The Waiting Game

Just in case you thought I had fallen off a cliff somewhere in the vast expanse of Russia, I haven't.

I apologize to all of my regular readers for not having blogged in, now, more than a month. The simple truth is that there has been little of interest to blog about. My applications to grad school are all complete, though my confidence that I have applied to the right programs, or that this is the right time to go to school, are not. Last week, I had telephone interviews with deans at American Jewish University and Jewish Theological Seminary, the two Jewish programs to which I had applied. I can't say that either of them went especially well. I am honestly not sure whether I came across as an interesting but very strange person, an outright lunatic, or both. What I definitely did not come across as was someone who was well prepared for these interviews and was certain this was what he wanted to do with his life. It's just plain hard to come across as something you in fact are not.

Right at the moment, I am more interested in the programs at Penn and NYU to which I applied in early January. These are programs in Intercultural Communication (Penn) and International Education (NYU), both of which could potentially take me in multiple directions but both of which I would most likely use as a springboard to finding work as a university international students' advisor, director of study abroad programs, or similar. The idea of working in academia suits me well and, to tell the truth, always has. At times I think I might even be better to give up thinking of these programs, continue teaching abroad for another year, and work toward applying to a PhD program in history.

For the time being, however, all I can really do is play the Waiting Game--wait and see where I do in fact get in and how that narrows my choices of where to go. I am at the moment evenly divided about whether I would prefer the program at Penn or at NYU. Perhaps the admissions decisions will settle the matter, perhaps not.

Even if they don't, however, this need not be the end of it. I could always reapply next year. And even if I get in an decide to attend, neither of these programs would necessarily rule out the possibility of getting a PhD later on. I have learned recently that more than a third of PhD candidates begin their programs at least 7 years out of college--a milestone I will reach next year. Recently, I asked someone I know in New York who is knowledgeable about the academic life if there is ever a point when it's "too late" to begin a PhD program, and he said absolutely not. In fact, he knew of someone who had nearly but not actually completed not one but three PhD programs in his life (basically, this person had just failed to complete three different dissertations). Opportunity still abounds.