Retrospective

I was looking through some old posts I made at my old blog and I thought it would be cool to post some excerpts that have to do with my search for a graduate school. Now that I've chosen South Florida, it seems strange to see how adament I was on going to William & Mary and how worried I was that I wouldn't get in. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 30, 2004
I e-mailed 2 profs at USC and a couple of people at william & mary asking about the grad school and asking to set up a meeting. I got replies from both and it seems pretty promising. I think I'm on the right track setting up in-person meeting, even though its going to suck driving to richmond and columbia in the course of a few months. but I do alot of driving anyway. i'm starting to get really excited about graduate school, and as the days go on, I feel more and more confident that I'll get into one of my top choices.

Monday, October 18, 2004
Well, I found another grad school, and this one is perfect for me (more than William & Mary?). university of south florida's program seems like it's got all I want: a masters program in applied or public archaology plus it looks like it hardcore in-the-dirt archaeology. the only small catch is that I have to get my GPA up to at least 3.2 because their requirements made it sound like you HAVE to have that minimum, although most school are flexible, USF might be a little more strict (because they used the word "must"). But that's totally not impossible, I just basically have to get straight A's this semester and as of now, that doesn't seem to far-fetched. might be able to get by with a B according the GPA calculator. well, I'm going to stop being a nerd for now and go to bed. on the water with the novice tomorrow morning!

Thursday, October 28, 2004
well, here we go. I am taking the GRE tomorrow morning at 8am. right now, i'm surprisingly calm and relaxed, and i'm trying to keep it that way and get a good night's rest. i'm trying not to let the running around with crew/regatta business mess me up and it's working. have everything pretty much under control. i told myself i wouldn't study tonight but i'll probably go over some basic concepts one more time and some vocabularly i'm 99% sure is going to be on there. so until then, i'm just relaxing here by myself (my favorite company), listening to sigur ros, and counting down to one of the more important events of my academic career. i know i'm going to rock it...it's just a matter of not losing my neves, which I don't plan on doing.

Friday, October 29, 2004
so how about the schools? Well, I did 20 points better than the average of accepted grad students at William & Mary, my top choice. Their avg. was 1070 and mine of course was 1090. But their average writing score was 6, which pretty much tells me that they consider that part the most important, and pretty much all accepted people got a 6. So we'll have to wait and see. I'm 10 points shy of the U. of South Florida anthro minimum of 1100, but who knows, I could impress them with my field work and other stuff. Not sure about U. of South Carolina. And I'm still confident about ECU, of course.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004
tomorrow morning I leave for Williamsburg. I have a meeting with Dr. Mary Voight, director of graduate studies at William & Mary around 2:30pm, so I'll have to leave early. Then on Friday morning I meet with Dr. Gallivan to basically beg to work with him and push for me to get admitted. all in all i think this is going to be a worthwhile trip and might even put me over the top to get admitted. we shall see. I'm still waiting for the rest of my GRE score to come in the mail. still hoping for a 6 on the writing part.

Monday, November 08, 2004
had the big weekend up in williamsburg to visit W&M. not surprisingly, it went extremely well, meetings and all. I got up there thursday afternoon around 12:30 and after checking in to my hornet-infested hotel room (they eventually moved me) and having a quick bite to eat at the College Deli, I met with Dr. Mary Voigt, director of graduate studies. she was a very nice and receptive to my visit, and seemed thankful that there was an interested grad applicant who was doing his homework. luckily she did most of the talking. the next day I met with professor gallivan. he seemed really cool and also welcomed the interest in the program. we talked for about 30 or 40 minutes and I learned alot about the program and his work. i also got to hang out with a few masters and a Ph.D. student in the arch. lab, which was actually pretty helpful. the anthro department itself is pretty amazing...display cases everywhere having to do with some of the faculty's areas of study, and a classroom/museum that along put the entire UNCW anthro department to shame. of course, the campus is ancient which immediately makes it attractive to me.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004
and I'm headed to columbia, SC this weekend to check out their grad school. it's a big school, but the program seems small enough and it's a good backup in case william and mary falls though (look at me gettin' all cockey!). so pretty much the end of the semester is winding down and the shit is once again making its way toward the fan, but I think I might make it out alive this time.

Saturday, November 20, 2004
Well, the verdict is in! We all know I rocked the verbal (560) and quantitative (530) sections, but the big one I was waiting on is the analytical writing section. Drumroll...

5.5!

That's right, 5.5 out of 6. And if that wasn't enough, the ultimate ego trip is the description for a 5.5 score:

"Sustains insightful, in-depth analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples; is well focused and well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage but may have minor erros that do not interfere with meaning."

That's right bitches. William & Mary is about to become William, William, & some bitch named Mary.