03 March 2010

Ball o' Stress

Woke up this morning to a strange sound. Turned out that my ceiling was leaking. And Felix was freaking out that water was coming out of the hallway (of course, as I told Cristi, this is the same cat who freaks out about his tail occasionally).

Called the maintenance guy. Haven't heard back yet.

Then, on some random whim, I decided to check on something on my doctoral application. Apparently, at some point in time, the school changed the application deadline from 15 April to 15 March. Did they decide to let us poor applicants know this? No. So those of us with partial application packets are now scrambling. And, of course, I'm one of them.

What does this mean for me? Well, I called the Admissions Office to find out.

After being told that they're experiencing a high volume of calls and that my wait might exceed three minutes, then waiting ten minutes, then being told I could leave a message, I hung up and called back later and got through to someone. He told me that they had only received one of my three letters of recommendation (and told me which one they'd received). But they did have all of my transcripts. They still need my portfolio and my essay.

But I had been planning on re-taking the GRE in about two weeks (Ria can tell you that I've been copiously studying for it lately), and I was actually going to pay for it this Friday with my last severance cheque! Good thing I found out today that I needn't do that! See, even if I took it TOMORROW, the scores wouldn't get to Drexel in time for it to count by the deadline. My current scores are fine, but I'm confident that I could have improved at least the quantitative portion.

As for the essay, I've been working on it for the past couple of weeks, with the idea that I could work on it, let it marinate, have my proofreaders have a go at it, rework it, set it aside, revisit it, lather, rinse, repeat until I was satisfied with the final product. Instead, now I'll have to eat, drink, breathe this until I'm sick of it. I don't have the luxury of setting it aside and knitting on some thoughts and letting things marinate for awhile.

As for my letter writers, I was able to successfully contact both of them today. One of them said he SWORE he sent it in December, but he'd send it again today. The other said he was aware he hadn't sent it yet, but he promised he would on Tuesday. I trust him. He's the Wonder Dennis who some of you might remember from my Master's days.

Speaking of, he's currently getting me through today. I didn't think anyone could make me laugh today, but he did. Here's the email exchange that just took place:

From me to Dennis:
Dennis,

Thank you very much. I remain very appreciative of all that you do for me.

This deadline change threw me for a loop. I had been planning on re-taking the GRE in two weeks, but I guess I won't be doing that now. I was actually going to pay for it this Friday! I'm polishing my essay now; I just got some notes back from my friend Kristi (you met her at my defense). She also sent me a Paul Farmer article to read to enhance my rewrite. She's funny; this is why I like her. Sorry for the babbling; I'm stressed.

Thanks again,
Min
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From Dennis to me:

well, calm down.
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From me to Dennis:

Roger that.

Thanks :)

1 comment:

  1. Virtual hugs going your way, with the intent of real-life hugs coming sometime soon! Sometimes our best work is done under the gun, right? Good luck!

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