Decisions, decisions!

In less than three weeks I'll be a happy graduate! There are only two official weeks of class left. This is mildly terrifying.

But! I have good news. I made my decision on where I'll be for the next three years of my life.

Last week the Director of Graduate studies at Florida International University called me personally to tell me that the school has accepted me and said I was eligible for an assistantship, but it wasn't 100% because they weren't sure what their budget was. I declined their offer as I had already gotten better offer at UCF.

Then, Friday morning, the Dean of Graduate Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design called me personally to tell me that he and the Board were very impressed by my phone interview the day before, and that they wanted to award me with the prestigious Dean's Fellowship. As appreciative as I am of this offer, I had to tell him I respectfully decline. I made my decision the day before after the interview, based on the fact that even if I got the Fellowship I still wouldn't be able to afford to go to school there. Tuition-only does not give me a place to live or food to eat.

So I am pleased to announce that I has finally made her decision, and accepted the school of my choice. Starting in August, I'll be a Knight, at the University of Central Florida. I couldn't be happier with my decision. I'm currently waiting to see what I'll get for my Graduate Teaching Assistant position (I'm really hoping for an editor position at The Florida Review), and I need to start figuring out what classes I'm going to take in the Fall and send in the request the day after I graduate. :)

In other good news, my thesis is finally completed! As promised, here's a sneak:


I ended up titling the work "Pancakes and Parallel Universes."
The whole work is drawn in that style... with a few extra surprises. :] Throughout the process I could tell it was going to be a much larger piece of work than I anticipated, so it is more like a "chapter one" of something much bigger. I'm really liking playing with this idea for a graphic novel, so I will probably work on it more over the summer.

Speaking of the summer, I went to a part-time job fair and filled out a few applications for seasonal employment... I also have an interview for Monday morning, so I'm excited. I hope I get the job, it will be something fun to do and help pay the rent.

Until then, I just need to finish the last three essays of my undergraduate career and take two final exams... and that's it. I'm done.

And onto the next step in my life.

Interesting Predicament

This week has been ridiculous. I had an interview for a prestigious award (which I didn't win), won a science fiction writing contest, sent out four new submissions, and got accepted into another grad school. Oh, and I've made some decent headway on my thesis.

Basically, everything in my life is going to converge on April 15th. That is THE day. And it is two weeks from now.

I have two awards ceremonies to attend that day, my thesis is due that day, and that is the day I have to accept or decline my invitation to UCF. I wanted to make my final decision by next week, but I got an email from SCAD stating that I am in the running for a full-tuition fellowship; my phone interview is on the 14th. So I'll have to wait. And today I got a call directly from the Graduate Director of FIU, stating I was unanimously accepted, and I was highly recommended for a teaching assistantship. I should know by the end of the day if I got it or not. All of the sudden, I have incredible opportunities. UCF is still the only one set in stone, but if FIU and SCAD go through, there's going to be some heavy competition. This is a good problem to have, but still, it is nerve-wracking.

I need to fill our all of the financial aid stuff for all three schools now. Soon. On top of all of the rest of the things I need to do... Homework, projects, extracurriculars... It just never ends. I am excited, but also mildly terrified. We'll have to wait and see how things go.

Good News and Bad News.

We'll start with the bad.

I found out this week that Vanderbilt rejected me. On top of that, I had to pull my first all-nighter of the semester. I went to sleep around 8am, and woke up at 11am, so I guess it wasn't a true all-nighter, but it could have totally been prevented. Deadlines just snuck up on me; it seems that on top of midterms, EVERYTHING IS DUE this week. Including submissions to awards that I've been putting off. I have almost everything I need for the award about being an outstanding graduate (just missing a recommendation letter I'm going to pick up tomorrow), and for the creative writing awards, I finally have a piece written, I just need to edit and expand on it. I'm behind on my thesis--I wanted to be pretty much done with drafting all of the pages by now--so if I'm lucky, I'll get all of my midterm and studying stuff done early in the weekend, so that I can spend the rest of next week creating formats. That way, when I meet with my thesis director next Thursday, he can tell me yea or nay before I commit the comic to detail and color over Spring Break. (so much work!! >_< ugh.)

