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.
Showing posts with label grad school apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grad school apps. Show all posts
01 April 2011
26 March 2011
Six more weeks.
In typical procrastination fashion, I am posting when I should be doing something else. In this case, writing a take-home essay I've had about 2 weeks to complete.
I am still waiting on five more schools to get back to me, so at the advice of my thesis advisor, I sent the directors of the writing programs emails asking for updates on my applications. They were very short, polite emails, stating that although I got a good offer somewhere else, I want to hear from them before I accept/decline. Hopefully I'll get responses within the next week or two; if not, I still plan on making my final decision by April 8 (a week before the April 15 deadline).
I've been talking to my top school choice, and I am very excited about the opportunities presented to me. I've already been briefed on my choices for my assistantship, and everyone I have talked to has been really friendly. :)
I still have a lot of work that I need to do for (undergraduate) school, and there are two big submissions due at the end of this week that I haven't really started on. Coupling that with job fairs and award interviews and getting headshots taken and all of this... I'm getting rather stressed out. There is so much to do, and I just don't have enough time for it all. :/ Hopefully my headshots turn out nice (I have a lot of faith in my super awesome photographer, Toivo) and my interview goes well and I finish everything I want to do this week.
I've paid for almost everything for graduation (just waiting to get my honors medallion, which I won't get until the end of next month), and I'm excited because my parents are both chipping in to get me a class ring. :) My mom and her fiancee were also nice enough to get me an awesome outfit for my graduation. I have two ceremonies on two separate days, but I'm wearing the same outfit to both of them. I like it that much. (And it was crazy expensive, even on sale.)
Battling seniouritus is such a pain; but I am still trying to get everything done and keep my grades up high. I know all of my acceptances are conditional, and I don't want them revoked because I got lazy in the last six weeks. So far so good, though. :]
I am still waiting on five more schools to get back to me, so at the advice of my thesis advisor, I sent the directors of the writing programs emails asking for updates on my applications. They were very short, polite emails, stating that although I got a good offer somewhere else, I want to hear from them before I accept/decline. Hopefully I'll get responses within the next week or two; if not, I still plan on making my final decision by April 8 (a week before the April 15 deadline).
I've been talking to my top school choice, and I am very excited about the opportunities presented to me. I've already been briefed on my choices for my assistantship, and everyone I have talked to has been really friendly. :)
I still have a lot of work that I need to do for (undergraduate) school, and there are two big submissions due at the end of this week that I haven't really started on. Coupling that with job fairs and award interviews and getting headshots taken and all of this... I'm getting rather stressed out. There is so much to do, and I just don't have enough time for it all. :/ Hopefully my headshots turn out nice (I have a lot of faith in my super awesome photographer, Toivo) and my interview goes well and I finish everything I want to do this week.
I've paid for almost everything for graduation (just waiting to get my honors medallion, which I won't get until the end of next month), and I'm excited because my parents are both chipping in to get me a class ring. :) My mom and her fiancee were also nice enough to get me an awesome outfit for my graduation. I have two ceremonies on two separate days, but I'm wearing the same outfit to both of them. I like it that much. (And it was crazy expensive, even on sale.)
Battling seniouritus is such a pain; but I am still trying to get everything done and keep my grades up high. I know all of my acceptances are conditional, and I don't want them revoked because I got lazy in the last six weeks. So far so good, though. :]
20 February 2011
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
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!
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)
- 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)
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!
08 February 2011
The Waiting Game
Shame on me, but I still haven't notified the schools that I applied to of my recent publication. I have a nice spiffy letter drafted, I just haven't emailed it yet. I keep trying to get ahead on my homework for classes so that I can dedicate large portions of time to my thesis.
I still haven't done too much on the thesis, and I realize that I seriously just need to get started and write write write. My thesis director is expecting a draft on Thursday, and so far, I really don't have much to show him. Hopefully in two-days' time I can turn that around.
Back to grad schools... Everything is in, and now its just up to waiting for some sort of response. It'll be at least a month before I hear anything. Hopefully at least one school lets me in.
I still haven't done too much on the thesis, and I realize that I seriously just need to get started and write write write. My thesis director is expecting a draft on Thursday, and so far, I really don't have much to show him. Hopefully in two-days' time I can turn that around.
Back to grad schools... Everything is in, and now its just up to waiting for some sort of response. It'll be at least a month before I hear anything. Hopefully at least one school lets me in.
09 January 2011
Admissions List is Finalized!
So this is the final cut:
I'm not 100% done with admissions... I still need to request some transcripts and GRE scores and send some of my portfolios away... I also have to put together a massive portfolio for SCAD, which is going to be interesting, but all-in-all, I'm happy with my final list. Iowa and Texas-Austin aren't on the list, which is really just because I didn't get anything productive done over winter break, but there's nothing I can do about those two but wait until next year, if at all.
