UWS Women Studies

I met with the grad school counselor on Thursday (ugh, more on Thursday later).  She was quite lovely.  Somehow, my appointment was misplaced, but she still made time for me :)  You know when you meet someone, and you know right away that you could get along swimmingly?  I feel like we should be friends, which I am going to take as an indicator that I shall get in (you know, unless it will jinx me, in which case, psych!).

Anyway, she told me that the GRE scores are NOT important for this program.  In fact, she told me that last year, a student got in with lower than a 300 on the English portion (which is pretty durned low).  She explained that the whole attitude toward the GRE in UWSWS (UW Seattle Women Studies) is that the score more represents how your day was going than anything else.

This is completely true for me!  My neck was just hurting so terribly the day I took the test (stress, lack of sleep, then sitting for four hours), I couldn't focus.  At the end, I was just choosing answers at random to get through the durn thing.  My math score was much higher, which mostly just indicates that that was the first section I took!

So, I'm feeling much better about my chances now.  Plus, the counselor told me that more like 70-80 people apply to the program, versus the 200+ I believed applied.  So, I am going to meet with my second reader (who, yes, is a prof in UWSWS) on Tuesday, and will beg her to write me a letter of recommendation.  I am hoping it will go far!  Plus plus, the counselor knew my advisor and apparently loves him (but really, who doesn't?), so I'm feeling good that his letter will go far. 

Really, though, that meeting was the best thing about that day.  Although I did meet with my CA (capstone advisor, versus my other advisor, who is for my portfolio- yes, you get two in my program), which was quite lovely.  We are both so bad at navigating bureaucracy, it is hilarious!  But, honestly, what can you expect of poets?

Anyway, I forgot both my coat AND my lunch on Thursday.  And, of course, it rained (and my umbrella apparently is broken-- do they have umbrella repair shops?  I really do love my beautiful cherry blossom umbrella) and I had to walk A LOT.

First though, I had a meeting for a certain editorial board on which I will be serving (not very fancy, mind you, almost anyone can do it, but I am trying to be "discreet" by not including the name).  Apparently, I cannot submit my own work now, because it would be a "conflict of interest."  Oh boy.

And one of the other people serving is in the class I'm TAing for, and she was NOT HAPPY about her grade last week.  She was complaining that the professor is a hard grader and I (yes yes, a bit foolishly) admitted that I do all the grading (it does, in fact, say it straight out that I do the grading on our syllabus).  That might be a REAL conflict of interest, so I will check with the prof.

Grading itself was unpleasant this week.  Many people had trouble understanding the difference between international relations theory and domestic policies.  Oh dear...

Back to Thursday though, I was "running" class since the prof was out, and we watched a film on the Rwandan Genocide (not Hotel Rwanda, but a documentary).  Not a cheery film.  Many corpses.  I felt quite guilty, despite being in grade school at the time.  Tsk tsk, Mr. Clinton.

Then I drove to UW Seattle, and had to walk (in the rain) about a mile to the Burke Museum to meet my prof.  After that, I walked in the rain about another half mile to the crazy anti-riot building that is Padelford (it is impossible NOT to get lost) to meet the UWSWS counselor.  Then I walked (still in the rain) to my mama's building (about another mile in the now pouring rain).

Needless to say I was soaked and, on account of wearing heels since I wanted to look fancy for teaching class, blistered up.  I felt pretty terrible, so mama and I skipped the poetry reading I'd been looking forward to all week.

To end on a happy note, I am feeling cautiously optimistic about PhD programs.  I will know for sure where I'm in by the end of APRIL.  Wish me luck!