Calm After the Storm?

I guess we've been a little quiet this week. The week was relatively uneventful after the panic-filled week many had last week.

Things seem to be rolling along fine. I'm further ahead with my applications than I thought I would be at this point. Also, my list has been modified. You can scratch Washington Univ., Queen's, Cambridge, St. Andrews, and UCL from the list and add Cornell. The UK scratches are largely due to finding out some things about the application process I previously did not know. Those unknowns make the process more complicated and expensive than I wanted. (I will still be applying to Oxford, however.) The other scratches... I think I just wanted to eliminate some of the cost. Washington and Queen's were pretty much at the bottom of the list, so to save some money I decided to scratch them too. Cornell, on the other hand, has become an attractive dept after some research, so I added it.

I've ordered my transcripts, drafted my statement, and my writing sample is well on the way. (I'm actually presenting it at the dept this week and am thinking about submitting it to a few regional conferences.) My reference letters have been secured, as well. I'll have three well-established senior people writing for me, as well as one very promising junior person. I think the letters will be strong. So, it'll be up to my writing sample and a little luck to determine where we'll be moving in 8 months.

I've got a stack of freshmen intro papers to grade, so I probably better get back to that...