It seems like loud drunkards partying in my apartment complex have finally quieted down. Time to get some sleep. :) More work in the morning. (Or afternoon.)
- University of Denver Summer Publishing Institute
- Savannah College of Art and Design
- Vanderbilt University
- New Mexico State University
- Georgia State University
- Georgia College & State University
- University of Miami
- University of Florida
- University of Central Florida
- University of South Florida
- Florida State University
- Florida Atlantic University
- Florida International University
I'm not 100% done with admissions... I still need to request some transcripts and GRE scores and send some of my portfolios away... I also have to put together a massive portfolio for SCAD, which is going to be interesting, but all-in-all, I'm happy with my final list. Iowa and Texas-Austin aren't on the list, which is really just because I didn't get anything productive done over winter break, but there's nothing I can do about those two but wait until next year, if at all.
It seems like loud drunkards partying in my apartment complex have finally quieted down. Time to get some sleep. :) More work in the morning. (Or afternoon.)
06 January 2011
Happy New Year!
I did not get nearly as much done over winter break as I wanted to. My room is a wreck, I didn't get any new grad school applications done (and therefore missed out on a lot of deadlines to good schools), I've hardly written at all, and I didn't really read anything either. :/ Shame on me.
I've got a long list of Resolutions to get me back on the right track, and I was going to post them all, but that seemed kind of pointless. Rather than telling you about what I plan to do, I should just notify you all about what I've already done. For example, today I scouted through the out-of-state schools that still have manageable deadlines, and once I finish packing my stuff to go back to school tomorrow, I'll apply. I have reconsidered applying to all three summer Publishing Institutes, and now I may just apply to one or two. I'm leaning towards U of Denver over NYU, but even so, I know I won't be able to attend either unless I have a full ride, and I know they won't give me a full ride. Not for a short program like that. I might save my money and apply to another MFA program instead. I'll be sure to let you all know what I've decided.
Lately, I'd been thinking that I really wanted to teach after finishing my MFA, to be a professor and stay in academia, but I was looking at SCAD: Savannah and their internships for Cartoon Network and Marvel Comics and other awesome places like that.... and you know what? That sounds awesome. I think I'd love to work in industry, at least while I'm still young. I can teach later, when I'm old(er) and want to settle down. And after I've learned some tricks of the trade. :)
I've been working on a few essays on craft and focus for a couple of weeks, hopefully you'll see them soon. Until then, enjoy the rest of your first week of 2011. :)
I've got a long list of Resolutions to get me back on the right track, and I was going to post them all, but that seemed kind of pointless. Rather than telling you about what I plan to do, I should just notify you all about what I've already done. For example, today I scouted through the out-of-state schools that still have manageable deadlines, and once I finish packing my stuff to go back to school tomorrow, I'll apply. I have reconsidered applying to all three summer Publishing Institutes, and now I may just apply to one or two. I'm leaning towards U of Denver over NYU, but even so, I know I won't be able to attend either unless I have a full ride, and I know they won't give me a full ride. Not for a short program like that. I might save my money and apply to another MFA program instead. I'll be sure to let you all know what I've decided.
Lately, I'd been thinking that I really wanted to teach after finishing my MFA, to be a professor and stay in academia, but I was looking at SCAD: Savannah and their internships for Cartoon Network and Marvel Comics and other awesome places like that.... and you know what? That sounds awesome. I think I'd love to work in industry, at least while I'm still young. I can teach later, when I'm old(er) and want to settle down. And after I've learned some tricks of the trade. :)
I've been working on a few essays on craft and focus for a couple of weeks, hopefully you'll see them soon. Until then, enjoy the rest of your first week of 2011. :)
19 December 2010
Ready to Rock and Roll
So I'm back from my trip to Virginia (I've only been back in Florida for about 5ish hours now...) and the only thing I'm going to say is that it was phenomenal! :] And completely needed. I was very excited that we got snow!
This is the first snowman I've ever made! You can tell it's a boy because of the leaf. :]
So anyways. Back to the writing. (Because I guess that's what you're all here for?)
All seven of my applications to Florida schools with MFA programs in creative writing (UF, UCF, FSU, USF, UM, FIU, FAU) are out. I submitted the fees, the transcripts, and all of the materials (namely the statement of intent and the writing sample). The writing sample was the most nerve-racking, because I was really ambitious with it. I submitted the first two chapters of a science fiction / steam punk novel I am working on (this is risky because it is a genre piece, and for some unknown reason genre tends to be frowned upon), and then for the schools that wanted more pages, I submitted a graphic novel. The term "graphic novel" is kind of misleading because it implies something lengthy... mine was only 8 pages long. More like a comic, then, but it was an adaptation of a piece of flash fiction, so there's not much you can do with only about 1000 words. But it was in full color! And I'm quite pleased with it. But that's also very risky because it's not only a piece of writing... it is art. Stick figure art, to be specific...
