And Then There Were Eight

I recently heard back from one of the schools that I applied to. Everything is done by email now as my uncle (who has his doctorate in economics) told me. So it was a normal day and I was checking something or more likely playing a game, on my phone and I received a notification on my phone that I had a new email. Making sure that it wasn't something coaching related, which most of my emails are, I looked to see what it was. It wasn't soccer related, but it was from UCSB to notify me that there had been a decision made on my application! They didn't tell me in the email what the decision was just that there was one and that I needed to log in to my application to view the decision. Reading this caused my heart to start pounding in my chest and I became extremely nervous and anxious. I wanted to look right away and not find out at the same time.

I was with my girlfriend when this happened. I think we were watching a TV show on her computer, and as I was reading this email I apparently became very quiet and my facial expression must have changed because she kept asking me what it was that I was reading. I told her what I just read and that I needed to log in to find out. She instantly gave me the computer so that I could. With my heart pounding ever harder, I logged into my application and opened the decision letter.

I didn't get in.

I instantly fell quiet again as we both read the letter over. I hadn't realized how much being declined admittance would hurt. When applying to undergraduate schools I had a 100% acceptance rate ( I only applied to two schools but I got into both nonetheless). While I knew that I most likely wasn't going to get into all 9 of the schools I applied, I had been feeling confident about UCSB. UCSB wasn't even the best school that I had applied to so I was feeling bad about that too and my prospects for some of the other school to which I had applied. So, the combination of it being my first time being rejected, the confidence I had felt, and which school it was that rejected me made the rejection notice sting... a lot.

This experience got me thinking down the line. If I can't get into UCSB, where can I get into? What happens if I don't get in anywhere? What do I do then? Do I try again? And spend all of that money again? Do I try to retake the GREs to improve my score? This may be a bit premature and a bit fatalists since I still have eight schools to hear back from but I couldn't help thinking it at the time.

Waiting... for good news,
Kit

To Do List

1. Rebuild bank account
2. Get accepted
3. Blog

Your Reward:

Again thanks Jodi Beggs from ediwm.com

Application Update

I am now all applied to all of the schools since I finished both Claremont and Oregon this month. Those schools went in terms of getting the applications out. I didn't have any problems with recommendors this time since they got them in really early, before I had even started actually. I did have one problem actually... only with the Claremont application though.

As I'm sure you know, Washington* got hit by a snow storm which closed down schools, and shut down roads, including PLU and I-5 (I still see places with snow). Here, where I live, in Olympia, we got 15 inches while ten miles away out in the county they got 28 inches. Then we got freezing rain which caused all sorts of problems like trees falling and knocking out power closing schools and roads for even longer. Things were local schools were closed for over a week and PLU was closed for almost a week. This normally would be a problem but this happened in the middle of January and the Claremont application was due on the first of February. I could have waited but I wanted to avoid paying to fedex it there. Good news is that they got to both schools in time and to the right place.

I had another problem with the Oregon application. It was also easily taken care of. As I was going through I noticed that the economics department at U of O wanted my CV mailed to them and there was no place for it to be uploaded. Mail was the only option. So I dropped it into the nearest mailbox right away and hoped it would get there. Then, Monday I had decided to call the department to see if I had sent my official transcripts to the correct place (to the department not admissions) and the nice lady who I talked to said that I could email my CV in so that way they would be there on time until the hard copy arrived.

Now I have nothing more to do but wait and pray that somebody accepts me. Maybe I'll write more posts more often now... hopefully.

Waiting...,
Kit

*The real Washington, the state not D.C.

To Do List

1. Rebuild my bank account
2. Get accepted
3. Blog

Your Reward:

 

Courtesy of T Rex is Trying.