And as for the good? I got accepted into UCF's Creative Writing MFA Program! Yay! I have choices (Now I just need to get an assistantship or something somewhere to help offset the cost...) I'll have to spend my Spring Break getting all of my financial aid work together to start submitting to the schools I got accepted to, so that they can start processing the fact that I absolutely need their aid or I won't be able to attend. :/ (So somehow, I turned the good news into bad news again.)

Next week I get to order my cap, gown, & tassel, along with my honors medallion (for attaining a 3.5+ GPA) and hopefully my honors society sash (for my participation in Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors Society). I've registered for Commencement through the University and the Honors College, and I'm planning on signing up for membership at the Alumni Society soon, too. I wanted a class ring, but they're just too expensive, and since my Bachelor's degree isn't going to be my last degree, I figure I'll just wait until I finish my MFA (or even my PhD). Graduation is so close, I can almost taste it! I just need to survive the rest of this semester first!

SCAD.

The last graduate school application that I sent out was for the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). It was kind of a last-minute decision to apply there, as it wasn't on my original list of schools, and also because the application writing sample was daunting.


That's about a solid inch of paper.
The portfolio included up to two examples of several different styles of writing, including:

Nonfiction

• Personal Essay (1, my first thesis)
  
• Memoir (1)
  
• Promotional Writing (2: promotional email, reference letter)
  
• Writing for the Web (1, blog post)
  
• Book Review (1)
  
• Literary Criticism (2: Shakespeare, adaptations)
  
• Scholarly Essay (2: Physics term papers: Metamaterials, Computational Sympletic Integration)
  
• Business Document (1, Engineering paper on Bridges)
  
• Laboratory Report (2: chemistry 1, intermediate physics)
  

Fiction

• Graphic Fiction (1, the graphic novel I spoke about before. (not my second thesis, as it still isn't complete))
  
• Speech (1, monologue about healthcare systems engineering)
  
• Flash Fiction (1, not the one that was published in Sphere)
  
• Novel Chapter (1)
  

I think the total number of pages was 174, or something to that extent. The only guidelines given for the portfolio was to submit no more than 2 works in each genre, and that at least six types of nonfiction writing needed to be represented. I figured I'd go for more than less (since there was no limit for length). I basically combed through everything I wrote in the last four years and picked out what I considered was an exemplary example of the work I am capable of. I think I made up genres in the process, just so that I could include more pieces of work.

Anyways, the work definitely paid off. Friday afternoon I got an email from SCAD congratulating me on my admission, as well as the 5-digit scholarship I was awarded. :) My mom called me yesterday to tell me I had received a package from the school, which is (what I'm assuming to be) all of the admission materials I'll need. I'll have to wait until spring break to pick it up from home, which is fine, considering that I still want to wait and hear back from the rest of the schools before I make my final decision. But I might see if I can get it sooner, because I'm curious to find out what's in it.

I am incredibly relieved that I now have a place that can potentially be my home for the next 3 years, and that can lead to an impressive industry job. One of my former professors (that wrote letters of recommendation for me) told me it should probably be my top choice, since it's an excellent school. I'm very excited, and I'll probably see if I can drive up to visit sometime during spring break. :]

I'll be sure to keep you all updated... I hope you are having a good February!

First Responses

So, I've heard back from two schools.

USF rejected me, based on getting a lot of strong applications and I just didn't make the cut. (I honestly didn't think I would get in, but hey, I tried.)

University of Denver Publishing Institute sent me this letter:

"Dear Leslie,

Congratulations! We are pleased to tell you that the Admission Committee has granted you early acceptance based on your strong credentials..."

YAY!! I got in somewhere!

Now I need to come up with the money to pay for it. :/