Don't judge Mr. Stick getting wasted with his buddies. There's a good cause behind it.
I can actually draw, but I liked sticking with the stick figures because of how identifiable they can be. :) Plus, it made drawing, inking, and coloring about a zillion times faster. But, as I was saying before, submitting a graphic piece is risky. I hope the universities see that as a good thing, though. That it is pushing boundaries and realizing that graphic novels are really starting to gain attention as legitimate literature. If not... well, there's always next year. :/ (I'd rather not, these applications are expensive!!)
Speaking of applications and their cost, I'm kind of stuck now. I'm going to start working on applications to all of the summer publishing institutes (U of Denver, NYU, Columbia) as well as any out-of-state programs. :) I'll keep you updated on my progress as I go along. For not the work shouldn't be that bad, I'll just keep using the same basic format for my statement of intent, and I'll be using the same writing samples... I just need to wait for after Christmas so that I can have enough money to pay for my applications and transcripts and such.
Speaking of transcripts, grades for last semester came out. I am so relieved. Got a 3.73 for the semester, and my cumulative GPA rose a hundredth of a point (to 3.68). Yay! The semester from hell didn't turn out so bad after all. (Although, I should note that MFA programs don't really look at your GPA or your resume or your GRE scores or anything like that. All they really want to see is your writing sample. Which is good and bad at the same time. :/)
As a last little note (I'm sorry this post is so long, thanks for bearing with me), I want to say hi and happy holidays to all of my readers. I've come to the realization that there are a lot more of you out there than I thought, so I want to thank you for bearing with me and my slight insanity and constant rambling. If you don't mind, I'd like some feedback. What do you want to read? More personal anecdotes? Or just writing about writing? Or something in-between? Do you want snippets of my actual prose? Or more pictures? Or comics? Or what? (Just wondering.)
Thank you for reading, and for those of you who leave me wonderful encouraging comments, a special thank you to you. :) I really appreciate it. You all are awesome. :]
This is the first snowman I've ever made! You can tell it's a boy because of the leaf. :]
So anyways. Back to the writing. (Because I guess that's what you're all here for?)
All seven of my applications to Florida schools with MFA programs in creative writing (UF, UCF, FSU, USF, UM, FIU, FAU) are out. I submitted the fees, the transcripts, and all of the materials (namely the statement of intent and the writing sample). The writing sample was the most nerve-racking, because I was really ambitious with it. I submitted the first two chapters of a science fiction / steam punk novel I am working on (this is risky because it is a genre piece, and for some unknown reason genre tends to be frowned upon), and then for the schools that wanted more pages, I submitted a graphic novel. The term "graphic novel" is kind of misleading because it implies something lengthy... mine was only 8 pages long. More like a comic, then, but it was an adaptation of a piece of flash fiction, so there's not much you can do with only about 1000 words. But it was in full color! And I'm quite pleased with it. But that's also very risky because it's not only a piece of writing... it is art. Stick figure art, to be specific...
Don't judge Mr. Stick getting wasted with his buddies. There's a good cause behind it.
I can actually draw, but I liked sticking with the stick figures because of how identifiable they can be. :) Plus, it made drawing, inking, and coloring about a zillion times faster. But, as I was saying before, submitting a graphic piece is risky. I hope the universities see that as a good thing, though. That it is pushing boundaries and realizing that graphic novels are really starting to gain attention as legitimate literature. If not... well, there's always next year. :/ (I'd rather not, these applications are expensive!!)
Speaking of applications and their cost, I'm kind of stuck now. I'm going to start working on applications to all of the summer publishing institutes (U of Denver, NYU, Columbia) as well as any out-of-state programs. :) I'll keep you updated on my progress as I go along. For not the work shouldn't be that bad, I'll just keep using the same basic format for my statement of intent, and I'll be using the same writing samples... I just need to wait for after Christmas so that I can have enough money to pay for my applications and transcripts and such.
Speaking of transcripts, grades for last semester came out. I am so relieved. Got a 3.73 for the semester, and my cumulative GPA rose a hundredth of a point (to 3.68). Yay! The semester from hell didn't turn out so bad after all. (Although, I should note that MFA programs don't really look at your GPA or your resume or your GRE scores or anything like that. All they really want to see is your writing sample. Which is good and bad at the same time. :/)
As a last little note (I'm sorry this post is so long, thanks for bearing with me), I want to say hi and happy holidays to all of my readers. I've come to the realization that there are a lot more of you out there than I thought, so I want to thank you for bearing with me and my slight insanity and constant rambling. If you don't mind, I'd like some feedback. What do you want to read? More personal anecdotes? Or just writing about writing? Or something in-between? Do you want snippets of my actual prose? Or more pictures? Or comics? Or what? (Just wondering.)
Thank you for reading, and for those of you who leave me wonderful encouraging comments, a special thank you to you. :) I really appreciate it. You all are awesome. :]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)