friend Michael or cooling off in the library reading. I just needed a little space. We had gone from hanging out after class to hanging out all day every day whenever we weren't in class or I wasn't at work. TOO MUCH! I cannot handle that much of one person.
After about 2-3 weeks of being missing, I called her up to see how she was doing. She was rude and got off the phone quickly. About a week later, I decided to see if she was reading where she and I normally hung out in Washington Square Park. SHE WAS! So I sat down and started chatting. But something was different. She was extremely cold and blocked off. After about 15 minutes, her walls broke down again, and everything seemed back to normal. I told her I was going out of town for the weekend to Boston, but we should hang out when I get back.
Reader's Digest Version: She called me 2 times when I she knew I was in Boston. I called her when I got back to see if we could make dinner plans before I moved back to Cali. She called me 3 times (within 1 hour). Then sent me a text saying "Never mind have a safe trip home." That is how it ended.
And I don't understand why I am still unsettled about it. Maybe it is because I knew she had emotional problems but didn't try to understand them better. Maybe it is because I knew at one moment that I needed a break from her when all she really needed was someone to love her. Maybe it is just because I am a person who needs closure. But I am still sick about it. I called her this morning to see how she was doing and she didn't answer. I hope she is doing okay.
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