Britannia Bound

I should have chronicled right when this happened, but you know me; ever the procrastinator. Let's get right to the goods:

Last week I had some free time on my hands, so I decided to finish up some of my grad school applications. I had to do the online form, polish up my resumé, write a personal statement, and organize my references with profs. So on Thursday last, Dec 7th maybe?, I submitted two more applications; one to the University of Newcastle, and one to St Andrews. Since I still have to mail in my supporting documents, I wasn't expecting much beyond an email saying "thanks for the application, please submit the rest". But when I woke up and checked my email last Friday (the 8th), lo and behold. There in my inbox was an offer of addmission from University of Newcastle!!!

So here's a tip for all you impatient types out there; apply to university in the UK. They don't make you wait til June to find out if you're in. There are a number of logical explanations for this speedy reply though. First of all, most UK students don't start applying til Feb/March, so I beat the rush. Second, this university allowed me to submit most of my supporting documents online, so I didn't have to mail them anything, and they have this weird policy of contacting my references themselves, instead of me submitting letters. Strange, but whatever.

So now I'm at least guaranteed a spot in their Master of Museum Studies program. Which is awesome because it was one of my top 2 schools, and it's in England. The beauty of getting a degree over there is that it's only a one year program, instead of the 2 years it would take to complete in Canada at UofT. So even though it's gonna cost and arm and a leg to get the damn degree, it'll save me on time.

I'm just soooooo relieved that I actually got accepted somewhere. It takes a lot of pressure of the rest of my applications. Because now even if I don't get in anywhere else, I'm still secure about next year. I'm almost tempted not to even continue applying elsewhere, just because that would mean I might have to make a decision down the road about which school to attend. As I have shown in the past, I'm REALLY bad at making important decisions. I tend to take the easy way out. I need someone to force me not to do that this time when the time to leave draws nearer.

I have no university related pictures yet, so I'll include a festive one of the family Christmas tree spectacular. I love going out to chop our own tree. It's probably the best holiday tradition we ever started. I just wish we had started it when I was younger.