The trials and tribulations of those applying to grad school

Pissed-off!Dalek

I'm taking a break from grading statistics homeworks to rant for a little while about the stupidity of graduate programs. So here's the setting, for those of you who do not know: the deadline for accepting admission to a program is (generally speaking) April 15. Today is April 2. I have heard positively from two programs (the PhD program at Ohio University and the Masters program at New York University, both for psychology). I am still waiting for Northwestern (another PhD program) to get back to me. I interviewed there in the middle of February and was told at that time that I would likely hear back from them about their decision by mid March or so.

Mid-March came...and went... with no word from Northwestern.

I emailed the professor I would be working with somewhere in the vicinity of the 20th, wondering when I might hear back. She never replied.

I called the secretary on Tuesday, asking if a decision had been made and I just hadn't been informed yet. She couldn't find my file, and on the list, my name had no decision next to it. She said she'd email me when she tracked down the program director.

It is now Thursday. I called back this afternoon because I have received no email, and the program's website still shows no decision. She told me that the professor I'd emailed still had my file and they were still deciding... and that she would email me when she knew, but that they might update the decision on the website before telling her, so I would have more luck checking that compulsively.

Oh-em-gee.

I heard from NYU as a complete surprise - I had forgotten that I checked the box that said I would apply to their Masters program at the same time as the PhD. Lucky for me, I got into the MA but not the PhD program. On the plus side for them, its only 2 years, I could live with Nicole for cheaper than renting a place for myself in either Athens, OH or Evanston, IL. On the minus side, its only an MA, I wouldn't get all the nifty financial aid that goes with a PhD program, and I had been slightly off-put by the gates and the locking and all the hassle that goes with commuting into NYC every day. I have until 4 weeks from the date on my letter (putting it slightly after April 15) to let them know.

Ohio demands an answer by the 15th. They have not yet mailed me anything offical, I just got a letter via email. So, being slightly worried, even though they are currently my 3rd (maybe) choice, I emailed their secretary today, asking when I might get the stuff in the mail so that I can affirm or deny that I want to go to school there...officially. She says, "Oh, that... they're just signing it and sending it to the Graduate Studies Office today... the people there have to do stuff to it and then we'll send it to you. But you don't have to wait to tell us if you're coming...just...email us or something.

Me: Oh yeah, that's real official. Mhm. PS - I don't like you anyway!

...I just took a break and asked my thesis adviser about this because she came in and was fiddling with the immense stacks of paperwork in our lab. She thinks its weird that Northwestern is being poky about this too (according to the little red dots, it is spelled 'poky' and not 'pokey' ...which just looks weird to me). Perhaps it is a funding thing...and that's why they're taking longer to figure stuff out. Gar.

On the plus side of life, I now have minions. I. Love. Minions. (Maybe I'll put that on one of the new t-shirts this weekend instead of a Nerdfighter reference...it looks nice. and dorky.) For my thesis (for which we're starting to analyze the data tomorrow afternoon. Expect jubilation or extreme sadness when next I post), I have to listen to all these audio tapes, record how long it takes people to start talking, and then transcribe everything they say so that I can count the number of times they refer to themselves (words like I, me, my, myself) or mention the study they're taking, or use obnoxious filler words (um, uh, yeah, you know) .... speaking of, do you know how difficult it is to transcribe filler words? Sometimes I have to rewind to make sure I noted everything down correctly and I find that I have to go back and fill in all of the filler words I missed because they're so innocuous that my brain just skips over them when I hear them.

But yeah. Minions. They're going to transcribe some of these for me. Oh joy and happiness! The first girl sat down for an hour or two and basically doubled my productivity from this morning. And there's another one coming in at 4 so I can show her the basics of the nifty machine we get to use (it has a foot pedal for play and rewind, essentially. so cool!) ... point out where we keep the tapes, and where we hide the files on the network server...and all that jazz. My work for this (which is extremely time consuming and deadly dull) has now been thirded. (That's totally the word...right? I mean cut in half is "halved" isn't it?) I can actually, you know, work on my actual thesis write-up (the one I meant to finish editing over spring break, but didn't) or not stay up till 4 am finishing grading these obnoxious stats homeworks (I have come to the realization recently that I truly dislike grading) or ... well... I can't say spend time with the boy tonight... or most of tomorrow... or probably most of Saturday as well, actually, since that's when his next evil paper is due... but I could hypothetically spend time with the boy were he free as well. *sigh*

Anyway, I should probably wrap up day 2 of BEDA so that I can get a few more homeworks graded before Minion No. 2 shows up / the boy calls to tell me that he's done with his meeting with his adviser and I can actually spend a whole hour with him before he has to leave for the swanky senior dinner (I'm avoiding mine - next week - like the plague... but he actually has friends in his major)... and then I get to go cheer Nicole and Kyla on when they present their film pitches tonight with the three other finalists. (Huzzah! We have captured a majority of the brainpower and creativity on campus, and it lives in our house!! Woot!)

PS: I'm going to go back and put in author tags like we have on the fic site so we don't have to actually say which one of us is posting... in the post... anymore. I thought that was a rather brilliant idea of Nicole's, and so I am stealing it. (Bwahahahah.)

PPS: New Who coming soon! *fan-girl screams are heard echoing across the nation... nay! the world!*

PPPS: No... I'm not avoiding going back to work! What makes you think that?