"This Is Not For You"

So yesterday turned out to be an interesting dichotomy between things going exactly as planned and things going straight to hell.

Bad news first--while the deadline for Ohio State admissions is January 15th, the deadline for the History Department is December 1st. And I had to find this out in a way that probably made me seem like a complete and total moron to the person I was talking to (who, had she been helpful and useful when I first emailed her back over the summer, might've actually given me a chance of getting my crap together earlier. But that's just passing the buck and laying blame on someone else). So yeah, even if I apply to Ohio State (which I'm still going to do--you never know), I won't be getting into the History PhD program this year.

On to the good news, though. First of all, I think I figured out why I didn't get in Ohio State last year. Seems that they have some sort of mentor/sponsorship program with the professors. You find a professor to sponsor you, essentially, and it all but guarantees you a spot. Well, I'd have had one of those in the guy whom both my OU and Ozarks advisors knew, but said professor--a David Cressy--is on sabatical right now, or was last year when I sent off my application. Sorta hard to have an advocate when he's not at the school at the time.

But that means that it's quite possible the only reason I didn't get into Ohio State was that I didn't have a sponsor. My academics were good enough, my work was good enough, I just didn't have the connection. It kinda gives me a bit of hope.

Second piece of good news is that getting the hold on my academic records here at OU taken care of yesterday was easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was standing line for twenty or thirty minutes at the Bursar's Office, only to get shunted off to another desk for someone else to take care of the problem. But once I had the hold release slip, it was downright easy to get my transcripts taken care of, so that was good.

Anyway, today I'm going to finish up three applications and get them sent out so they can meet the deadline. The other two I'm doing have later deadlines, so they're not as immediate (which is good, since I don't think I could afford more than about three application fees right now, what with having just given the university a hell of a lot of money and shelling out $80 for GRE scores to be sent to all the schools I'm applying to). That's basically the plan for today. And maybe a little Final Fantasy I. Yeah, probably.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Pearl Jam, "Courdoroy"