And now I am TOTALLY CONFUSED!
I applied to around six schools, and my top were Oregon, Denver and Greensboro. Marquette is a really good, historic university and I NEVER thought I'd get in.
But somehow I did!
I opened the very thin, empty feeling envelope last night and was absolutely floored. I cried, screamed, shrieked, fell to my knees, danced around. I could NOT have been more elated!
Then I wondered out loud, "Why in the heck did these people let me in?? Were they HIGH??!"
lol
My dad said basically the same thing. LOL
We concurred they want my money.
At a minimum, I am definitely going to graduate school now. That question is answered. I am in somewhere, I am GOING. And Marquette is a great school! I would be proud to go there. If I didn't get in anywhere else, this is still terrific.
And therein lies the problem. I'm starting to hesitate about my plan. Marquette really IS a good school, and should I pass up that opportunity because these other schools are closer to where I live right now and are cheaper? That I should pass up the chance to get an education from that school because it's got a lot of snow? Is that ridiculous logic or what?
And then I am reminded that University of Oregon is a public school and is not so fancy and I look at their loud colors and their crazed foot ball fans and I... hesitate. And I look at Marquette's academic programs and 120+ year history and I... feel confused.
A friend of mine is attending graduate school and her perspective is to just "get the degree, doesn't matter where it's from."
But that's not my perspective. I was disappointed in my undergraduate experience. I want to attend a school I am proud to be a part of. I want the campus pride, I want to wear the sweatshirt and go to the games, I want people to not sneer with "Oh it's just X, school, they're not very good," which has been my experience with my undergraduate school. It's a commuter school. It was fine, I got a good education and I worked hard for it, but... ehhhh. I only applied to one college and I never tried in high school. That's not the experience I want this time around. I want to attend a school where people come from all over to go to it, that has a good academic reputation, and that people are proud they went to it. Like Harvard, but for normal folks. Ya know?
That's part of the experience for me. If I *just* wanted a degree, I could do that online. But this is about the experience. Meeting people, being on campus; I'd like to be on an older, historic campus that's pretty to look at. All of those kinds of things. I want the CLASSIC experience. If I am going to go suffer in the basement of some research library for the next two years, I want it to be a pretty one.
So I'm feeling... confused.
This isn't really leading anywhere.
Except, I am feeling like it's more important than ever that I need to go visit these schools, walk around, get a feel for the campuses, meet the people, meet the people in the department, talk to people (can you believe it? ME talk to people???!), and finances are going to be a huge issue with that. I looked up tickets to Wisconsin and it was like $500 roundtrip. That's an issue. I don't have that and business is so slow.. I don't know what's going on.
I'm sort of stumped.
2 comments:
Congratulations! I'm sure you'll do great, no matter which graduate school you go to!
...and no, deciding not to go to a school because there is snow isn't crazy. I hate the snow. I mean, its nice to visit, but when we lived up in Sonora, and it only snowed at my a week or two every year, I hated it. I was cold and wet and I didn't want to go anywhere because driving in the snow scares the crap out of me!....but don't let that stop you. Just get an apartment really close to campus!
It definitely won't stop me from going to school, but it does totally freak me out. I think I can get a house close to campus. It seems like Milwaukee is incredibly affordable, it is just really far from EVERYTHING. And I'm worried the low housing costs means jobs pay nothing, or there are no jobs too as a consequence of that... But if I can maintain my photography business in other parts of the country, even if it is really expensive to fly out of WI... the housing costs are so low I am hopeful that it will all even out. If it costs $300 more to fly out of there than anywhere else, BUT the rent is $300 less a month, then that's great. But I bet the heating costs are way higher!
Still haven't heard from any other schools and I keep forgetting to call Marquette when they are open, darn it!
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