Grad school status

Yesterday, I confirmed with UMN that they can expect me in their incoming class. Today, I sent out a little form letter to all the other schools where I was accepted.

Dear <insert name of grad student handler>

I would like to thank the <School name> for its offer of admission. The <school name> is one of several fine institutions I had to choose among, and it has been a difficult choice. I have decided to attend another school. I wish you the best of luck with your incoming class.

Sincerely,

-Stephen C. Ulrich jr.

Was that snarky? I feel like I could have made a better transition between the first two sentences and the last two, but so it goes.

I suppose there is a certain analogy that could be drawn between a certain individual I’ve sorta slept with and the university of chicago. I’ve applied to the university of chicago twice, been accepted twice, and turned them down twice. The, uh, gentleman in question and I started getting it on on two different occasions, and at some point in the middle of things, I got fed up, stopped what I was doing, got dressed and left. I did this twice. You’d think I would have learned the first time. (I have much warmer feelings towards the university of chicago than towards the guy, for the record).

In terms of the one where I most enjoyed the classes I sat in on: uchicago. Liked the administration the most: uwisconsin. Had the best experience with a faculty member on a personal level: uchicago. Felt most comfortable: uchicago. Had the best academic/research related talk with a faculty member: uminnesota. Felt like the best research opportunities were available: uminnesota. Felt I’d enjoy living in the area most: uwisconsin. Thought I’d have the coolest roommate option pre-lined-up: tough call between at umn and ellen, simon’s friend, at uchicago (for totally different reasons).

Ultimately, I chose umn because they have a program in regional economic development. Uchicago doesn’t, really. Uwisconsin has it in their (much less well thought of) urban and regional planning department. Ironically, cmu apparently has a pretty spanky program. I didn’t really know what I wanted to focus on when applying to grad schools. I think I would have done things differently, had I really been looking at that sort of thing from the beginning of the process. But, many lessons were learned. And even if it’s too late for me to learn from them, perhaps I can offer some insight to others doing it later.